Just a quick recap of the recent news story about a rural Tennessee family whose house burned to the ground while a local municipal fire department refused to extinguish the blaze because an annual fee of $75.00 had not been paid.
Cranick, who lives outside the city limits, admits he “forgot” to pay the annual $75 fee. The county does not have a county-wide firefighting service, but South Fulton offers fire coverage to rural residents for a fee.
I have heard of such arrangements where an annual subscription is available for those outside city limits which covers the services of a fire department should they become necessary. The exception being that the fire department will respond and do what they do best. Put out the fire! If the subscription had not been paid in advance the homeowner is billed for the actual expenses incurred by the fire department. The cost to the homeowner can exceed hundreds of dollars but at least the loss by fire is minimized.
Now we hear from the spokesmonster of the American Family Association, Bryan Fischer who said in his blog, “Firefighters did the Christian thing in letting the house burn to the ground.”
In this case, critics of the fire department are confused both about right and wrong and about Christianity. And it is because they have fallen prey to a weakened, feminized version of Christianity that is only about softer virtues such as compassion and not in any part about the muscular Christian virtues of individual responsibility and accountability.
The Judeo-Christian tradition is clear that we must accept individual responsibility for our own decisions and actions. He who sows to the flesh, we are told, will from the flesh reap corruption. The law of sowing and reaping is a non-repealable law of nature and nature’s God.
We cannot make foolish choices and then get angry at others who will not bail us out when we get ourselves in a jam through our own folly. The same folks who are angry with the South Fulton fire department for not bailing out Mr. Cranick are furious with the federal government for bailing out Wall Street firms, insurance companies, banks, mortgage lenders, and car companies for making terrible decisions. What’s the difference?
Thanks Mr. Fischer. Your vile remarks help open minds to the radical concept, for some anyway, that Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Dan Barker, P. Z. Myers and countless others who are without the shackles of theism are right and that you are wrong.
Gordonokc's Blog 
The age of free market social services is being thrust upon us. By defunding police, mental health,fire departments and schools we are ensuring that the best services shall be given to those most deserving,i.e., the wealthy.
Those lazy cadillac welfare queens do not put aside enough for insurance, retirement or any of the things that right thinking Americans work so dilligently to achieve. And so they pay for their folly.
God wants it that way.
And now libertarians are trying to say this wasn’t really a libertarian example because it was a government entity, even though it was technically a corporation (the city) acting as any corporation might.
A different corporation might have been willing to negotiate with the man over services on the spot, but there’s no guarantee of that, as corporations are only as good as their owners and managers. Nor is this area large enough to support fabled competing fire fighting service providers, which might give some corporate management alternative.
But certainly had fire fighting services been available from a taxing authority such as the county, this would never have happened, as the county having forcibly acquired tax payments would have been obliged by law to provide the service, and the fire fighters wouldn’t have given a second thought to saving the man’s home.
Sorry for the homeowner’s sacrifice, but it couldn’t have happened at a better time, with the elections coming up and Republicans/Tea Partiers ever harping on the immorality of forcing people to pay taxes for government services.
I’m curious. Does anybody know if churches and places of worship that lie outside the city limits have to pay this annual fee of $75.00, or are they being privileged above everyone else?
How can Christianity be about personal responsibility when the whole premise of their religion is that you’re foisting the punishment for your sins off on a sacrificial lamb in the form of Jesus?
Fantastic observation!
Gordon,
As Bryan Fischer pointed out himself, there are plenty of us “weakened, feminized” Christians who hold on to such unimportant issues such as “compassion.” So, no reason to throw God (or theism) out with the bathwater. I base a lot of my morality and worldview on Christian theology and I a’int nothing like Mr. Fischer :-). Check out my blog sometime if you get the chance.
Trey,
I recall a moment when my partner reminded me that his minister grandfather was a good man. To which I replied that I have no doubt that he was. I then continued to say that he would have been a good man had he been a lawyer, college professor or any other profession regardless if he was with or without religion.
If given a choice between candidates, one being a libertarian atheist and the other a liberal Christian, I would support the liberal Christian especially if that person was anything like those at the Talk to Action website.
We could agree on all or nearly all topics with the notable exception of one (or three depending on how one wants to look at it). That’s not bad odds considering the complexity of contemporary events.
I think that’s a very cool perspective, Gordon. There are many, some who may be termed “militant” atheists, who would believe that faith in God, in and of itself, will corrupt a person or cause them to make poor decisions. So, it’s refreshing to hear otherwise.
Apparantly that is a nuance lost on them. What is even more flabbergasting is the sheer amount of denial and ignorance of scientific fact.
Of course, what a great site and informative posts, I will add backlink – bookmark this site? Regards,
Reader.