Debt Ceiling – Worldviews Clash

Last night we found out that Standard and Poor’s had down graded our nation’s credit rating for the first time in American history. This came in the wake of the barely finalized shouting match over the raising of the debt ceiling by our national congress. For weeks we have been observers of the great spectacle that has become the world’s point of attention. Will they or won’t they? To raise revenue or to reduce spending? These have been the supposed gates to either Nirvana or the River Styx. The fate of a nation, supposedly, hangs on the thread of choice by our august body of children we call the US Congress.

 I say, ‘children’ not because they were so intensely non-cooperative but because they seemed to be playing with philosophical blocks and baubles of which they have no understanding. For the congress the battle appeared to be more about cutting political coup than about any real rational based in truth. For many of these guys there is no truth except what is made to stick in the daily media. If the media battle is won then whatever was averred by the victorious party becomes the ‘truth’.

 We may still be too close to this event to invest in metaphysical punditry but I am going to make an attempt. It looks to me like it was a battle between two rambunctiously opposing worldviews – at least in part. The progressives represented by the White House, and the Senate, were (are) in a frantic state of fear and envy. They have begun to see their long constructed tower of ideas cracking at the foundations. The entire progressive notion has to do with it being the civil government’s duty to provide for the poor and helpless. In their view there are no other organized principals to finance and perform the moral obligations to assist the under classes.  In their mind ‘if not the government who? If not now when?’ is the framework for actionable direction. Their belief is the humanist imitation of the Biblical injunction that today is the day of salvation. After all, when salvation is at stake no fight is too soon nor too large. They are living in the moment of battle for their vision of human salvation.

 For almost a century progressives have labored to establish their beatific vision for man through their imitation of the multiplying of the loaves. Under their progressive religion the risen Savior has been switched for the rising savior of government as the giver and provider of all good things. By the shell game of thieving from the rich to distribute to the poor the voters have been flummoxed into believing there will always be enough bread and fishes for all. The fact that nothing new has been created is overshadowed by the immediate gratification of hungry stomachs filled.

 This entire formula is one based on envy. It is envy of the poor for goods of the rich. It is envy in the progressive voter that drives him to seize, through his proxy vote, that which he has not earned.  It is envy of the progressive politician for the powers of God Himself.

 On the other side of the fight were the fiscal conservatives represented by the House of Representatives and the Tea Party. It is a bit difficult to figure in exactly what philosophical camp these guys pitch their tents. After all, the fiscal conservatives have been pretty non-conservative for decades. These guys have voted for every sort of massive government spending over the past forty years. They have become little more than the party of progressive lite. Yet, here they were holding out with seeming iron will against tax increases and an increased budget ceiling. Driven by the Tea Party they foxholed in for the battle.

 Now, the Tea Party is elusive in where its core principles come from. It is not self identified as Christian. Yet, on economics it leans toward ideas that are much less disastrous than that of the progressives and more similar to Biblical ideals. They are calling for less federal involvement and more personal responsibility. I do not hear them lecturing for the return of the church in social affairs or a return to Biblical principle in the public square. There are many Christians in the movement but they do not seem to be offering Biblical answers as important enough that they will fight for them.

 I am viewing the Tea Party as a possible reflection of what is a rising reformation within the church. As badly as they represent us they are presently the only visible political force to resist the tide of tyranny rising from the desperate left. Both sides are shoring up their claims and preparing for war. How this will all develop I do not know. However, in the final end we know that the church is victorious. Christ’s will, will rule on earth as it does in heaven. In the mean time we ought to be thankful there is some resistance to the on-marching of the government messiah. And, we have to encourage our own to lift up the banner of Christ and His law and word as applies to civil affairs. We need to understand who we are and what law we promote. If we do not teach and fight for Christian civilization we will continue to be beset by this declining humanist anti-civilization. Without Christ and His renewal, we truly are dead men walking. This is the fight in our time.

 For Christian Culture,

 Don Schanzenbach 8-6-11