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

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by LexNaturalis

One of the primary reasons for the articles that this author writes is to attempt to inflame the mind. Many people just sit around and blindly take in bits of information without actually parsing that data or attempting to verify the validity of the information they receive. This author abhors that mode of living. A human being is, essential, a rational creature. No other creature on earth is capable of rational thought. Rationality separates man from ape and man from tree. The thesis behind this article is simple: Life is a thinking man’s game.

Anyone who goes through life without really engaging his mind is not really living. Today in the United States the NEA is breeding an entire population of animals. Animals are incapable of rational thought and that’s what the NEA is attempting to turn the children of this generation into: animals. Schools no longer teach or educate because they are too busy indoctrinating. If a student thinks Jesus is Lord then he is to be shown the light. If a student thinks homosexuality is wrong then he is to be shown the fallacy of his thoughts. If a student thinks having sex with every girl and boy in his class is good then he is held up as the pinnacle of “education.” Students are not allowed to have moments of silence, to pray, to discuss God, to disparage Muslims or homosexuals, to proselytize, or to think. The teacher knows best for the student not the student or even the student’s parents.

Modern life is going to pass by without the current generation of children being able to think. The public education system is broken beyond repair and needs to be abolished. Private education, where teachers are held accountable for students’ achievements, is the model to be followed. Parents vote with their dollars. If a school is not providing their child with adequate education then the parents choose another school. If a public school does not provide their children with an adequate education then the parents are free to… complain. The NEA protects the terrible teachers, however, so the school can’t fire an incompetent teacher. A parent can’t move their child to another district. The public system is not free. It is repressive and wrong.

A child that cannot think is a child that cannot survive. A child that becomes an adult that cannot think is a travesty. This author constantly hears “arguments” that are made by adults that bear little semblance to rational thought. Logic is no longer taught in public schools because logic implies an absolute right and an absolute wrong. Contradictions are unacceptable and rules are meant to be followed. The state of the modern mind is such that rules are meant to repress and absolute right and absolute wrong are relics of an unenlightened past. The only absolute is that there is no absolute. This contradiction is acceptable because there is nothing to imply that contradictions are wrong. What applies to this author does not apply to the reader. These are not rational thoughts.

Language is another tool for the modern indoctrination. This author has seen many people misuse language to attempt to sway audiences. Governments and states are not the only entities that misuse and redefine language in an attempt to turn an audience. Those that are anti-state do the very same thing. Language is a precious thing and words have meaning. When people constantly use language as a tool to indoctrinate instead of as a tool to communicate, then the language becomes meaningless. Some use “tolerance” to imply acceptance when the word has never held that meaning. Some use “coercion” to imply a universal negative when that word has never held that meaning. Some also throw around the word “paternalism” as if it were a bomb and fail to realize that the true meaning of the word does not always imply a bad thing. Still others use “racist” as a club to hit anyone who dares to question a person of another race. Likewise “xenophobic” is used without any regard for the true meaning of that word. When words cease to have a real meaning then words cease to be effective for communication. When communication ceases then rational thought soon follows.

Life is a thinking man’s game and animals need not apply. If a man wishes to live life in an ignorant stupor than he has that right, but he should not call himself a man.

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LexNaturalis is a freelance writer and thinker from central Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife. He promotes personal responsibility to augment personal freedom.

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