In the little shire of Grants Pass, there are forces at work who have their eyes on corrupting the simple honest folks who live there. Attention has been drawn to the community because it has been among the few to resist the power that flows behind the “gifts” offered to them. “Please accept these gifts. Grants of power that will solve your problems. Only agree to call yourselves and your children oppressors. Diversity! Let us sexualize them. Agree that you are all racists. Equity! Harm is health. Theft is compassion for the poor. Inclusion! Slavery is freedom. Our drugs are better and safer than theirs. State is safe and good. Take it… the gift… the grant… take it.” whispers the limping hooded figure from the state.
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them” – the inscription on the One Ring from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
The story goes, for those who are unfamiliar, an evil sorcerer in a magical land created seven rings that granted power to those who wear them. But what they didn’t realize was that the sorcerer himself had a ring that he created with the power to control those who wore the other seven rings, making their power bound to his. Thus the epic story of fantasy and adventure, of good versus evil, has captured the imaginations of millions through the tale of the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s brilliant use of fantasy to convey ideas of honor, nobility, loyalty, friendship, kindness, as well as maliciousness, cruelty, and war are unparalleled in fiction. He understood deeply the way the world works, and that there are greater powers in play than what meets the eye, both in the simple things of life and in the pretentious. He understood that not all gifts are intended as blessings for the receiver.
We have watched as organizations across our nation, once started by the Church, crumble one by one to the corrupting power of state financial influence. From our lofty ivy league institutions such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, to our once globally renown medical institutions, all the way down to our locally formed poverty assistance organizations such as Rogue Retreat, all fallen to state funded power. All of which listened to the whispers of the corrupting ring of power, hidden behind the precious name of government grants. They are all “gifts” that are a bit tricksy in that they are employed to corrupt the strength of one’s commitment to Biblical values.
Of course, like all of the strong and good characters in the Lord of the Rings story, we are tempted to think that we are beyond corruption. Gandalf, one of the wisest characters in the story objects to the offer of the ring, “Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe. The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength.”[1] Like the power offered by the ring, the desire to use money taken by force from our fellow citizens to do good while ignoring how it was obtained can only corrupt.
One of the examples that God gives us of how to love our neighbor reads, “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”[2] Using stolen money taken from our taxes, and giving it to the homeless is not justice or loving. It should come as no surprise when those who take our hard-earned funds use them against the very people they have taken them from. The only people who prosper from theft are the thieves. Therefore, if we are to ever turn the tide we must limit our work with those gifts that are freely offered, not taken.
Tolkien’s Christian faith runs through out his story line, and one thing he understood was that there are greater forces at play behind our politics than meets the eye. These same powers that he described in his fictional way are what the Apostle Paul wrote factually about to the Church in Ephesus. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”[3] Like the serpent in the garden, they tempt us to a power that promises to be like Gods but ask us to gain it apart from Gods ways and character[4]. Tolkien was trying to teach us about a spiritual battle from the safety of a fictional adventure story, inspiring us to join our own battles to resist what the ring of power truly represents and to protect our shire called home.
In his book Productive Christians – A Biblical Response to Socialist Economics, author David Chilton writes, “Compassion, if not informed and ruled by biblical standards of justice and mercy, can become the cruelest form of oppression.” It can be hard to discern whether a power is good or evil, especially when someone’s motives sound good like those of Gandalf, a desire to help the weak. But goodness is never accomplished by evil means[5]. If it has been stolen from people and used against their will it can only produce slavery. If, however, the power of change is freely given by free people, it truly has the potential to set people free. Look for yourselves at the tent camps and city parks and ask, does what I’m looking at resemble freedom or slavery?
Brian Bouteller
Grants Pass Gospel Rescue Mission
[1] The Fellowship of the Ring – JRR Tolkien
[2] Leviticus 19:15 emphasis mine
[3] Ephesians 6:12
[4] Genesis 3:4-5
[5] Proverbs 12:10