I’ve seen – up close and personal – the devastating reality of the nanny state …

As I’ve gone to minister God’s grace, redemption and discipleship in the woods, in the ‘hood, in the jails, and in other communities of despair where others fear to tread.

It taught me an important lesson.

Being an adult means being responsible for the consequences of our own decisions …

For good or for bad.

Long term, government policies and programs which ignore this principle are doomed to fail …

At great cost to everyone.

Those costs include the rise of burgeoning bureaucracies and the loss of Godly dignity for those being “helped.”

They also include bureaucratic “solutions” that usurp healthy families and local communities …

Thus destroying the relational context needed to actually help the truly needy among us.

Maybe that’s why God doesn’t countenance the idea of a nanny state – by example or precept – anywhere in Scripture.

Nope, not, nada …

Just ain’t there.