Gospel Plow

So I'm looking up (okay, 'googling') the original lyrics for “Gospel Plow.” Call me crazy, but I feel silly covering Bob Dylan's cover. Plus, I wanted to see what he changed.

And I run across this, which is the site of, yes, an organization named Gospel Plow: Driving deep the point, exposing the roots… sowing the seed, that the harvest increase! Wait, there's more:

The political elite: obsessed with lust for power and wealth; deliberately ignorant of the fact that they occupy their office only at the pleasure of the King of Kings and solely to serve His purpose; characterized by arrogance, perversion, greed, and avarice.

The financial elite: fearing neither God nor man; only allegiance is to mammon; utilize slave labor in the Third World and shyster economics to destroy the small independent farms and business' that once delivered America's high standard of living to the common man.

The intellectual / religious elite: reject the true Christianity of the Reformation; blown about every wind of doctrine; play the harlot with humanism, foreign gods, and antichrist civil and commercial plutocrats.

The average American: licentious, libertine, and lazy; hedonistically pursuing self gratification at the expense of his posterity; content to submit to slavery as long as he has a six-pack, a few doobs, and a ball game or a skin flick to watch.

Okay, they're paranoid and Christian, but their analysis isn't wholly incorrect. However, this is what I wanted to share:

We, the people of the United States, devoutly acknowledging the supreme authority and just government of God in all the affairs of men and nations, and grateful to Him for our civil and religious liberty, and encouraged by the assurances of His Word, invoke His Guidance, as a Christian nation, according to His appointed way, through Jesus Christ, in order to form, etc.

That is the change to the preamble of the Constitution (Consti-what?) Mr. Frye of Maine originally proposed. Why are some self-identified Christians so concerned with turning America into a theocracy? Didn't Jesus tell his followers to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's”?

The big history lesson is that, since Martin Luther pried open the Pandora's box (rightfully so, btw), tens of thousands of Christians died killing each other with their interpretation (read “One True Way”™) of Christianity as either the cause or pretext for destruction. We tend to forget that when we speak of religious freedom. For those who have forgotten, this is why it is specified in the First Amendment — to avoid the religious wars of Europe and allow each citizen to enjoy Liberty.

Posted by Mike at May 11, 2003 06:05 PM | TrackBack