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31. Where Do We Go From Here?
Duties To Caesar and God
How can we and our religious friends heed our
Creator's admonition to be a positive, leavening
influence in the government sector. Again, let's learn
from our own history.
In 1787, James Madison's illustrious political career
almost came to an abrupt early end when he broke an
important promise to the religious people of Virginia.
He had promised to get the free exercise of religion
written into the Constitution, but he changed his mind·.
Patrick Henry and George Mason branded him to be
unreliable and unfit for election to public office because
of that one scandalous broken promise. Consequently,
Madison promised the preachers and voters that he
would never break his promise again .and he would
work hard to correct his mistake. There are those who
say that the incident resulted in our First Amendment
liberties, and the entire Bill of Rights!
The lesson? Politicians do their best
Q
when the
decent voters of the land level with them. Edmond
Burke said it best,
The only thing necessary for evil to
triumph is for goodpeople to do nothing.
Christians are strangers and sojourners on this
earth. We are but passing through; not one of us is
staying. We look to the city whose builder is God. Our
citizenship is in heaven. We also have earthly
responsibilities -- a duty to Caesar as well as to God.
In fact, in the duty which we owe to God, He has
bounded on us obedience to civil government. Yet,·we
· know that even the apostle Paul, when he was not
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