These Are Not Negotiable

[Chris Rice]

> These Are Not Negotiable
> By Chuck Baldwin
> October 13, 2009


>
>
> This column is archived at
> http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20091013.html


>
>
> In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Prudence,
> indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed
> for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
> that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
> to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
> But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
> same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, is
> their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide
> new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance
> of these Colonies."


>
> I would argue that we, like our patriot forebears, have also endured
> "patient sufferance." For at least a half-century, we have patiently endured
> the erosion and abridgment of our freedoms and liberties. We have watched
> the federal government become an overbearing and meddlesome Nanny State that
> pokes its nose and sticks its fingers in virtually everything we do. We
> cannot drive a car, buy a gun, or even flush a toilet without Big Brother's
> permission. We are taxed, regulated, and snooped-on from the time we are
> born to the day we die. And then after we are dead, we are taxed again.


>
> In the same way that Jefferson and Company patiently suffered up until that
> shot was fired that was heard around the world, we who love freedom today
> are likewise patiently suffering "a long train of abuses and usurpations."
> In fact, I would even dare say that these States United have become a
> boiling caldron of justifiable frustration and even anger.


>
> Accordingly, it is incumbent upon us to very seriously and thoughtfully
> examine those principles that we absolutely will never cede or surrender. We
> have already surrendered much of the freedom that was bequeathed to us by
> our forefathers. We are now to the point that we must define those
> principles that form our "line in the sand" and that we will not surrender
> under any circumstance. Either that, or we must admit to ourselves that
> there is nothing--no principle, no freedom, no matter how sacred--that we
> will not surrender to Big Government.


>
> Here, then, are those principles that, to me, must never be surrendered. To
> surrender these liberties to Big Government would mean to commit idolatry.
> It would be sacrilege. It would reduce us to slavery. It would destroy our
> humanity. To surrender these freedoms would mean "absolute Despotism" and
> would provide moral justification to the proposition that such tyranny be
> "thrown off."


>
> *The Right to Keep and Bear Arms.


>
> Men without guns are not free men; they are slaves. Men without guns are not
> citizens; they are subjects. Men without guns have lost the right of
> self-defense. They have lost the power to defend their families and protect
> their properties. Men without guns are reduced to the animal kingdom,
> becoming prey to the Machiavellians among them who would kill them for sport
> or for their own personal pursuits. As King Jesus plainly ordered, "He that
> hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." (Luke 22:36) This we
> will do--at all costs.


>
> *The Right to Own Private Property


>
> Like the right of self-defense, the private ownership of property is a
> God-given right that is rooted in the Sacred Text. As God told Moses, "Thou
> shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set
> in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy
> God giveth thee to possess it." (Deut. 19:14)


>
> In fact, the history of Western Civilization is replete with the examples of
> free men who were determined (even at the cost of their very lives) to
> defend the right to own property. Without private property rights, men are
> reduced to serfs and servants. Like chattel, they feed themselves by
> another's leave. This we will not do.


>
> *The Right to Train and Educate Our Children


>
> Education has never been the responsibility of the State. From time
> immemorial, education has been the right and responsibility of the family.
> This, too, has its foundation in the Sacred Volume. "And, ye fathers,
> provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and
> admonition of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4)


>
> Therefore, the absolute right of homeshooling or private/parochial/Christian
> schooling must never be surrendered. Homeschooling, especially, is
> fundamental to freedom. It is not a coincidence that throughout history,
> most totalitarian governments forbade parents homeschooling their children.
> Any government--federal, State, or local--that forbids, or even restricts,
> the right of parents to homeschool their children has taken upon itself the
> uniform of a tyrant.


>
> *The Freedom of Speech and Worship


>
> Speech and worship are matters of the heart and conscience (Luke 6:45; John
> 4:24). Only tyrants seek authority over matters of the heart. But, of
> course, that is what tyrants do: they seek to control men's thoughts and
> beliefs.


>
> Hence, the alternative media is essential to liberty: the Internet, short
> wave radio, as well as independent magazines and periodicals. It is almost
> superfluous to say that there is no such thing as a free and independent
> press among the mainstream news media today. In fact, the major media more
> resembles a propaganda machine than it does a free press.


>
> The same can be said for most of the mainstream churches in America today.
> They more resemble havens for politically correct, Big-Government ideology
> than they do bastions of Bible truth. Therefore, home-churches and
> non-establishment churches are increasingly requisite to a free people.


>
> *The Right to Determine One's Own Healthcare


>
> The marriage of Big Government and Big Medicine has created a healthcare
> monster. Already, the dispensing of medical treatment is micromanaged by Big
> Brother in a way that has resulted in skyrocketing costs and inferior care
> (and in some cases, even death). President Obama's universal health care
> initiatives that are sure to come (in one form or another) will only
> exacerbate an already untenable situation.


>
> Free men and women absolutely have the right to refuse vaccinations for
> themselves and their children. Forced vaccinations (of any kind) are an
> assault against the very foundation of freedom. Free men have the right to
> choose their own physicians, their own hospitals, their own insurance
> programs, etc. They also have the right to refuse any and all of the above.


>
> God is Creator. He is also Healer (Exodus 15:26). Therefore, how men choose
> to seek God's healing is a private matter between them and God. Alternative
> medicine is a right. Already, our military personnel are used as human
> guinea pigs to test a variety of drugs and chemicals. Public schools also
> require forced vaccinations. And now the push is on to force the general
> population to take the Swine Flu vaccine. At the current pace, it won't be
> long until all alternative medicines and treatments will be illegal and the
> federal government will be America's doctor. This is not acceptable.


>
> *The Right to Life


>
> 2000 years of Western Civilization have perpetually reconfirmed that life is
> a gift of God. Both Biblical and American history repeatedly honor God as
> the Source and Sustainer of man's existence. Therefore, evils such as
> abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia must be vehemently resisted. It is bad
> enough that any government (especially one such as ours) would legalize
> abortion, but the concept of FORCED abortion, infanticide, or euthanasia
> could only be regarded as a despotic attack on life and liberty of the
> gravest proportion. In fact, under Natural Law, such an attack would remove
> said government from the protection of Heaven and would place it in a state
> of war.


>
> *The Right to Live as a Free and Independent People


>
> God separated the Nations (Genesis 11). Therefore, it is absolutely
> necessary that we Americans maintain our independence and national
> sovereignty. We simply cannot (and will not) allow ourselves to become part
> of any hemispheric or global union.


>
> There they are: seven freedom-principles that are not negotiable. As
> Jefferson said, we are "disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable." But
> cross these lines and free men must do what free men must do: "throw off
> such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."


>
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>
> (c) Chuck Baldwin


>
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