May/June, 1997 Volume XII Number 6 - DEPARTMENTS

Redeeming the Militias
by Michael Bray

A few weeks ago a Canadian friend of mine (we'll call him Peter to protect the innocent) was heading south to New York when, to his wondering ears, sirens went off at the border. In the ensuing flurry of police and sundry officials, Peter was delayed for several hours and was eventually interrogated by the FBI. It seems his anti-abortion activism, which had included blockades of abortuaries in New England, had drawn the attention of Janet Waco Reno's VAAPCON investigators. (She's a busy gal. And there is so much to be done; i.e. forcing Mississippi citizens to accept lesbian recreation centers in their towns; burning women and children is Texas communities; jailing anti-abortionists, etc.) It seems the Atlanta bombing, followed by the putative Army of God missive, had Mz Nero and her disciples in a tizzy. They wanted to know if Peter - a harmless OR-type of guy - knew what an AK-47 was.
Peter, duly offended, nevertheless affirmed that he did. "Do you know anyone who has one?"
"Yes. Russian soldiers," replied he.
There were a lot of other great questions and answers. But most entertaining to this writer were the concerns the agents had expressed about him. The agents claimed that the very words you are reading were penned by a heretic! (Peter did not say whose teaching the agents had sat under, but we suspect it was Flip Benham the Sorcerer who converts theology into biology.) Now, admittedly, these federal agents did not utter actual H-word. They said, more precisely, that "Michael Bray is good at brainwashing people with Bible verses." But, acknowledging that there wasn't much they could do in this age of liberty, they could only shrug shoulders and offer a rhetorical, "What can you do with a guy like this?"
Peter offered: "Suspend the First Amendment."
Well, they weren't empowered to do that just yet as, thankfully, we are still on the bridge to the twenty-first century, so I thought it a good thing to offer some of my favorite Bible verses for you gentle readers to wash your brains with while there is still time.
"Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 11:29 )
"Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle" (Psalms 144:1)
"He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze" (Psalms 18:34).
"The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is His name" (Exodus 15:3)
(My those are lovely verses! My heart gets all warm and I want to bark every time I say them. But we must not tarry here in the garden with the dew and the roses.)
This brings us at long last to our topic sentence. Christians have a role to play in the reformation of the military. But, given the sodomization of our armed forces under the administration of Ahab and Jezebel (along with the idolatrous wholesale de-Christianization of our country by federal the courts without successful resistance by the other branches in the past thirty years), it is considerable to regard the entire federal government to be illegitimate (as well argued recently by the likes of Chuck Colson and Robert Bork in the November issue of First Things). What is a good patriotic citizen to do?
I commend to you, gentle readers, the militias.
Many Life Advocate readers are familiar with (if not subscribers to) the contemporary arguments advanced by "reconstructionists" for the restoration of the Laws of God as the foundation for our society. (Chief proponents of this view include Rousas Rushdoony, Gary North, and the late Greg Bahnsen.) These folks hortatively proclaim the duty of Christians to transform all areas of life and bring all things under the dominion of Christ. He is Lord of all: individuals, families, government, education, the penal system, etc.; hence, no institution is outside His rightful jurisdiction as "all things are subjected to Him" (1 Corinthians 15:28). Moreover, true justice is defined by God's law.
Of particular interest (and intra-reconstructionist debate) is the continuity of the Mosaic sanctions; namely, capital punishment for practitioners of adultery, sodomy, murder, witchcraft, heresy, and persistent juvenile rebellion. (Most reject capital punishment for Sabbath Day violations as that which is abrogated by the institution of the New Covenant.) Discussions on the subject of reconstruction generally make the blood of sodomites and pagan civil libertarians boil. And polite society, especially inside the D.C. beltway, tends to ostracize those discussants who broach the reconstructionist topic at dinner parties. Consequently there has been a lack for discussion from the likes of Christianity Today's Philip Yancy who reported unabashedly on his breakfasting with and interview of Ahab (3 February). But the subject of reconstruction must take place among those who are serious about restoring "family values" (that covert term employed by the "Religious Right" for "Christian values," which in turn serves as a euphemism for Christian law and ethics).
But even the divines of reconstruction have neglected serious consideration of the militia. Of course, on a practical level, the pay is better in the regular military and chaplaincy. (And a harlot gets better pay for her labors than does a wife, but the occupation of the former isn't justified by her pay.) Likewise the pay for staff workers in apostate churches and government schools is better than it is for pastors of the smaller but faithful churches and schools. And apologists for reconstruction suffer enough shunning in Evangelical theological circles, as it is, without having to incur the added insults which would certainly follow advocacy for the reconstruction of the militias. But it is not an incongruous notion. We have pulled out of other institutions to reconstruct them. We home school; we establish new churches. (Indeed, there is a whole lot more to come out of!) Either institutions are renewed and reformed, or their members evacuate and reconstruct them.
Are the political parties degraded by the lack of Christian involvement? Have we neglected our civicduty by failing to register and vote or run for office? Is government education (a.k.a. public schools) less than what it could be if Christians sat on school boards? (Perhaps such endeavors seem futile in the face of the tyranny of the federal courts). But if it is good to be salt and light in the institutions of our land, how about a call for Christian involvement in the militias? Shall they not also be redeemed? Or shall they be left for racists and Nazis to dominate? Intuiting a reasonable "connection" between anti-abortionists and the growth in militia numbers, several reporters asked me about this subject following the Atlanta abortuary bombing. It is not an irrational suspicion. The ethics of the "counter-culture" of the '60s are epitomized by fornication, selfish childslaugher, and sodomy. This culture has found a home in the White House as well as the courts and the Congress. What is the remedy for this national disease?
You recall in Braveheart when the English King Edward threw the sodomite companion of his son - the would be "high counselor" of war strategy against William Wallace - out of the window to his death. My fellow members of the audience cheered. Such was apparently the case in most theaters causing no small tiff from "gay rights" people. Cliff Kincaid, in defense of director Gibson, says, "It is a story about patriotism, not gay-bashing" (Human Events, 28 March). He says the cheers refer to the audience approval of the "King's intolerance of cowardice and false bravado." Now that would make for exhilarating discussion: which is worse, sodomy or cowardice? Dante, as a matter of fact, had the cowards positioned in hell just above arch-traitor Judas.
Let us be sure that our proper disdain for the fornication-abortion-sodomy ethic is not quenched by cowardice concerning military preparedness. That Alabama governor may need the help of some patriots who believe in constitutional republican government under the Ten Commandments. Militias are a gift from God which can be used to preserve freedom from tyranny.



Copyright © 1997 AFLM