As we watch the “occupy” movement make its way across the country, Americans are reviving the age-old debate over equality. What is equality? Is it the equal sharing of opportunity or the “equal” sharing of outcomes? The fate of this free republic rests on the answer.
The Left in this country would have us believe that the equal sharing of material goods will fully satisfy the longings of our souls. Thus, while simultaneously denouncing successful free market capitalists as “materialistic,” believers in wealth redistribution are themselves hyper-materialists. They believe that the measure of equality is the uniform distribution of goods and little more. The human heart, however, demands more; therefore, conservatives believe in the equality of humanity, not the egalitarianism of hand-outs. As with everything else, socialists try and demean the side of man that is of the spirit.
It is not equality of accumulated property that matters so much as equality in personhood. God made us equal in His eyes, and in His image. In other ways, however, He made us unique; therefore, no two individuals are equal in every endeavor. Some are better baseball players than I, and some are better orators than others. If a central planner tries to make each of us equal in every respect, he or she will have to handicap some, while helping others. None of us would support such a scheme, but such is the essence of socialism.
Pursuit of equality in outcomes means we must forfeit equality as individuals. Free-market economist F.A. Hayek once observed that “from the fact that people are very different it follows that…the only way to place them in equal position would be to treat them differently.” So, in essence, individualism and the equality of outcomes (economically, educationally, etc.) are at odds. In order to have equal outcomes, the concept of the equal treatment of individuals must be undermined.
The irony of secular-progressives, who claim to champion individual rights, while supporting policies that subvert individualism in the name of their collectivist economic agenda, is abhorrent. Nevertheless, this is exactly what they do. They sacrifice the sacredness of the individual, made in God’s Image, for the collective in an image of their own. The incarnation of God as man, and the sacrifice of the same for the sins of the world, clearly demonstrates that God values the individual. Salvation for the soul is never achieved collectively. Instead, salvation for the soul, as in economics, is always an individual pursuit. Collectivists want collective salvation, when the only way to achieve it is to recognize the responsibility of the individual.
Let’s fight to preserve freedom, wherein liberty under law preserves the ideals of individualism in America. Let’s fight for the equal opportunity to pursue various outcomes.
Freedom is the product and gift from the creator. It is impossible for Man to possess freedom on his own terms. Freedom can only exist in the environment which God designed freedom to function. In order for man to be truly free he must choose God’s environment for liberty, adhering to the authorities established by his creator for its perpetuation.
Equality and freedom do not coexist; we have different talents, niches, skills. Some will use their freedom to succeed in life while others will use their freedom to fail. While Freedom is given by God, Satan seeks dominance under the mantra of equality over freedom.
This country was founded on the pillars of freedom.
1. Individual liberty
2. Marriage
3. Family
4. And the nation
Each governed by a system of God established authority
1. Individual liberty – volition of soul or determination of choice to make good or bad decisions
2. Marriage – the husband
3. Family – parents
4. And the nation – the government
When a people adhere to the principles of freedom; Individually, making good decisions based on moral and ethical standards, placed within the heart of man by his creator; when marriages between one man and one woman hold together on the bases of honor and integrity; when parents take responsibility for nurturing and molding the next generation in rearing of their own children, and when the family stands as the very fabric of the nation, it is then that liberty is perpetuated and a nation is strong spiritually, morally, socially, and, economically
A people cannot possess freedom on their own terms, when a people reject the authority that governs the establishment truths these institutions are systematically destroyed; When the institutions are destroyed, so goes freedom.
Without freedom a people will seek a substitute and will be happy to trade freedom that they cannot obtain on their own terms for security in such satanic systems as socialism, communism and one world government.
Where there is freedom there is responsibility and orientation to authority, where there is a legislative equality it is not equal in material but equal in misery.
Pastor Bob