Idolatry and State-Sanctioned Murder

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 2008-09-03 07:19.

William N. Grigg - Mr. Grigg's parents believe that the state can overrule the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder. He has taught his children, as have I, that it ain't so. Bravo! [militant]

Quote:
"What I've taught the kids," I said in a conversational tone, "is that the only time God permits us to kill would be a circumstance in which refusing to kill might result in the death of an innocent person for whom we have legitimate responsibility. In a case of that kind, I'm actually required to kill. For instance, if someone directly threatened my family, I would not only be allowed to kill the assailant, but actually would bear the bloodguilt of my family if I didn't use lethal force to defend them."

...

They didn't specifically tell my children that it is acceptable to lie, steal, covet, dishonor one's parents, or commit adultery if the government requires such conduct of them. They did, however, take special care to emphasize that the government can order them to kill other human beings who have done them no harm, in direct contradiction of God's unqualified commandment not to murder. Of course, if government can make a nullity of that commandment, it can revise the others to suit its purposes as well.

Indeed, government -- particularly the despicable state that rules us -- is little more than a perpetual organized assault on the Ten Commandments. The defining act of a government is extracting wealth from people through the threat of lethal violence, and swaddling such acts in invidious rhetoric about "social justice." Thus at its very foundation, the State institutionalizes violations of the commandments against theft, murder, and covetousness.

The State's fundamental function -- killing, or the threat to do so -- is intimately connected to a claim of ownership over its subjects. This is revealed in ways both vulgar and oblique. The best example of the former is the practice of conscription. Any government that can "make" an individual a soldier against his will is one richly deserving to be overthrown. A milder version of the same presumption can be seen every time a politician in a storm-threatened community issues a "mandatory evacuation" order to its residents, as if their lives were his, rather than theirs.

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( categories: Politics )
Thank you for this post.
Submitted by iloilo Jones (not verified) on Wed, 2008-09-03 08:42.

Thank you for this post. Exposing government for its essential character - mass killer and thug - is an exercise we all need to undertake far more often. This is a particularly salient commentary on the evils of the state.
ilo

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