Common Argument: Why do you not want to give more to civil government schools?
Deconstructing the Coliseum: Teaching the Christian worldview, including how the civil government has no jurisdiction over the heart and the mind.
A common argument – if you want to call it one – regarding my opposition to property taxes that go to civil government schools is this:
- What is wrong with you that you don’t want to pay more property taxes for civil government schools?!
As best I can, here is how I respond. When God regenerates a person He creates the ability to love Him. We want to express love for God by being obedient to Him; we are obedient to God by loving others. Therefore, loving others is not a function of man’s force, but rather God’s love. Biblical propriety excludes the civil government from education. What remains is decentralized bottom-up family government and church government education. Conversely, a bureaucratic, pharaohic education scheme – like the civil government school system – represents the opposite of God’s model: centralized top-down rule.
If unbelievers are so fond of the civil government school system and so desirous to give, they can give freely and without the force of law. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord; as for me and my house we will give to family government and church government education. Moreover, the civil government has no right to operate a school system. How do I know this? Rights come from God, and He limits the civil government’s rights to promoting good and punishing evildoers.