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.

Repressive “Progressives” and other cultural marxists feign surprise when their ideologies of victimhood and entitlement …

Destroy personal responsibility and economic opportunity.

This then leads to big-government cronyism, with them at the helm …

Which allows them to peddle even more victimhood and entitlement to the very people they harmed.

And so the downward spiral continues …

At everyone else’s expense.

I’ve seen – up close and personal – their bitter fruit as I’ve gone where others fear to tread in fulfillment of the Great Commission …

In homeless encampments, jails, crime infested housing projects, fatherless wastelands of subsidized poverty in the ‘hood, and other dysfunctional communities of dependency beyond the fringes of “polite” society.

While there, I saw God redeem lives.

But I also saw the stark reality of ignoring a fundamental Biblical principle, mainly:

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3

It’s time for those of true compassion to rebuild our nation’s foundations by breaking the repressive “progressive” cycle of despair …

And restore the hard dignity of Godly cultural precepts – like local community accountability, strong nuclear families, prioritized self government, responsible personal benevolence, and the moral imperatives of individual culpability – in our society once again.

Anything less will continue to destroy lives and the very fabric of our nation.

​

The law may not make anyone moral …

But I’m sure glad it can protect us from their immorality.

That’s why I won’t vote for candidates who think they can pass laws that will make people good …

Because that’s God’s job, and it never turns out well when governments try to usurp His authority.

But I will vote for those committed to passing laws that protect what’s good and our right to do what’s good …

Just like God intended.

Big difference!

Seeking the favor of power by laying aside our Godly values …

Rather than making those in power seek the favor of our Godly values …

Seldom turns out well.

Western culture blossomed under the Biblical notion that the State should protect our liberty to pursue virtue …

And restrain evil from taking the rewards of that virtue from us.

It then deteriorated under the post-modern notion that the State should promote autonomy from virtue …

And force the virtuous to subsidize the consequences of that autonomy.

May righteous people return to our foundations …

For the blessing of all.

When we lose the capacity for shame …

Self government is impossible and tyranny inevitable.

A government which undercuts the virtue of its people …

Will not long survive.

But a people who lack virtue …

Will not long survive their government.

It’s easy to be naïve …

When others bear the price.

​I think I need to be sent to millennial sensitivity school.

Back in 2016, I was having lunch at a fast food joint with two bros who often ministered with me in the local jail.

We were minding our own business at our own table, talking privately between ourselves about the upcoming elections and the Second Amendment, when a thirty-something dude walked up and told us to stop talking because it was “hurting his feelings.”

​Moral compromise rarely seeks to deliberately advance evil …

But to preserve our own comfort zones instead.

Which, from evil’s standpoint, is perfectly fine also.