Historically, in the history of Christian Missions, any individual or people groups of an indigenous culture that the Missionaries were serving in that converted to Christian just for the advantages that Christianity brought were often referred to as a “Rice Christians.” Often times these conversions were in name only as attachments to the previous religion that they were thought to have left was retained in subtle ways and so the label “Rice Christians” became a pejorative. Basically the reality of “Rice Christians” was that their loyalty to Christ was purchased at the price of social or material advantage. Once that social or material advantage went into eclipse so did their loyalty to Christ.
Today in our current climate I am convinced that something like this is happening in America in reference to the religion of statism. Legion are the name of those whose loyalty belongs to the state so long as the state can provide them with material or social advance. But what is to happen when the state runs out of provision for these Rice Americans? What will it mean for our nation when people lose their loyalty to the state because the state can no longer provide — especially when there is no religion for them to go back to with which they are already familiar? I am fairly certain that families who have been Rice Americans for several generations are not going to deal peacefully if their god and their religion can no longer provide for them.
But I suppose this scenario could never play out since the states supply for Rice Americans is doubtless inexhaustible.
Fred Reed’s column addressed this at some point. Despite the occasional R-rated language, I highly recommend his work. I’ve tried to find the exact quote, but it escapes me. He writes something along the lines of, “When the government can no longer provide the carrot (welfare) or the stick (police), this country is going to explode.”
He does not seem to see this as a possibility, but an inevitability. His background is in military and police reporting, where he picked up a lot of truth that a lot of people refuse to acknowledge.
Jay
I like Reed’s stuff, though its been awhile since I’ve read him.
And I agree … I see this as inevitable. My last line was sarcasm.
I think more and more folks are seeing this as inevitible…the latest Chalcedon podcast offered the same understanding.
Yes, this is more honed in on what my concerns are with this type of climate. I’ve often stated that it isn’t a brute force large government that is our biggest concern (although still a big concern), it is rather when the Fed shuts down (because it will shut off all at once and most likely will not correct itself over time, repealing much of the waste and bloat), the resulting chaos will be destructive to say the least. New Orleans was just a foreshadowing of what we could be seeing on a national scale.
Greg,
Chalcedon should put me on some kind of retainer.
Smile,
Given the many generations of Americans that have been heavily catechized in state worship by the public school system, I suppose that there are plenty of rice Americans that see their right to be materially cared for by the state as a guaranteed entitlement, which may require their “voluntary” enrollment in some citizen’s army to maintain. When the private cycle of the great debt-based economic engine runs out of steam, history has shown that the state will often resort to the war cycle to keep the engine going in building a new head of steam, funded by the state’s borrowing as much as it sees necessary to fight the various wars to save mankind, etc. With the rapidly declining trend into economic depression, it remains to be seen whether the behemoth American state will crumble or organize all the more “to save the day.”
Tom,
I’ve often thought that if this is a economy that is the worst since the great depression, and if the state is making the same mistakes now as it did then (Amity Shlaes says this is so) then the result at the end of this ride may be war just as it was at the end of the last depression.
Also there is the reality of Obama’s call for a civilian corps that is just as effective as the military.
I guess this is why they call it Welfare – Warfare state.