I think libertarians are just, shall we say, a couple cans short of a six pack. They a have a considerable philosophical appeal, but take the bus out to where no one wants to go. Especially in the area of foreign policy. I am curious, why do you think of yourself as a libertarian? I like your “On The Culture” series very much. I enjoy reading your columns also. I would have never guessed that you considered yourself a libertarian. As a matter of fact, I think you might be mistaken?

Thanks for all your hard work, and meaningful contributions to the debate of important contemporary issues.

Your Brother in Christ,
Dillo

And finally, cynlover01 (a peculiar nom for a “christian”) if you think Christianity is the acceptance of the imperfect in us and in our society, well, you would benefit by digging a little deeper into the pages of the faith’s source. Forgiveness is not the same as acceptance. Per the New Testament, far from it.
——————————

1) My Significant Other’s name is Cynthia. It’s called “irony”.

2) What on earth did I say to make you think I advocate “acceptance of the imperfect in us and in our society”? I want to get the church out of the state’s business, because that’s the best way to keep the state out of the church’s business. That’s all.

Pax;

cynlover01

The Samurai had a similar system, but their value was Obedience to Right Authority, which is an important value. However when a system says that the command ‘kill your wife, your children, and then yourself’ is a proper command, there is something wrong with that moral system.

Conservatism is a triple value system. It honors liberty, and to a lesser degree virtue, and to a degree societal survival. This makes it less simplistic and more realistic than Libertarianism, and leads to a good bit of mushiness of thought on what a Conservative is.

However the notion that you could create a simple set of principles that all Libertarians would agree to is laughable. Neal Boortz, #1 Libertarian at the time, was not allowed to speak at the Libertarian Party so I hear. Libertarians are frequently dogmatic purists with more schisms than Baptists.

Another side note about Libertarians. Its not the Conservatives picking the fight. Its the Libertarians who keep constantly saying ‘we wish you would shut up about those social issues’ and doing the Liberals work for them. If you want a sixty percent victory, the Libertarians need to stop trying to control the Conservatives and instead encourage them, unleash them, and watch as a tidal wave of liberating force tears down the walls of the statists.

Whereas the statists DO manage to confiscate my assets and use it to deliberately try to destroy my life out of hatred. Sort of a difference there.

Excellent post that summarizes many aspects of how Christians view the world. I’m reminded of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he admonishes the church of Corinth for excluding the lost from their midsts because the lost sinned. He says (paraphrasing), “They’re not Christians…what do you expect?”

At the same time, such a position can put Christians in a precarious position. For instance, the issue of homosexuality and marriage. From an orthodox Christian view, homosexuality is a sin and is harmful, especially to the traditional view of the family. So do we forbid marriage between two people in love even though their love brings no harm? Furthermore, do we ban divorce with the lone exception being for the sake of adultery? Do we ban pre-marital sex? Or do we recognize that outside of Divine revelation, there’s no real way to determine if homosexuality is actually a sin and therefore begrudgingly allow it?

On the issue of abortion, we believe that all human persons are sacred because they are made in the image of God and that from conception a human is a human person (made in the image of God). Does this mean we should attempt to overrule Roe v Wade or pass stricter laws against abortion? Or do we say, “Well, absent of Divine revelation, there’s no way we would know that human persons are valuable” and therefore allow abortion to continue?

Now, I happen to fall back upon Natural Law and Divine Law. For me, personally, I believe that the issue of homosexuality is one that falls under Divine Law and the issue of abortion falls under Natural Law (meaning that one doesn’t have to be a Christian to know that abortion is wrong).

But my point in bringing up these two firebrand example (aside from those probably being the most contentious issues between libertarians) is that your view – one that I agree with – should also be recognized as a difficult one to maintain.

Likewise, everything in our culture is so political that to be against a lifestyle it is automatically assumed that you somehow want that said lifestyle banned. As Christian libertarians, we have to make it clear that while we may support someone’s choice to live or believe a certain way and believe that person has every right to do or believe something, we still see those views as immoral, but not generally harmful to society and therefore allowed. From a political perspective, we have to allow freedom even though this will lead to immoral choices; from a Christian perspective, we have to be ready to address these moral choices on a personal level.

Hope that rambling made sense.