It’s Not Government’s Job To Protect Us From Weeds

It’s not the job of government to protect us from weeds.

You’d think that much would be obvious, especially to self-described conservatives, and doubly so for conservative Christians, but you’d be wrong.

Most “conservative Christians” in America are quite certain that it is government’s job to protect us from weeds (or, to be more precise, things like cannabis plants).

It shouldn’t surprise us that there are a lot of people out there in the world of politics who want to use the coercive power of the State to impose their preferences upon others.

It shouldn’t be shocking to anyone that there are many who are chompin’ at the bit to employ the State’s monopoly on violence so that you and I might be forced to do what they think is best for us…all “for our own good”, of course.

This is what we should expect from stark raving pagans and Statists, so when rank and file unbelievers line up and beg for Uncle Sam to be their Daddy or Mommy or Bruce Jenner stand in, we should be anything but surprised.

But when self-identified conservative Christians advocate that State’s use of coercive power to force people to do “what’s best for them” according to extra-biblical standards and the personal preferences of the “conservative Christians” in question, well…that’s a problem.

Remember: All political power is ultimately (in the earthly sense) derived from the barrel of a gun. Man-made laws only have teeth and power behind them because they are backed up by people with guns employed by the State to keep everyone compliant with the wishes of the State, up to and including the use of deadly force. That’s the State’s monopolistic claim to violence on display. That’s the means by which all of what we call “law” in civil government finds its ability to compel rather than merely encourage or suggest compliance.

This is why it’s so important to limit the use of State coercion and force to realms and subjects clearly subjected to State management according to Scripture.

These basic realities of political power and the nature of law enforcement are lost on most Christians in America, including most who are actively engaged in the political realm…which explains a lot about why our political culture is going to hell on a rocket.

If Christians can’t or, worse yet, won’t accurately identify and apply these most basic of political truths, then who will?

If Christians won’t restrict (or even try to restrict, or even want to think about trying to restrict) the parameters of civil government according to the biblical standards that chart the path to true liberty, freedom, peace, prosperity, security, and maturity, then who will?

This is what makes the commonplace advocacy of ridiculously unbiblical (and therefore remarkably destructive) “laws” by “Christians” in America all the more troubling.

We want laws “protecting people” from interaction with all manner of potentially dangerous (or semi-dangerous) things, when the primary and guaranteed result of such laws is not the protection of people from potentially dangerous things, but the prevention of people from maturing beyond childishness into adults who can rightly handle potentially dangerous things.

This is why God’s Law makes no case for “outlawing” things like, for example, weeds.

Or beer.

Or wine. (Remember Jesus’ first recorded miracle? Along those lines, you might want to also check out Wine isn’t the problem. We are.)

It is not the role of civil government to protect us from weeds.

It is not the job of the civil magistrate to protect us from weeds.

Really.

Not even kidding.

Before I go any further here, lemme make something plain: Despite the long hair and the fact that I’ve lived in Seattle not once, not twice, but three different times, I’ve never even come close to “smoking weed” or doing any kind of illegal drugs, aside from any alcohol that I may have consumed prior to being 21, which, sadly, I have to mention in this context because we’ve also decided to make drinking alcohol under the age of 21 “illegal” here in “the land of the free” and the home of the NSA. (But you can sign up to join the Military Machine at 18, of course.)

So I’m no pot advocate. Not at all.

I have never used it and have no plans to use it when it becomes “legalized” where I live in Middle Tennessee.

So there.

Now back to the point of civil government not existing to protect me or anyone else from weeds…

If we really and truly desire to one day create a culture where the adult population is wise, mature, capable, and responsible, then guess what?

We have to let them be free.

Like, really free.

As in: Free to fail, and fail hard, which is often how we learn the most valuable lessons in life.

There is no freedom without the freedom to fail.

We will never get to the place of having most adults in the land embrace wisdom, maturity, and responsibility if we use the coercive power of the State “protect them” from the very means by which they more often than not learn how to be wise, mature, and responsible.

It is no coincidence that the very people who benefit most from the perpetual immaturity and irresponsibility that now define our culture are those in the political realm who want to “protect us” more and more from things like weeds and maturity.

Think about that.

Let it sink in.

It’s no accident that Republicans and Democrats alike keep piling on these “protections”. They know that their power only grows as this process continues. They know how to keep us buttering their bread.

You wanna know why we have a culture loaded with State-dependent “adults” who are unwise, irresponsible, and perpetually immature? Because the State has “protected them” from learning through failure. We’ve embraced an approach to law that assures perpetual immaturity and increasing State-dependence in the masses. (For more on this vital subject, please read Presuppositional Law: Where we begin with law determines where we end.)

Through our perversion of civil government, we’ve “protected people” from pursuing wisdom by way of suffering the consequences of being unwise.

Through our perversion of law, we’ve “protected people” from maturing into true adults by “protecting them” from things like…weeds.