(BNc) — The far-reaching landmark decision Thursday by the US Supreme Court upholding ObamaCare as a tax has prompted a wide range of reaction among American saints.
Among reactions are these who either responded to BNc’s request for links and summaries or whose writings came to our attention:
- Adam Faughn: Seven suggestions help saints deal with a government decision they disagree with. We need to remember our purpose here on the earth. We are put on this earth to glorify God. Period. End of sentence.
- Chris Gallagher: My disagreements are simple: (1) It kills our economy even further; (2) More regulation = fail (ask the Post Office); (3) It funds abortions.
- John Henson: CNN and Fox jumped the gun on their reporting and got the Court ruling badly wrong. People ought to keep reading the New Testament, rather than reading about belief and thinking that is enough.
- J. Randal Matheny: Some Americans are renouncing citizenship and moving abroad. American saints might consider moving abroad for God’s mission.
- Rob Mortensen, Republican candidate for Tennessee’s 20th State Senate District: “The Court reached the wrong conclusion on this fundamental issue. The federal government’s use of the power to tax as a weapon to force people to buy a product is far beyond what the Founding Fathers of this nation intended.”
Tenn. State Representative Sheila K. Butt, also a New Testament Christian, sent the following to her email list and submitted it to BNc:
This mandate called “Obamabcare” is about much more than health insurance. It is an attack on our religious liberty. There is no such thing as “pro-life” in the future of health care if this plan is implemented. There are HUGE tax increases in the next few years that will bankrupt our states. There are increases on taxes for the sale of a home and many more hidden mandates. Many of us, as Christans, have stayed out of politics because we know we are citizens of another country. However, this is not about politics anymore! It is about silencing God and every voice that stands for morality and goodness. If we are not the majority, then we will lose in November. If we are the majority, then the future of the United States rests in our hands. Our Father will let us choose. If we want our children to live in the greatest country in the world, if we want the world’s last hope for freedom to survive, we can do nothing BUT work, pray, spend our resources and vote for FAITH, FAMILY and FREEDOM in November of 2012.”
Others, like Ted Knight, evangelist with the Levy church, North Little Rock, Ark., used closed systems like Facebook to make comments and posts. Ted encouraged people to exercise their right to vote. He urged his friends to abide by “the principles which are plainly taught in the Bible will help us to reach conclusions which are right and best for our country and for our community.”
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2012-07-01 at 12:39 am
Someone once said (paraphrased) “All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to standby and do nothing”. As Christians we have a responsibility to stand firm and contend for the faith. That will not happen if we are passive toward everything around us. Yes, we are citizens of heaven and are sojourners in this world. But even Abraham had to take up arms to rescue his nephew. We are to live as if Christ will return today and plan as if He will not return for a thousand years. We are to obey the laws of the land unless these laws violate God’s law. We are citizens of the United States just as Paul was a citizen of Rome. He used his citizenship on occasion to further the gospel. Are we considered good stewards of God’s material blessings to us if we ignore them and remain passive to those who would take them away? I am referring to our country that God has blessed for the last 236 years. Those material blessings flowed around the world to people that were downtrodden, poor, abused, naked and hungry. As a result the gospel was also preached and taught and the church flourished! The current situation that exists in our country is a result of our own doing. We stood back and allowed wicked men to be elected to leadership positions over us. We were led “as sheep to the slaughter.” Even good men made terrible decisions, The Declaration of Independance is perhaps one of the greatest pieces of noninspired document written by man. It stated that all men are created equal. Unfortunately, good men made inconsistent decisions by allowing slavery to continue. If this had been confronted, contended with and resolved at the beginning of our country (because it was the right thing to do) there never would have been a Civil War. The anti-Christ attitudes that have allowed abortion to become law, allowed prayer and Bible reading to be removed from schools, allowed liberal interpretations of the US Constitution to promote the false idea of separation of church and state, have all come about as a result of Christian passivity. Brethren let us not be weary in well doing.
2012-07-10 at 2:03 pm
The statement Harold refers to is “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent” by Thomas Jefferson. President Jefferson and our founding fathers were wise unto the future concerning this great nation. I will include another of his statements “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” John Adams stated “Our constitution was made for only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” These are the very men who formed our nation and wrote our constitution. Who better than they know what they wanted our country to be. They considered voting by citizens as a privilege and a duty of all.
It would do us well as Christians and citizens to pray earnestly, and exercise our duty to vote responsibly in this next election. Much is at stake for the nation and the church.
2012-07-22 at 11:14 pm
If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal (Emma Goldman). David Lipscomb wrote that the candidates are chosen for us by a few interested party officials. His sentiments seem to be borne out with this election, more than any election in recent years. Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20); we, like our fathers in faith, need to remember that we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth (Heb. 11:13).
Socialism is not as great a threat to the church as the church being co-opted into some political party apparatus. The church allowed this to happen in about the third century A.D., and we see where that got them.
Christians’ job is neither to support nor to oppose whatever government under which they find themselves (1 Peter 2:11-17).
2012-09-28 at 6:38 am
There are at least four isms that claim divine sanction, while bowing at the feet of the god of mammon. Calvinism held wealth was a sign one’s predestination to salvation and poverty the sign of one’s eternal condemnation. Social Darwinism holds that people evolved socially and psychologically as a means for adapting to the challenges of life and that charity is actually working against God’s grand design to weed out those who are ill equipped to manage life’s complexities. Conservative Christianity promotes capitalism as the Christian economic philosophy of Jesus, because of the Parable of the Talents and other references. The high priests and priestesses of unfettered capitalism believe that if government neither regulates nor taxes capital, prosperity will come to all through a trickle down process. Liberal Christianity promotes socialism as the Christian economic philosophy of Jesus and that bureaucrats can be trusted to redistribute wealth righteously. We could just as easily argue that the Bible teaches that the Christian form of government is a monarchy, because Peter said to obey the king (1 Pet 2:13-17). When Christianity becomes the handmaiden of the state, whether it is a socialistic or capitalistic state, that Christianity is apostate (Rev 18:1-4). As preachers pontificate as to whom Christians can vote for this year, these truths are endangered.