The Shortfalls of Movement Libertarianism

Dear Pastor,

I just read an article making the case that Libertarians make good Christians.

Why Christians Make Great Libertarians

I know you like to say that Libertariansim is good as far as it goes but that when it is seen as a system authoritative in itself that it is a positive evil. Could you explain, in your estimation why it is the case that Libertarians who have embraced movement Libertarianism don’t make good Christians?

Leland

Dear Leland,

Thank you for the opportunity to deal with this again. I do think that Libertarianism does at points coincide with Biblical Christianity but as a ideological movement it is opposed to Biblical Christianity. Biblical Christians and Libertarians, for example, both agree that the State should be minimal. However, movement Libertarianism tends to absolutize the individual while Biblical Christianity absolutizes God. As such because of these different absolutes the definition of liberty is different for each. For the movement Libertarian liberty is largely defined by something they call the Non Aggression Principle whereas for the Biblical Christian Liberty is that behavior which is lived out consistent with God’s Law Word. Here are some other ways in which I can see that movement Libertarianism is not consistent with Biblical Christianity.

1.) Movement Libertarians absolutize Liberty so that it turns into anarchy. (Each man does what is right in his own eyes.) Biblical Liberty is ordered liberty — ordered by God’s law word.

2.) Libertarians turn man from Homo Adorans (man the worshiper) into Homo oeconomicus (man the economic being). Movement libertarian reduce man to the sum of his market decisions and turn his whole being into one of economics. Biblical Christians do not see man as primarily an economic being and so the thinking of Biblical Christians on social order issues does not reduce man to the sum of his economic decisions.

3.) Movement Libertarians have no standard by which to measure Liberty except the sovereign autonomous self and its fiat word. Libertarianism insists on doing that which is good for the individual but that which is defined as good in only in reference to the individual.

4.) Movement Libertarainism atomizes man and completely misses His covenant jurisdictions. As such men become free floating integers that are not inherently connected to any covenantal identity. If Socialism makes the mistake of seeing man only as part of the hive, movement Libertarianism makes the mistake of seeing only man as unrelated to anything but his own subjective self (ego).

5.) Libertarians don’t make good Christians because as Rushdoony taught Libertarianism is merely the flip side of the coin to Marxism. Marxism and Movement Libertarianism presuppose one another. Neither get correct the One and the Many and in getting the One and the Many wrong they serve the purposes of each other’s errors in that regard.

Thanks for writing Leland,

The Conservative Church’s Function In The Declining West

The majority visible “conservative” “Christian” Church in the West really serves the purpose of codifying progressive change as “Holy,” thus soothing the conscience of the member practitioners.

Think about it.

At one time the Church stood against Birth Control. Progressives pushed Birth control and mainstreamed it and the Church finally went along thus sanctifying Birth control for the membership while at the same time soothing the membership conscience in terms of practicing something that had previously been considered “sin.”

At one time the Church almost universally stood against divorce in most circumstances. Progressives pushed the boundaries of divorce even unto the legislating of “no-fault” divorce and the Church finally went along thus sanctifying divorce for the membership while at the same time soothing the membership conscience in terms of securing no-fault divorces that in previous generations would have been considered sin.

At one time the Church almost universally stood against sodomite Marriages in all circumstances. Progressives have pushed this boundary and within 10-15 years couples in sodomite marriage will be accepted as members in many, if not most, “conservative” Churches. The Church thus will sanctify, once again, the success of the Christ hating progressives and will serve as the cultural agent that soothes the conscience of the rank and file membership that the members really are servants of the Lord Christ despite their Birth control, divorces, and acceptance of, and participation in sodomite marriages.

Other examples could be enumerated but we see here that the Church still has a function in the culture. It’s function is to help the rank and file be comfortable with the direction that the Christ haters are pushing the culture. The Church convinces us that we can be comfortable and well adjusted in a culture that is insane.

To be sure, the Church often comes kicking and screaming to it new position but it realizes that if it wants to survive, pay the bills and the Pastor’s salary, and keep the bureaucracy rolling it must eventually give in the success of the cultural Marxists and make declaration that matters which were once considered sin are no longer considered sin and are even positive virtues.

Federal Government At War Against The Working Middle Class

1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoWlJ77pMyg

In this 27 minute video Senator. Ted Cruz explains, from the well of the Senate, how it is the case that the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that has passed the US Senate (S-744) will redistribute wealth and opportunity away from Americans and legal immigrants towards envisioned newly Amnestied immigrants since the employment of newly amnestied immigrants means that the employer doesn’t have to pay Obamacare taxes given the provision of the passed Senate Bill — S-744. This bill provides overwhelming incentive for employers with over 50 employees to hire newly amnestied immigrants over American citizens and legal immigrants. Further, the bill provides incentive to even exchange one’s American workforce with newly amnestied immigrants since every exchanged American employee for a amnestied immigrant means a potential $5000.00 profit in the pocket of the employer. Put briefly, if an employer with over 50 employees hires a US citizen over one of the new 11 million amnestied immigrants the employer (the business owner) will be penalized $5000 per head!

2.) http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-02-19.html

Obamacare premiums are set by your age, not your health. The older you are the more you pay in premiums. It doesn’t matter if you never go to the doctor. Obamacare punishes you for having a healthy lifestyle. The Obamacare tax is a massively regressive poll tax on the middle-aged and the middle class.

Once again, this is a redistribution of wealth away from the Middle-aged and middle class towards both the Lower class and the upper Class. The wealthy do pay the tax but because it is a regressive tax it represents a much less significant portion of their income. The lower class do not pay the tax because they don’t meet the income requirements. The people taking it on the chin are the Middle aged and the middle class.

So, the Obamacrare tax does a couple of things.

A.) It works to reduce the middle class so that we have an increasingly “have vs. have not” society.

B.) Depending on whether there is a profile of the typical people who disproportionately represent the middle aged and the working middle class in this country we would be seeing an attack on the people group who might hypothetically meet the profile of your average middle aged and working middle class.

Chesterton & McAtee on Courage

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die … The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even if of quite earthly or brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and he will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.”

G. K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy; The Romance of Faith — pg. 136-137

God’s demand of Joshua to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1) reminds us that God’s worth is such that it is better to perish courageously fighting for God while defending His character than to quail before His and our enemies. The same is true of our professional lives today. It is better to value God’s name so highly that one is willing to take courage in hand and make shipwreck of their career at the threat of the enemies of God in order to defend God’s name from their insult and depredations.

To few are willing to risk all for the honor of the great name of the Lord Christ, preferring to play it safe so that they can continue to be part of the con.

Boy Scouts Of America … Then and Now

When I was a Scout, I learned to tie the knots
I slept in nylon tents and on hard wooden cots
I learned the tourniquets to stop raging bleeds
But there never was a merit badge on the coupling of Male steeds

I learned the bark of oak and elm, of Maple tree and Fir
I learned the finery of distilleries and to guzzle hard liqueur
I learned to sharpen and throw a knife from Twenty paces afar
But I never earned a medal for attending the sodomite bazaar

I memorized a pledge and to recite the Boy Scout Law
I memorized Morse code and the rules for a power saw
I memorized all kinds of rules about Scout morality
But I never memorized a single thing about teenage sodomy

Now I am old and it seems the Eagle is something more
Then what it was when I earned it back in 1974
It seems that now the Eagle has become a Rooster Gay
And a whole new meaning is now in place for being a bird of prey