April 15 has come and gone once more. Like many Americans I dread its coming, work madly to complete the endless forms (or pay to have someone else do them), and grumble more loudly than usual that I pay too much for needless programs and wasteful spending. I am not going to fight the income tax battle here, but I did notice a couple interesting sideshows in the news that got me thinking.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy apparently was willing to pay his dues for the privilege of grazing cattle on federal land up until 1993. Then something changed his mind. Amid all the flag-waving and shouts of government heavy handedness, the true position of Mr. Bundy as a law-breaker may have been lost. Gracy Olmstead has a good summary of the situation in The Federalist this week. Politico reports that Bundy is more than just an aggrieved rancher; he is a radical activist who does not recognize the authority of the federal government. He's sort of like a holocaust denier in that way. I suspect many of the tea party flag wavers who gathered on his ranch this week are ignorant of the real story.
A strangely similar fight has been going on in a completely unrelated arena over Common Core educational standards. According to an article in The Foundry this week, fifteen states are backing out of their association with Common Core. This too is being framed as a battle against federal over-reach, but as in the Bundy case, ignorance abounds. Articles like one on Fox News website chronicle the activities of people who object to Common Core, but offer nothing substantive about their objections. A quick look at the standards themselves can dispel most of the objector myths. (There is a good myth-buster at the Common Core web site.)
What scares me most is not that the government wants to take our money or set standards for educating our children. I fear the kind of people who can jump on a band wagon without knowing where it came from or where it's really going. These are the same people who are swayed by half-truths and misdirection perpetrated by crafty policy salesmen. It is the grifter's trick to get you to look at his right hand while he steals your watch with his left. Only in this case we are not losing our watch, we are losing our freedom.
It is misguided for Christians to be fighting Common Core or the Bureau of Land Management. What we should be doing is taking a majority stand against the tyrannical minorities which are systematically stripping us of our Constitutional rights to practice our religion freely. A handful of atheists got prayer and Bible reading removed from public schools. A tiny minority has insisted that homosexual practices must be accepted as an alternative lifestyle and to disagree is bigotry. Although a Pew Research poll shows that Americans agree 4 to 1 that abortion is morally wrong, it remains legal to kill unborn children. And I wonder how many people are really offended by Merry Christmas. Really.
The Bundy ranch has no hills worth dying on, but any one of the issues just mentioned qualifies. (OK, not Merry Christmas.) The Great Commission commands believers to make disciples. If we took that charge seriously we could effect the only change that matters in the long (long) run: changed hearts. That is why Jesus died on the hill he knew was worth the cost. The price paid on that hill must move us to pick our battles carefully, but pick them. There are hills worth dying on.
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