Tim, you ask a thoughtful question and one I appreciate. However, I have a slightly different take on what the “root” of the problem is.

“There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to the one who is striking at the root.”
– Henry D. Thoreau

I do not see our lawmakers as the root of the problem as much as I do myself. If my lawmaker is the problem then I have no hope because I have little control over him. However, if I am the problem, then I am still in control and have hope. From my perspective the lawmaker is merely a “branch” and I am the “root” that allows him to grow. My lack of understanding of scripture, law, early American history and economics have kept me from seeing that my faith, properly applied to civil government, was the only safeguard to a just society.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. . . Where is the security for life, for reputation and for property, if the sense of religious obligation desert?”
-John Adams

What we see today is a silent church, with little understanding of the 1st Amendment. Believers are not being taught proper application of biblical principles (6th & 8th Commandments) to civil government and as a result believers are unknowingly supporting immoral domestic and foreign policies. Unjust lawmakers are merely a consequence of our misunderstanding,

God ordained civil government. See Romans 13:1. That is sufficient warrant for a pastor to teach on it.
I therefore feel the solution lies in education (ideally from pastors in pulpits as our founders enjoyed from their pulpits in New England) and from education must flow positive action. Hitler loved having a silent church in Germany. It made it much easier to manipulate the people who misunderstood Romans 13 and accepted the lie that all civil leaders were God’s servants. Remember, a civil magistrate is only God’s servant when he is a punisher of evil and a not a terror to good conduct (Romans 13:3).

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never shall be.”
– Thomas Jefferson

I can’t merely confess Christ, I must walk with Him, pursue Him and steadily become conformed to His image (thankfully it is He who works in me). Part of being conformed to His image involves applying Biblical principles to how I influence civil government.

One may ask . . . “Why are we so uniformed?”, “How did we get this way?” That is just as thoughtful of a question, and one I take a swing at here. My faith points me back to my sin nature. I want something at the expense of others. Life is easier living off the fruits of my neighbor’s labor than my own. I want government subsidized home loans, government social security, government welfare and government paid education. Never realizing that what government has to give me it must first take from my neighbor. For a Christian that should raise an instant moral dilemma, the 8th Commandment comes to mind, but unfortunately it does come to the mind of most . Laws are only just if they are moral and a Christ follower should not follow unjust laws (see the lives of Moses parents, Hebrew Midwives, Esther, Daniel etc…)


“If they [political authorities] command anything against him [God], let it go unesteemed. And here let us not be concerned about all the dignity which the magistrate possesses.”
– Calvin, Institutes, IV: XX: 32

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
— Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, page 5.
*I add this as a footnote, as King was writing from his jail cell to eight prominent clergyman in Birmingham who condemned his peaceful opposition and his stand for just law. King should have had the support of the church. His actions were just and moral.

When the church becomes silent on an area of life it should be informing (i.e. civil government) we become indoctrinated in a worldview that doesn’t cohere with our faith. We then carry this false worldview into our various roles as teachers, judges, lawmakers, journalists and pastors. As a Teacher, I condone it and pass it on to your children in the classroom. My friend, The Judge, perpetuates it and unknowingly perverts justice at the courthouse. My friend, The Congressman, passes unjust laws at the seat of government. My friend, The Journalist, perpetuates a false perspective in the media. And finally, my friend, The Pastor, not having an understanding of the 1st Amendment, naively accepts his 501(c) (3) designation and proclaims the whole counsel of God except the practical application of those principles to civil government.

I think you and I and our failure to apply biblical principles to the operation of civil government is the root of the problem and any solution must begin here.

In short we are not receiving the instruction we need to properly influence our government in a godly direction. This is exactly what the world wants, a church that leaves the proper ordering of government to the “experts”. It only takes a generation to remove God and principle from a society. However, it is also true, it only take a generation to put God and principle back in. I have been re-educating myself these past two years, but I am failing on proper action. I am afraid I may lose a couple friends here, but my heart is becoming inclined to step up. I am becoming inspired more and more by the examples of Patrick Henry, Gandhi, Luther and Martin Luther King. I am not the radical, I only appear radical to those whose minds are held captive by the false philosophies that once held me.

Eric
Eric holds other funny perspectives (i.e. the earth is round, the moon is made of cheese, dogs go to heaven but cats do not, chocolate isn’t bad for you it just makes your clothes shrink, the bodily resurrection of Christ , salvation by faith alone and he is already against the next war)