In God We Trust
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

It's not often that I am at a loss for words when it comes to the government. I've been talking bad about them for years to just about anyone who will listen. When my niece Kaki was about three (a little over fifteen years ago), I was sitting beside her in church, and the pastor made a passing reference to the government. KaKi tugged on my blazer to get my attention. I bent down and she whispered in my ear, "We hate the government, don't we?" Yes, sweetheart, we do.

But I'm going to take a little editorial liberty and talk not about the one thing we need to know about the government, but the two things. Otherwise I might come off looking extreme, and I wouldn't want that to happen. The first thing is this. If, perchance, we should find ourselves in a situation in which the government is unable to operate (say there's no electricity for a month or two. You'd be hardpressed to keep a police force, or an army for the matter, if you didn't have the capacity to pay them) we will find much to our surprise that government is actually a pretty good thing. We don't actually hate government; rather we hate the abuses of government. And if given a choice of no government or a rapacious one, there really is no choice at all.

You see the reality is that there never is that choice. There is always government, no matter what. Anarchy is not truly anarchy. It is more like a world war, in which each person is his own nation, and is at war with every other nation. That is because the essence of government is force, for good or for bad. If there is no institutional government then the person who sticks a gun in your face and demands the keys to your car becomes the defacto government of the land you're standing on. Such a person doesn't have the power of government that would enable to him to command all laborers across the nation to send him a portion of their checks every month, but he is a government nevertheless. And having lost your car, you could easily walk a block or two and unknowingly enter the kingdom of Joe, where every passerby must pay a tax in jewelry, or face death. The reason I like having one government is because thankfully they're not too keen on competition, and so I have only one enemy at a time to face. Don't let's forget this, that for all our, or at least all my complaining, there are worse things than big government, and that's lots and lots of little governments.

Having said that though, let us never forget that the government is force. Despite the President's promise that he feels our pain, they're not a bunch of nannies. They are, at root, whether they wear the fatigues of Castro or the fancy suits of a Congressman, all dictators who maintain their power by force, and whose job it is to exercise force. When I vote for Snodgrass for Sheriff I'm saying that I want Snodgrass to take his big guns and lock up guys with littler guns who try to take my stuff. I'm not electing a propagandist, but a person to use the sword God gives to the state.

The trouble with giving the sword to men (which is necessary because we are all sinners, and without the government sword we are in anarchy) is that they then use it to maintain their power, and to rob and plunder law abiders like us. I'm always amused when people accuse people like me who prefer a free economy, of being naive, and not understanding the wickedness of men. "Why, if people were free to pursue profit, who knows what horrors will come? Don't you know that people are wicked and selfish?" And their solution is to concentrate more power and authority in the hands of wicked and selfish men in the government. People are too wicked to be free, so we must give wicked people the power to tell us what we can and cannot do. There's a good idea.

That's the other idea. Don't pray for anarchy. Thank God for government. But do not trust them for a moment. If hardship comes, and the government comes around, it's probably not good news. Don't, in the midst of social upheaval, ever fall for that old line, "We're from the government and we're here to help." When they come for your guns or your gold, and promise it's only temporary, remember Hitler and Stalin who massacred their gun controlled populace, and Roosevelt who traded his Federal Reserve Notes for our gold (and your other choice was to go to jail) and then told us we couldn't buy it back.

But the same is true if we continue in peace. Of course you can look to them to do the job God gave them to do. I'm not suggesting that we should let out an angry "Oink" every time we pass a police cruiser. If someone's prowling around outside your house, get your gun, and then call 911. But I am saying that they are not your friend. When you get a nice letter from your congressman, he's only looking for more votes and more money from you. When George W. and Algore argue over who should be next, when they each promise that they're going to make this land a better place, all it means is "Give me the sword. I won't hurt you too much."

The only real difference between Nazi Germany and our own circumstance is that it is babies and not Jews that are killed here, and that our tyrants smile rather than sneer. Don't smile back, it only encourages them. And the propaganda of the Germans said that Germans are great. Our propaganda says that we are free. Don't believe the hype.