Reagan and the Matrix

I had a inspiration the other day. Perhaps Reagan wasn't inspiring a new hope of a re-vitalized Constitutionally governed America, as much as he was waking up a fatal burn victim from a drug induced coma. Now that there are so many of us who have been "woken up," are we just going to be tortured in pain as we watch our country fall, unable to do anything about it, but completely conscious of the reality of the situation?

Have we been "unplugged" from the Matrix, just to find that there is no Hover ship waiting to take us to Zion? We sit now in our pods in the reactor, watching helplessly at our fellow man enslaved and sleeping away. We had taken over our "tower" in the Reactor, and fought off the agents bravely, but now it belongs in the Matrix once again, a part of the rest of the System of the World.

But thank God I'm a Christian, and even if all that is true, there's a real Zion out there, the original Zion, not some Sci-fi or cultist knock-off. Thank God I believe the return of the real Messiah is at hand, and there will be a final justice to this world, a final reckoning, and not the sad excuse we call Social Justice.

Now back to figuring out how to live in this world until that Last Day.

My Incredibly Thoughtful Reaction to the 2008 Election

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Render Under to Ceasar

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God’s.” – Jesus Christ

This verse seems to be used constantly to berate Christians into not only paying their taxes but to also try and make them feel good about paying their taxes, since it was Jesus who said it. There are so many things wrong with both of those assertions, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Let’s start with the case of one Christian arguing to another Christian that they should not mind higher taxes, or progressive taxes, according to this verse. Specifically, they are arguing that we should vote for a political candidate who plans to do just that. They actually want the higher taxes on rich people, and the rich people should not mind, because we should “render unto Caesar.”

The first thing we should consider here, is who is who in this little mini-parable. It seems that the first Christian wants to be Caesar, or at least support the rise of a Caesar, to whom we all should then be obligated to give money to. I didn’t read anything in the parable or its context to suggest that Caesar was a good guy in all of this, that it was a good thing for him to be collecting taxes. Caesar (pick one) was the guy who burned Christians at his parties as human candles, to save even more of the taxes he collected for more important things, like exotic lions to eat more Christians at the Circus Maximus.

Jesus wasn’t saying we should vote for Caesar so we can pay him taxes, he was saying that when the evil, murdering, thuggish, tyrant Romans came looking for their blood money, you should pay them what they want instead of stabbing them in the eye and crying ‘Revolution!’ Why? Ah, now the important part.

Render unto God what is God’s. That’s the real crux of this verse. That’s where the Jews who were trying to trip up Jesus got tripped up themselves. They were arguing to keep, deservedly so, the fruits of their labors from Caesar. But Jesus said to give to God what is God’s. What is God’s? Everything. Which Christians can say that some part of their lives is their own and not God’s? Specifically though, I think he was talking about our hearts. That is, don’t worry about your money, it’s not important compared to the spiritual connection with God, and the state of your heart. It’s nothing squared, so let Caesar have his bits of metal that will rust, that will fade and disappear. I’m the Son of the God of the Universe, I don’t need “taxes,” I want your heart and soul, bought and paid for with my blood.

I don’t even think Jesus was saying “revolution” was out of the question, but that’s another topic for another day. The important thing was that the Jews were consumed with the occupation of their lands by the Romans, when they should have been consumed with the renewing of their hearts and minds through communion with the Most High God.

In summary, this verse says nothing to me about the actual morality of taxation. For a discussion of the morality of taxation, see “The Morality of Taxation.”