Darrow Miller and Friends

Global Economic Crisis – Part 6 of 6

There are three primary options of governance:  license, tyranny and freedom.

License is what some people in the West mean by “freedom.”  Freedom, in an Atheistic framework, is defined as the ability to do what one pleases.  People do what “feels good,” they follow their noses.  This concept means that people are “free” to do what is “right in their own eyes,” including the freedom to do wrong.  Freedom as license leads to anarchy in any society.

In response to anarchy, most societies will turn to tyranny to secure some kind of order in a society.  They choose a government that will rule with an iron hand, they create more laws to try and curb people’s appetites, and they build more jails to incarcerate those who have no moral compass.  We have witnessed this in Germany and Russia after WW I.

But tyranny and anarchy are not the only choices for a society.  The third alternative is freedom – the right to do good.  For a society to avoid the extremes of chaos and tyranny, the citizens must govern themselves internally, based on God’s moral law.  We may call this Christian self-government.

This form of government is both political and economic.  As we learn to govern our moral appetites, the need for external restraints (laws, lawyers, and jails) are reduced and freedom is maximized.  Similarly, as we govern our internal capital (intellectual, moral, spiritual, creativity, etc.) we build the capacity to steward the external capital that is found in our communities (natural resources, social capital, infrastructure, etc.) and thus create prosperous societies.

To escape our current global economic crisis, we must return to a Biblical metaphysic and moral framework.  We need to begin to practice the ancient virtues of work, saving, and giving.  We need to learn, again, the disciplines of internal self-government based on biblical principle so as to produce free, just, and healthy societies.

-Darrow L. Miller

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About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).

1 Comment

  1. Disciple Nations Alliance

    January 27, 2009 - 2:57 pm

    I found this 20 minute video clip titled The Story of Stuff – which is pretty good talking about the need to not be such thoughtless consumers. It actually said that our national happiness had continued to slope down since the 1950s and that we are more busy than we have ever been. Very interesting. Good things to think about as we seek to be creative in developing resources + good stewards.

    http://www.storyofstuff.com/

    Tim

    Here were some of her text encouragements: http://www.storyofstuff.com/anotherway.html

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