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Christian
Constitutional Society Platform 2008 (August)
Abortion
(core
value)
We
hold that abortion is the taking of innocent human life and
ought to be against the law of the land in a just nation.
We oppose abortion for any reason, except perhaps in such
rare cases where the life of the mother would be lost should the
pregnancy continue. Save
for that possible exception, abortion should be against the law
of the land. The
question of the legality of abortion in the troubling instances
of rape and incest is a difficult one, but we cannot condone the
deliberate taking of innocent human life due to the sins of
another. We oppose
the execution of children for the sins of their parents.
We
support the election, appointment, and confirmation of judges
who have a sufficient understanding of sound jurisprudence and
basic justice to be of the opinion that Roe v. Wade should be
overturned and nullified. Conversely, our conscience compels us
to oppose those who lack this basic understanding of justice and
Constitutional principles.
We
support enabling legislation to the 14th amendment
that would define the unborn as persons under that amendment,
for the purpose of prosecuting owners of abortion
mills who deprive the unborn of the right to life without due
process of law.
Failing
that, we also support other approaches that would allow the
several states to end abortion on demand, such as removing
abortion cases from the purview of the federal judiciary.
This would be a stop-gap measure until federal benches are
re-stocked with judges whose view of the law is in accord with
the fundamental principles on which this nation was founded.
We
believe that no political leader who is willing to trade away
the rights of the powerless unborn can be trusted to faithfully
defend our own.
Defense
It
is a primary obligation of the federal government to provide for
the common defense, and to be vigilant regarding potential
threats, prospective capabilities, and perceived intentions of
potential enemies.
We
oppose unilateral disarmament and dismemberment of
America
's
defense infrastructure.
We
condemn the presidential assumption of authority to deploy
American troops into combat in foreign nations without a
declaration of war by Congress, pursuant to Article I, Section 8
of the U.S. Constitution.
We
oppose the tendency to have
U.S.
forces
to serve under any foreign flag or command. We are opposed to
any New World Order, and we reject U.S.
participation in or a relinquishing of command to any foreign
authority.
The
goal of
U.S.
security policy is to defend the national security interests of
the United
States
.
Therefore, except in time of declared war, for the purposes of
state security, no state National Guard or reserve troops shall
be called upon to support or conduct operations in foreign
theatres.
We
should be the friend of liberty everywhere, but the guarantor of
ours alone. The American people are not obligated to
expend their blood and tax dollars to police the world.
We
reject a policy of foreign adventures to enforce U. N. mandates
or attempts to “nation-build” at the behest of the U. N.
or business interests.
We
reject the policies and practices that permit women to train for
or participate in combat. Because of the radical feminization of
the military over the past two decades, it must be recognized
that these "advances" undermine the integrity and
morale of our military organizations by dual qualification
standards and forced integration.
Many
states are discovering that their National Guard units have been
over-committed in activities related to overseas
adventurism. This unfortunate practice leaves a gap
in the several state's own security and emergency response
capabilities. We encourage states who wish to do so to
exercise their rights under the 9th and 10th amendments of the
Constitution to form their own "State Guards" or
"Home Guards" made from civilian volunteers and not
subject to call-up as units by the Federal Government.
Unfortunately,
national defense is not just a matter of repelling foreign
invaders. In modern times, the biggest threats to
the liberties of populations has often come from their own
government. An essential part of national defense is the
ability of citizens to protect themselves from creeping tyranny
in government, as our ancestors once had to do at the founding
of this nation. Therefore, the right to keep and
bear arms, for both personal defense, and as a last resort as a
defense against government tyranny, is an essential part
of our heritage. Because of this,
citizens have a right to keep and bear arms, including and
especially both arms and ammunition of a caliber and type
powerful enough to be effective on the modern military
battlefield.
The
Federal government has no constitutional authority to, and is in
fact specifically prohibited from, the banning, licensing, or
otherwise regulating of any type of arms or ammunition within
the confines of any state, so long as it does not cross state
lines. Any such "laws" to the contrary are
extra-constitutional and thus, illegitimate.
Education
Educational
philosophies start with basic assumptions about God and man.
Education as a whole, therefore, cannot be separated from the
issue of a secular or theistic worldview. The law of our Creator
assigns the authority and responsibility of educating children
to their parents.
Because
the federal government has no jurisdiction concerning the
education of our children, the United States Department of
Education should be down-sized or abolished and most federal
legislation related to education should be repealed. The federal
government should not be involved in national teacher
certification, educational curricula, textbook selection,
learning standards, comprehensive sex education, psychological
and psychiatric research testing programs, or personnel.
Because
control over education is now being relegated to departments
other than the Department of Education, we clarify that no
federal agency, department, board, or other entity may exercise
jurisdiction over the education of children. We reject so-called
“Workforce Education” programs that shift the training and
recruitment costs of government-favored industries onto the
backs of taxpayers.
We
call for a shift of authority in public schools away from state
and federal micromanagement and towards true community schools
wherever communities of virtue desire it.
We call for more than one educational model of classroom
within public schools so that parents can choose the model they
want for their children, teacher by teacher where possible.
This should include a model where “in loco parentis”
authority is returned to teachers, where the parents authorize
it. By this
manner, virtue, discipline, prayer and scripture may be returned
to the schools without imposing our faith on those who do not
share it.
We
support the right of parents to provide for the education of
their children in the manner they deem best, including home,
private or religious. We oppose all legislation from any level
of government that would interfere with or restrict that
liberty. We support equitable tax relief for families whose
children do not attend government schools.
So
that parents need not defy the law by refusing to send their
children to schools of which they disapprove, compulsory
attendance laws should be repealed.
We
find there is no contradiction between empirical science and
divine revelation, but rather there is a contradiction between
divine revelation and naturalistic philosophy posing as science.
In science education we support the policy of following the
evidence within science wherever it may lead rather than a
naturalistic philosophy which excludes in advance the
possibility of divine intervention.
Environment
Government
has a duty to protect the environment from bad actors, and man
has a responsibility to be a good steward of the world with
which his Creator has entrusted him. Polluters
should be made to clean up their own mess within the boundaries
of one's own country, and trade tariffs should be used against
countries who don't police their own polluters, lest they out
compete our own industries who clean up the mess they
make. Pollution in industrial manufacturing is
cost-shifting, which is a sophisticated form of theft.
Penalties at home and tariffs from goods abroad will take away
the advantages for the polluters.
At
the same time, we find the scientific evidence for human-induced
global warming to be lacking, and we also question the idea that
temperature levels in the 1970s were some kind of ideal which
mankind must for some reason struggle to maintain.
We are against the use of tax revenue or the loss of freedom in
the name of preventing "global warming".
Family
(core value)
The
law of our Creator defines marriage as the union between one man
and one woman. The marriage covenant is the foundation of the
family, and the family is fundamental in the maintenance of a
stable, healthy and prosperous social order. No government may
legitimately authorize or define marriage or family relations
contrary to what God has instituted. Because
of potential use of the “full faith and credit clause” to
impose homosexual marriage or so-called civil unions on the
nation, we are in favor of amending the U.S. Constitution for
the purpose of defining marriage as being between one man and
one woman. Further
we support preserving the unique social recognition historically
given to marriage by affirming that no other relationship,
whether it be called “civil unions” or some other name,
should ever be recognized as a substitute to or equivalent for,
marriage.
We
reject the notion that sexual offenders are deserving of legal
favor or special protection, and affirm the rights of states and
localities to proscribe offensive sexual behavior. We oppose all
efforts to impose a new sexual legal order through the federal
court system. We stand against so-called "sexual
orientation" and "hate crime" statutes that
attempt to legitimize inappropriate sexual behavior and to
stifle public resistance to its expression. We oppose government
funding of "partner" benefits for unmarried
individuals. Finally, we oppose any legal recognition of
homosexual unions.
We
recognize that parents have the fundamental right and
responsibility to nurture, educate, and discipline their
children. We oppose the assumption of any of these
responsibilities by any governmental agency without the express
delegation of the parents or legal due process. We affirm the
value of the father and the mother in the home, and we oppose
efforts to legalize adoption or foster parenting of children by homosexual singles
or couples.
We
affirm both the authority and duty of Congress to limit the
appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in all cases of
state sodomy laws in accordance with the U.S. Constitution,
Article
III
,
Section 2.
We
affirm that the Bible gives parent’s authority to use corporal
punishment for the discipline, training, and well-being of their
children. Parents
who administer corporal punishment in the spirit of the Biblical
model should not fear prosecution from overzealous state
officials.
Gambling
Gambling
is a violation of the Law of Love.
In honest commerce, both parties may benefit from
transactions. In
gambling, for one person to win, their neighbor must lose, and
no new wealth is created. Gambling
promotes an increase in crime, destruction of family values, and
a decline in the moral fiber of our country. We are opposed to
government sponsorship, involvement in, or promotion of gambling
in the name of economic development. We call for the repeal of
federal legislation that usurps state and local authority
regarding authorization and regulation of tribal casinos in the
states.
Immigration
The
immigration issue has two components, legal and illegal.
In the area of legal immigration, we call for a repeal of
the immigration reform and control act of 1965.
Our immigration policy must be one that is concerned with
the well-being and preservation of the
United
States
rather
than some misguided effort to take in immigrants from nations
with no history or tradition of self-rule.
Our government has an obligation to our citizens to
insure each immigrant as an individual is a virtuous person.
Since our heritage of freedom is the result of our
Judeo-Christian traditions, preference should be given to
immigrants from nations which share this heritage, or from
persecuted minority Christians or Jews from such nations which
lack it.
Concerning
the problem of illegal immigration, we reject the misuse of
scripture to imply that we have an obligation to accept as
citizens anyone who illegally enters our nation.
Instead, the rule of law is critical to our national well
being and we note that this principle is being subverted on this
issue. We find that
certain influential business interests have colluded with unjust
government officials to entice a large amount of illegal foreign
labor into this nation. This
drives down wages and opportunities for our own citizens,
invites mistreatment of the illegal alien at the hands of
unscrupulous employers who know such workers have no legal
protection, and causes numerous other social and fiscal ills for
our people.
We
call for the
United
States
government and all officials therein to honor their oaths to
uphold the Constitution, including the provisions which obligate
the government of the
United
States
to
protect us from foreign invasion.
We call for a secure border.
We call for the deportation of persons here illegally,
and for policies which will encourage many of them to
self-deport. We oppose any program of amnesty, whether it goes
by that or some less honest name.
The only way a person who wants to be a citizen of the
country should be able to move in line ahead of those who have
waited according to the law is to show exemplary character, and
to obtain sponsors in this country who would be willing to
assume all costs for education, medical care, and sustenance for
the immigrants during the process of becoming a citizen and for
a period afterwards.
We
call for laws which criminalize the knowing distribution of
public benefits, as defined by federal law, by any state or
federal official, to persons illegally in this country.
We
oppose the provision of welfare subsidies and other
taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal aliens, and call for an
end to the practice of bestowing
U.S.
citizenship on children born to illegal alien parents while in
this country.
Income Tax
The
personal income tax should be abolished and the departments of
the IRS used to audit individual taxpayers should be
dismantled. A cutback in government
spending to its level of about ten years ago would permit us to
do this without raising any other taxes. Barring that, the
revenue should be made up by a general and uniform tariff,
and/or sending a bill to the states for their share of the
federal budget, and letting each of them determine how to
collect it.
The
fear of audits gives the federal government unwarranted power,
intrusiveness, and control over the lives of individual
persons. The tax code is so complex that few really even
know whether or not they are in compliance. The federal
government has no business demanding a citizen report to them
how much money they earned, or how they earned it, nor should
they have the power to direct the spending habits of our
citizenry to their liking by means of complex tax
laws.
Israel
We
believe that God’s promises to the descendents of Abraham,
both of the flesh and of faith, still apply today.
“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse
those who curse you” said the Lord God to the children of
Israel
.
Seeing that the promises of God are sure, it is in our
own national interests, as well as the right thing to do, to
support the continued existence and security of
Israel
.
We are against pressuring the government of
Israel
to cede
land or sovereignty to those who refuse to explicitly recognize
their right to exist within a secure border that includes
Jerusalem
.
Further,
we cannot expect Israel
to
negotiate with the same terrorist mind-set that we refuse to
treat with. Evil
people throughout history have often had an irrational,
diabolical hatred of the Jewish people, but those who love the
Word of God bless and help them.
The
Judiciary
The
United States Constitution does not provide for lifetime
appointment of federal judges, but only for a term of office
during good behavior. We support Congressional enforcement of
the Constitutional rule of good behavior and to restrain
judicial activism by properly removing offending judges through
the process of impeachment provided for in Article I, § 2 and 3
of the Constitution. Furthermore, Congress must exert the power
it possesses to prohibit all federal courts from hearing cases
which Congress deems to be outside federal jurisdiction pursuant
to Article
III
, § 2
of the Constitution.
We
particularly support all the legislation which would remove from
Federal appellate review jurisdiction matters involving
acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty,
or government.
We
deny the validity of judicial rulings that use foreign court
rulings to overturn
U.S.
precedent.
We
call for the election, appointment, and confirmation only of
judges who believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
We
believe with the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John
Jay, that juries should be able to judge both the facts and the
law of a case. Pursuant to this doctrine, defendants have an
absolute right to make constitutional defenses directly to
juries.
Our
current practice of granting federal judges the power to limit
or eliminate constitutional defenses means that only federal
employees are able to determine the constitutional limits of
federal power. This
blatant conflict of interest has the potential to make all the
protections in our constitution moot.
We call for the election, appointment, and confirmation
only of judges who respect the absolute right of a defendant to
make constitutional defenses to juries.
Money
In
view of the Bible’s command for just weights and measures, we
call for an honest dollar, whose value is assured.
This can only be done by giving the dollar a fixed value in some
real commodity.
We oppose efforts to manipulate the economy by dumping in
money created out of thin air, or paying interest on such money.
We call for the abolishment of the Federal Reserve System, with
its power to issue fiat currency and create inflation.
This is a hidden and immoral tax on the people.
Instead
of the vast power of the Federal Reserve, a national bank, if
any, must be limited in power and scope as was the First Bank of
the United States; This includes the appropriate safeguards
which applied to that institution, specifically an inability to
loan or create money in excess of their actual capitalization.
Borrowing and spending is just as irresponsible as taxing
and spending, maybe more so.
Government debt is a way to buy votes now at the expense
of our children, which is immoral and should be condemned.
Personal
and Private Property Security
We
affirm the Fourth Amendment right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable
searches and seizures, including arbitrary or de facto
registration, general and unwarranted electronic surveillance,
national computer databases, and national identification cards.
We also reaffirm that civil governments must be strictly limited
in their powers to intrude upon the persons and private property
of individual citizens, in particular, that no place be searched
and no thing be seized, except upon proof of probable cause that
a crime has been committed and the proper judicial warrant
issued.
We
further reaffirm the common-law rule that protects the people
from any search or seizure when that search or seizure violates
the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
We
deplore and oppose vigorously legislation and executive action
that deprive the people of their Fourth and Fifth Amendment
rights under claims of necessity to "combat terrorism"
or to "protect national security."
We
oppose legislation and administrative action utilizing asset
forfeiture laws which enable the confiscation of the private
property of persons not involved in the crime. Forfeiture of
assets can only be enforced after conviction of the property
owner as a penalty for the crime. Such forfeitures must follow
full due process of law under criminal prosecution standards.
We
oppose the monitoring and controlling of the financial
transactions of the people through such proposed laws as
"Know Your Customer." Banks should be repositories of
treasure and fiduciaries for the people, not enforcers for the
State. Any information regarding customer transactions the State
obtains from banks must be subject to the traditional Fourth
Amendment safeguards.
Pornography
Pornography
corrodes the God-ordained bond between sex and intimacy.
This is destructive of persons and families.
Because healthy families are the bedrock of a stable
society, pornography is a threat to our national well-being.
We call on our local, state and federal governments to
uphold our cherished First Amendment right to free speech by
vigorously enforcing our laws against obscenity to maintain a
degree of separation between that which is truly politically
protected speech, and that which only appeals to prurient
interests. .
It is our position that the Founders did not intend the
first amendment to apply to such forms of expression as appeal
primarily to prurient interests, and would be shocked to
discover it being abused for that purpose.
While the first amendment may protect one’s right to
say that obscenity and pornography should be legal, it does not
grant the right to promulgate it where such is against the law
While
we believe in the responsibility of the individual and corporate
entities to regulate themselves, we also believe that our
collective representative body we call government plays a vital
role in establishing and maintaining the highest level of
decency in our community standards.
Religious
Freedom (core value)
Article
I of the Bill of Rights reads: "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof."
The
Founders intent was to prevent the Federal Government of the
United
States
from
having a taxpayer supported “Church of the
United States
” akin
to the Church of England.
Many of the several states maintained their own
state-supported Christian denominations for years after, arguing
against an expansive interpretation of what the Founders
intended with the First Amendment.
The
First Amendment has been twisted from its original purpose.
It was designed to prevent the Federal Government of the
United States
from
sponsoring by law an official sect, not to use the power of the
government to banish the acknowledgement of God from public life
through proclamations, displays, or ceremonies.
Nor was it intended to cut us off from our history of
using principles gleaned from the Holy Writ as an inspiration
for our laws. Indeed,
our own Constitution was crafted with a view of man shaped by
the Bible’s teaching.
It
is our view that the proper balance regarding government and
religious expression is that religious expression from public
officials or in public places should be neither forbidden nor
demanded, but rather allowed.
Only
when the government accepts the principle that it is a servant
of the people under God do the people have assurance of liberty.
Jefferson
said it
by way of this rhetorical question, “Can the liberties of a
nation be secure once we remove the conviction that they are the
gift of God?” The
answer is no. Without
God, there is no fixed standard for law.
The law becomes whatever the ruler says it is on that
day. Because of
this, it is essential to the preservation of our liberties that
the state acknowledges a higher power than itself: it is
necessary that our leaders acknowledge God.
History
teachers us that governments which have refused to acknowledge
God have not served their people well.
Rulers who fail to acknowledge God will soon
cast off all restraints and assume more and more power for
themselves.
Therefore
we call for all civil rulers to acknowledge that they are
servants under God, and bound by His precepts.
We further call on our elected officials and citizens to
only elect, nominate, and confirm judges who have this view of
the first amendment and call for the impeachment of judges who
show an implacable hostility to religious expression in public
or private realms.
Tariffs
and Trade
Article
I, Section 8, of the Constitution states that Congress shall
have the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign
Nations." We oppose, therefore, the unconstitutional
transfer of authority over
U.S.
trade
policy from Congress to agencies, domestic or foreign, which
improperly exercise policy-setting functions with respect to
U.S.
trade.
We
favor the abolition of the Office of Special Trade
Representative, and call for the withdrawal of the United States
from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (
GATT
), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and all
other agreements wherein agencies other than the Congress of the
United States improperly assume responsibility for establishing
American trade policies.
We
see our country and its workers as more than bargaining chips
for multinational corporations and international banks.
We
reject the trade concept of normal trade relations (Most Favored
Nation status), used to curry favor with regimes whose domestic
and international policies are abhorrent to decent people
everywhere, and which are in fundamental conflict with the vital
interests of the United States of America.
In the same way, we oppose vitally linking our own
economy with non-free market economies.
When free-market realities collapse phony state-run
economies, we don’t want our own nation to be vitally linked
to theirs in trade, lest our economy also suffer.
In
light of the above, we believe in a sensible application of
tariffs with the purpose of making imports to the
United
States
from
non-free market economies more in line with actual free-market
costs.
We
strongly oppose unconstitutional "Trade Promotion
Authority," which transfers the establishment of trade
policy from Congress to the Executive branch of government.
In
the name of free trade, multi-national corporations have been
given tax breaks by the U.S. Government which are not available
to American businesses, and the money extracted from
U.S.
taxpayers has been used by the government to subsidize exports
and encourage businesses to move abroad. Such improprieties must
cease.
The
United
States
government should establish the firm policy that
U.S.
or
multinational businesses investing abroad do so at their own
risk. There is no obligation by our Government to protect those
businesses with the lives of our service personnel, or the taxes
of our citizens.
In
the area of national security, foreign interests have been
abetted in gaining access to
America
's
high-tech secrets under the guise of commercial enterprise. We
propose that technology transfers which compromise national
security be made illegal, and urge that all violators be
prosecuted. We demand that all weapons systems, military
uniforms and equipment purchased for the American military be
domestically produced in their entirety along with all their
component parts.
We
oppose the practice of any officer of the
United States
government, or spouse thereof, who, subsequent to Federal
government employment is employed to represent a foreign
government or other foreign entity, public or private, for
purposes of influencing public opinion or policy on matters
affecting
U.S.
trade
with such foreign government or entity.
Terrorism
and Personal Liberty
We
deplore and vigorously oppose legislation and executive actions
that deprive the people of their rights secured under the Fourth
and Fifth Amendments under the guise of "combating
terrorism" or "protecting national security."
Examples of such legislation are the USA PATRIOT Act, and the
Domestic Securities Enhancement Act (colloquially known as
"Patriot II").
The
USA PATRIOT Act permits arrests without warrants and secret
detention without counsel, wiretaps without court supervision,
searches and seizures without notification to the individual
whose property is invaded, and a host of other violations of the
legal safeguards our nation has historically developed according
to principles descending from the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
Since
we will no longer have a free nation while the federal
government (or the governments of the several states, as the
federal government may authorize) can violate our historic
rights under such laws, we call for the rejection of all such
laws and the ceasing of any such further proposals.
We
condemn the public officials of this country who have refused to
secure our borders, but instead seek to submit honest citizens
to further monitoring and control.
Virtue
The
best defense against big government is a virtuous citizenry.
Such people have no need of masters, for they rule
themselves. Seeing
that this is so, we call for citizens everywhere to commit
themselves to lives of piety and virtue, that we all might
remain free. In the
same way, we must realize that the impiety and foolishness of
our fellow citizens is not their own business only, but rather a
threat to the freedoms of us all- for when the sown seed of
disorder in their lives is reaped, they will cry out to the
state to rescue them. It
is in such times that our chains are forged.
We cannot continue to allow the state to rescue people
from consequences of their own impiety with the earnings of the
virtuous. This
is a call for virtue, to practice it ourselves, and encourage it
in others.
We
do not claim to live a life of perfect virtue, nor is the
measure that we have based on our own merits.
It is a process which is born and sustained from an
individual’s relationship with God. Because of this, a call to
virtue is really a call for repentance, and a call to honor God
as God again. This
call is issued not to condemn those who have failed to live
virtuous lives in the past, but rather to entreat them to repent
before the consequences of past conduct bring a bitter harvest
to their lives individually and to the nation collectively.
Welfare
God,
who endows us with life, liberty, property, and the right to
pursue happiness, also exhorts individuals to care for the
needy, the sick, the homeless, the aged, and those who are
otherwise unable to care for themselves.
Unfortunately,
government welfare has made no moral distinctions in the
appropriation of limited resources.
Some people have misfortunes arise that are truly beyond
their control despite living a life of virtue, others want to
exploit the virtue of those around them after bringing
misfortune on themselves through poor personal choices.
In that respect,
America
's
welfare crisis is a government-induced crisis. Government social
and cultural policies have undermined the work ethic, even as
the government's economic and regulatory policies have
undermined the ability of our citizens to obtain work.
Charity,
and provision of welfare to those in need, is not a
Constitutional responsibility of the federal government. It
is unjust that the taxpayers of the
United States
be
obligated, under penalty of law through forced taxation, to
assume the cost of providing welfare for other citizens as their
“right”. Neither should taxpayers be indentured to subsidize
welfare for persons who enter the
United
States
illegally.
The
message of Christian charity is fundamentally at odds with the
concept of welfare maintenance as a right. In
many cases, welfare provisions by the Federal government are not
only misdirected, but morally destructive. It is the intended
purpose of civil government to safeguard life, liberty and
property - not to redistribute wealth. Such redistribution is
contrary to the Biblical commands against theft and coveting.
When
individuals help the poor of their own free will it produces an
environment where the wealthy care for the poor as people, and
the poor care for and are grateful toward the wealthy for the
giving. When the
state steps in and does charity by compulsion, both the joy of
giving and the gratitude of receiving are lost.
The givers become distant from, and resentful of, the
getters. The getters
become ungrateful and lose their incentive to serve others
better. Instead
an “entitlement mentality” takes hold as various groups
assert their “rights” to the earnings of their
fellow-citizens. The
biblical pattern of charitable giving produces connection and
healing. The
government pattern produces strife, animosity, and division.
We
encourage individuals, families, churches, civic groups and
other private organizations, to fulfill their personal
responsibility to help those in need.
We
hold our current welfare state to be a judgment of God on this
nation because too many of our citizens have rejected God and
His call for them as individuals to be charitable to the poor.
Because of this, we cannot sharply reduce government
welfare unless the moral capital is in place to permit it.
Instead, we call for a halt to any additional social
spending, unless a new program is matched by cuts in other
social programs of equal or greater cost.
In determining which programs to protect and which to
reduce, our bias should be toward programs that help people
whose need for assistance is a result of misfortune, and not of
their own poor moral choices.
We
call for a generational build-up of church and private
charitable giving to wean our fellow citizens from the welfare
trap. The current
growth of the nanny welfare state is unsustainable and its
collapse is inevitable. It
would be an act of unimaginable cruelty to continue growing it
until millions more were duped into helplessness and dependency
on a system that is certain to fail.
We
call for a change in tax laws that allow for more prosperous
citizens to take current welfare recipients into their homes as
servants of that household, in order that they may gain true
independence by learning to serve others well.
We further call for changes in tax law that would allow
for individuals to take a tax credit to directly provide for a
person from off the public dole from their own bounty,
individual to individual.
We
reject so-called “Faith Based Initiatives” on the grounds
that the government as provider of charity is an intrinsically
unbiblical approach. The
answer is a generational movement away from government
dependency, not expanding the reach of the nanny state in a way
that turns the churches into the paid servants of the state, in
violation of the first amendment.
The churches are obligated to God to keep themselves free
from government largesse so that they might be unhindered in
their efforts to hold accountable leaders who violate God’s
standards for civil government.
Withdrawal
from the United Nations and U.S.
Sovereignty
We
call for the United
States
to
withdraw from the United Nations.
We find that this organization is expensive, corrupt, and
ineffective. It is a
travesty that nations whose treatment of their own citizens is
an affront to decent people everywhere have this taxpayer-funded
venue from which they presume to sit in judgment of the United
States.
We
oppose a “North American Union” or any other political or
economic union on any basis other than people of virtue and
faith applying to become a new state in the
United
States of America
under
the purview of our Constitution.
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