I don’t mean our government, which is always moving but never moves to benefit the people, only itself. Yes, it’s sold “for the people” in every form it has taken over recorded history, but history always shows when government grows, the people suffer at its hands and in the end.

And if you can’t see this is the direction the United States is going, then you can’t see why it was so important for the Republicans to co-opt Charlie Kirk’s funeral.

Yes, this column is gonna be about Charlie. Again. Or is it?

As you read into it as I hope you do, you’ll see it really isn’t about Charlie. It’s about freedom. The ultimate freedom. And ultimate freedom can’t come from man, especially man in government, no matter how much they tell you they believe in God and you and your ability to handle freedom. Let’s face it, if politicians really believed in God, you and freedom, they wouldn’t run for office telling you how to live, what to do and force their ideas.

Yet they all do. And the worst part is they have no problem co-opting God to do it. Hate to break it to them, you can’t co-opt God. He transcends no matter how much earthly power you gather in your “lording” over the masses.

So yes, I feel a movement at my humble abode in River City. It’s why I’m up earlier every day trying to get into the day sooner with my devotions and scripture before the world tries to once again take over my life, which all-too-often it does have some success at. But hey, I’m human and confess my shortcomings. But as long as I’m inching closer in faith, I’m moving in the right direction. The direction of peace and love and pure joy. I’m even smiling as I write this column, and you wouldn’t have to go far in our town to find a few folks who think I’m never joyful.

Then again, joy and happiness have little to do with one another where I’m going.

And that’s where Charlie was going. The problem for government is the fact that Charlie knew what he was doing didn’t require government. And the government hates that more than anything. After all, how can you as a politician be worshipped and adored if the people knew they didn’t need you to solve all the problems of the world? Very few politicians will tell you the truth when it comes to that. And the truth is, no one would worship them, and that’s on top of every solution our government comes up with only makes things worse.

That’s the difference between all secular, government movements and the Spirit movement of Charlie in a nutshell. Charlie went into the morass to talk to the people one on one. The government sends out edicts to force is latest solution onto the people. Charlie’s way works person to person in changing their thinking, their hearts and their lives. Government simply forces its ideas through laws, regulations and bureaucratic mass onto the people to the point where it’s become so intrusive that literally every American who wakes up today could be tried as a felon.

Just ask Donald Trump if you don’t think government can do that to you.

But the bigger problem is: You can’t avoid government largess, right? Ignoring government should be the easiest thing you can do. Whatever the government tells you to do, you (and it) should probably do the opposite. And no, I don’t mean to break criminal laws. After all, those laws didn’t come from government. They were co-opted from Godly principles and are justifiably good. Yet in today’s America, most government is somehow promoted with “What would Jesus do?”

I’d argue, not that.

And few do it better than Donald Trump. And that doesn’t mean Trump isn’t doing some good things, freedom things. He is. But look at what else government’s doing while you bask in some small victories. Government sure hasn’t gotten any smaller under Trump’s rule.

I’ll make a couple of points closer to home.

I got to thinking about our carpetbagging congresswoman, Lauren Boebert, in the aftermath of Charlie’s martyrdom and in relation to this column. You know when Lauren lost me? I mean really lost me. It wasn’t the vaping, “feel-em-up” at the theater we all know about. That just solidified she wasn’t fit to serve. No, it was at an event where everything came to a stop, and it became an evangelical tent-meeting. Something didn’t sit right with me. There’s a difference between God is on my side and I’m on God’s side. The latter is the way to go.

I should have had the courage to write against it. I didn’t. I’m not calling out Lauren’s faith. I pray she (like all of us) has strong faith. I just don’t want the politician in her controlling it, as appears to be the case.

In Grand Junction its city council’s forays into homelessness and affordable housing, sold on Biblical principles of taking care of the poor and those struggling. But just what did our tented, downtown day spa and salon get us? That’s right, double the homelessness. So, what do you think the Salt Flats experiment will bring?

There’s a better way to do these things. Charlie knew that. And it is… .

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com