“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” (1 Peter 2:13-14, NIV)

william blackstone was THE most read and studied author at the time of our nation’s founding. he was studied in every law school. he had this to say:

“Municipal law, thus understood, is properly defined to be ‘a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong.”

the problem is that we have lost a collective sense of what is right and what is wrong. and michael is likely correct that the false sense of right-and-wrong may dominate the political decisions of the next administration, as it has, at times, in the current one.

A salubrious environment is much to be desired, yet we can expect that much mis-reading of special revelation (ie, misquoting of the Bible) may be in the near future of the next administration.

I believe that a similar misreading was largely responsible for the collapse of the Compassionate Conservatism under the current president. All of us ought to be compassionate conservatives, but we must do so with our own (not government’s) resources.

First, based on Genesis 9:6ff I believe a fundamental principle of conservative must be that the primary purpose of government is to protect human life. From there it is a short stretch to assert that a secondary purpose of government is to protect its citizens from predation by non-citizens, foreign government and by fellow citizens.

Second, based on Romans 13:1ff I believe that another fundamental purpose of government must be to punish crime, especially when those crimes fall under item #1 above.

Third, based on 1 Peter 2:13-14 I believe that another fundamental purpose of government must be to extol virtuous behavior. Now this particular position is fraught with potential missteps, so let me state this plainly: government’s purpose is not to make us good. That is not something that law can accomplish. Let me say it another way: government cannot force virtuous behavior (contrary to Obama’s assertions to Bill O’Reilly and Joe the Plumber!); government can only extol virtuous behavior.

Not all conservatives will agree with these principles in their desire to have a set of governing principles which are based on natural revelation without reference to special revelation. But I believe that the implementation of these three fundamentals (that government must protect human life; that government must punish evil and that government must extol virtue) would do much to create a salubrious environment for the nation’s citizens.