Bible and Government: Public Policy from a Christian Perspective

Bible and Government: Public Policy from a Christian Perspective by John Cobin, (Greenville, SC: Alertness Books, 2003), Softcover: 244 pages. $10.95.

Review by Ryan Setliff

Bible and Government: Towards A Scriptural Understanding of Civil Government

Bible and Government: Public Policy from a Christian Perspective is written by a Christian public policy researcher. The author John Cobin essentially espouses a Jeffersonian libertarian political philosophy while adhering to biblical norms for proper social perspective. Recognizing the tyranny of good intentions and how public policy has gone awry, Cobin looks to alternatives to more state solutions for solving social problems. John Cobin who is presently an Investment Adviser has a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University and a Masters in Economics from UC Santa Barbara. Well-versed in the Austrian and Public Choice schools of economic thought, Cobin offers an exceptional Christian perspective on law, government, authority, and public policy considerations.

Cobin esteems the vitality of the free-market, private property and constitutionally limited government to civil society. In modern times, the state has tediously concentrated a vast array of power, welding and abusing the power flamboyantly. The state has increasingly displaced and marginalized the traditional non-state institutions of family, church, neighborhood, and voluntary civil associations.

Too often, both neoconservatives and statist liberals make the mistake of confusing the state with society (just like the Greeks of antiquity did.) So, Cobin offers a new paradigm to the worn-out status quo which seems posed to evolve into some sort of totalitarian democracy. One of the most prudent public policy considerations often entails not having a "public policy" on particular issue to begin with. By devolving responsibility back to the traditional institutions that have been encroached upon by the State, better solutions to social problems may be mete out. In an age of belligerent statism when more government is always posed as the solution to the various societal ills, Cobin is one of the few prudent policy gurus keen enough to pose civil society and market solutions.

Building on the Prophet Samuel's warning to the Israelites who desired their king (i.e., 1 Samuel 8), Cobin methodically trumps notions of ascribing divinity to the State or seeing all State actions as inherently moral. The Scriptures warn of the consequences of unbridled power in the State, and how the power of the State itself can be an idol. For this reason, Christians should resist the concentration of power in the hands of the State. The predominantly Christian founding fathers of America desired to constrain governmental power by constitutional limitations, such as a separation of powers and checks and balances. Thus, in framing free government they sought to make "ambition counter ambition" with institutional checks and balances. Being an agent of the government never made a man a saint always possessed of goodwill or free from the blemish of sin. Likewise, there is no sovereign immunity before the divine judgment throne and magistrates will be held accountable. Moreover, some of the most malevolent campaigns of mass-murder in history came as a result of the reckless concentration of power in the hands of the State. One need only peer into First Samuel, chapter eight of the Bible, to see the prophetic warning about unfettered political power in the form of an absolute monarch.

Cobin reminds the reader about the perils of rent-seeking which characterizes modern democracies. Frederic Bastiat proclaimed, "the state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks.to live at the expense of everybody else." Echoing the wisdom of Bastiat, Cobin makes it clear that free government cannot endure when the law is subverted into an instrument of legal plunder, rent-seeking and spoliation. The practice of utilizing the instrumentality of the State to appropriate the wealth and property of others is immoral, un-Christian—but this has fast become the norm in the United States. The masses seem to think that stealing is wrong except by majority vote.

In contrast to the prevailing statist philosophies of governance, Cobin advocates a minarchist philosophy of government, or the so called night watchmen state. The night watchmen state simply exists to prosecute and stifle acts of force and fraud, defend the populace, enforce contracts while upholding property rights. In sum, the government that governs the best governs the least. After securing independence from the British, America had such a form of government arguably for quite a few decades and for the most part it was minimally intrusive in the lives of Americans.

Cobin expresses discontent with public education and his concerns are just. Public education really is worldview indoctrination and usually in an amoral, relativistic environment. He recommends that alternative ventures should be pursued by Christians such as home-schooling, tutors, or private schools.

John Cobin also confronts gritty ethical questions about the Christian's duty to the state. He squarely challenges notions that the Apostle Paul gave credence to the notion of unlimited submission to the state. He makes it clear that Christians are to resist immoral edicts of the state. No Christian in good conscience could partake in the administration of concentration camps and be a party to mass-murder. Likewise, no Christian could rationalize seeking out or performing an abortion (i.e. infanticide.) Christians cannot support entrapment tactics of law enforcement to tempt someone into committing a crime in order to blackmail or prosecute them. There is no sanctifying mechanism in the eyes of God that sanctifies murder, thievery, lying and extortion merely because its perpetrators are agents of the state. There are eternal repercussions for such an abuses of power and injustices.

With regards to authority, we are to "be subject" as a matter of conscience and practical wisdom cognizant that governmental authorities are ordained of God and ultimately under his sovereign control. Though, too often, Christians are erroneously led to believe that the State has some Hobbesian mandate with unfettered power or a divine right of kings. Consequently all of the state's actions are to be heeded without reservation. The early Christians who took refuge in the catacombs of Rome and elsewhere had faced immense persecution from the Roman State, and most would not submit to Nero. Yet today, some Christian pastors purport a fanciful notion that the Bible demands virtually blind submission to the State and acquiescence in all of its wars. As Charles Eliot Norton surmised, "The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent."

Cobin judiciously reminds the reader that we should not give blind deference to the state, nor subsume all ethical questions in the legal permissiveness of the state. Anyway, Cobin does a good job at clearing the air about the Christian's relationship to the State and ethical considerations of obedience.

Cobin tacitly itinerates a theme similar to that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Ethics. Bonhoeffer reminds us that though the state may be illegitimate in part, it's legitimate roles steal give it legitimacy in that sphere. Hence, as a practical matter, we should strive for reformation of the civil sphere, not it's overthrow—when the state is unjust.

All things considered, John Cobin has sketched together an astonishing, deeply reflective and succinct book, which should prove helpful to Christians. He offers a clever and resourceful methodology for evaluating public policy in light of Scripture. Whether in envisioning ideal public policy formulations or ascertaining the individual's relation to the State, John Cobin has put together a sensible look at public policy from a Christian perspective.

For more information on John Cobin and his books, visit PolicyofLiberty.Net