To Whom Should You Yield Your Conscience? The Government?

My friend Lawrence Reed posted a quote on his FB profile this last week: "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward" -- Henry David Thoreau."

There followed a good series of comments. One commentor in particular caught my eye as he posed s a good reversal of the question: "Equally to the point: Must the legislator ever resign his conscience to the citizen?"

I thought that was a good balancing question. IE: To whom should we yield our consciences? I think this is the correct question, even if some of the other posts did not reflect the precise point. Here was my response:

The system our founders constructed was created by, and assumed a righteous and moral citizenry (a la Christian). The government they created is "wholly unfit for any other" to quote one of the Founders.

Having noted that, let us consider that if righteous and active citizens elect representatives, it must be understood that they would elect people who represented their own understanding of right and wrong.

No one would expect those elected to give up their consciences to the will of the voters, nor would anyone expect the voters to blindly follow those elected. Each reserves the right to take principled stands before God, and to be answerable to both God and man for their positions and acts.

A righteous people could generally trust their elected officials to act as they would, at least on those points of principle that are the foundation of social order.

We no longer live in such a culture. A significant portion of the people are licentious and hostile to Biblical Christianity to some degree, thus they elect officials who have no concept of Biblical convictions or principles. Worse, they are in direct rebellion to any law based on a Transcendent Deity or His will. The move to abolish traditional marriage is only a side show to the whole battle to re-define Truth itself.

These corrupt representatives truly do give their consciences to either small groups who have wicked intent (such as the Abortion lobby which pours huge sums into some coffers), or other power-grab causes such as the Union movement - or simply some political party.

The final answer is that the only one we should ever yield our consciences to is God. If one, in darkness, refuses to be a bond slave of Christ, then he will be the slave of sin, and any lie that comes down the pike. Rom 6:16