Social Philosophy: Statism as Baal worship

The following is a re-post of an article from http://www.flaglesscoop.com/; I'm posting it here so that if it gets taken down I can still find it:

Has the American State Become Your Religion?

“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3)

Before falsely using YHWH’s name, before the sabbath, before honor of father and mother, before murder, adultery, theft, or false witness or coveting, before all of these is this single command: “You shall have no other gods before me.” It is unqualified. Commentators have noted how the commands that follow this one command and every book that follows Exodus relate to it. Jesus summed up the two tables and their Deuteronomical and Levitical reiterations well. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and…you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (Matt. 22:37-38). Throughout the Old and New Testaments the command is clear. When a king of Israel set up idols to Baal? He got sick and died or got killed in battle. When the Israelites themselves served Baal? The whole nation experienced strife and suffering. Israel was eventually conquered and destroyed for their idolatry. When Ananias and Sapphira worshiped their stuff rather than their creator? They died. Moses made it clear. The prophets made it clear. The Psalmists made it clear. Job made it clear. Jesus made it clear. Paul made it clear. There is no God but YHWH. You cannot serve YHWH and serve another god.

Whenever the followers of YHWH have ceased following Him, be it the church or Israel (if you choose to make that distinction,) and followed gods and systems who disdained human life, indulged in human sacrifice, and called for general immorality, the followers of YHWH have proven themselves not followers at all but, rather, idolaters who fall into many immoral pursuits. The writer of Hebrews said it well, “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief,” (Heb. 3:16-19). This is one of those rare texts that connects disobedience closely with unbelief. Those people who called themselves follower of YHWH? They were no followers at all, they were unbelievers and they proved it with their actions of unfaithfulness to YHWH.

Imagine a god who calls for you to sacrifice your children! Imagine a god who calls for you to slaughter humans on his altar! Imagine a god who calls you to steal from your neighbor! Imagine a god who demands that you devote yourself to it and no other. “Baal!” you say. “Moloch!” you say. Why, yes, those gods did demand human sacrifice, theft, and pure devotion. They are gods of aggression. They are gods whose image we surely do not bear. They are not YHWH. They are not the true God. If you worship them you worship nothing and show yourself to be an unbeliever.

However, I am not talking about Baal or Moloch per se. I speak of the modern Baal.

Hear me out.

When you pay your taxes, the state takes that money and uses it to kill women and children both here and abroad in the protection of their own interests. When you put on a uniform and wield a weapon on behalf of the state to kill, you kill the son of another father and mother and a creature created in the image of God. When you vote, you perpetuate a system of democracy that is rooted in injustice (imagine using a majority of 51% to screw 49% out of their inherent right to something!) When you take millions of dollars from the state you swear your devotion to it for life. When you campaign for Rick Perry, or Ron Paul, or Michelle Bachmann, or Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama, or any human, you say, “This, I worship!” “The state?” you say? “HOW DARE YOU!?”

I am tracking a deeply disturbing trend: many Christians maddeningly refuse to hear “Christarchists” out when they decry the state’s protection of itself in war. Many Christians virtually stop their ears and gnash their teeth before they will hear us out when we decry the use of your taxes for abortion and the killing of the Muslim (while they somehow still “oppose” abortion and murder.) Many Christians refuse to hear us out when we decry the perpetuation of a system rooted in the injustice of the many oppressing the few. Many Christians refuse to hear us out when we question the validity of an institution that calls them to murder, steal, and inflict poverty wherever they go.

It is as if we were decrying the worship of YHWH! It is almost as if we used the very name of YHWH in vain! I, personally, have been sworn at, accused of being “inconsistent” with my worldview, and told that I am a disgrace to to the concept of freedom.

Why? Because I have chosen to live consistently with the Sermon on the Mount? Because I have attempted to live as consistently as possible with the system of non-aggression that the Bible predominantly espouses? Because I have expressed disdain for a Church that largely refuses to do its work and feed the poor? Because I have called for Voluntary consent to all taxes and systems of government (imagine a world in which we may voluntarily decide where we want our money and efforts to go! Is that not freedom?!) Because I have asked you to actually do what you say you’re doing and read Thomas Jefferson’s hatred of centralized government and banking? Because I have dared to point out that we in Evangelicalism and many Reformed circles are treating the Constitution as if it were God breathed?

Christians, the American state is the modern Baal! The voting booth is the modern “high place!” Politicians are the modern Asherim, the Constitution a modern Golden Calf, partisan politics the modern Marduk. As Moloch asked the Israelites to sacrifice their children on his altars, the state demands that we fund its murder of children. As Asher demanded immorality on her altars, the state demands at the point of a gun that we fund every immorality which we supposedly oppose. As Nebuchadnezzar built a giant image of himself and demanded Daniel worship it, the state presents politicians of all colors who build an image of themselves through various media and demand that we worship them with our vote and consent (and, subsequently, our money, time, and lives.)

I am seriously uncomfortable in my church now. Why? Every time I look at my pastor (who preaches amazing, Biblical, Christ-centered sermons) I see the American flag directly behind him. That’s right, the symbol of the modern Baal, proudly displayed for all to see and hear that we condone the murder of children, that we love war, that we adore theft! That flag speaks so loudly I cannot hear my pastor anymore. We may as well have a Pentagram on the wall! Let us display the Asherim! Let us build a high place! Let us mold a golden calf and dance around it! Let us bow down and worship Tiamat! If we’re going to go this far we may as well “go the whole hog!”

Christians, the American state is dangerously close to being our religion if it is not already. It is becoming hard to distinguish between the two for me. Do we serve Baal, or do we serve YHWH? Choose, and choose quickly, because this state is about to demand your total and complete worship.

If we bow down, we prove our unbelief. YHWH and YHWH alone is God. If we dance around this golden calf, we prove that we do not ultimately believe that Christ is the one and all-sufficient King.

Do we serve YHWH, or do we serve Herman Cain? Do we serve YHWH or do we serve the Republican party? Do we serve YHWH, or do we serve the American state? Has the American state become our religion?

We worship in vain before blocks of wood and dead pillars of stone wrought by the hands of men if we continue to serve America, the modern Baal.

There is no King but Christ! Let us serve the King!

Ryan Day Thompson, Contributor
The Flagless Cooperative