Our government is supposed to be there to protect the people; to protect the family and the workings of our civilization. Our nation’s founders never intended for government to take on a life of its own or to replace the responsibilities of the family. The national government in America was and still should be a fringe activity; something set around our society to defend it, and protect it from all enemies foreign and domestic, something to see that the rule of law applies to all. In that sense then, government is not to be in charge of faith, family, or any aspect of normal life in our Christian culture. Government should be limited to being an extension of the traditional role parents play in protecting the family.

Throughout history government was usually seen as a male responsibility; not because women could not govern or because they were inferior to men, but because women already had the most important job in the most important organization: the family. Bearing and raising children is critical to the survival of the human race. Since only females can bear children and nurse them as infants, females are absolutely critical to humanity. Women are the core of family and all human cultures. Men are at the fringes of the family, and civilization. In prehistoric days they were the ones free to hunt, farm, and protect the family from outside threats. Protecting the women and children was not just some sort of polite gentlemanly behavior. If some men were killed, the tribe could replace them in a generation as long as the women survived, but if some women were killed, the tribe was in mortal danger for at least an additional generation. Leaders were those people who could best protect what was important, not people who wanted to create government programs to replace mothers, fathers, family, and priests. The founders of our country knew better than to interfere with family and the various Christian beliefs. That is why they gave government limited powers.

The modern world and its technology have allowed the roles of men and women to expand. There is nothing wrong with expanding the role of women in our culture or with granting women the right to vote. What is wrong is the idea that government should become the foundation for family and the arbitrator of faith. The feminist movement was at least partially based on the erroneous idea that women did not already have a role in our culture that was at least as important as man’s role. We readily say that Mother Nature is in charge of nature; even those who know that God is in charge of nature will allow nature to assume the female gender because we all understand mothers, and we all know who decided the really important issues in our own families. We all know that mother bears are the protectors of their families. And we all must acknowledge that today even mother bears do need government to help protect and defend their families from poachers and the encroachments of humans.

Government was created by man; not the other way around.  Government’s purpose is to protect our families, and our unique culture, from external dangers, and to see that the playing field is level for all. And that is all that it should be doing.