The title of this post by the Washington Post’s Chris Cilizza caught my eye: Obama Bets Big on Big Government. In case you were wondering, Obama seems to think that the cure for the current economic crisis is to increase the size and scope of government power.
“Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy — where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending,” said Obama during his economic address at George Mason University — a stunning rejection of then President Bill Clinton’s 1996 declaration in his State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over.”
Obama acknowledges that some may be skeptical of the federal government’s ability to jump start the economy, what with all the money that they are currently wasting using. But he still wants to move forward with a $1 trillion dollar plan to stimulate the economy. What I found especially interesting was this paragraph by Cilizza:
Caveats aside, it’s clear that Obama and his political team believe that the less-government-is-best mantra that, more than any other single idea, fueled Republicans’ rise at the presidential level and congressional level over the last three decades has been debunked in the minds of voters.
Got that? Shrinking the size of the government “has been debunked in the minds of voters,” which, when translated means, “More people are believing a lie.”
Recall, again, Romans 1 and its profound analysis of the human condition. Human beings in our fallen state “exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve creatures rather than the Creator” (1:25). Lie-believing always accompanies glory-exchanging. That is exactly what’s happening. The State is asking for your faith, your trust, your hope. It wants you to believe.
I’m arguing that the State, through its priests and messiahs, is elevating itself as another deity. And when I make this argument, I really mean it. Place the Federal Government (as it currently operates) in the same category as Bel, Nebo, Marduk, Zeus, Allah, and Krishna. All of these demand allegiance and trust, and all of them receive the same from sinful human beings.
Calls from politicians to expand the size of the federal government are simply calls to build a bigger idol. And all idols will eventually come crashing down. The bigger the idol, the bigger the fall. Because when the rain of God’s wrath descends, and the floods of judgment come, and the winds of “change” blow and beat on this rebellious house, it will fall; and great will be the fall of it.
