I write this on the occasion, just recently, of a painful experience, and while that incident is
still fresh in my mind, I want to make some observations concerning authority, and state some
Biblical principles on that subject.
Authority is a device used of God to establish leadership and responsiblity in His institutions
on earth. It can take many forms, involve many principles, but the one constant is the need for
well defined and well executed authority. The basic purpose for this divine provision is always
to protect and perpetuate one aspect of freedom or another; Be it the authority of the man in marriage,
the commander in the military, the elected official in government, the police officer, or the teacher
in the schoolroom. Regardless of the application, the same principles apply;
1. Authority is delegated by God for the perpetuation of freedom.
2. Authority demands maturity, honor, objectivity, fairness and courage.
3. Authority requires sacrifice and tolerance with humility.
4. Authority respects the rights and needs of those subject to it.
5. Authority is never angry, biased, vengeful, greedy, spiteful or petty.
6. Authority is only learned while UNDER authority.
These principles also apply:
1. The abuse of authority is arrogance and creates tyranny, legalism
2. The lack of authority is cowardice and becomes anarchy, lawlessness.
3. Subjective authority is always hyper-sensative.
4. Immature authority is always petty.
5. Unjust authority always discriminates.
Wherever authority is abused or ignored, freedom is damaged, and eventually destroyed.
The myth that it is humiliating, or less than desirable, to be under authority is foolishness.
The most honorable of all people are those who respect and obey the authorities over them, and
that takes us all into consideration. In one aspect or another of our lives, we are all under
authority.
Satan distorts authority to accomplish his own ends, and those designs always destroy freedom
and persecute those subject to its' power. Tyranny, in any form, is Satanic, as is anarchy.
Both conditions are the result of authority misapplied.
Unfortunately, there are many examples of distortions in the execution of authority in our
society today. Our government has far exceeded the legitimate boundaries that were defined in
our Constitution, and those abuses bury us deeper in tyranny every day.
Excess taxation is one of the worst of these distortions, but this is just one of many examples. The
delegation of power to appointed, not elected officials is a subtle, yet destructive form of
distorted authority which guarantees abuse. The exclusive fiat of the IRS, for instance, is blatant
tyranny. Our system of law, which is designed to be just, is set aside and the taxpayer who is subject
to IRS accusations is treated with contempt, and condemned as guilty without due process, merely on
the word of a book keeper.
Abuses, such as the estate tax, are little more that legalized banditry. Many heirs are forced to sell
the estates they inherit because the cost of paying these obscene taxes is so high, 50% if memory serves.
But even if it is less, it is evil, for every board of an inherited home has been bought by monies already
taxed once, and perhaps more than once.
Many other agencies of our government wield enormous power, and are run and staffed by appointed officials.
Regardless of the noble intention of these operations, the decision making processes are managed by people
not accountable to the American people, but the politician who gave them their fat job. These too are
usurping our freedom at an alarming rate. OSHA, EPA, and others involve thousands of bureaucrats, and the
majority of them wrok 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, making up more rules, which is how they justify their
existence.
Another critical venue suffering from abuse of authority today is the judiciary. Our courts and judges are
responsible to be tough on criminals and use the death penalty when applicable to protect freedom and the
welfare of the innocent. This, tragically, is not the case. Criminals with money to spend can buy a
lenient sentence, or get off scott free. Parolled criminals rove the streets again in only months to
victimize another citizen.
The police officer's authority is severely restricted, made captive to "human rights", and the demands of
a liberal society to talk crooks out of shooting their captives, or take them alive at all costs, and many
times the cost is an officer's life.
Our governing authority is mandated to be areligeous, yet moral laws abound. It is not the place of government
to manage the moral fibre of a people. Prostitutes, and those who use their services, are arrested and humiliated.
Drugs, pornography, vulgarity, and other evils are illegal, which creates a profitable market for big time
crooks to serve. Society thinks; Because they don't see these things next door they aren't there, and they are
mortified when the cops bust a neighbor for selling drugs, or peddling porno.
If these austensibly illegal activities were not against the law a muti-billion dollar industry would be gone
overnight. And as for the next door operative, zoning laws would protect schools and residential neighborhoods,
and the businessman would be anxious to cooperate, for the vast majority would prefer a location where the traffic
is, downtown or elsewhere. Though it would appear that immorality had escalated, this would be deceptive, because
the preponderance of these activities are invisible now, yet they are invading our neighborhoods, schools, social
activities...and so long as there is big money to be made, they will continue to spread.
Want to win the drug war? Protect your kids at school? Your neighborhoods? Simple. Legalize drugs. Remove the
profit motive, and remove the problem. Legal vendors would establish outlets where their customers are most
abundant, and zoning statutes would keep them in check as to location. Do you think millions of more Americans
would become coke heads overnight? WRONG! Would you go right out and buy some coke if it were legal tommorrow?
Some maybe...but most would be just as adamant about abstnence as they are now. The abolition of prohabition
didn't create millions of new drunks.
Many dangers for users of illegal services and substances would also be eliminated; Whores could be required to
maintain a health card to ply their trade, as they are in many European nations, and the incidence
of aids and sexual disease would be radically reduced.
You see, any time authority is abused, there is a piper to pay. There is evil, and worst of all, the loss of
freedom.
Ofcourse, the American of today has been desensitized, gradually trained over the years and generations to
accept these abuses, until they are accepted without question. Such is the path to tyranny, and the demise
of freedom. In my lifetime I have seen smoking become a social evil, smokers treated like second class
citizens. Americans cheer the government on as they expand this abuse of authority, usurp the power to
steal billions of dollars from....who....tobacco vendors? NO! From the citizens! They pay the tab!
Yet, I remember a time when teachers smoked in the classroom, a "crime" they would be fired for today and blackballed
from their profession. How does something commonly accepted, even popular, become such an insidious evil in one
lifetime? "Because we know more about smoking", one man told me once. WRONG! We know less about freedom! The
desensitization over two generations has worked like a charm. Now smoking and freedom aren't even remotely associated
in most people's minds.
Stay tuned for more on this subject in Part II.