THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES

"God grant that men of principle be our principal men."


I don't often include Scripture in my political blog. I reserve that for my other blog, Joe's Jottings.

Today is different, because I want to make a point.

So here is a conversation between Jesus and a Jewish teacher of the law (a reference to the Law of Moses).

Mark 12:28-31

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”


I will not take the time to list the quotes of our founders that relate to their belief that faith in God is important if we are to remain a viable nation and are to fulfill the promise of our "Great Experiment." You can read those by going to my older posts and reading my Sunday series on the subjects.

For this post I want to focus on the two principles laid out by Jesus in this discussion:

1) Love of God is paramount.

2) Loving our neighbor is equally as important.

I'm suggesting to you, as we face possible "gridlock" in our government, that we don't need any more laws...not a single one.

If we would just practice those two, there would be no robberies, no murders, no stealing, no corruption, no greedy businessmen, no cheating on taxes, no marrying the wrong person, no divorce, no police brutality, no street mobs, no sloppy workmanship, no fake illnesses to get to stay home from work, and so-on and so-on and so-on.

(The fact that there are all of those things is evidence that Romans 3:23 is right: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.")

In the beginning of our nation, being a congressperson or a senator was not considered a "vocation," but an honor.

Early on, congress was not in session for the whole year, except for time off for holidays and district campaigning for the next election.

At first, congress knew that they knew that the states would take care of most of the laws needed to run the country and the feds would only deal with those issues restricted to them by the Constitution.

With the realization of the power afforded them by the office they held, congresspersons began to expand their influence and to flex their legislative muscle to gain favor and influence, not only in their districts, but in their particular legislative body and in the country at large.

The result was that laws began being passed that were not just for fulfilling the requirements of the Constitution, but to benefit the politicians' local "needs."

To say that practice has expanded is a gross understatement.

I have long been an advocate of "one bill-one subject." No amendments could be added to a bill that did not directly and significantly relate to the need of that bill.

To implement such a process would cause lawmaking to move at a snails pace!

Good!

That's what we need!

As it is now, we have bridges built to nowhere, restrictions on every activity under the sun, special buildings built for minute groups of people, unused parks and playgrounds that sit unused - built in order for the congressperson from that district to be able to say, "See what I have done for you!" and hundreds of thousands of other stupid and dangerous additions to bills that have nothing to do with what the bill is about.

The health care bill is a perfect example.

There are dozens of things in the health care bill that have little or nothing to do with health care.

For instance, did you know that the quasi-military force (civilian military force) President BO spoke of during his campaign is a part of the health care legislation?

Of course not. We had to pass the bill in order to find out what was in it (thank you, Nancy Pelosi).

One of the things our newly elected conservative representatives will have to face is that when they introduce a bill, their frustration will grow as the "good old boys" add unrelated amendment after unrelated amendment to the bill in exchange for their vote for the bill.

That is a stupid, dangerous, self-serving practice that offends the dignity that should accompany the office of a legislator.

But people like Harry Reid, Barney Frank, Trent Lott and even John Boehner don't care. All they care about is securing their position of power by bribing their constituents.

They will stand before you with a straight face, looking very sincere and earnest and tell you that's not true, and the practiced expression on their face will convince you that they are only looking out for your and the country's interests.

That is a blatant lie.

They look out for, and only for, their own interests.

Cynical, isn't it?

Yep...but true, nonetheless.

What we need more than anything else to to put in place those most essential principles: Love God and love your neighbor.

So, where will YOU stand concerning those principles?

Will you tell you representatives where you stand?