Bryan Fischer
No evolutionist can be trusted with political power
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Pew Research recently conducted a poll examining the mindset of the American people with regard to the evolution/creation issue. One finding in particular stands out: despite 100 years of relentless brainwashing and indoctrination, just 32% of the American people believe that man evolved through entirely natural processes, with no direction or assistance from God.
Thirty-three percent of us hold the biblical view, that man is today just as he was when he came into being at the dawn of creation, and another 24% believe that while man evolved, God was directing every step in the evolutionary advance of life. (I am not a theistic evolutionist, by the way, because I believe that position represents both bad theology and bad science.)
The United States was founded on a profoundly religious concept, that there is a Creator – with a capital "C" – who is the source of every one of our "unalienable rights." An "unalienable" right is one from which we cannot be alienated by any human authority, because it is a gift to us from God.
According to the Founders, man is not an evolved being, he is a "created" being, and as such the recipient of certain fundamental, unalterable, unchangeable human and civil rights. These rights, according to the Founders, fall into three categories: the right to life, liberty, and property (what the Founders meant by "the pursuit of happiness").
Because these rights are the gift of God, no government, in fact no earthly power, has the moral authority to strip us of these rights.
The Founders made it clear that the purpose of government is to "secure" these fundamental rights, not to grant them. Its role is not to bestow rights, but to guarantee them.
In other words, it is government's responsibility to pursue justice any time the rights of its citizens to life (murder, abortion, assault) or liberty (kidnapping) or property (theft) have been transgressed.
Now whether a candidate for public office believes in naturalistic evolution or in creation is of enormous importance in regard to his fitness to wield political power. This is simply because if a man does not believe our rights come to us from a Creator, the only other place they can come from is government.
The rights that God gives to us can never be taken away. But what government gives, government can take away.
In other words, if a man believes that government is the agency that grants us our rights, not a single one of them is safe in his hands.
Our rights are only safe in the hands of a statesman who has a profound respect for God as the source of all that exists, and in particular as the source of our human rights – a statesman who understands that he has a sacred and therefore profound obligation to God to protect the rights the Creator has given to all human beings.
I would submit that no man who is an evolutionist is fit to hold public office in the United States. This is for the simple and straightforward reason that he does not believe in the most basic and fundamental American political principle, that rights come from God. A man who does not understand that and does not believe that as a matter of conviction cannot be trusted with political power.
A brief glance at the atheistic, totalitarian regimes of the 20th century (Nazi Germany, Communist China, the USSR, etc.) and the 170 million innocents who were cruelly deprived of the right to life by those regimes is all the evidence you need of the truth of this proposition.
Am I suggesting a law prohibiting evolutionists from running for office? Of course not. Am I urging the American people never to put political power in the hands of someone who thinks we are the descendants of apes and baboons? Absolutely.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
January 4, 2014
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Pew Research recently conducted a poll examining the mindset of the American people with regard to the evolution/creation issue. One finding in particular stands out: despite 100 years of relentless brainwashing and indoctrination, just 32% of the American people believe that man evolved through entirely natural processes, with no direction or assistance from God.
Thirty-three percent of us hold the biblical view, that man is today just as he was when he came into being at the dawn of creation, and another 24% believe that while man evolved, God was directing every step in the evolutionary advance of life. (I am not a theistic evolutionist, by the way, because I believe that position represents both bad theology and bad science.)
The United States was founded on a profoundly religious concept, that there is a Creator – with a capital "C" – who is the source of every one of our "unalienable rights." An "unalienable" right is one from which we cannot be alienated by any human authority, because it is a gift to us from God.
According to the Founders, man is not an evolved being, he is a "created" being, and as such the recipient of certain fundamental, unalterable, unchangeable human and civil rights. These rights, according to the Founders, fall into three categories: the right to life, liberty, and property (what the Founders meant by "the pursuit of happiness").
Because these rights are the gift of God, no government, in fact no earthly power, has the moral authority to strip us of these rights.
The Founders made it clear that the purpose of government is to "secure" these fundamental rights, not to grant them. Its role is not to bestow rights, but to guarantee them.
In other words, it is government's responsibility to pursue justice any time the rights of its citizens to life (murder, abortion, assault) or liberty (kidnapping) or property (theft) have been transgressed.
Now whether a candidate for public office believes in naturalistic evolution or in creation is of enormous importance in regard to his fitness to wield political power. This is simply because if a man does not believe our rights come to us from a Creator, the only other place they can come from is government.
The rights that God gives to us can never be taken away. But what government gives, government can take away.
In other words, if a man believes that government is the agency that grants us our rights, not a single one of them is safe in his hands.
Our rights are only safe in the hands of a statesman who has a profound respect for God as the source of all that exists, and in particular as the source of our human rights – a statesman who understands that he has a sacred and therefore profound obligation to God to protect the rights the Creator has given to all human beings.
I would submit that no man who is an evolutionist is fit to hold public office in the United States. This is for the simple and straightforward reason that he does not believe in the most basic and fundamental American political principle, that rights come from God. A man who does not understand that and does not believe that as a matter of conviction cannot be trusted with political power.
A brief glance at the atheistic, totalitarian regimes of the 20th century (Nazi Germany, Communist China, the USSR, etc.) and the 170 million innocents who were cruelly deprived of the right to life by those regimes is all the evidence you need of the truth of this proposition.
Am I suggesting a law prohibiting evolutionists from running for office? Of course not. Am I urging the American people never to put political power in the hands of someone who thinks we are the descendants of apes and baboons? Absolutely.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
