Caesar just overstepped the mark - 31 May 2009 |
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An American couple have been ordered to stop holding Bible studies at home without a permit.
Isn’t there a song about this somewhere? Land of the free and home of the brave, or something?
This one could run and run. Some initial thoughts:
Tyrany of this kind is inevitable as soon as the State starts thinking that freedom of religion is something that it needs to establish rather than something that is simply beyond its remit. For once the State takes it into its head proactively to ‘establish’ religious freedoms (rather than to simply keep its nose out), it always needs to place definitional boundaries around the freedoms so established (after all, we don’t want people to just do anything, right?). You can do this, but you can’t do that. This in turn means that we citizens now have to pass ‘tests’ or apply for ‘permission’ to obtain freedoms we once took from granted.
Furthermore, since administering this kind of system obviously takes time and costs money, these ‘freedoms’ tend to be given in the form of ‘licences’ for which citizens must pay. As in the above case, where San Diego County (yup, you heard right) want to charge this couple tens of thousands of dollars for a ‘Major Use Permit’ so that they can read the Bible with some friends in the comfort of their own home.
By objecting to this kind of nonsense, we’re not undermining the biblical insistence that certain acts of religious worship are right and others wrong. But the mistake of many modern States is to assume that (a) they, and not someone else, get to set the rules; and (b) they have the right to administer sanctions for disobedience. God will impose sanctions for misuse of religious freedom on the Last Day. Perhaps the church should do so ahead of time. But whatever gave Caesar the idea that the church needs his permission to worship her Head?
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Current affairs, Minister's Blog