Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The Problem with Democracy


by Pastor Paul Wolff


God's Heavenly Kingdom is not a democracy
God rules perfectly for the joy and benefit of all.
Several years ago in a Bible Study at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Dearborn, Michigan, our current senior Pastor, Joel Baseley, paraphrased Plato’s The Republic when he said something like this: “The problem with democracy is that a simple majority can approve whatever they want. If one vote more than 50% agrees to approve something immoral, then what is immoral becomes law, and the society deteriorates.”

Pastor Baseley’s brilliant paraphrase is even more remarkable when you read The Republic. Because of the question-and-answer style of the prose, Plato is not easily quotable. The first time I read through Book 8 on Democracy I did not see where Pastor Baseley got his quote from. Only a closer reading showed that it is accurate, though Plato’s reasoning is subtle. Plato’s character of Socrates looks at the strengths and weaknesses of Democracy from many different points, and evaluates each one in depth. Also, maybe it is just me, but I frequently found it hard to follow. Sometimes the Socrates character would seem to ask questions which would lead to obvious false answers, but it is possible that he was just exploring the assumed truths of his day in order to show them false.

Nevertheless, in The Republic, in the dialogue between Socrates and Adeimantus (in Book 8), Socrates also notes, “see how sensitive the citizens become; they chafe impatiently at the least touch of authority and at length, as you know, they cease to care even for the laws, written or unwritten; they will have no one over them. … Such, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny.” Here Plato shows that as long as the majority in a Democracy are willing to elect and submit to good, wise rulers then things will be fine and good, but once the majority refuses to submit to the benevolent elected rulers then they will elect tyrants to rule them. It might seem counter intuitive at first for this to happen, but like all the great ancient philosophers, Plato had a very good understanding of human nature, and his conclusions still explain people’s behavior 2,500 years after he wrote it. This is why modern people ought to read the ancient classics (in addition to the Christian Holy Scriptures).


Our national motto ought to be
a way of life for all people.
There are some (mostly Americans) who think that democracy is the same as freedom, but that is not even close to being true. In the rare cases where democracy upholds freedom it is because other societal influences help make democracy work. We saw the failure of democracy when U.S. President George W. Bush conquered Iraq after the attacks of September 11, 2001. President Bush was naïve to think that democracy would solve all the problems of that predominantly Muslim country which had been ruled for decades by a tyrant. For anyone paying attention it was clear from the start that democracy was never going to work there, and it would quickly devolve into an Islamic hell (i.e. hell for everyone, including the followers of Islam), which it did. One of the problems there was that Islam isn’t just a religion, but it is also a system of government. Those who follow Islam have already given up their freedom to their religious leaders, and the citizens will not rule themselves wisely.

Americans have found that a system of democracy in a predominantly Christian nation with well educated and informed citizens is the best way to ensure freedom and prosperity. But the problem with democracy is that it only takes one vote more than fifty percent of the populace to turn freedom into tyranny and slavery, and prosperity into poverty. Though in practice, it may take far less. In the United States, it apparently may take as few as five votes to take away our freedom. Five people out of three hundred million, and we no longer live in a democracy, but a tyrannical oligarchy. It only takes five people if those five are Justices of the Supreme court, and their grab for power goes unchecked.

Another problem is when the government keeps secrets from the people about things which they need to know. In a democracy, we, the people, must have enough of the relevant information in order to make wise decisions, and when we don’t have it, or have the wrong information, then democracy is thwarted. Likewise, when the news media keep vital information from the people, or gives them false information, then the people cannot make informed decisions, so the majority makes ill-informed decisions. This is why wise people are so upset by “fake news”, which are news companies pushing propaganda instead of news.

Another of the major flaws of Democracy has to do with lawmaking. In a pure Democracy a simple majority (one vote more than half the voters) can determine what is legal and what is illegal. This would work fine if a majority of the people have the good of all people in mind when they make the laws. However, we live in a sinful world, and sinners are naturally selfish. Selfish people tend to want what they think is profitable for them, but is not necessarily fair for all people. When such selfishness is codified in law this creates not only an inequality in the society, but it creates an injustice. If someone desires to make something immoral legal, then all they need to do is convince a simple majority of the voters to vote for it, and it becomes law.

There is a funny scene in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie (“At World’s End”). The pirates convene a court, and the rule is a simple democracy, but with a stipulation that the pirates can elect a king. The winner of the election doesn’t need a majority of the votes, but whoever gets the most votes wins. It is explained that the pirates have never elected a king because all the pirates only vote for themselves. This is a major fault with democracy. If people only ever vote for themselves and their interests over the general good of the society as a whole, then they will choose unwisely and make foolish decisions, and the society will suffer. A society of pirates is dysfunctional at the best of times, but when the whole society has a pirate mentality then that is bad for all of us.


The residents of this house have filled their brains
with strange chemicals and aren’t thinking clearly.
Voting for yourself is selfish,
and leads to a society full of pirates.
This “pirate mentality” illustrates the Biblical doctrine of Original Sin. Original sin is the sin we all inherit from our parents going all the way back to Adam and Eve. We sin because we are corrupted by original sin. Though some Christians would deny it, it is clearly taught in the Bible, and it is easily seen in society. No one has to teach children how to be selfish, it comes naturally because they have been corrupted from the time of their conception. In Psalm 51:5, King David noted, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This did not distinguish David from anyone else on earth (except Jesus), but it is common to us all. We see the result of original sin in the corruption and violence of the people who lived before the great flood in the days of Noah. In the early days (see Genesis 6), the people were distinguished between the Sons of God (those faithful to God) and the children of men (the unbelieving descendants of Cain), but gradually even the believers were seduced to wickedness and unbelief. The result of their unbelief was great violence upon the earth (Genesis 6:11). The people did what they wanted to do (see my August 2018 article, How to Avoid Going Your Own Way to Hell) which was democratic in its way, but it resulted in violence and evil. Original sin makes simple democracy end in tragedy sooner or later.


Our inherited sin (Original Sin)
corrupts all our governments and all our
interactions with people.
In the Bible God does not prescribe any particular form of government for all people. We are encouraged to submit to the worldly authorities as much as we can, though, in case of conflict with God’s law, “We must obey God rather than man.” (Acts 5:29). If we are forming a government ourselves, then we can take some lessons from how God organized Israelite society after the Exodus in the days of Moses. We should be careful how we do this, however. Many of the laws and ordinances of Ancient Israel were unique to them, and were prophetically and typologically pointed to their fulfillment in Christ, so that the Israelites (or those in Israel who still believed God’s Word) would recognize the Messiah when He fulfilled them. Once Jesus fulfilled the prophetic laws (such as becoming the One, true, atonement sacrifice which paid for the sins of the world) then those laws were no longer required to be practiced by believers.

When God first gave the Ten Commandments to the people, He began by saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3) Here God was telling the people to obey Him first of all. There is no democracy in this. We don’t get to choose what is right and what is wrong. God created us and knows what is best for us. God’s Law is right and best, and when our laws are in line with God’s Law then they are good and right. If our laws contradict God’s Law, then it doesn’t matter if the whole world elects to approve something immoral, it is still wrong.

If all the people and all the leaders put God first, above all else, then we would have a truly good and just government, and a peaceful, obedient, productive citizenry who govern themselves well. Citizens who govern themselves well are well governed. However, citizens who do not control themselves well require a much stronger government to maintain peace and prosperity. Note also that when God gave His commandments He reminded the people of His love for them. God is the one who rescues His people from slavery and captivity. God’s primacy in our lives, and in our governance isn’t just because He is our creator and God (though that is sufficient), but that He cares for us and rescues us from tyranny and oppression, along with sin and death, too.

There will always be inequality in society because people have different abilities, capacities, talents, desires, and the like. If the law is fair to all people, then people can prosper in a fair way according to their abilities and desires, even if it is not all equal, and that is enough to make people content. If the law unfairly favors some people over others, then those who are favored will prosper out of proportion with their abilities, and others will fail to prosper while working much harder to make a living. This is always unjust, and results in slavery, or serfdom, or oppression.


If we live by God’s Law
then we can rule ourselves wisely first,
and we can likewise choose wise people to govern us.
Sinners like to imagine that if they were God they would make laws that only benefited them and enslaved all other people. God’s law doesn’t work like this. God is holy and just and righteous and loving, and His law is good for all people. God does not need, nor does He desire, to make us His slaves. It is true that there is much talk in the Scriptures about serving God. For example, Psalm 2:11 says, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” But because God loves us and wants what is best for us, serving Him results in our freedom from worldly oppression and enslavement. Psalm 37:28-29 says, “For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.” It seems counter intuitive to our sinful, selfish minds, but serving God not only makes us free, but it results in our salvation from sin and death. Although God made us to serve Him, He loves us as His children, and it was out of that love that God became a man in Jesus Christ and lived a humble life of service to God, the Father, and us, in order to redeem us from our sins.

Sinners often rebel against God’s law because they imagine that they would be better off serving themselves than God. However, the sinful nature is a wicked taskmaster, and the person who is his own master actually enslaves himself to his base desires and is much worse off than the person who serves God. It is a paradox, but the one who serves God is free, while the one who serves himself is enslaved. Psalm 34:9-10 says, “Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

In the United States of America we have been fortunate that our founding fathers were wise in creating the laws of our land to make them fair, and instituting checks and balances on abuse of power so that they would stay fair for a long time. This, combined with a basis of Christian (or Christian influenced) rationalism which encouraged strong education, made sure that the voting citizens made and kept good laws which were generally fair.


God’s Commandments do not bring us salvation,
but they are given to us for our good
and can lead us to lead peaceful lives with our neighbors.
The laws of the United States were never perfect, but it was our laws that made the American people free enough to become the greatest country on earth in the 20th century. It actually took a great deal of effort, however, to get there. The practice of indentured servitude in the 18th century colonial period eventually became permanent slavery in some of the states, though not all. In the states that permitted slavery the majority of voters determined that it would be profitable if a minority of the population would be a permanent slave class. In some sense, this profited the slave owners greatly, and even some of the free men who didn’t own slaves may have profited to a lesser degree. However, when it came to the Civil War, the North won because it had prospered much more than the South because all citizens were free. The Union not only had greater wealth and manufacturing abilities, but it had a population who cared enough for the concept of freedom and “justice for all” that large numbers of their men were willing to volunteer to fight and to die to bring freedom and equality to all people in the Confederate states, not just a certain class of people. It is also true that, after the war, poor Federal oversight allowed Southern Democrats to keep some vestiges of oppression and slavery alive for a full century after the Civil War in the “Jim Crow laws”, but even then, the impoverished citizens were free to migrate north and prosper in the boom times of the 20th century.

The last verse in the Biblical book of Judges says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” In America we might be tempted to think that this is the democratic ideal, but in truth this is democracy gone wrong. American history shows that our forefathers rebelled against a tyrannical king and set up a better government in place of King George III, and that government included a form of democracy. However, the refrain in the last four chapters of Judges that there was no king in Israel is not a statement of what was right in Israel, but it is a condemning statement. God was Israel’s king, but the people kept turning away from God so that He sent their pagan neighbors to harass them and steal their food and belongings until they repented and turned back to Him as their true King. Also, everyone doing “what was right in their own eyes” is not the democratic ideal, but it is anarchy.


Doing “what is right in your own eyes”
is sure to bring calamity on yourself.
When we live righteous lives according to God’s law
then we can live at peace with others.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, when the U.S.A. was prospering, they did not do “what was right in their own eyes”, but they generally did what was right. When the evil of slavery became too entrenched in the economy of the South, tens of thousands of free white men from the North answered the call to take up arms against their brothers in the South and fought and died to make all men free. This was not doing “what was right in their own eyes” because none of the men who were maimed or died in the American Civil War wanted to lose their arms and legs or die. It was not profitable to be permanently disabled or dead, but they did what was right because it was the right thing to do in God’s sight. It was also the right thing to do for their children and their descendants who followed them. If Americans could enslave a whole class of people just because of a particular shade of their skin, then they could enslave other classes of people such as those of a different shade of their skin (as some 21st century American racists are now openly calling for!) or for any other reason.

The Southern slave owners in 19th century America (and those who secondarily benefited from the free labor of the slaves) only did what was right in their own eyes. It is much more profitable to hire a slave than to pay the man what his labor is truly worth, so that seems right in the eyes of sinful people. It is not right in God’s eyes, however, and we can see that, in a way, the American Civil War was God’s punishment of the U.S.A. for allowing the evil of slavery to endure for too long.

Even worse than the evils of slavery is the evil of abortion which goes on in the United States to this day (as I write this). God have mercy on the United States when He calls our people to account for the evil of abortion. Under slavery, it was neither common nor profitable for slave owners to murder their slaves or their children. However, the evil of abortion is that many Americans think they have the “right” to murder their children so that they can use the money and resources they should be using to raise their children for their own profit instead. This was not enacted democratically, but by the illegal fiat of seven tyrants on the Supreme Court. However in the 46 years since that wicked decision, no democratically elected President, nor Congress, nor subsequent Supreme Court, nor Constitutional Convention has seen fit to right that wrong. As a result, our country is divided as it has not been since before the Civil War. As the beginning of God’s judgment, our country is being invaded by illegal aliens and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have the will to stop it because they both have significant factions who want to enslave the illegals, or otherwise take advantage of them. There are growing signs elsewhere that the United States is headed towards another Civil War, or worse. Though that may yet be far from a necessary conclusion, we still seem to be heading on that path in 2019 as I write this.


In the days of Noah,
the people did what pleased them,
but this brought God's condemnation on them.
Noah submitted to God and was saved.
When sinners do “what is right in their own eyes” they are sure to commit evil, wickedness, and sin. That is what the corruption of sin does to our human nature. The result is anarchy, rather than benevolence and prosperity. The genius of the American democracy for the first 175-200 years or so of our nation was a great education system based on Christian principles. The U.S. Constitution makes allowances for people’s sinful nature by putting into place checks and balances on all levels of the federal government. When that works it does not let any one branch of government (neither the Judicial branch, nor the Executive branch, nor the Legislative branch) act in a tyrannical way over the other branches. When the Constitution does not work (due to corruption or ignorance of those in power, or even those citizens who participate in the democratic process) then evil abounds and democracy cannot rescue the people from tyranny because the power to do what is right has been taken out of the hands of good people. Plato is quoted as writing, “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” This is why we have checks and balances in our constitution.

God has certainly blessed the United States in the past 250 years. We ought not to take that as an endorsement of democracy. God had His own purpose for our nation, and if we continue to rebel against Him, then He could easily turn His back on us and let us destroy ourselves in civil war, or let a foreign power conquer us or otherwise take control. If God sent the ancient Assyrians to conquer the 10 tribes of Israel and the survivors were so dispersed and assimilated into the peoples of where they were sent that they have disappeared as a distinct people since ancient times, then God would have no problem doing something similar to an unfaithful America. In that case democracy will not be our salvation, but it could be our undoing.

There is much good about the democratic system of society, but it is not in itself the answer to all problems. It is much better at recognizing basic human dignity and personal property than socialism or communism. It is much more free than a monarchy or tyrannical dictator. It is much safer and prosperous than anarchy. Democracy gives people a chance to participate in their governance, and lets them convince others of the rightness of their cause, but without other controls in place, a democratic system can be turned into tyranny when a majority of voters act in ignorance or malice, as sinful people are likely to do.

I should also note here that democracy is not equivalent to protesting. Marching for a cause to inform voters about the rightness of your cause can possibly aid democracy, but it is not necessary for democracy. Just because people are marching in protest for something, it doesn’t mean that their cause is worthy or right. Depending on your cause, the informed voters may reject your cause as being immoral, or otherwise not good for society. You can protest all you want, but if your cause is wrong the voters are free to reject your cause as immoral. That is democracy working as it ought.

The scriptures are clear that believers always have to fight against evil and for what is good, right, and proper. Often the fight begins within ourselves against our own sinful nature. It is not natural for sinful people to want to do good and work for the benefit of others. It was not easy for Jesus to win our salvation either, yet He did it. Though He is the almighty, eternal, creator of the universe, He had to live a humble life and endure the scorn and hatred of His sinful people, and let them nail Him to a cross and crucify Him until He died. But, in doing so, Jesus paid the punishment for our sins, and won for us life and salvation forever. Fortunately we didn’t get a vote to say if we wanted that or not. Both Jew and Gentile sinners turned against Jesus and had Him put to death, but God used that to win our salvation so that Christ gives life and salvation as a free gift to all who trust in Jesus to forgive them from their sins. God’s vote is the only one that counts, but He has elected to save us from our sin, rather than to punish us as we deserve. This is not a bad deal at all. It is the best deal in the world. If people insist on rejecting God’s gift of forgiveness in Christ, then He will let them condemn themselves to torment in hell, but why would anyone do that? It is much better to receive the gift of Jesus and all the eternal blessings which go with it. Whatever we may suffer in this wicked world is small and fleeting compared to the blessings of eternal life in paradise with Jesus.


See also my article on “The Problem with Socialism”  

See also my article on “The Problem with Sexual Politics”

You can read The Republic by Plato online at 
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

The Chapter on democracy is here: 
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.9.viii.html 
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