David Alan Black 

As you probably know, I am unapologetically pro-South. I have always believed that the Southern cause and the American cause are one and the same: limited government and constitutionally guaranteed liberty, where politicians are “bound by the chains of the Constitution” (Thomas Jefferson).

When I say that I love the South, I mean that I love the nation that the Founding Fathers envisioned – a republic of sovereign states. I am ashamed of the Leviathan the federal government has become, and I am determined to do what I can to call our leaders back to the Constitution they swore an oath to protect and defend.

The South’s lost political legacy is perhaps best described by R. L. Dabney, a Presbyterian minister and Stonewall Jackson’s chief of staff:

Government is not the creator but the creature of human society. The Government has no mission from God to make the community; on the contrary the community is determined by Providence, where it is happily determined for us by far other causes than the meddling of governments – by historical causes in the distant past, by vital ideas propagated by great individual minds – specially by the church and its doctrines. The only communities which have had their characters manufactured for them by governments have had a villainously bad character.

Then he added: “Noble races make their government. Ignoble ones are made by them.”

Like the Southerners of old, I seek to “make my government.” If I am politically active, it’s not because I want to “fix” government. It’s because I want to dismantle its oppressive and unconstitutional nature. If you feel offended by this, I apologize, but there is nothing compassionate about big government. As Congressman Ron Paul of Texas once put it:

If we stuck to the Constitution as written, we would have: no federal meddling in our schools; no Federal Reserve; no U.S. membership in the UN; no gun control; and no foreign aid. We would have no welfare for big corporations, or the “poor”; no American troops in 100 foreign countries; no NAFTA, GATT, or “fast-track”; no arrogant federal judges usurping states rights; no attacks on private property; no income tax. We could get rid of most of the cabinet departments, most of the agencies, and most of the budget. The government would be small, frugal, and limited.

Congressman Paul is describing the government our Founders “made.” However, instead of “sticking to the Constitution as written,” most Americans have embraced the state as their Savior. They have forsaken the primacy of the cross of Christ. They naively follow the example of the churches in Nazi Germany by placing their faith in broken-down human hierarchies. They forget that such edifices are mere man-made Towers of Babel, be they liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.

As I noted in my book Why I Stopped Listening to Rush, politicians of both parties are working tirelessly to undermine the fundamental principles of religious liberty guaranteed to “We the People” in the founding documents of our nation, obsessed by the foolish notion that what they deem to be evil can be cured by the federal government. Indeed, the culture of political correctness has become so institutionalized that most Americans have stopped opposing it.

I believe it is time to stop seeking God in the misguided and erroneous teachings of government do-goodism, whether the source is liberalism or conservatism. Jesus Christ is the only answer to the malaise plaguing our families, our churches, and our society. You can idolize man-made institutions with the hope that they will solve the societal ills of our day if you like, but I prefer to stand by the Bible and the life-changing power of the cross.