** Please pray that the Lord will cause this to bear fruit & He will complete the good work He has begun **

 

Speaking Truth to Power in Pontotoc County, Mississippi

by. Les Riley

Several weeks ago, a local fellow began running ads in our county paper (the Pontotoc Progress). He was concerned about local corruption/ good ole boy politics is planning to start a PAC to elect local officials and be a “place for people who’ve been hurt by the system to have a voice” ( at the ballot box).

However, Providence had other plans & God chose to bless me with one of the great opportunities I’ve had in my “career” in political activism.

** Note, if you do not understand my view that reform begins on the most local level first, you will not see the great blessing/ opportuity this was & certainly will not see how this trumps running for statewide office, or being involved in national politics or the pro-life “movement”, or having something published or other “lofty” things **

Anyway, this fellow, Larry James, began running these ads talking about the “good ole boy network” in our county and calling people to come to this meeting to get involved. The local “powers that be” were none too happy about it. And they began to complain to the newspaper & try to intimidate Mr. James & his supporters.

 

A friend of mine called Mr. James who explained to him what was going on. He said that he had several people coming to speak — former elected officials; people who had some jucy bit of info. Basically, it was folks who had an axe to grind. Matt suggested that Mr. James allow me to speak & he told him of my run for Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture & other things I had done. I was not really anxious to get involved in some squabble in which I had no knowledge of who was right, especially since it was likely that it was over personalities & a struggle for power. However, I accepted the opportunity to speak.

 

When my son & I arrived the parking lot was fairly full of cars — including a large number of police cars. After parking, I aphrensively approached the crowd. We learned that some folks from the Courthouse were there to try & disrupt the meeting. The police were called in by Mr. James to try and prevent trouble. He was reminded that he had called a “public meeting” on public property ( the Ag building) and they really couldn’t do much unless the unwanted guest actually tried to disrupt. The police agreed to stay “just in case”, and called in back up.

 

This meant that there were approximately 10 police officers there ( for a crowd of about 30). Shortly before the meeting started, several men came in & filled the back row. I later learned ( since I knew no one there) that this man was the mayor of the county seat/ largest town in our county & the men with him were the politcal & business leaders of the county. Also in the crowd were the mayor of the only other significant town & the most powerful men in county government.

 

From the information I learned afterwards, the intent was to : a) find out what was going on; b) possibly intimidate; c) disrupt if need be. The intent to intimidate apparently worked, because none of the other speakers showed up. However, as I mentioned at the beginning, God had other plans. The local “powers that be” were about to get a Psalm 2 message.

After some intrductory remarks, the host, Mr. James introduced me ( he didn’t even know my first name ). Since there were no other speakers, I had a captive audience of 10 police officers, many of our county’s political  leaders, and a handful of folks who came out because they were concerned about the county, but had no ideas on what to do about it. As a long term fan of John Knox, and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, I see this as one of the great opportunities of my life.

 

I will not post my whole speech ( especially since it was unwritten & I largely shot from the hip) , but here are the highlights :

 

I began by telling the audience of Ben Franklin’s ( an unbeliever) call for prayer at the Constitutional Convention : “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth– that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?““
And I told them this was true of efforts to reform a county as well. Then I prayed. At this point, some of the folks were fidgeting.

 

I then opened my remarks by talking about Alexander Tytler and the following quote that is attributed to him ( although often disputed):

 

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

• From Bondage to Spiritual Faith
• From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage
• From Courage to Liberty
• From Liberty to Abundance
• From Abundance to Selfishness
• From Selfishness to Complacency
• From Complacency to Apathy
• From Apathy to Dependency
• From Dependency back into Bondage”

 

Following an explanation about what largess is – voting to get something : welfare payments; farm subsidies; tax money for pet projects; “pro-business” tax breaks; etc. I quoted the Biblical standard for selecting rulers : “men of good character, who fear God & hate covetousness”. Then I said most people run for office & gain power by using covetousness as a pathway to gain power, money & personal aggrandizement. ( some of the folks were getting more ansty now).

I asked what any of this had to do with problems here in Pontotoc County. I explained to them that I did not know anyone there except my son. That I did not know or care about the political dynamics or struggles for power, but that I could identify the source.

 

After briefly telling about my background, I went back into explaining what these united States were founded upon & what government’s proper role was — according to the Bible (first) and our founding documents. To quote Michael Peroutka’s explanation of the the Founder’s statements in the Declaration:
a) there is a Creator

b) rights come from Him

c) governement exists to protect those rights

I reminded them that rights come from God. That if rights came from government, the Constitution, a popular vote or otherwise from the hand of man — that men could take them. This meant they were privlidges instead of rights. If rights came from God, no man could take them — though governments more often than not usurped rights. And if government officials were doing more or less than protecting rights they were illegitmate usurpers, lawbreakers, and rebels against God & the people they were placed in power to serve ( based on Romans 13)

 

I told them that now everyone who ran for office ran on the premise that they would use the power of government to help people & solve their problems. I told them this foundation had led to hundreds of millions of deaths in the 20th Century.

 

Then, since I had already started down this path, I finished by seeking to bring home the fact that Jesus Christ was King and they needed to turn to Him. I explained that I thought they were taking the right approach by starting at the County level rather than Federal or State politics.

 

I reminded them that we all know that the County was not the “most local level” to start. We must first bow their knee to Christ personally. Then, we must reform our families according to the rule of Christ. We cannot expect the local police force ( with a nod to those in the room) to keep our children in line, we must do that.

Then, we must reform our churches. ( I told them if they were not in a good church, I could recommend one;-) ). Then we must reform our communities — beginning with serving our neighbors & replacing the illegitmate functions of government. THEN we can reform the government.

I wound up by reminding them again what government’s proper role was & what God’s requirements were of rulers. And quoting Washington.

 

** Afterwards, about 1/3 of the people came up & excitedly thanked me. The mayor of the County Seat & some of his supporters were among them. Several other leaders left scowling & visibly agitated. Someone mentioned to me that I had probably offended some folks. I said that I had not attacked anyone personally, nor had I mentioned any specific issure or local event. The truths that God blessed me to tell were so general & foundational that if anyone was offended, they needed offending.

I am posting this for two purposes :

1)  to ask that you would pray that it bears fruit

2) to show you a picture of how working from the bottom up/ at the most local level first should look/ work.