The Sparks of Elections and Atlas

Little sparks can start big fires.

I’m usually not one to share my political views in public forums.  As a pastor, I place tremendous value on not trying to influence my congregation’s election day decisions.  I believe in variety and diversity.   Here are a few of my personal policies I adhere to when it comes to politics.

• I respect the office and the person of the President, even though I may disagree with many of his current policies.
• I don’t post snarky comments on Facebook about candidates on either side of the fence. (I try to post funny comments about issues, but not about people)
• I pretty much keep my political thoughts to myself and occasionally share them with my wife.

That said, there are 2 sparks that have happened in the last several months that have caused a change in me: (1) Election Day, 2012 and (2) reading Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.

Spark #1.  Election Day, 2012.

In spite of the fact that the president had the lowest approval rating of any president facing re-election, the American people said “Yes, four more years.”  And it wasn’t even close.  Why was that?

From my perspective, I see 4 very closely related reasons:

1. Conservative voters are outnumbered by liberal voters.
2. Rural voters are outnumbered by city voters.
3. Money generators are outnumbered by people with government jobs and those dependent on government subsidized income (which includes me and my wife as school employees).
4. Those that are in favor of fiscal responsibility and smaller federal government are outnumbered by those who love the government and what it can do for them.

So where does that leave our country?

There are tough decisions that need to be made to get our country on sound financial footing, but none of those are electable decisions.  If anyone has the nerve to drastically cut federal spending the way it needs to be cut, they would never be re-elected, regardless of their party.  Therefore…

The changes that need to be made will never be made because elected officials make electable choices, not right choices.  

If that is true, how should I and my family respond?

Before I get into that, let me share a little bit about Atlas Shrugged.

Spark #2:  Reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

If you haven’t read it (its a 1200 page beast of a book – and I’m not even halfway through it yet), its about successful industrialists that are being challenged by intellectuals and power-hungry politicians that believe in distributing the wealth instead of letting people be successful in their own rights.  Laws get passed to enforce this social “justice” and the industrialists secretly conspire to just up and quit and leave society to try to figure it out without them, the real producers.

This book was written in 1957 but it fits perfectly with our cultural setting today.  It really makes one think about the role of the producer and the looter.  Who makes and who takes?  Who uses their efforts to create goods and services, and who makes arguments about equality and fairness and getting a piece of the producers’ pie because its the fair thing to be done?

These sparks have caused a significant shift in my life towards becoming more self sufficient in terms of producing real good and services and less reliant on our government jobs.

This is interesting for my wife and me.  She is a teacher at our school and I also work at the school in addition to pastoring our church.  We are both paid by  tax dollars.  We love our roles in the community in that the school provides, but I’m feeling the call to shift our focus from being consumers to being producers.

Specifically, here is what this means for us:

1.  Producing more of our own food.  We will be starting a garden again, raising chickens for meat and eggs, and hopefully have a milk cow this spring or summer.

2.  Starting some sort of micro-business.  I’m not sure what this is, but I’m pretty sure its something more tangible than websites.  Something real and valuable to people.  This could be a tangible product or something tourism-related, I’m not sure yet.  It will be something that we can teach the boys and pursue with them.  Other than modeling healthy relationship with God, what better skill can I pass on than showing them that they have the ability to produce a valuable service and earn a living.

3.  Investing our time and financial resources into the two avenues listed above.  I have less and less faith in financial institutions and the “wisdom” of trusting other companies with my financial well being.  I’m believing that more and more tangible producing assets on our property is the way to go.

That’s a pretty big shift for me and my crew.  What about and you and your family?  Have you felt a similar pull?