Tony Miano is a statist. I’ve explained it before (<–this article is important), and my concern for Tony is growing. The first interaction I had with Tony was when my former assistant pastor (who was a chaplain for the police department) invited Tony to speak at our church.
At that time, my evangelism partner and I were embroiled in conflict with the police about how we were doing evangelism on Main Street. Apparently some of the police complained to Tony about our methods, and from the pulpit, Tony denounced us and our evangelism. He was speaking out of complete ignorance, and completely mischaracterized what we were doing, but it certainly indicated where he is intellectually.
The next indication of Tony’s character issues came when he stated on Facebook that he thinks theonomy is akin to Islam. Now, Christians may or may not like theonomy, but to refer to God’s civil law as being akin to Islam reveals an astonishing level of stupidity. He accepted the rebuke from many Christians and took a short break from Facebook. I wish it had been a much longer break, because his recent activity is very troubling.
Here’s what he said on Facebook that made his idolatry and character issues so clear.
There is no logical fallacy. This meme is true, but Tony’s presupposition is that Christians need to submit to the state, so he can’t see that the Revolution was instigated by the black robed regiment (Presbyterian pastors) preaching from the pulpits about what Scripture teaches about proper government, and what Christian rebellion ought to look like. Tony thinks that true Christianity leads to submission to tyrants.
I’m willing to concede that the particular founding fathers that Tony lists here weren’t Christians. So what? They played a big role in the revolution, but there were dozens of others with a big role, and thousands of others with smaller roles, many of whom were Christians. These guys on Tony’s list were behaving inconsistently with their unbelieving presuppositions and taking part in the Presbyterian rebellion, aka the revolution.
Tony wouldn’t know a tyrant if he walked up and bit him. Tony is a retired tyrant, and he loves tyrants. He has no idea what the Bible teaches about how we ought to resist tyranny. American Christianity has no biblical doctrine of how to resist tyranny, and we’re reaping what we’ve sown.
Tony has revealed that he has a tender, little soul, because the commenter here, extremely politely, called him ignorant with a morally deficient view of government, and he says the commenter needs to be mindful of his tone. Is Tony a man? This isn’t how a Christian man has a conversation. The commenter’s tone was very polite, and a Christian man shouldn’t respond this way to rebuke. Time for Tony to drop the “little-girl-tea-party routine” and read Proverbs.
I decided to comment on this, even though I was eight days late to the conversation. Tony deleted my comment. Maybe different people look at that differently, but I look at that as being indicative of a serious deficiency in manhood. I realize some popular people are busy so they can’t respond to every comment they receive on social media, but to delete a comment you disagree with shows a huge character problem.
I’ve gone to the Jehovah’s Witness state convention the last couple years, and they refuse to accept literature from us. They are scared that being exposed to a viewpoint critical of their own could lead them away from their religion. I have such little respect for that. My worldview is informed by Scripture, and it will stand up to scrutiny. I don’t have to be scared of being exposed to something critical of Christianity. In fact, I think you ought to expose yourself to things that are critical of your beliefs, because it will force you to more precisely define what you believe, and you’ll better learn how to defend your position.
Obviously, I should have written my comment down. I knew Tony was a pansy who may very well delete it. Here’s what I said as best as I can remember, including the two links.
Tony Miano said, “There is no biblical support for Christians rebelling against government.”
I think Tony missed the entire Old Testament, and has badly misinterpreted Romans 13.
http://reconstructionistradio.com/freedom-conference-the-biblical-christian-duty-to-rebel/
But I guess when you share Adolph Hitler’s interpretation of Romans 13, you have no compunction in deleting comments of someone who disagrees with you.