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| "Machiavelli strongly suggests that legislators and judges make their decisions in accordance ... with what their constituents prefer. King David tells us that to place our trust completely in man is to blaspheme God's counsel." |
As a Christian you are probably as irritated by public opinion polls as I am. After all, who needs polls to determine how to live, when we have God’s inerrant Word? In addition, whose opinion counts, a random sample of fallen sinners, or the triune God of Scripture?! When divorced from the solid foundation of God's absolute authority, man's opinions of how we are to live and govern ourselves is as squishy and unsubstantial as jelly would be if an attempt were made to nail it to a wall.
It simply wouldn't stick, and neither do man's opinions, which is why the "fads" of what our civil government should do are always changing. Yet, in a time way before such “polls,” Machiavelli strongly suggests that legislators and judges make their decisions in accordance not with what they prefer, but with what their constituents prefer. King David tells us that to place our trust completely in man is to blaspheme God’s counsel.
You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, Because I keep Your precepts. (Psalm 119.98-100)
Non-Christians, however, don’t approach life with the goal of pursuing “truth,” but of pursuing “perceptions.” This is understandable since, for them, “truth” if it exists at all, is subjective. It’s Machiavellian, therefore, to seek out coalitions with other legislators to get their bills passed, even if they have to add compromises to their bill with which they are uncomfortable, or which will weaken it. After all, it’s not what’s in the legislation that counts, but how they can “spin” the passage of it to their constituents when they get back to their district. Machiavelli says:
A prince who wishes to maintain the state is often forced to do evil, for when that party, whether populace, soldiery, or nobles, whichever it be that you consider necessary to you for keeping your position, is corrupt, you must follow its humor and satisfy it, and in that case good works will be inimical to you. (Principle 19)
In contrast to this approach to governing, Christian legislators should stay abreast of how their constituents feel about certain issues and address them in a way that conforms to biblical ethics. If a sizeable portion of the voters in their district are in favor of a piece of legislation that goes against Scripture, they should find a way to keep it from coming up for vote. Then, even though they have opposed it in committee, they won’t have to go on record of having voted against it. Moses says:
Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. (Deuteronomy 5.32-33)
The choice is ours. Either we can continue to allow ourselves to be governed by the squishy feel-good temporary ideas of the moment, or by the solid and eternal truths of our Creator.
Excerpt from The Christian Prince: Putting Civil Back Into Civil Government, Buddy Hanson (Hanson Group). Scripture quotes from NKJV
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