restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
Confronting State Worship
One of the main reasons Christians supported the Iraq War was because prominent leaders of the Christian Right felt it could be supported by the so-called Just War Theory (JWT). As a result, many Christians increasingly withdrew from participating in the debate or examining for themselves the basis for their support of the war.
In the vacuum created by the retreat of the pastors (who failed to address this issue from their pulpits), a sort of group-think consensus emerged. Of course, all of this is being called into question today as it rightly should be in light of the 9/11 Commissions findings. But the real problem is much deeper than the tragedy of September 11.
The roots of American constitutionalism, the concept of government limited by a strict system of checks and balances, and the notion of the corruptibility of power all grew out of the Protestant Reformation. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin, perhaps without knowing it, laid the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution when they stressed that the final authority in all matters of faith and practice was the Bible, Gods Word and Law. Later, the English theologian William Perkins wrote, If it should fall out that mens laws be made of things evil, and forbidden by God, then there is no bond at all; but contrariwise, men are bound in conscience not to obey.
In other words, Gods Law reigns supreme, and it was this immutable Law that constituted the standards by which the laws of men were to be judged. On the basis of this understanding, our American forefathers committed acts of civil disobedience because they saw certain statutes as unjust i.e., as fundamentally contrary to the teaching of Scripture.
In my book Why I Stopped Listening to Rush, I noted:
Neocons embrace multiculturalism and therefore support both affirmative action (i.e., reverse racial discrimination) and mass immigrationwitness George W. Bushs compassionate policy toward illegal immigration from Mexico. As for foreign policy, nation building is a big part of their strategy. Paleocons, on the other hand, argue that it is impossible to have a republic as originally envisioned by our Founders and also have an empire at the same time. They are outspoken in their opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq 
because they do not believe you can export democracy at gunpoint. They have this radical notion that the U.S. can hold the torch of liberty high without getting involved in military skirmishes around the globe.
As you can see, I still believe that the concept of limited government under law, which grew out of the Founders understanding of history, is valid today, indeed indispensable. Far from intending to create a secular or even antireligious state that could operate willy-nilly, they wanted to create a society in which the work of the church, unbound from government regulations, might flourish in any number of areas.
What we are seeing today, however, is the fact that more and more Christians are succumbing to secular and even pagan ideas of human government, and this false view of history has paved the way in our own day when many of us conservatives find ourselves as an embattled Christian minority of tiny proportions, not perhaps numerically, but as far as any voice in the public square goes. It is time to get the word out that a constitutional coup has occurred, and that the powers of the federal government and the courts are no longer few and defined but total and arbitrary.
This is a problem of tremendous proportions and will not go away simply because we decide to ignore it. We must actively resist and challenge the arrogant politicians and judges who stand in the place of Almighty God, and we must act in compassion for the hundreds of men and women whose deaths continue to be tolerated by the Washington elite.
In his classic essay on just war, Murray Rothbard wrote:
My own view of war can be put simply: a just war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing coercive rule over them.
Murray argues that war is too destructive, and the state too eager for war, to sacrifice a principled opposition to unjust wars and foreign interventions. The JWT does not work because it does not sufficiently recognize the idolatry of nationalism. The nation-state has become a god in our civilization, and there is a deep-seated propensity to preserve and defend that god at any cost. Paradoxically, one of the things that has contributed most to this idolatry has been the JWT itself.
Those who love peace are willing to confront Nazi-like state worship whenever they see it and in whomever they see it, for non-involvement is not something that can be justified biblically. I therefore agree with the Constitution Party Vice-Presidential Candidate Chuck Baldwin: Its time for conservatives to honestly face the Iraq War.
July 12, 2004
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.