The title of this blog is a quote from the character Malcolm
Reynolds in the movie Serenity, based on the series Firefly. It’s the story of a man who once fought for a
cause but lost his faith, until finally the oppressive alliance pushes him too
far. Generally speaking this quote would not be used in the context of
Christianity and its relationship to government, after all respect and obedience
to civil authority is a Biblical axiom. Is
it not? I refer to 1 Peter 2:13-17 13Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the
king, as supreme; 14Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for
the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15For so
is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of
foolish men: 16As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of
maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17Honour all men. Love the
brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. So no on a normal day misbehaving
would not please the Lord, but we do not live in a normal day. The same Peter
who penned (or possibly dictated) this passage also said Acts 4:19
But Peter and John
replied, "Which is right in God's eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You
be the judges!
And again Acts 5:27-31 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and
the high priest asked them, 28Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye
should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your
doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. 29Then Peter and the
other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. 30The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31Him
hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give
repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32And we are his witnesses of
these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that
obey him.
Remember that before the day of Pentecost all this apostles
did for the Lord was hiding and denying. Then he became a fireball and when
told to keep his faith to himself he might as well have said what the Serenity’s fictional captain said, “No more hiding, I
aim to misbehave”, and misbehave he did
until the world was turned upside down. In
fact not many years after writing 1 Peter the apostle would again face an
increasingly oppressive administration that would replace the relatively
tolerant Roman republic with a totalitarian Emperor who would turn his fickle
ire against Christians and once again Peter set out to misbehave, until the
Romans had him executed. But Nero and those
worse tyrants who followed him could never flip the world back to where it was
before a few Galilean fishermen decided to misbehave.
I tell the story of another Believer in Christ, she was
ordered by and increasingly tyrannical regime to acquiesce and actively
participate in a practice clearly condemned by scripture, and she refused. She
decided to misbehave and that increasingly oppressive increasingly totalitarian
government decided she must pay, and sent her to jail. That believer is Kim Davis, and that tyrannical
force is the totalitarian mindset of the anti-God anti freedom forces that have
taken hold of our government in these United States of America.
The story is this; Mrs. Davis is a county clerk in the great
state of Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Federal judge David Bunning decided to take
action and imprison Mrs. Davis as an example to any who deny the Federal
Leviathan its due subservience.
Let me quickly deal with this, perhaps you look at it and
say what she did is covered by 1 Peter 2 not Acts 5, she should obey. I disagree;
ordering her to violate her conscience was no different than ordering a doctor
to perform an abortion rather than simply finding a different Doctor with
lesser convictions. Gays could simply have gone elsewhere to get their marriage
licenses but the goal is not to get married, the goal is to obliterate all who
dare oppose the leftist agenda. So maybe you don’t draw the line where Kim
Davis does, where do you draw it? That is not an acceptable place. Once Kim
Davis has been destroyed they’ll come to the next line they have already run roughshod over private
businesses who simply exercised their freedom to not do business at gay
weddings, next they’ll come for pastors who won’t perform gay weddings, or for
Churches who won’t hire gay pianists. Or those people who simply say they personally
don’t believe in gay marriage. You will acknowledge gay marriage you will
support it, you will love it, you will prefer it you will acquiesce or else
will hide your convictions lest you suffer Kim Davis’ fate.
No more hiding, I aim to misbehave.
Oh foolish Christians in America, you have been so free and
so blessed for so long, protected by the wisdom of the constitution and the
blood of our soldiers on foreign battlefields that you don’t recognize
persecution when it drags one of your sisters off to a Kentucky prison, or when
it orders an Oregon bakery to pay 135,000 dollars in damages to a gay couple
for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding.
Churches were always heavily involved in the policy and morality of law
until Lyndon Johnson, a progressive Senator in 1954 proposed an amendment to
the tax code designed to cower Christian’s organized opposition to the New Deal
agenda. Christians who had for millennia braved torture and beheading, and who
spearheaded the fight to form a country where they could be free once and for
all were suddenly cowered by the threat
of losing tax exempt status.
Not all of us are quaking in fear; some of us aim to
misbehave.
Memories Pizza in Walkerton Ind and Sweet Cakes by Melissa in
liberal Oregon raised huge sums of money and garnered vocal support from
Christians and freedom loving Americans despite being kicked off Gofundme sites
that yielded to pressure from gay rights groups. The Alliance Defending Freedom
is launching a challenge 60+ years overdue to the Johnson Amendment, through
the Pulpit Freedom Initiative. Twenty
states have religious freedom protection laws, and some states are up to
fighting the Feds whenever it deems it appropriate (Don’t mess with Texas).
Of course we don’t misbehave out of anger or prejudice. We pray
equally for the soul and salvation of judge Bunning as we do for the protection
and strength of Kim Davis. We offer God’s love and Christ’s forgiveness to gays
and lesbians, not by accepting their lifestyle but by offering them freedom
from sin. It is the same freedom and forgiveness that we experience when we
bowed our knee to Christ. Further as Americans we are willing to enter the
debate and follow the constitutional guidelines to affect the law. We do not recognize
the right of 5 of 9 justices to cast aside all separation of powers and
religious freedoms to achieve a social or political aim.
I have quoted this before but I remind you again of
Jefferson’s words, “ I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is
a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
If Tom Jefferson,
Mal Reynolds and the Apostle Peter all agree who am I to argue:
No more
Hiding, I aim to Misbehave.
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