Mind Your Business

Mind Your Own Business

As a child, pestering my older siblings as younger siblings are want to do, I can recall being told, “Mind your own business.”

Perhaps you also heard that refrain from your playmates or even from your parents, teachers or other adults when you interjected yourself into situations that did not concern you.

I believe that it is actually very good advice. The First Continental Congress certainly thought so. When the first penny coin minted by that august body was struck in 1787, it bore the motto “Mind Your Business”. What sage advice to the citizens of the fledgling nation.

At that time, the ink on the U.S. Constitution was barely dry and the document not yet ratified by the States. Much work was to be done to secure the safety and organizational integrity of the nascent Republic.

It was a time when each Citizen could best serve their country by minding their own business; as a farmer, blacksmith, sawyer, cobbler, printer, baker, or candlestick maker. The products and services of each one, produced with integrity and competence, were required for their well being and the well being of their neighbors. The commerce that would ensue with the exchange of these goods and services would enable them to lay the foundation of a country that would later cover nearly an entire continent and lead the world in many ways.

At some point, things went awry. The causes for this and the subsequent costs incurred are beyond the scope of this missive.

But truth remains true despite the actions of men or nations to the contrary. And the truth is that the admonition to mind your own business did not originate in 1787 with the Continental Congress.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (in the Bible)reads:

“11…make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (NIV)

There are five real good bits of advice there:

• “Lead a quiet life.” Don’t strive to be noticed. Stay “under the radar.” “Fools’ names, like fools’ faces, are often seen in public places.”( Thomas Fowler)

• “Mind your own business” This would seem to be common sense, but then, “common sense is not so common.” (Voltaire)

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." (Abraham Lincoln)

• “Work with your hands.” Be busy doing something productive that will earn the respect of others.

• Don’t “be dependent on others.” Ultimately you become the chattel of the entity you rely on.

Maybe we would do well to re-instate "Mind Your Business" as our National Motto.

Think about it.

By What Measure?

Here in America we are once again faced with the painful process of selecting whom to vote for to serve as our President. The dialogues that accompany this process show just how many devices and points of view the people (that’s us) use to measure and evaluate the candidates and the policies they espouse.

There are those saying that the other party is too far “left or right”; that candidate is “too conservative or too liberal”; that policy is too “liberal or intolerant”. Many have a sense that there is more wrong with our government than can be fixed by an election. It seems to have gotten off track in some way.

I have been reading about the relationship between the government and God from his point of view as revealed in the Bible and expounded upon by one of the greatest Christian apologists of the last century, Francis A. Schaeffer. I believe he states clearly what the problem is: We the People are guilty of elevating our government beyond its rightful position.

The following has been taken from an address delivered by the late Dr. Schaeffer in 1982 at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is based on one of his books, which bears the same title. I encourage you to read this to the end.

When the government negates the law of God, it abrogates its authority. God has given certain offices to restrain chaos in this fallen world, but it does not mean that these offices are autonomous, and when a government commands that which is contrary to the Law of God, it abrogates its authority.

Throughout the whole history of the Christian Church, (and again I wish people knew their history. In A Christian Manifesto I stress what happened in the Reformation in reference to all this) at a certain point, it is not only the privilege but it is the duty of the Christian to disobey the government. Now that's what the founding fathers did when they founded this country. That's what the early Church did. That's what Peter said. You heard it from the Scripture: "Should we obey man?... rather than God?" That's what the early Christians did.


Every appropriate legal and political governmental means must be used. "The final bottom line"-- I have invented this term in A Christian Manifesto. I hope the Christians across this country and across the world will really understand what the Bible truly teaches: The final bottom line! The early Christians, every one of the reformers (and again, I'll say in A Christian Manifesto I go through country after country and show that there was not a single place with the possible exception of England, where the Reformation was successful, where there wasn't civil disobedience and disobedience to the state), the people of the Reformation, the founding fathers of this country, faced and acted in the realization that if there is no place for disobeying the government, that government has been put in the place of the living God. In such a case, the government has been made a false god. If there is no place for disobeying a human government, that government has been made GOD. (Emphasis added.)


Caesar, under some name, thinking of the early Church, has been put upon the final throne. The Bible's answer is NO! Caesar is not to be put in the place of God and we as Christians, in the name of the Lordship of Christ, and all of life, must so think and act on the appropriate level. It should always be on the appropriate level. We have lots of room to move yet with our court cases, with the people we elect -- all the things that we can do in this country. If, unhappily, we come to that place, the appropriate level must also include a disobedience to the state. (Stated in 1982)


If you are not doing that, you haven't thought it through. Jesus is not really on the throne. God is not central. You have made a false god central. Christ must be the final Lord and not society and not Caesar.


May I repeat the final sentence again? CHRIST MUST BE THE FINAL LORD AND NOT CAESAR AND NOT SOCIETY.

Taken from an address delivered by the late Dr. Schaeffer in 1982 at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is based on one of his books, which bears the same title.


I challenge you to read the book.

A Reasonable Compromise. Really??

On Sunday, January 31, Catholic Bishops across these United States spoke and/or sent letters to the churches in their dioceses decrying policies of the Obama administration. Specifically mandates within the Health Care Reform Act requiring all employers, including faith-based institutions like schools and colleges to provide employees with health care insurance that covers the cost of contraception, including the “morning-after pill" and sterilization. The Catholic Church teaches it is intrinsically wrong to use any form of contraception to prevent pregnancy.


According to USA TODAY, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh in a letter to his diocese, denounced what he said is Obama's message to Catholics:

'To hell with your religious beliefs; To hell with your religious liberty; To hell with your freedom of conscience.'

The following Thursday, Jay Carney, Whitehouse spokesman, was trying to put an end to the negative reactions to the president’s policy. He stated flatly, “the decision has been made.” End of discussion?

Nope. The Administration has offered a "compromise". As I understand it, under the compromise, religious organizations would not have to provide birth control and "reproductive services" to their employees directly. However, the insurance companies providing the health care for the religious entities would have to provide those goods and services to the individual employees at no charge.

What!?? If there is no such thing as a free lunch (and there is not) then there is no such thing as free birth control or "reproductive services"! Thus far it remains doubtful the Bishops will accept the proposed "compromise".

This is not about birth control or freedom of choice! This is about the free exercise of religion! Our government has no right under the Constitution of these United States to tell a Bible-based religious organization to violate the tenants of their faith. (Yes, there it is; my Judeo-Christian bias is showing.)

Some will quote surveys showing that Catholic women use birth control about as often as the general population. Given the number of two-children Catholic families I know, that claim does not surprise me. But that is a personal choice of the women involved.  My religious tradition frowns on the use of tobacco and alcohol.  However, I occassionally choose to enjoy one or the other.

To my non-Catholic friends; let me remind you of what German pastor and theologian, Martin Niemoller said in 1946 regarding the Nazis, by whom he was arrested in 1937:

"First they came for the Communists, and
I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Communist.


Then they came for the Trade-Unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Trade-Unionist.


Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.


Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Has your Pastor mentioned the infringement of the government on religious freedom? I have not heard anything about it from my Pastor and I really would like to hear him speak up. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out!  Will you? 
 
I am asking you to re-post this on your Facebook or personnal blog if you agree.
 
Thank you.