Thursday, August 31, 2006

With government money comes government strings.

World Net Daily sounds the alarm about a bill signed into law in California that has implications for religious freedom.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger... signed a bill that would require all businesses and groups receiving state funding -- even if it's a state grant for a student -- to condone homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality. There is no exception for faith-based organizations or business owners with sincerely held religious convictions, critics note.

The key phrase here is that the law applies to "all businesses and groups receiving state funding". I have been warning about the very real dangers posed by vouchers and President Bush's "faith-based" charities program for several years now, and this story proves that I was right all along. With government money comes government strings.

But what about poor children trapped in failing government schools? School choice exists for them right now, without a single act of government. Millions of Christians all over American have the opportunity to give of their private money to see that children get a Christian education. It concerns me greatly that some Christians, instead of pooling their resources and directly giving of their time and finances to help poor children get a Christian education, are expecting government to do it for them.

Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families said, "The gates of hell are prevailing against the church". There is a very simple way to hold back the gates of hell in this case, Mr. Thomasson. The answer is to stop taking the narcotic of government money. If you are not taking the government's money, you cannot be pulled by the strings attached to that money.

Christians in America need to realize, despite whatever the polls may say about the number of people who consider themselves to be Christians, that we are not living in a Christian country. If anything, we are living in an increasingly pagan society where moral standards are being shredded daily. In such a society, the government is not our friend and we cannot trust that the hand that helps us today will not be the fist that breaks our jaw tomorrow.