Government and Incompetence

It was recently revealed that the government (or should I say we the taxpayer) forked out $50 million on a Maori Trades and Training Fund which since June 2020 has had the effect of providing 4 jobs. That works out at 12.5 million dollars per job. Admittedly, only $11.4m has been committed to approved projects and just $1.8m has been paid out. Nonetheless, this excels even the usual incompetence we see from the state.

National’s answer is to do a better job of spending the money. Well, I guess that’s a step in the right direction. Achieving some good that is not your responsibility while wasting less of someone else’s money is better than wasting that money and achieving next to nothing. But why should we settle for this?

When will we as a people stop worshipping this false idol of state? It cannot do what it promises to do. It cannot save us. It is given to us by God not so that it can create jobs, or educate our children. It is given to us by God to protect us from the evildoer and punish him. How many times do we have to see a government step outside its God-given role and make a complete cock-up of things before we throw down our idol and advocate for limited government? I can guarantee that an entrepreneur with $50 million could have provided a lot more than 4 jobs.

We should not give god-like powers to the State

In Defending Marriage, Anthony Esolen lays out 12 arguments defending marriage. The final argument is that we should not give god-like powers to the State. A great quote from this chapter follows.

‘What the State essentially does, when it requires us to be parties to the lie that a man can marry a man, is to deny the anterior reality of marriage itself. It says, “Marriage is what we say it shall be,” and that implies, “Families are what we say they are,” and that implies, “There are no zones of natural authority outside the supervision and regulation and management of the State.” We’ve given up on the foolish notion of the Divine Right of Kings, dreamed up by totalizing monarchs of the late Renaissance. Now we have the Divine Right of Bureaucratic States. The old kings used to make common cause with smaller zones of authority, guilds and towns, for example, in order to check the ambitions of the noblemen. The new kings have obliterated those smaller zones of authority in principle, and seek to do so in reality also. That is in large part what public schools are now for; the education of children against the authority and direction of their own parents.’

Media Misquotes!

I read the following in a mainstream media piece in the last week or so.

Conversion therapy is based on a belief that people with diverse sexual orientations or gender identities are abnormal and should be changed so they fit within hetero-normative standards.

Although it appeared without a source being cited both in the New Zealand Herald in an article by Sophie Trigger and with the exact same wording in an article on Newshub by Mark Longley it appears to be a misquote taken from Parliament’s Justice Select Committee report into conversion therapy.

The first thing to note is that the misquote is the same in both articles, written by different people for different media organisations. It is perhaps a sign of how incetuous mainstream media in New Zeland has become. Also of concern is the fact that they both fail to acknowledge they are (mis!)quoting from the 2019 Justice Select Comittee report.

However, aside from all that. Just look at that quote again. Conversion therapy is based on a belief that people with diverse sexual orientations or gender identities are abnormal and should be changed so they fit within hetero-normative standards.

And now let’s consider the dictionary definition of normal. Normal: adj conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected. Look, identifying as a pansexual unicorn is not normal. It is abnormal. Being gay, is not normal (in the sense of usual or typical), it is abnormal. Having a male body and thinking you are actually a woman is not normal. This is not hate speech. It’s a syllogism.

And the truth is, that God has designed us in a certain way. When we try to live out our ‘own truth’ or ‘identity’ apart from this, we will suffer for it. Calls to ban “conversion therapy” will cause God-fearing citizens to become enemies of the state. Our Lord is Christ, and not the state, and if our gay or transgender friends ask us for help to live as God intended, we will help them whether it is legal or not. To do so is not hate. It is love.

The State Is My Shepherd

The state is my shepherd; I shall not want.

She maketh me lie down on the couch: she leadeth me besides the still waters of self-indulgence and irresponsibility

She removeth my soul.

She stealeth my children and leadeth them in the paths of social justice for her name’s sake.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy public healthcare system and cradle to grave welfare system they comfort me.

Thou prepareth a table of confiscated goodies before me in the presence of mine enemies who would have kept what belonged to them; my greed and avarice runneth over.

Surely pampering and apathy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of slavery until I die.