Delgation and Government Order

Exodus 18 contains an interesting story about advice given to Moses by his father-in-law, Jethro. Moses was the only judge for more than a million people. Everyone came to him as judge, mediator and counselor. He was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted by this role and the people who had to wait for service and advice were really frustrated.

Jethro advised Moses to delegate so that the people could have their issues addressed at a local level by local leaders. Only the big issues that could not be decided locally were to be decided by Moses.

Most of us would call that wise counsel, whether it is for a large business or a government. Local people best understand local issues and make the best decisions, unless the issue is too big or complex for a local control and direction.

The Founding Fathers similarly created a federal government of limited power. For example, federal courts are very limited in the issues that they address and decide - reserving all other issues to state courts. The Bill of Rights to our federal Constitution includes the Tenth Amendment, which essentially states that all powers not expressley delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states.

As the federal government has attempted to expand its influence and control of every issue - not limiting its reach to the big/broad issues and to those that are specifically delegated under the Constitution, there has been a movement in the states to assert the Tenth Amendment right to independently decide state/local issues without the pernicious strings of the federal goverment dictating local decisions. In one of her last acts as Governor of Alaska, Gov. Palin signed a resolution, approved unanimously by both houses of the state legislature, that asserts Alaska's Tenth Amendment rights under the Constitution. Thirty-six other states are evaluating similar measures.

Do you think the biblical principle of local control of most issues works best? Is there a reason that citizens of the states should send tax money to the federal government in order to have it processed and returned to state and local governments with strings attached? What are the forces at work that cause the federal expansion and intrusion? What can we do to keep taxes and issues in the control of state and local governments?