The following aphorism speaks to Christians living under tyranny. “When tyrants reign, let us first remember our faults, which are chastised by such sourges; and, therefore, humility will restrain our impatience. Besides, it is not in our power to remedy these evils, and all that remains for us is to implore the assistance of the Lord, in whose hand are the hearts of men and the revolutions of kingdoms.” – John Calvin

There are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland: there is King James, the head of this commonwealth, and there is Christ Jesus, the King of the Church whose subject James the Sixth is, and of whose Kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member. — Andrew Melville, Christian reformer of Scotland, 1600s

On Thursday Governor Bill Haslam quashed a bill that would have given state government a regulatory power in the affairs of a private university, Vanderbilt.

While the rule may have been good in effect, the method of attaining it was not. It was another big-government solution that would have created a long train of evil consequences.

The governor’s spiritual forebears, reformed ministers such as Andrew Melville who fought tyranny in court and on the battlefield, would have agreed.

The veto pulls up short a bill that many Christians have reason to favor — one that puts Vanderbilt University in its place for a petty tyranny the nonsmokers on its board slapped on their inferiors in the name of tolerance, fairness, equity and fair play.

Vandy’s cocky little rule, one that conveniently gives a pass to fraternities and sororities, will proceed apace, giving the school’s parent body one more reason to suspect that enrolling a son or daughter there may be a slap on the cheek as well as a waste of family capital. Gov. Haslam’s veto adheres to a philosophy of limited government and a reluctance to use even the most well-intentioned power of the state to overwhelm a private institution’s government and to dictate terms.

Mr. Haslam, an elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, is following the thinking of the world’s foremost Christian reformer, John Calvin, a French theologian who is credited even by his enemies as having systematized the concept of modern political liberty that everyone from the tea party to Occupy Wall Street to Hamilton County government with its divided powers owe their thanks.

Calvin, whose major work is The Institutes of the Christian Religion, followed Martin Luther and Scotsman John Knox in enunciating limitations of the civil magistrate (or, as we say today, the state) that are the bulwark of western political liberty. With Calvin, the doctrines of government by covenant, interposition by the lesser magistrate and the duty of princes to avoid arbitrary and absolutist government came into the modern consciousness.

The American colonial concept of fractured national government with its competing power centers (executive, legislative, judicial) is a new historical development — and comes from Calvin.

In a statement given to reporters, Governor. Haslam describes the Vanderbilt rule as an “all comers” policy, This usage is intended to imply the intent of a rule that forbids a Christian group from requiring Christianity of its directors and forcing such groups, if they are to receive university subsidies, to accept pagans, Wiccans and other worthies.

The rule would let a historic revisionist take charge of a Jewish group that believes in the holocaust, a Yankee imperialist take leadership of a Southern states’ rights group, a patriarchalist to take the helm of the campus feminists, and a Muslim get his foot in the door of the Hindus.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]