http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff113.html
The Church’s Losing Strategy
by Michael S. Rozeff
October 24, 2006
The Louis M. Jacobs Professor of Finance at University at Buffalo.
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If churches are so short-sighted as to agree to play ball in the state’s ballpark by the state’s rules, and even anxiously elbow their way into the park to sample the goodies, they will have no one to blame but themselves when the state locks and bolts the exits.
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The oft repeated canard “those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it” could be amplified to say “those who don’t understand history are condemned to repeat it”.
In the Middle Ages, the Church was a counterbalance to the State. Who hasn’t read the government propaganda The Three Musketeers, where the valiant servants of the King battle against the evil cardinal. Unlike most kids, I rooted for the Cardinal’s Guard. Even at that tender age, I understood that the Church was voluntary, but the King wasn’t.
At one time in America, before the Gubamint changed it to Amerika, there was lots of competition to help the poor that didn’t involve the theft by the gubamint called taxes.
In my lifetime, I knew people who got help from: the fraternal organizations like the KofC, the Lions, and the Masons; all manner of vets (VFW, American Legion, & DVA); from the Churches (generically referring to the Catholic Church, the various flavors of Protestant, the major strains of Jewish tradition, and even something called the Ethical Culture Society), as well as ad hoc efforts by the local fire department, PBA, or such.
Now they are all but a shell of their former selves. They ceded the moral high ground to the gubamint in exchange for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver.
I remember a time when the poor were really educated in schools that really worked. There were public schools, but there was real competition for students. Parents sent their children to the Churches for a “good education”, or was that an “education in good”.
Eventually, the State’s high taxes and “free offer of education” seduced people into believing they could get something for nothing.
The Church’s didn’t fight that battle, when they could have won. Now they have to fight the battle when they are doomed. Remember Winston Churchill’s advice about fighting that went along the lines “when shall we fight?”. If you don’t fight the battle sooner rather than later, then you will fight it when you are weaker.
The Churches didn’t stand up and fight when it was easy and they were strong. Now they are forced to fight when it is hard and they are weak. Remember the parable of “The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp” http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/790.html
And, the cause of Liberty has lost a valuable ally in the war to keep the overbearing gubamint in check.
Reinke Faces Life 