Christian Libertiarianism

Economics Political Theory
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1

A Christian libertarian is one who believes that:

  1. The moral sense of right vs. wrong people find within themselves comes from God.

  2. The only way to God, and consequently the only way to a true and correct sense of morality, law, and justice, is through God’s only begotten Son, Christ Jesus.

  3. Individuals who have accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior are the ONLY ones capable of living and interacting peaceably with one another in a pure “anarcho-libertarian” society as the Spirit of God prompts the hearts, minds, and consciences of each believer to act and make decisions in a way that leads to the most liberty and justice for all.

In addition, a Christian libertarian believes that:

  1. God commands each believer to spread the message of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus by one method only…persuasion…through brotherly love and evangelism. Coercing or forcing a person to “make a decision” to accept Christ as Lord and Savior through threat of violence, imprisonment, etc is contrary to the very nature of God, who is Love.

  2. In the absence of all human forms of government, a strong church presence in a pure free market economy is not just sufficient for establishing order and liberty, but actually results in the most peace, order, and liberty possible.

The above is extracted from a freely downloadable eBook I am working, Christian Libertarianism. More to come…hoping to meet fellow Christian Libertarians on this site. For more about me, visit www.MindOfChrist.us

  • Chris
2

I am a Scientologist Libertarian, sorry.

  1. The moral sense of right and wrong comes from L Ron Hubbard.

  2. The only way to know what is right and wrong is through dianetics.

  3. Individuals who have been audited and paid their fees are the only ones capable of living in a libertarian society.

  4. L Ron Hubbard says you should recommend his pulp novels and science fiction to all people; especially actors. And have them come in for a free audit.

  5. In the absence of government, we will make many times more John Travolta and Kirsty Alley movies! What a thing to look forward to!

3

All praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster, without whom we couldn’t be moral.

4

Now, on Atheistic Libertarianism…

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5

“2. The only way to God, and consequently the only way to a true and correct sense of morality, law, and justice, is through God’s only begotten Son, Christ Jesus.”

Christianity does not teach this.

“3. Individuals who have accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior are the ONLY ones capable of living and interacting peaceably with one another in a pure “anarcho-libertarian””

Sorry, this is just ridiculous.

I am a Christian and a libertarian, but if I disagree with you on these points am I not a Christian Libertarian?

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All praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster, without whom we couldn’t be moral.

I, too, have been touched by his noodly appendage.

7

Is the NAP around there? Than who cares of what flavor is one’s belief?

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"

“2. The only way to God, and consequently the only way to a true and correct sense of morality, law, and justice, is through God’s only begotten Son, Christ Jesus.”

Christianity does not teach this.

“3. Individuals who have accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior are the ONLY ones capable of living and interacting peaceably with one another in a pure “anarcho-libertarian””

Sorry, this is just ridiculous.

I am a Christian and a libertarian, but if I disagree with you on these points am I not a Christian Libertarian?"

Please elaborate on both your “points”.

9

What is it with Christians and always looking to have their own version of absolutely everything anyway? If anything you’d think that such a strategy would only serve to render Christianity as a whole more detached and insular from the rest of the world in a never-ending death spiral towards irrelevance.

10

oh jeez, come on people, let the Christians be… most of the critiques here are about Christianity in general and not about the topic, which is Chirstian Libertarianism.

11

Then I suggest they read Romans 13.

12

Robert Murphy does his attempt to answer to the ‘Roman 13 topic’ in one of his comments section. and there are similar responses to this if you google ‘roman 13 anarchism’..

13

All of the responses go along the lines of something like “well were shadrak meshack and abenigo supposed to follow king nebuknezzer (pardon my spelling, but I don’t feel like looking up the names, so I spelt them phoneticly)? Of course not, therefore this passage doesn’t mean what it is (in no uncertain terms) saying.”

OR, It’s a contradiction, something I find VASTLY more likely.

OR, It was placed in there by people who were horrible statists (Constantine stole vast amounts of gold from other religions in his reign, and that was largely how he was able to pay his armies. For more listen to this talk.)

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well there are several interpretations to the bible, or just about any other ‘holy’ book… It would be neat if the writers wrote in such detail that there would only be one interpretation, but unfortunately they didn’t… which is why faith, of any kind, should be a subjective truth…

this is very similar to the critique i have to the OP, which is, there is more than one way, to be a so called ‘Christian libertarian.’ I do not like how the OP lists specific guidelines that makes one a Christian libertarian… Which is why there are a couple that have a response like,“Well I consider myself Christian and libertarian but I do not follow [the OP’s] guidelines.”

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I am an agnostic Christian, and one of the reasons is because of the self-righteous garbage that comes spewing forth from atheists, and that’s coming from someone that grew up in a devout Catholic family.
See previous posts for examples.

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Well I can’t speak for all Christians, but for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our 8th Article of Faith states that: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly…”

The LDS Prophet Joseph Smith said, "I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers, [but] ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors.”

LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie: “Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors, many plain and precious things were deleted, in consequence of which error and falsehood poured into the churches. One of the great heresies of modern Christendom is the unfounded assumption that the Bible contains all of the inspired teachings now extant among men.”

I think this agrees with your last possibility in that the chapter was corrupted by people who were horrible statists. Today we don’t even have a third-generation copy of the original Bible.

Smith went through the Bible and by the divine inspiration given him as a prophet he restored the original words. Romans 13:1 was changed from:

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

To:

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power in the church but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Here is verse 6-7 restored. And so forth. I just mention this as another possibility.

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Hi Jay,

Thank you VERY much for your reply. Yes, of course you are a Christian Libertarian. One of my motivations for this discussion post is to address the problem of how a pure anarcho-libertarian society can maintain order…I think I can address this and respond to your points at the same time…

As to item 2, “2. The only way to God, and consequently the only way to a true and correct sense of morality, law, and justice, is through God’s only begotten Son, Christ Jesus.”, you write (about the bolded part) that Christianity does not teach this.

I was reading Romans 2 this morning. This is one of my favorite natural law chapters of the Bible, in particular verses 12 to 16. My understanding of these verses is that the apostle Paul is acknowledging that people who have never even heard of Judaism (or Judaic law) or of Christ, still have God’s law of right vs. wrong written on their hearts…their conscience, and that the moral actions they take show this to be so. This, to my understanding, is Christ in the person of the Spirit of God at work in the hearts of unbelievers. An unsaved person who has never even been approached by a Christian, who has never heard about Christ, still has Christ at work in their hearts. Consequently, versus 12 to 16 of this chapter seem to be saying that God will judge such people by Christ Jesus according to the Law…the sense of right vs. wrong…that Christ has already written on their consciences or hearts.

Christ Jesus truly is the ONLY way to a true and correct sense of morality, law, and justice.

Salvation by faith in Christ is MORE than simply mouthing the words, “I accept Christ as Lord and savior”. We speak with our actions…with our decision making. Romans 2:13, “for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified”

And Mathew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

None of the above changes the need for a strong evangelizing church presence in order to maintain order in a pure free market anarcho libertarian society (or in any other kind of society for that matter.

This leads to item 3, “Individuals who have accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior are the ONLY ones capable of living and interacting peaceably with one another in a pure “anarcho-libertarian society”

You say that this is a ridiculous claim, but I don’t think so. While God certainly writes his Law of moral Right and Wrong even on the hearts of non-believers, major themes of the Bible are how quickly people forget, how easily we can succumb to temptation, and how quickly we will give up the truth in order to justify a sinful lifestyle. In item 3, I am not just referring to any sort of society, but one where government interference has been completely removed…an anarcho libertarian society. If I personally was going to live in such a society, I would not rest easy at night knowing that my safety hung on the balance of someone’s sense of right vs. wrong…which can be easily swayed. I would want a strong church presence of believers.

Item 3 ties in closely with item 5, “In the absence of all human forms of government, a strong church presence in a pure free market economy is not just sufficient for establishing order and liberty, but actually results in the most peace, order, and liberty possible.”

More to follow on items 3 and 5.

Again Jay, thank you for your reply

  • Chris
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I think it makes more sense that humans were an evolutionary offshoot of more primitive primates, developed a sense of societal conduct similar to other primates, evolved a conscious to regulate behavior that was more in line with the overall health of the group, standardized and homogenized these rules over time and expressed them through language, developed superstitious behavior, and then around the time of Paul, coupled the group behavior with superstition and took what was already developed for thousands of years (group rules) and credited it to God.

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Merlin,

Is the NAP around there? Than who cares of what flavor is one’s belief?

Agreed. Not that the religious should be immune to jesting but until someone’s religious leanings lead to, or begin calling for, a violation of the NAP you kind of just come off as a d**k.

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That is indeed the case, but the magic disappears if me mention this, so let’s keep it secret