Site icon SD Rostra

Christian Republicans for Scott Peters?

This week a number of my friends, well respected Christian leaders, wrote a public letter encouraging Christ followers to vote for the Democrat incumbent Scott Peters in the 52nd Congressional District race instead of the endorsed Republican, Carl DeMaio. They did so on the basis of a moral issue – his position on same sex marriage.

As a Christ follower I understand. I get it. They are offended by DeMaio’s unbiblical position on same sex marriage and his apparent willingness to use his congressional seat to advance such an agenda without the enumerated Constitutional authority to do so. This was my concern as well and the reason I stood before my peers on the Central Committee and urged a vote against him when he sought the party’s endorsement. A vote for which a number of my elected Christian peers didn’t even show up. Our Christian leaders are correct.  We should be concerned about the moral threats to the family. I stand with them in saying “as the family goes – so goes our nation.” It is the institution of the family above all others that constitutes the basic building block and health of our nation.

But here is where I depart. In Exodus 20 God gave Moses his ‘Top 10’ for a just society. We find in this passage six laws addressing how a Christian is to love his neighbor. Of the six, four address the family and property rights (honor your mother and father, do not commit adultery, do not steal and do not covet your neighbor’s property) – not a one addresses homosexuality.

Why do I think family and property are so closely correlated in Scripture? In simple terms I think property represents power, and with power go authority and honor. God intended for the family to be an honored institution and understood that any threat to property was a direct threat to the family. God never mentions the state government in the Ten Commandments. It is family government he mentions and his desire that power, authority and honor reside there. Our Framers codified these ideas into our founding documents. Both codify what the federal government is entitled to in the way of our property and how property can be taken (Art 1, Sec 8, clause 1 and Art. 1, Sec 9, clause 4). When government fails to uphold property rights families are threatened. In order for a government to gain power it must destroy the family. Karl Marx understood this. The family, he said, is based on capital, private gain, private property and he added that the family “will vanish with the vanishing of capital”.  Marx replaced the Ten Commandments with the Ten Planks of The Communist Manifesto:

• “the abolition of property”

• “a heavy progressive income tax”

• ”abolition of all rights of inheritance”

• “centralization of credit in the and hands of the state”

• “free education for all children in public schools”

Each of these are now in operation in our nation.

How does a humanistic government defeat the family, the source of our character and ability to self-govern?  Take away its power, honor and authority via a steady deprivation of property rights and transfer such to the state.

For the past one hundred years the American family has been under attack and believers like myself have been silent as an unconstitutional and immoral tax on wages and salaries has demanded we tithe three to four times to the State what we tithe to Christ. I wish I heard more of my brothers and sisters complaining about that but I don’t.  Ideas have consequences.

For the past one hundred years an unconstitutional and immoral Federal Reserve Bank has been given carte blanche to do what any of us would be thrown in jail for – counterfeit money and destroy the purchasing power of the dollar. President Washington saw this happen during the Revolution when due to money printing he couldn’t buy a wagon load of goods with a wagon load of Continentals.  As a man of faith and as our first President he would sign the Coinage Act of 1792 assigning the death penalty to anyone caught debasing our money.

For the past one hundred years an unconstitutional and immoral federal government has deprived families of property, first by taxation and then by inflation, forcing mothers who desired to be at home and play a larger role in the character formation of their children to enter the workplace.
Some believe homosexuality is the biggest moral threat facing our families. I disagree. In my opinion the biggest threat facing our families is the continued immoral and unconstitutional transfer of property, honor and authority from families to the State with consent of millions of Christian voters. Some of our Christian lawmakers, holding the safest seats in our nation, only vote with the U.S. Constitution 60 to 70 percent of the time, further growing government and weakening our families.

In my opinion, reform will come when believers uphold property rights as they are upheld in The Ten Commandments and our founding documents.  Reform will come as “We the People” begin to vote in an informed way which holds our lawmakers accountable to enforce rule of law, defend property, restrict the federal government to its enumerated powers and ceases to use government where the Bible and Christ do not give it jurisdiction – in our neighbor’s heart. Sadly, I see little discussion of these fundamental ideas among my brothers and sisters. On that issue, while far from perfect, I believe Carl DeMaio has demonstrated himself morally superior and more of a reformer than his opponent.

I can’t help but think how much better off our nation and families would be if our Christian community was as well informed on constitutionally limited government and property rights as they are on same sex marriage. Is it possible we have a “log in our eye”? Could we be using the tax code in an unbiblical, immoral and unconstitutional way to redistribute property to “marrieds” against the teaching of our own scripture and Constitution? Is it possible that if we reformed “the man in the mirror” that the incentive for same sex marriage legislation might fade?  Shall we do evil (i.e. vote for Peters/abortion) that good may result?

Somewhere, and for some reason, the Christian community has abandoned the “few and defined” duties of a limited constitutional government and have justified an unholy alliance with the State to accomplish our social agenda. It’s time for believers from both parties to unite and lead under an inspiring ethic that transcends political parties. An ethic that is consistent with the fundamentals of our faith and the great ideas that made us the most prosperous nation in 5,000 years of human history – rule of law, private property and constitutionally limited government. An ethic that uses law defensively instead of progressively.

# # #

 Eric Andersen serves as Chair for 71st Assembly District of the San Diego County Republican Party and is the Co-Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus of San Diego County and im2moro.com.  In 2012 he was the Rock Church Citizen of the Year.  He holds other crazy ideas like chocolate doesn’t make you fat, it just makes your clothes shrink and the moon is still made of cheese.

Exit mobile version