I often run into conservatives who like to call libertarians “liberaltarians” because of the social agenda that libertarians supposed promote. The social agenda of libertarians, however, is generally not the same as the liberal social agenda. Liberals hate libertarians because of our devotion to the free market as the solution to many of the wealth and economic-related problems. Like conservatives, we are viewed as “anti-poor” and favoring the rich.
So libertarians, who generally make up at most 15% of the American citizenry by my estimation, tend to be on the outskirts of the political arena. On top of that, I myself am also a Bible-thumping, true believing Christian, which further alienates me since my views on religion are not all that favorable these days. So I find myself among outcasts of outcasts. You’d think I had some fetish for being a loner or something.
But both ideologies seem to run perpendicular to each other. Libertarianism is a concept that pushes the individual over the group. It promotes the self-interest of the individual above the group, from a political standpoint, and doesn’t have much apparent room for compassion. Christianity is a message of the redemptive power of Jesus and encourages us to live a life of love, forgiveness, and charity. Both of these ideals seem to conflict with each other.
But reconciliation between the two ideals is actually a fairly easy task. Both ideologies offer a whole lot of flexibility and actually can provide a complement. I believe that to some degree the libertarian ideal is the best way for governing the Christian man. I say this with the confidence that even a devout true believing Christian was still born a sinner and is not perfect (yet), but simply forgiven. A non-believer would be surprised at the various stories I could tell about Christians who have harmed their fellow Christians, even though we are suppose to support each other.
Libertarianism is actually not tied down by any real base ideology other than a love for limited government and allowing the individual to rule over his or her own life in whatever manner they see fit. With that, of course, comes the social stances like drug legalization and other things. As a Christian, I find many of these social things to be detestable, but I can tolerate them all. After all, we are all sinners and unless your sin violates the right to life, liberty, or property of another individual, I don’t think it should be a crime. Why does some sin have to be punishable over others by the state? The consequences of sin is ultimately death, but usually they are also very destructive to the individual who persists in them in this life. A compulsive liar, for example, usually doesn’t get too far in life as people tend to catch on and end up distrusting such a person.
I combine the two ideologies in a manner that allows me to practice my religion and my politics and I generally don’t seem them as separate, but intertwined. I live my life as a devout Christian, regardless of what the state tells me, and I vote and argue for a government that does the absolute least. It is the best option in my view because no Christian is ever persecuted for his or her beliefs in a limited government state (the only martyrs I know of were in tyrannical governments).
To be a Christian libertarian means you can live as God intended and support an atmosphere that does not alienate non-believers, but allows to experience Christ where they don’t feel like it was pushed on them by an overbearing government. It also means that I don’t place the state ahead of God (I don’t understand why my wife and I had to take an oath before the state of Virginia before God when we got married), as I believe that it constitutes some form of idolatry.
Utopianism is, at the end of the day, idolatry and it is a trap that even Christians have succumbed to. While I believe that you are free to be Christian and not libertarian or libertarian and not Christian, I firmly believe that Christian libertarian is the best option in this day and age.