Whose Golden Chains?

by Milan Markovich

The wonderful state continuously promises to keep us “safe” from all sorts of misfortune life may foist upon us. You may ask at what cost? The eventual cost (the chains) will be all of your freedom and natural rights given to you by your Creator. The golden part is the always increasing economic costs, that you probably hope will be born more by someone else than by you.

What is slavery? It is simply the power of control over the body and its use of a living person. That control dictates what, when and how a person may do with his physical body (or life). The degree of control merely indicates how oppressive the slavery is in any given situation.

For example, in the case of real property, if I may choose the house I live in, but cannot paint it a certain color, or landscape it in the manner I wish, etc., do I really own the house? If I must pay a property tax to a state authority or eventually lose title to the house, do I really own the house, or does the state?

In the case of my children, I must vaccinate them or lose custody. Am I really their parent or is the state?

Now, in the case of my body, if I must serve the state for two years in the military or other state service, it seems clear that for that two-year period, I am 100% owned by the state. If I am prohibited from using certain substances, but allowed others, do I own my own body, or does the state?

If I choose my career and profit by it through my own efforts of training, experience and education but yet can only keep 50% of the profits, I am at least 50% owned in slavery by the state.  Now, if I voted for these taxes and am in agreement with them, I am still a slave, albeit voluntarily.

Even though a majority of the population within a given state may choose and even favor being state-owned chattels, it does not confer upon them the right to foist that condition upon me (democracy). To slaves, it is a matter of to what degree they are well-treated by the state. To a free man it is a matter of to what degree the state leaves him alone.

But let us distinguish between being a slave physically and mentally. If I do not accept that another person can rule me, no matter how oppressive the physical slavery may be, I am still a free man spiritually. Only if I acquiesce spiritually, can I be a total slave. One cannot be part slave anymore than one can be a little bit pregnant. Spiritually, you either are or are not a slave, because you either are free or not.

A true Christian can only be owned spiritually by God. This is a voluntary condition. An agnostic or atheist is owned spiritually by himself. We each only have one owner in a spiritual sense. If I am voluntarily owned by God, I accept His law as supreme and am bound by it. It is a contract more binding on me than any physical earthly one. It matters not what another man or group of men say the law is. I was owned and created by God first, and I can only be spiritually owned by another if I voluntarily break my contract with God and allow it to happen. This really is the crux of the matter.

My God is a jealous god, and will allow my allegiance to Him only. I cannot be true to God if I follow a man-made law that goes against His law. His law is simply that I treat my fellow human beings as I would expect myself to be treated (the absolute right of property), and that I love Him with all my mind, heart and soul. If I live my life in this manner, I am obeying God’s law. If I accept property or benefits through the coercive activities of the state (welfare, etc.), I am violating His law because I would not want my property taken against my will.

If I pay those taxes involuntarily because not to do so puts me in a worse physical condition than not paying them, I am not violating His law, even though those taxes may be used to oppress or kill other people. If I personally participate in any manner by working for the state to assist it in its activities of oppression, I am breaking God’s law. If viewed in this light, it is no wonder why the state is vehemently opposed to any mention of God or His laws in the public schools or other government institutions. They vie to compete as an alternative to Him and His Law. Secular Humanism is as much a man-made religion as any other.

The key then is whether we choose to go along with the state voluntarily, or know in our own hearts and minds that we do what we must because we are forced to. To paraphrase what someone once said, there is no one more enslaved than he who does not know it.

For Christians, Jesus said to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Speaking for myself, my body and my life do not belong to Caesar – they belong to God since He created me and gave me life. I can contract my life to whomever I choose, and I chose God a long time ago, and will never choose the state. An agnostic or atheist retains full ownership and control of his body and life unless it is voluntarily given over to the state by accepting their handouts or using the state to further their own interests.

So while it seems we are all slaves physically, some of us are more enslaved than others, all wrapped up in those golden chains.

March 28, 2002

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