It was Ron Paul's 2008 Presidential campaign that introduced me to the above image. I thought little more of it then than a peacenik teenager's attempt at being clever. Turn four letters around in the word "revolution," and it seems to spell "love." Sort of neat, sort of... hippie-ish.
The campaign came and went. As did another. I had grown a great deal more attached to the idea of a revolution based in love... we in the Paul camp wanted to end the wars. Not so much pacifistic as realistic. The idea of a "revolution of love" was catching on, and I was glad. We weren't promoting a selfish kind of love, nor did we promote the vision of a neo-liberal, sensuous utopia for America. Far from it. For myself, and I believe for everyone else who promotes the "R3VOLUTION," whether they realize it or not, this is a Christian love - a Christian love which opposes itself to an empire of hate.
I cannot speak for anyone else, so I will explain what I mean from my own heart.
I am just a man, and all men are created equal. I respect my fellowman. By respect, I mean I understand that though we may disagree, and unless he harms me or another, what another man does or believes is a matter between himself and God.
I know others sin, and I know I sin. All deserve Hellfire equally, it is God who saves. Where is aristocracy or hatred for my neighbor justified in light of this truth? Where is pride or unforgiveness? It is illogical and unreasonable to have anything but compassion, even for our enemies, as Christians.
When hatred and spite become national policies, going beyond the administration of justice and into the realm of injustice, we have tyranny and despotism. When political policies become policing of morality and immorality (the distinction between which government is notoriously ignorant), we will have lost the respect and love we have for our fellow man. Government is force, and it is administrated by sinful creatures. That is all it inherently is. It is only by the grace of God that governments are able to function at all, and a righteous man is a rare and precious find in civil administration. So, when government becomes destructive of the ends of its establishment - that being the protection of its citizens rights to life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness - our only recourse is to "throw off such government, and to provide new guards for our future security," as our American Declaration of Independence clearly states.
More important to note than this, however, is that our response to tyranny and despotism, in whatever form, must not be based or consumed in hate or spite. The political history of Europe is replete with examples of ideological revolutions turning into senseless bloodbaths, the French Revolution not least among them.
When we think of our own Revolution in America, we immediately think of the War for Independence. But, what did the Founders of our country think the "American Revolution" meant?
John Adams said, "The American Revolution was not a common event. Its effects and consequences have already been awful over a great part of the globe. And when and where are they to cease? But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.
"... Revolutions are no trifles; that they ought never to be undertaken rashly; nor without deliberate consideration and sober reflection; nor without a solid, immutable, eternal foundation of justice and humanity; nor without a people possessed of intelligence, fortitude, and integrity sufficient to carry them with steadiness, patience, and perseverance, through all the vicissitudes of fortune, the fiery trials and melancholy disasters they may have to encounter."
If we are to succeed as a people in the overthrow of statism, the religion of faith in an all-powerful state, we are to have a revolution. Let us hope and pray that such a revolution never becomes a war; it needn't become one. A revolution is a change of direction, a re-settling, a re-founding, a return to our core values. And we desperately need that in America.
Such a revolution will fail if it is not based in love. God is love, and God directs us to love.
Revolution against hate is an act of love and obedience to God. It is a lie which many propagate that revolution is wrong, that revolution breeds contempt for law. Rather, the truth is that laws which breed contempt against the liberty of the people are actually in rebellion, not the other way around. If a law is justly based, it is a sinful revolution that comes against it. But it is a natural and righteous thing for unjust laws to be held in contempt.
God made it simple for us when He said to us in Romans 13, concerning civil government, "... [H]e that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. ...Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
If we are to have a successful revolution in this country, or anywhere, it must have at its core the Godly principle of love. At the core of all we do, we must love God and our neighbor; respect both He and them, for only then will our civil law parallel His moral law. Constructive love must be at the center of our response to the destructive weapons of spite found in statism and war. Love is the only answer to hate, and we must R3VOLT.
