Part One- The Basis of Togetherness and Common Identity

William R Collier Jr

Community is a word that is bandied about like a panacea for all our woes. The problem is that talk of community rarely ever leads to community. Community, like marriage, requires work.

We can’t have real community until we have created a sense of community within and amongst the people we want to have community with.

Do we want community with our neighbors? If we do, then we need to create a sense of community with them, a little neighborhood togetherness and identity goes a long way towards inspiring and motivating people to DO the things that a community does.

Take away togetherness and common identity of some kind and you have no real reason for people to act in unison for anything. People need these two things, first, as a basis of having community relationships together.

Community includes a common identity, a feeling of commonality, things that are held in common, and people who are in fellowship on a regular basis for specific common purposes. A community can have most of these things at different levels, but the more deeply these things are experienced and the more of them are experienced, the more cohesive the community will be.

Creating a sense of community is all about identity and affection. The other elements of community can only follow these two things- identity and affection.

This holds true for every kind of community.

The first question to ask is, “what is the purpose of your community?”

In a neighborhood your purpose might be to clean the streets, to watch out for children, to reduce crime, and to help people through economic hardships.

In a business, you want to provide a high quality product or service to your customers so that you can earn a profit and make enough money to prosper both owners and workers.

In a church you want to meet one another’s spiritual needs, care for the needy, reach out to the lost with the gospel, and support the work of the ministry.

Whatever it is that you are doing, you have to be clear about your goals. These goals will not inspire or motivate people if they aren’t based on real needs that are also felt needs, if they aren’t realistic, and if there are not really clear action items that, if carried out by enough people, are likely to acheive the desired result.

The next thing to determine is who will be asked to be part of your community. If it is a neighborhood, then it’s all of your neighbors. If it is a business, then it is the people who are part of the business and the people who are its clients and customers. If it is a church, then it’s all the church members.

Communities are exclusive: that means that not everyone at any one time is “qualified” to be a member. People from outside your neighborhood are not qualified to be members of a neighborhood focused community. People who neither work in nor are served by a business are not qualified to be members of that business’s community. People who are not members of a church are not qualified to be members of that church’s community.

Being exclusive does not being closed- while not anyone IS qualified to be a member of all communities, an open community accepts everyone who is qualified. Moreover, anyone who wants to become qualified, by moving into the neighborhood, becoming a customer or worker to a business, or joining a church, is free to do so. The only condition is that the potential member shares the goals of the community and has a stake in the community.

Moving beyond goals and who are qualified to be members, we move into affection for fellow members.

While the community has a common goal, every kind of community must also care for its own members.

In practical terms, if community members suffer then they cannot function and if they can’t function then the goals of the community will suffer. To care for member’s needs is self-preservation for a community.

Members care for one another on the basis of “my good and your good are of equal value to me.” This is affection- to care for the good of others as you do for yourself. This is practical, it isn’t just a feeling, and it is extremely powerful. When people have such affection for one another, they are not easily divided by jealousy and strife because they see that what is good for one is good for all.

Affection need not be reciprocal, although reciprocal affection is best and should be nurtured. In fact, as community emerges, standing within the community should include a requirement of demonstrating common affection for fellow members.

Not all qualified people will participate in community- standing within a community, the right to speak and have influence, should be extended only to people who are qualified, who share the goals of the community, and who demonstrate this common affection.

After affection comes identity. Identity is more than a commitment to goals and people, which are very important, it is a commitment to a shared way of life, a shared destiny, that says, “the fate of this community is MY FATE, my success and happiness is equal in value as the overall success and happiness of this community.” When someone takes on a shared identity, it’s like adding a name to their own name, like the family name (last name) or the old Latin “cognomen”.

When you say “I am a Bethesdan” because that’s the name of your neighborhood or an “IBMer” because that’s the name of your business, or a “River of Lifer” because that’s the name of your church you are saying something powerful- you are saying that this community is now as much a part of you as you are of it.

To obtain a shared identity you need a name that is unique to your community, that is rooted in your goals and the people who are qualified to be members, and that you make the “brand” of your community.

Shared identity cannot come without common goals and common affection, but a community that stops at goals and common affection can only go so far. Only people who take on the shared identity as part of themselves will be willing and able to contribute to your community in a sacrificial manner that truly makes a difference.

Status, which is authority as a stakeholder who can make decisions, should be determined on the basis of demonstrable commitment to a shared identity, demonstrable skills, and meritorious conduct and contributions to the community itself. The most important of these three things, however, is shared identity.

Creating A Freedom Community

Raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I swear (or affirm) that I will support the liberty of my fellow citizens to pursue godliness, self-reliance, and self-determination and that I will stand up for the rights, persons, and property of my fellow citizens against all threats of every kind by all legitimate and reasonable means- SO HELP ME GOD.”

Could you make such a commitment?

Do you know people you work with or who live right near you who would make such a commitment and actually keep it?

Imagine if most of the voters in your town or county took such a pledge and also agreed to ONLY support politicians who also take such a pledge and abide by it.

Imagine if most of your local officials, judges, and police or sheriff’s deputies ALSO took this pledge and abided by it.

You see, if you want your community to be a freedom community, this type of pledge, getting people to make the pledge and keep it, will help you to transform your community from a community that is not a sanctuary or safe-haven for freedom into a freedom community.

How can you make this happen?

The key ingredients for a freedom community include: a local freedom press that acts as a Watchdog, Advocate, and Resource; small groups of people who agree to mutually support one another’s liberty and security; and a town meeting based on getting citizens to take the freedom pledge and compelling the local politicians to do the same.

One of these things, the creation of a local Freedom Press, builds the others. Through a local Freedom Press you can gather like-minded people and encourage them to form neighborhood teams that form on the basis of a mutual pledge and for the purpose of getting their neighbors to do the same thing.

Creating a Freedom Press is very simple these days, just spend a few dollars on a domain name and hosting, use blogging software, and use fliers to let your neighbors now what you doing.

What do you write about?

The key things are being a Watchdog, and Advocate, and a Resource and covering mundane news, including school news and events, local community events, local official meetings, and the police blotter. If you create a good information network with local officials and news sources, you’ll never lack for news and information.

Word of mouth is your best asset. People need to know that you are providing such news as the school lunch menu or announcements about new road construction. They need to know that you are a fair and accurate Watchdog, Advocate, and Resource.

Once people see that you are doing these things, they will listen carefully to your ideas on getting people to take the freedom pledge, to form neighborhood freedom teams, and to create a freedom town meeting to ensure that elected officials abide by the freedom pledge!

If you are a blogger or a writer and if you can take and abide by such a pledge, why not drop us a line, tell us about yourself, and let’s see if we can help you launch your own local freedom press.

Just email [email protected].

Even if you don’t email us, we encourage you to consider such an approach. We have seen this happen in numerous communities, in fact one of our clients used our training and is now working with a team of people managing 29 local newspapers, with an online and printed component.

Don’t believe the lie that you can’t make a difference. YOU CAN, and it isn’t even as hard as you might think it is!

By Bill Collier

Escape FROM America’s Future

Make no mistake, I am firmly convinced that society and politics needs a total re-write.

I firmly believe in the age-old dictum “revolutionaries must be state builders.” I do not see reformation of the existing state structure and of American politics as being a long-term option if the goal is to restore and extend Freedom based on Liberty (Godliness, Self-Reliance, and Self-Determination) and Security (Security in our Rights, Persons, and Property from all threats).

In he 21st century, we are not left with either pacifism or armed resistance, we can resist aggressively and without using violence! It would seem that, with all that technology offers us and with how fed up many others are, a bloodless but extensive “revolution” would be possible.

The truth is, however, that few Americans are mentally engaged enough to even comprehend the radical imperative that lays before us, this includes even those who truly ARE for freedom against Big Government and its minions. Americans neither comprehend the nature of the problem nor do they comprehend the possible solution.

What we need IS in fact a bone fide revolution that remakes government and American society in the image of a free confederal UNION of sovereign citizens, sovereign states, and 21st century forms of alternative sovereignties.

We see that Americans lack the historical as well as the philosophical education needed to even see what is needed and what is possible. We also see that, frankly, most all Americans lack the stomach for such a rewrite of their society.

This does not mean that things cannot or will not change, or that Freedom won’t have its rebounds, even within the current structures of the American Civilization.

At present, American Civilization is so firmly connected to and dependent on the spiritually, morally, and creatively dead Western Civilization that it will die the same death that awaits that old civilization which it once may have escaped from. The mere fact that Americans cannot even conceive of anything greater than a resurrection of the glorious past, from which heights they have fallen, is proof of the extent of the problem.

Does America have a glorious future, more glorious than her past?

The potential is there, but without a willingness to rewrite society almost completely, dispensing with all the 20th century assumptions of the corporate welfare state, or the “warfare state” as some call it, it is impossible to see anything resembling a good future for America.

We aren’t going to see any kind of positive, pro-freedom revolution in a nation that wallows in self-indulgence, self-pity, fear, and reckless immorality. It cannot happen and, barring a virtual miracle, it won’t happen.

For those few, perhaps only a few thousand, who see a world of possibilities outside of the limited realms of conventional American thought, the question becomes not so much “how can I save America” but, rather, “how can I save my offspring FROM America’s future?”

Until Americans step outside of their assumptions, fears, prejudices, immorality, and selfishness, they just aren’t the kind of people who can pull off the necessary deeds that would free America from the death grip of Western Civilization.

America Without The Truth

The REAL Problem and the Path Forward 

The new head of the Republican Party joined a virtual mass choir of voices trying to make the case that a GOP win in 2012 is the only thing that will save America from the liberal (progressive) onslaught against our precious freedoms. That there is a Progressive war on true freedom (freedom founded on godliness, self-reliance, and self-determination) is clear, but is that REALLY the problem and is the GOP getting majorities in government and picking the next President the solution to the problem? 

If the problem is political, then the solution would be political. 

THAT IS NOT THE CASE! 

The Bible says that “righteousness exalts a nation.” 

If you don’t believe the Bible, you won’t believe that. If you DO believe the Bible, then you have to believe that. So, the real issue is, do you believe in what the Bible says or do you believe in what those who deny the Bible say? 

Let’s be clear: if you say you believe the Bible, then you have to know what it says and at least do your level best to follow what it says. If you say “I believe the Bible” and then ignore its words, then you are like someone who says “I love you” but treats the other person badly, and not with love. 

Around 63% of Americans believe the Bible is at least inspired by God and is true, although over half of those believe it is literally the Word of God. This really hasn’t changed over the past several decades, despite years of Bible-hating propaganda.

If the Bible is right, then it isn’t “freedom” to “do your own thing” that “exalts a nation.” It is “righteousness”. 

This word means “to do right”, or to do what is RIGHT. Like it says in Romans 13 “owe no man anything” but “render to each their due”. That is a sort of “righteousness”, and we see in Romans 13 that the state is empowered to punish the evildoers: evildoers who violate right standards in terms of the way we treat each other and Creation. 

If the state protects evildoers, who do WRONG, all in the name of FREEDOM (see 1 Peter 2 where it says we should not use liberty as a cloak for evil), while making life difficult for people who are doing right, then that state is in danger of losing not only its “freedom” but its very life! 

YOU CANNOT BREAK GOD’S LAWS and expect things will go well! 

America as a nation has long forgotten, and rejected, this truth. America’s leaders don’t even think that such ideas have any legitimate place in the realm of public policy or politics. 

Herein is the REAL problem. America’s political institutions have separated themselves from the influence of God’s Word, they have rejected God’s standards for human conduct and the way we use God’s Creation. 

That’s a fact. You can use any amount of philosophizing, arguing over what the founders said or didn’t say, or whatever you wish, but if God is real and the Bible is right, then the assumption that government, public policy, and politics should not conform to a Biblical standard of righteousness within its ordained sphere of authority is not merely wrong, but it is dangerously wrong! 

The problem is simple. America has removed the influence of God and His Word from its government, public policy, and politics in a way that can only earn this ungodly state God’s Divine Retribution. This won’t come from mere men and their schemes, God does not need any help, it will come from God’s own hand. 

The problem points to the solution.

If YOU believe the Bible is true, then you believe that righteousness exalts a nation, therefore when YOU decide who and what to support in any election or vote, then YOU must consult the Word of God as well as your common sense and then your own interests, IN THAT ORDER. 

Whoever wins the election in 2012, if the American voters don’t embrace the Word of God as the best standard for determining how people should treat each other, how we should treat God’s Creation, and how our government should serve its role to punish the evildoer and protect those who do good, then NOTHING can save the state from whatever God decides to do because of its rejection of HIS AUTHORITY.