Young: No worries, mate - God is in charge

What a relief—Minnesota’s fiscal crisis is over!

Well, not just yet, but solutions will be forthcoming: All we have to do is wait for divine intervention.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently made that proclamation before the Conservative Political Action Caucus. Not coincidentally, Pawlenty is exploring a GOP run for president in 2012.

“God’s in charge,” our governor told CPAC. “God is in charge.”

Pawlenty’s remarks drew a wave of applause from his audience in Washington, D.C. He continued: “There are some people who say, ‘Oh, you know, Pawlenty, don’t bring that up. You know, it’s politically incorrect.’”

“Hogwash,” Pawlenty proclaimed. “These are enshrined in the founding documents and perspective of our country. In the Declaration of Independence, it says we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. It doesn’t say we’re endowed by Washington, D.C., or endowed by the bureaucrats or endowed by state government; it’s by our creator that we are given these rights.”

Now, it is true that our Declaration of Independence affirms that we are endowed with certain rights by our creator. But it is also true that the Declaration does not say that our creator will use our rights for us.

And in line with this understanding of divine purposes, our Constitution affirms that “We the People of the United States” ordained and established the Constitution—not God. He was not in charge of that little project, apparently.

Pawlenty’s putting God in charge of government is bad Christian theology and worse American politics.

To put God in charge as Pawlenty implies is to take responsibility off our shoulders. That is not the Christian way.

Christian teaching for Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and all manner of Protestants is that we are individually responsible for our own salvation. We can choose good or evil; we can walk in God’s ways or we can turn toward Satan’s temptations. We can be God’s minister or we can be Satan’s minister; the choice is up to us. We are neither condemned to hell nor promised the hereafter in heaven. What happens to us depends on us.

We have free will. God does not run us like programmed machines. He waits in judgment to measure what we do with our lives, some to be rewarded and some to be punished. Christian theology holds that though we are born in sin and live sin-wounded lives, God’s grace is there for us; his forgiveness is within our reach. But we must act righteously if we are to enter heaven. Nothing is guaranteed except death and taxes. We alone are in charge of the most important thing in our lives—our salvation.

In some ultimate sense we might say that God as creator is “in charge,” but, according to most readings of Christian scripture, that point of theology doesn’t directly refer to our earthly obligations and how we use our emotions, our reason or our talents. God does not do our shopping for us.

The old American saying was “God helps those who help themselves.”

Now, if we misapply Christian teachings even further and imply that God is in charge of our politics, we betray our vocation as citizens. We thus promote selfishness and lassitude in the place of commitment and charity.

If God is in charge, then, by deduction, we are not. We can go on vacation and leave things to a higher power.

Stretching the point, if God will attend to earthly things, then why should we pay taxes, go to school, care about others, honor our fathers and mothers or work for the common good?

If God is in charge, then we need only follow our own desires, seeking to do what we please when we please. If God is in charge, we have no need to listen to others, to cooperate, to vote. Then God will guide and God will provide. If we turn out rich, it was God’s doing; if we suffer poverty, it was also God’s doing.

Such a politics is really only a form of anarchy; it is not community at all. Without community, there can be little trust and reliance, only the frolic of animal spirits.

It takes grown-ups to make things work well in this world. Refusal to do one’s part is childish and doesn’t get the potholes filled. Community demands responsibility.

If Minnesota has problems, let’s not blame God—let’s hunker down and use our own hands to do what needs to be done.

Steven B. Young is executive director of the Caux Round Table, an international network advocating ethical principles for business and government. He was dean of Hamline Law School and now teaches ethics at the Carlson School of Management. He ran for the Republican Party nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1996. You can reach him via e-mail at Steve@cauxroundtable.net.

One Response to “Young: No worries, mate - God is in charge”

1. Spot Says:
   March 8th, 2010 at 3:38 pm

   The “God is in charge” natural law types also forget that the Declaration of Independence is not a legal document of any continuing authority. The Constitution is really our founding document, and it is a thoroughly positive law, and not natural law, document.

   Handing the job of writing the Declaration over to the naturally windy Jefferson may have been a mistake. Not a Christian himself, and a strong proponent of the separation of church and state in the Virginia Legislature, just about the only explanation for the “endowed by their Creator” language is to remember the person to whom it was address: George III. Ol’ King George believed in the divine right of kings.

   But it is hard to imagine that Jefferson wanted to trade God’s termporal agent, George III, for a tyranny of the clerics.