“It’s the government’s place to help people.” That is the common assumption behind most of modern American political thought.

What does such a view mean in practice?

The forcing of one person to work on behalf of another. And this, not for the sake of defending the country against an invader or a criminal, but for the sake of giving to a man those positive comforts he has not attained for himself. “If a person is unable to take care of himself, it is proper to force others to take care of him,” this view holds.

The United States has been exceptional as the country founded upon a moral idea: individual rights.

The founding fathers recognized man’s rights as inalienable. Rights are discovered, not granted.

According to Scripture, what is justice? Or what is judgment? (They are often interchangeable.)

Judgment always involves stopping and punishing a wrong-doer. That is the common feature when Scripture speaks of it. If no one stole from another or harmed another, there would be no need for society to provide judgment or justice. The need arises because men initiate force. Someone must judge between conflicting parties to prevent a feud.

Whoever untied the Gordian Knot would be the king of Asia, said the prophecy.

No one could untie the knot until Alexander the Great.

He couldn’t find its end, so he came up with an “Alexandrian solution”—one slice from his sword and the knot was in pieces; thoroughly untied. An unsolvable problem sometimes goes away when a sharp mind or blade applies logic.

In this final article of the series I want to address a question I brought up near the beginning: Why am I, a worship leader, so concerned about this issue?

If I’ve been right in my preceding arguments, the answer is clear. I care about my society. I care about the world I live in and the world I leave to my son. I work as a leader in a church because I want people to see God and his righteous ways. Sometimes that means taking an unpopular stand.