Ron Snyder lives in Dexter.
Our church, like many churches, is experiencing an attendance decline that is causing financial challenges. This week I encountered a church leader who was, in my opinion, disrespectful to me and our pastor. For reference, there was nothing done that I would consider illegal, only disrespectful.
However, this caused me to decide that I needed to review the church leader’s and the church’s performance as if I were doing a business turnaround. In so doing, one must always look at the product being marketed and with whom the business is competing and then determine why the poor performer is not keeping pace.
This analysis led me to a conclusion I had previously given little thought or consideration: A church is really a business that markets behavioral laws. They may also provide shelter and lease instructors, but they also employ managers and have a management structure to manage and control their operation.
But with whom are they really competing? The clue came when my pastor said she was not allowed to talk about politics.
Who, besides churches, provides moral and behavioral rules that humans must follow? The answer was geographical leaders or government and political leaders.
In some countries, religious leaders take over governing the country’s inhabitants. In others, political leaders take control and provide laws that take precedence over religious leaders. The answer became even clearer when one looks at how they are funded. One collects tithes, the other taxes and each’s leaders decide how they are redistributed.
This turned me to the U.S. Constitution and prompted the question of, “How are we prepared?”
Surprisingly, our founders prepared us very well if we use the tools they included in our Constitution 250 years ago. First, they recognized the power struggle between religious leaders and territorial government leaders. They solved this by including freedom of religion. All church leaders were welcomed to participate in America’s leadership.
But the second part of their planning and analysis displays even more foresight. They included a plan and provision to address leaders’ egos. They provided set terms: representatives, two years; presidents, four years; senators, six years. Additionally, they provided a procedure to impeach an unsatisfactory leader during his or her elected term. And more importantly, they left administration in the hands of the inhabitants of the territory being represented: voters.
Our founders did not provide for political parties. Political parties were a method devised by egotistical government leaders to divide voters and disperse money collected in taxes. However, the Constitution’s writers did also plan for this and point us in the direction our representatives and we, the voters, need to go to make America great again.
Whether in church or state, we need to remove the egotistical leaders who want to collect our tithes and taxes and distribute them as they see fit and replace them with ones who will work for all of us and distribute our labor for the benefit of all mankind. In America, as long as political parties and churches exist, this means voters must register independent and insist on implementing ranked-choice voting.
I urge you, the voter, to truly make America great again.
Be respectful of your neighbors and insist that your representative represent you and address the ego issues that have invaded and overtaken our leadership. If they don’t, you have the choice in November. And for you Christians who believe the U.S. is a Christian country, remember Jesus was not a member of a Christian church. He was a Jewish rebel in the Jewish synagogue who took offense to the way church leaders treated mankind.
Good luck, America, and regardless of your church affiliation, God will prevail.
