I (as always) have various discussions on a wide range of topics.  Here are several over the past few months to share with readers, and hopefully to generate some good discussion.  Many people are concerned about the way the America so many of us once knew is rapidly disappearing.

Moving towards socialism?

1.  A friend sent me several e-mails talking about how worried she is that we are moving towards socialism, and how recent decisions in DC and state capitols are leading that way.

Dear friend:  We already HAVE socialism; indeed the Sicangu and Oglala (two of the Lakota or Sioux Tribes in South Dakota, near where she lives) and the rest have had “socialism” since about 1851, certainly 1868 or 1877.  Eight generations now, and what has it wrought.  It is just that for most of us, the socialism is hidden, and given various names and disguises.

America – One big reservation?

2.  Yet another friend replied that we are going to be as bad off in a few years as all those folks on the reservations, who have had to put up with government for more than a century.

Dear friend:  The rest of us are also “on the rez,” where we can do nothing without massive government involvement and control.  Nero and Domitian never dreamed of the power that the guy at 1600 PA has.  We are just sliding into perdition: this is the end game: more and more things require more and more government actions, and the government actions get more difficult to comply with.  Just buying a piece of land, building a house, starting a business, even going to school or being hired for a low-paying job requires dozens of actions with and under the direction of the government.  Of multiple governments.  Today, the United States is one big reservation, and very few of us are able to slip through the fences and out of the chains.  Sometimes the imaginary ones are the hardest to get rid of, as the last fifty years have shown on the Indian reservations.

Whose responsibility is emergency preparation and response?

3.  I have been discussing issues of emergency response and preparation for disasters with another friend, and he related how he thought that was (and should be) the responsibility of governments, and that people could not do so on their own.  He cited biblical examples to try and prove his point.  In particular he cited Joseph and the preparation he convinced the Pharaoh of Egypt to do to prepare for the seven lean years.  He tried to contrast between socialism in which the government provides food and such to a bunch of welfare clients constantly, and government providing things in really bad, emergency situations.  Here is part of my response.

Dear Bob: I do not consider Joseph as a good example, certainly not of government.  The point you make is an excellent one as far as preparation, but Genesis tells us that Pharaoh (advised by Joseph) used the system to enslave the people of Egypt:  “never let a good crisis go to waste.”  I often point out, when teaching classes about Biblical History and Geography, that the Egypt in which Joseph grew up and then governed is the first detailed example we have of a powerful authoritarian (if not totalitarian) state – which four hundred years later at the time of Exodus had grown to be even more a monster.  It does show that people who do NOT heed God’s warning to care for one another will be preyed upon by those who would  control them, and replace the worship of God with the worship of the state.

But your point about preparation is good; one that people will (or should) pay attention to.  People can and DO prepare for disasters and crises by themselves and voluntarily with family and friends withOUT being required to do so by government, and without government involvement.  Indeed, government has largely destroyed the incentive for private individuals and groups to do that for themselves.  That is one reason that so many churches are losing their unity and willingness to help one another (as commanded and shown by example in the Bible):  they don’t have to do anything because the government is there to help!  But government (as with the Pharaoh) has ulterior motives in providing help: it gains power.  So we must look for OTHER ways to work together and prepare: voluntarily and as local as possible.  (See how the American Red Cross has become, in so many ways, just like government; Top driven and money hungry with the “servants” in charge.)

What has happened to churches in American life?

4.  This in turn generated another discussion, with several people.  Churches, which were once an essential and ubiquitous part of American society, seem to be dwindling in numbers, size, activity, and ability to carry out the traditional functions of religious congregations.  Why is this so?  Why are congregations no longer able to take care of their obligations to themselves, to their own members?  Here are my thoughts, condensed from long discussions.

Churches are obviously much weaker than in the past: part of this is caused by the huge distractions offered by modern society and culture and the economy.  Where it was once traditional for churches to assemble for worship and “prayer meeting” and classes two or even three times a week, today, there is NO evening that doesn’t seem to be taken up by some school or community or club activity, or by everything from going to the movies to having to work a second job to pay for all these activities.  In the past, you knew and saw and worked with the people that you worshiped with on Sundays and Wednesdays daily, your life was not so compartmentalized, and the church was a true community.  Today, the rest of the church is mostly someone you only see once a week, while your attention is concentrated on the worship (entertainment) being presented.  Even the scale of society has changed.

But the way we let things distract us, is in turn the result of thinking that spiritual things are not important:  the increasing emphasis on evolution and cultural diversity and truth as relative have led to this.  Materialism, more than ever, is dominant.  Churches are no longer important, because the spiritual is no longer important.  And because the needs that the churches once met are (in the eyes of most people) being met by other institutions: not just government (and government schools) but by the medical and health care industry, the entertainment industry (including sports especially), and all kinds of other businesses and organizations, many of which require NO commitment except your money.

Churches once saw themselves as having a few major functions, and society understood and accepted (and took advantage of) those functions:  to preach the Gospel to convert others and save their souls, and to teach and encourage and take care of each other (those already in the church) both spiritually and physically.  A community in New England or the South or the West might be made up of several different religious communities.  Those might disagree with each other and feud, but at the same time, they respected the limits and differences and did not let their conflicts become physical or so hateful that they could not function together in the larger community.  People with spiritual or emotional or physical (financial or health) problems went to the other members in their congregation, led by a preacher usually or by a group of “elders,” to get help.  And that help was provided voluntarily and freely for the most part – with perhaps fear of eternal punishment, but without a threat of “if you don’t do this government will force you to do it.”  But that has all pretty much gone away.  Today, those perceived needs are met by all kinds of other providers, most required to do so (and participation required) by law.

One more reason is that most churches separated themselves more and more from the community.  The pastor system meant that it was easy for a con man to become a “sky pilot” and become a parasite, not give.  In the past, under the common idea of tithing, a congregation of only 10-20 families could support a “parson” and his family who lived on the same general scale as the members, and provided not just preaching and teaching and counseling and assistance in time of trouble, but participated in the everyday activity of the church-cum-community:  helping farmers with their crops and animals, helping shopkeepers with business, and helping teach the children.  For smaller congregations, the evangelist might provide much of his own support by having a small business or farm of his own.  Contrast that to modern times, in which the “church” is a big business and the “pastor” is the CEO, with a salary and perks and prestige to match.  Today, it requires fifty or a hundred families to support the “pastor” and the “church building” and everything else, in part because the individuals give less and in part because the expectations of the “pastor” and “staff” are much higher.  As this has taken place, the church has gone from being a vital and essential part of the overall community to a weekly entertainment, a “first responder”  a few times a year for deaths and births and illnesses and assembly a few times a year for traditions like Christmas and Easter that seem to satisfy the “spiritual wants” of so many (who then wonder why their lives seem so empty and meaningless).  Claims by freethinkers and opponents, that the preachers and churches were just parasites, have become self-fulfilling prophesies.

There are, of course, many other reasons that churches are weak and inconsequential, but these are a few to think about.  And which can be changed:  the need to replace the services provided by evil government (and facilitating its evil) can be met by going back to the churches: to private and voluntary groups tied together by MORE than just physical needs.  Spiritual ties have always resulted in meeting not just spiritual but physical needs.  That is where churches have the advantage of insurance companies or civic organizations, and why successful civic and social organizations (from Boy Scouts to Shriners and Masons to labor unions) have almost always had some form of spiritual unity and elements:  man is a spiritual creature!  So the solution is simple: churches that return to their basics and stop trying to be businesses or governments.  And therefore displace the government and businesses and the materialism (“crass commercialism” and “politics”) that those organizations bring into dominance.