When it grows unchecked it literally devours everything in its path
By Chuck Colson
From General Motors to health care. From bank bailouts to national anti-obesity campaigns. Government is becoming more and more involved of every aspect of American life.
Most are rightly uncomfortable with this. But most of us cant explain to our friends and neighbors why that is. Thats one reason I broadcast BreakPoint every dayto help understand and defend a Christian worldview as it applies to every area of life.
Its also why I launched the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. At ColsonCenter.org we feature the work of respected theologians and worldview thinkerspeople like T.M. Moore my long-time colleague.
As part of his weekly ViewPoint studies T.M. Moore has written for us a fantastic study called
Kudzu Government: The Lust for Autonomy and the Roots of Statism.
The fundamental principle of a statist worldview T. M. writes is the belief that government is in the best position to create the conditions and provide the
framework for maximum human flourishing.
When such becomes the operating principle of a nation then nothing is off limits for government intrusion revision redefinition and control.
T. M. compares this kind of government to kudzu a rapid-growing leafy vine. Kudzu has its proper placeas an ornamental vine in a garden.
But when it grows unchecked it literally devours everything in its path. Any of you who have ever driven down a country road in the South know exactly what I mean.
Likewise government has its proper sanctioned rolewhich is to restrain evil and promote justice. But as T. M. writes When government becomes a law unto itself ... it breaks the bounds of its proper confines and forcing its ways on every other area and aspect of life it smothers and chokes everything it touchesvalues institutions establishments and entitiesand replaces them with itself.
The statist worldview is particularly dangerous to religion. As T.M. writes Few things rankle the kudzu state more than the loud-mouthed prophet who simply wont go along with the program. So statist regimes either silence religion altogether (a la Communism and Nazism) or just as insidiously co-opt religion to use as a tool for government power and policy.
Look at the situation in America today. Ive talked many times about the threat of abortion and gay marriage to religious freedom. Revoking non-profit status laws about anti-discrimination in employment revoking medical or pharmaceutical licensesthese are all soft ways that government can seek to force religious individuals and institutions into conforming to government policies.
What makes T. M.s study on Kudzu Government so useful is the way it employs Scripture to illustrate the dangers of statism.
Please come to ColsonCenter.org to
download a free copy of Kudzu Government. Use it yourself and give it to your small group.
And be sure to come back every week for
a new ViewPoint on topics of great interest all from a thoroughly biblical perspective.
framework for maximum human flourishing.
When such becomes the operating principle of a nation then nothing is off limits for government intrusion revision redefinition and control.
T. M. compares this kind of government to kudzu a rapid-growing leafy vine. Kudzu has its proper placeas an ornamental vine in a garden.
But when it grows unchecked it literally devours everything in its path. Any of you who have ever driven down a country road in the South know exactly what I mean.
Likewise government has its proper sanctioned rolewhich is to restrain evil and promote justice. But as T. M. writes When government becomes a law unto itself ... it breaks the bounds of its proper confines and forcing its ways on every other area and aspect of life it smothers and chokes everything it touchesvalues institutions establishments and entitiesand replaces them with itself.
The statist worldview is particularly dangerous to religion. As T.M. writes Few things rankle the kudzu state more than the loud-mouthed prophet who simply wont go along with the program. So statist regimes either silence religion altogether (a la Communism and Nazism) or just as insidiously co-opt religion to use as a tool for government power and policy.
Look at the situation in America today. Ive talked many times about the threat of abortion and gay marriage to religious freedom. Revoking non-profit status laws about anti-discrimination in employment revoking medical or pharmaceutical licensesthese are all soft ways that government can seek to force religious individuals and institutions into conforming to government policies.
What makes T. M.s study on Kudzu Government so useful is the way it employs Scripture to illustrate the dangers of statism.
Please come to ColsonCenter.org to download a free copy of Kudzu Government. Use it yourself and give it to your small group.
And be sure to come back every week for a new ViewPoint on topics of great interest all from a thoroughly biblical perspective.
