Getting Our State Priorities Right

One good thing about having state budgetary problems is that it forces the government to rethink priorities and first principles. What is really important to the state? When a state is flush with cash it is easy to make everyone happy and dole out the money. I should be quick to add that this shouldn’t be the case, but what politician doesn’t want to make people happy? The benefit of times such as these is that politicians are forced to assess what is important and make appropriate judgments. They can politically hide behind the need to keep the state solvent. Hopefully, in the course of their assessment we can all learn something important as we move to regain control of our government.

So what is important? In order to answer this question we must ask a more basic question; what is the function of government? Isn’t the most basic function of government the execution of justice? The execution of justice is embodied in punishing the evil doer and rewarding the doer of good. And, in the most basic analysis, the best way to reward the doer of good is to get out of his way, give him freedom. The book of Romans captures this idea when it says,

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Romans 13:1-6.

If we postulate that the execution of justice is government’s core or primary goal and rewarding the good and punishing the evil is the essence of justice, the next logical question is does each expenditure further the cause of justice. Each individual may have laudable goals in spending money. To bring beauty to our community, to help the poor, and to help the sick are all laudable goals. But are these laudable goals justice? Just because a goal is laudable does not cause it to be just. Such expenditures do not necessarily punish the evil doer nor do they immediately reward the doer of good. In actuality, such expenditures may foster injustice. In these tough times we are forced to look beyond the superficial emotions of feeling good about helping those in need. The current under the surface that we see in these tough times is that we must impose taxes on people to accomplish these purposes. In order to accomplish these “good” deeds we must tax the doers of good to accomplish them, thereby reducing their ability to do good deeds.

Again, a little Scripture helps. Israel asked for a king. God, through Samuel, gave them a king. However, Samuels’s observations are instructive. “He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.” I Sam 8:15-17. Taxation imposes slavery.

There is another problem with the government’s involvement with philanthropy. Philanthropy calls for the affecting of culture. If the core function of government is to execute justice, the government should give a blind eye to affecting culture. Remember, the symbol of justice is the woman with a blindfold holding the scales of justice. How can the scales be balanced when the woman is looking through the blindfold to affect culture?

There is nothing wrong with blessing culture. However, the culture must be blessed in the right way for there to be true blessing. There are two institutions in this fair creation which are designed for blessing culture: the Church and family. The problem with government usurping these natural roles of the Church and family is that it diminishes their capability to execute their natural roles. Mark my words: as healthcare becomes a right dispensed by the federal tyrant, the field of healthcare will become devoid of charitable motivation and filled with litigation. This is not the culture our founders wanted. They desired a culture with freedom of speech, assembly and religion where people could gather to benefit their fellow man, not a culture based on what could be secured from others through the use of federal power.

Another example of setting priorities is in the area of the arts. Art more than any other expression of man affects culture. Again, government has no role in affecting culture. Therefore, it is counter to the role of government to give to the arts. Culture should be affected by the free flow of ideas, including especially the arts, with the Church and the family engaging in the dialogue. To the extent government takes through taxes from some to elevate the artistic expression of others to affect culture, this is injustice and should be stopped.

In these tough times we must reassess our priorities in our own lives and in our governing institutions. Let us ask the basic questions: what is the primary role of our government. If we get the basic questions and answers right, we can get our culture back on track. God bless the State of Missouri and the United States of America.