"Christians often conflate libertarianism with
libertinism. We generally assume that not forcing others to behave
virtuously is the same as countenancing vice. I believe, to the diametric
contrary, that Christian virtue is imperiled by the coercive nature of politics
and that Christians must adopt political principles of libertarianism as the
best way to love our neighbors and lead them toward the light of Christ."
Stephen Legate
"True spiritual Liberty is one of the most glorious things in the World,
but it is little understood and frequently abused by many. I beseech
Almighty God to preserve you, His people, in the right knowledge and
use of the liberty, which Jesus Christ is redeeming us into."
William Penn
Jesus Christ, Anarchist?
"In response to the theological possibility that Christ would rather we not
legislate vice and virtue, many Christians turn to the notion that these laws
aren't really about individual choices, but about the sum-total social effects
of such choices. In doing so, they depart from the realm of theology and
approach the happy demesne of politics."
"The assertions run thus: we need social programs that redistribute
wealth because, sum-total, people aren't charitable enough to care for all
the poor, so the government must fill in the gap. We need laws against drug
abuse because, sum-total, people aren't temperate enough, and without
government force backing up the taboo, everybody would end up an
addict."
"Lather, rinse, repeat."
"Libertarians have already published volumes of counter-argument to
these assertions, challenging them on factual, empirical, theoretical,
logical, and ethical grounds. My interest here is in the fundamentally
anti-Christian presupposition made by the partisans of government
coercion: that if the government doesn't do a thing, it won't be done."
Stephen Legate
