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Posted by adam.dada on June 14th, 2006
The best friend of the family goes to a church just a few miles from our home and a few miles from our own congregation. Their church, Cornerstone Church, has been in the local news for days now after an altercation with the local government, the village of Wadsworth, Illinois.[link]
Cornerstone took a huge loan a few years ago to acquire land in Wadsworth. They have been holding their services for years in a local high school in Waukegan, Illinois. With a growing congregation needing more than just space on Sunday, they bought land in a mostly rural suburb of Gurnee. Wadsworth, like most burbs in the area, absolutely hates churches as they pay no property taxes and are usually occupying land that the village would rather see used by a gas station or a strip mall. The zoning board in Wadsworth put the church through a paperwork hell, with the congregation finally holding their first service after more than a year of building and waiting for more permits. The village itself is responsible for more than doubling the cost of build-out based on their outrageous zoning and permit process. The village is tyranny, democratic madness, and has a complete disregard for private property rights. I would not back down if this was my church, and I do not believe that Romans 13 requires me to follow the law at all. In fact, Jesus himself disregarded the law and proceeded to do what God commanded him to do. I believe Cornerstone is doing the worst thing possible by publicizing this as a legal case (and hiring a lawyer to provide them legal assistance).
This is God’s church, so do what Jesus would have done — pray, worship, preach the Good News and congregate as you would. If the government wants to shut you down, let them come onto your land and take you from it. Let them put you in cuffs and beat you as they beat Jesus, let them jail you as He was jailed, and let them embarass you to the masses. This is what a good Christian does — he doesn’t obey a worldly law, and he definitely doesn’t use worldly courts to judge the mad State. We have no need for democracy, we have a monarchy of His law and His truth, right?
The State might beat my body, they might even kill me, but they’ll never take my faith. Members of Cornerstone themselves are greatly unjust as they believe that voting for worldly rule is the positive thing to do, and the basis for their need to keep the church open was to pay homage to a military man who unjustly served against God in Iraq. I forgive the slain soldier, but I would not hold him up and pay tribute to him as a holy man. This is where many churches are fallen — they hold to worldly desires and needs rather than truly looking at the Bible and what their responsibilities are to God and to God’s Kingdom. Ignore Wadsworth, ignore the courts, ignore the police and ignore the media. Do church. Provide for the community through love and charity and scholarship and open arms. If the community wants to turn on you, I have a great book for you to read that details one man’s struggle against His community and the State and those who sought to end His rule. They lost. He won.
Discuss this article at the anarcho-capitalism forum. Edit: Added church’s website link.
Blogs talking about this situation:
Wadsworth Bans Church Services
Father of Dead Marine in Midst of Dispute