The Texas TSA Bill Story – What Really Happened

I had the honor of giving the keynote address at the Third Anniversary Party for Texans for Accountable Government. They asked me to do this because, besides being a TAG member, I also was heavily involved in the effort to resist the TSA in Texas. During my talk, I told the story of what happened during our battle. Some of this is well known, but I had not yet put all of the details of my involvement in one place. The following is the speech I wrote out, even though I gave it more or less extemporaneously during the event…

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you tonight, it is my honor to address such an esteemed group of people whom I can truly call my friends in the struggle for liberty. What I’d like to do tonight is tell you the story of our battle against the TSA: how it began, the opposition we faced, and why we gained a victory despite not getting a bill passed.

Everything began in the fall of 2010, when two public trends began to catch my attention. First was the increasing rate at which the TSA was subverting our civil liberties and right to travel through the x-ray and millimeter wave scanners. Second was the growing interest in the principles of nullification. So, having already developed a rapport with newly elected representative of the Lockhart area of Texas, David Simpson, we launched a conversation. Little did we know where it would take us.

I started with this: “What do you think about giving the TSA a swift kick in the rear?”
He said, “Tell me more…”
And so it began.

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“Why do the nations rage?” and more on Biblical nations

This entry is part 37 of 42 in the series Christian Theology of Public Policy Course

This essay continues the Christian Theology and Public Policy Course by John Cobin, author of the books Bible and Government and Christian Theology of Public Policy. This column is the third segment of a five-part series dealing with Christian perspectives on nations and nationalism.

God is not concerned about the repentance and salvation of America as a nation-state but rather the salvation of the nations within America. Jesus Christ used the term nation to mean His chosen people—the spiritual “seed” of Abraham (Galatians 3:29)—as opposed to Abraham’s physical lineage. “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it (Matthew 21:43). The Apostle Peter makes it clear that the church of Jesus Christ is now God’s “holy nation” and His “special people” rather than ethnic Israel. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). And the Apostle John similarly esteems the work of Christ in redeeming His church from all racial and cultural groups: “For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

Accordingly, Jesus “shall inherit all nations”, not in some political sense but in terms of gaining a people from all ethnic groups.(1) The Psalms declare that Jesus Christ has “the nations” for His “inheritance”, and has become the “head of the nations”, where “all the families of the nations shall worship before” Him. God’s salvation is known “among all nations”,(2) so that “all nations shall serve Him” and “all nations shall call Him blessed” (Psalms 82:8; 2:8; 18:43; 22:27; 67:2; 72:11, 17). Now “all nations shall flow to” the Lord’s house, “a house of prayer for all nations”, where “all the nations shall be blessed” (Isaiah 2:2; Mark 11:17; Galatians 3:8). The gospel is at the present “a witness unto all nations” that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations”, “for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name” (Matthew 24:14; Luke 24:47; Romans 1:5). Thus, Christians are called to “make disciples of all the nations” via the gospel which must “be preached to all the nations” (Matthew 28:19; Mark 13:10). As a result, “the glory and the honor of the nations” will be present in heaven (Revelation 21:26).

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Christianity, War, and Ron Paul

This talk was given on August 20 at the Florida Liberty Summit 2011 in Orlando, Florida.

Thank you Campaign for Liberty for the opportunity to speak about a subject I feel so passionate about. I would like to speak to you today about Christianity and War. Although I am a Bible-believing Christian and a theological and cultural conservative, I write extensively about the biblical, economic, and political fallacies of religious people, and especially on the topic of Christianity and war. This is a subject where ignorance abounds in both pulpit and pew, and most of it willful ignorance. This is a subject that exposes Bible scholars as Bible illiterates. This is a subject that turns Christians into disgraceful apologists of the state, its leaders, its military, and its wars. This is a subject that reveals pro-life Christians to be two-faced supporters of wholesale murder.

If there is any group of people that should be opposed to war, torture, militarism, the warfare state, state worship, suppression of civil liberties, an imperial presidency, blind nationalism, government propaganda, and an aggressive foreign policy it is Christians, and especially conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians who claim to strictly follow the dictates of Scripture and worship the Prince of Peace. It is indeed strange that Christian people should be so accepting of war. War is the greatest suppressor of civil liberties. War is the greatest destroyer of religion, morality, and decency. War is the greatest creator of fertile ground for genocides and atrocities. War is the greatest destroyer of families and young lives. War is the greatest creator of famine, disease, and homelessness. War is the health of the state.

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