As Christmas approaches, the drive to take God out of public life intensifies. Why? Also growing is the drive to eliminate all evidence of Southern culture, often by the same people. Why? What is it that convinces some people that these American cultural icons must be destroyed?

In my opinion, it is cowardice. These people are afraid of themselves, and their ability to use their own strength to deal with the world. For some reason, they are willing, even insistent, on turning to government to run their lives for them. And in order for government to be able to do this, they insist, it must have total power. There can be no competition.

Now, people who look to their church, community and family for needed assistance, as is the custom among practicing Christians and most Southerners, are a major threat to the exclusive power of government. Therefore, those elements of our society must be put down.

The dispute over where governing power should be placed is as old as the nation itself. Before the Constitution was even ratified, there were people arguing for concentrating political power in the central government. Most of this attitude came from the northeast. At the same time, Southerners took the position that the power to govern should be left in the hands of local and state agencies. The federal government’s role, according to them, was to provide for the common defense and to solve disputes between the various states.

This division of opinion is what led to the War for Southern Independence. The southern states felt that they were being overpowered by the drive to concentrate power in the federal government, and chose to remove themselves from that kind of centralized control. The Union, under Lincoln’s leadership, argued that the states were subject to the will of the majority and had no choice but to accept the federal government’s authority.

Even though that war was won by the big government forces, the battle for individual freedom continues. Rural people, people of faith and all others who wish to remain autonomous are continuously seeking ways to avoid government interference in their lives. Those who insist that they can only be comfortable with a strong government assuring their wealth and safety are pushing for ever more government authority.

Here is the problem. The people who seek dependence on government to protect them from their own inadequacies cannot stand the idea that there are people who do not need government control of their lives. If these people can live their lives depending on themselves, their families and their churches, then it leaves those who are so much dependent on government looking weak. So, in order to avoid having to be responsible for themselves, they insist that all people must depend on government. They actively attack any people or organizations that seeks to function on their own without massive government interference. Like I said, they are cowards who are trying to impose their cowardice on the rest of us.

So what are we independent minded people to do? We can feel sorry for the cowards. We can pray for them. We can offer to help them learn to be independent of government. The one thing we must never do is let them win!

Copyright © 2007 by Frank Gillispie
frankgillispie671@msn.com, Hull, GA