Pastor Seth Hedman

There is no neutral. The government is not neutral. The public schools are not neutral. It’s not truly possible for any institution to be neutral because there will always be a worldview and ideology at the center, directing its decisions, values, and goals. The attempt at neutrality inevitably becomes reason or science or profit or efficiency or any number of innocent sounding goals that sneak in their own priorities, anthropologies, and moralities. Reason excludes revelation. Science excludes theology. Profit excludes morality. Efficiency excludes transcendence. Whatever is at the top of the hierarchy demands that all others bend the knee. Under the guise of neutrality, these underlying priorities will hook you and lead you where you do not want to go.

So these institutions in America are not neutral. But they never were. It was not long ago that there was prayer in every public school in America. And not generic Deistic prayer, but Protestant Christian prayer and Bible lessons and Catechisms. The reason that so many Roman Catholic parochial schools exist is because the public schools were Protestant! Yet, slowly but surely, under the guise of neutrality, Christianity was removed and replaced by various forms of secular humanism, a worldview with its own view of man’s origins, morality, and destiny. Nature abhors a vacuum. Neutrality is not possible.

A great case study is what recently happened at the Iowa State Capitol building. A statue of the goat-headed Baphomet, the symbol for Satanism, complete with altar and candles, is displayed right next to a manger scene. Many shrug their shoulders, as if this is simply the price we must pay for freedom. But if neutrality is not possible, then think about what this display is really articulating: that the Government of Iowa views Christianity and Satanism as basically the same. Maybe we should have nothing displayed? But that says we believe nothing… which creates another void that will be filled with something else.

The irony is that the Constitution of the State of Iowa is not neutral on the question! The preamble states, “WE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF IOWA, grateful to the Supreme Being for the blessings hitherto enjoyed, and feeling our dependence on Him for a continuation of those blessings, do ordain and establish a free and independent government, by the name of the State of Iowa…” Satan is, by definition, the enemy of God and His People. So if the State of Iowa claims dependence on God, then Satan is the enemy of the State of Iowa! This is legally and constitutionally the case! Must we the people allow an enemy of the state to celebrate their defiance in our centers of power? Shall I kick the burglar out or make him a sandwich?

Controversial statements coming: Jesus is Lord, Satan is evil. The entirety of Western Civilization is built on such simple claims. We the people, through our elected representatives, must enact and defend it. If we cannot, then jurisprudence should be challenged, constitutions amended, and civil disobedience is in order. Because if Jesus is not Lord, then something else is. Something else: Islam, Marxism, Gnosticism, the Occult, Satanism will fill the void. In many cases, it already has. I’m encouraged that someone had the courage to put an end to the Satanic prayer corner. I only wish it had been an Iowan. I hope Governor Reynolds’ pardon is forthcoming.