Libertarianism is an appealing approach nowadays. It can best be classified as the “pox on both your houses,” approach to politics. For many is is an appealing minimalist approach because of the constant unending stream of news that we get about earmarks that keep getting shoved into bills and special deals that keep getting cut. Many libertarians come out of a very American tradition of individualism and being left alone. In fact, for your enjoyment, let me quote a blog post that is in the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy.
You might be a libertarian if you believe…
If you think 99 percent of politicians give the rest of them a bad name, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think taxes are ridiculously high, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think that the problem with civil servants is that too many of them are neither civil nor servants, you might be a Libertarian.
If someone asks you to take a urine test and you feel like telling them you’ll give them a taste test, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think that there are way too many laws about way too many things, you might be a Libertarian.
If you believe in the Bill of Rights, you might be a Libertarian.
If you believe that no one should go to jail for smoking flowers, you might be a Libertarian.
If you believe that just about everything should be bought and sold on an open market except politicians, you might be a Libertarian.
If you are glad you don’t get all the government you pay for, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think the US Constitution is the only contract with America you need, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think the only gun permit you need is the Second Amendment, you might be a Libertarian.
If the only way you can tell a left winger from a right winger is by which one of their hands is in which one of your pockets, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think the left is too left and the right is just plain wrong, you might be a Libertarian.
If you think polluters should pay for the environmental damage they cause, you might be a Libertarian.
Nevertheless, libertarianism holds some challenges for Christians. The challenge is that libertarians do not believe in interfering in the life of anyone else unless there is a demonstrable need. Now, as the libertarian poster commented yesterday, there can definitely be a libertarian defense of many parts of civil rights legislation. But, the problem for many Christians is that libertarians would tend to believe that what a person does in the privacy of their home is none of the government’s business. Thus many libertarians do not oppose gay marriage, gays in the military, use of some drugs now classified as illegal, etc. They neither oppose nor support those issues but they would agree that it is none of the government’s business to make rules about such things. For the same reason, many libertarians are also against official prayer in school and are in favor of people being allowed to end their lives if they have a severe illness (assisted suicide).
Let me defend libertarians. They would believe that it is appropriate for the government to have laws against driving while intoxicated, against sexual abuse, against the use and abuse of some drugs, etc. The point they make is that adults do not need a “nanny” state, and that many of the laws I mentioned above are only for public venues and ought not to apply to private venues [Note: sexual and physical abuse would indeed be an area in which a libertarian would heartily agree with having “intrusive” laws]. And many libertarians have a very healthy worry about “Church-sanctioned” laws.
But, every one of the issues named above is considered to be a “must” issue by the Religious Right. I have not mentioned abortion because libertarians are divided on that issue. This brings up my point. In order to be a libertarian, a Christian must reject the Religious Right approach that this is a country which ought to have laws that govern certain parts of morality. Again, I am not talking about abortion and euthanasia for there are many libertarians against those issues. But, it does mean that if conservative Christians are serious about taking more libertarian approaches to politics, then they need to realize that they must give up some of the morality-driven points in their platforms. You see, morality based laws, whether preventing liquor sales on Sunday or having Sunday blue laws or gay marriage or gays in the military or recreational drugs, are all intrusions of government into the private lives of individuals and the businesses they own. By libertarian political philosophy, any intrusion of the government into someone’s private life must be considered with extreme suspicion.
So, can a conservative Christian be a true libertarian? Only if s/he drops the majority of the morality issues that have been part of the political platform of the Religious Right since the founding of the Moral Majority. In other words, s/he has to say that the Church can only speak into the area of morality but cannot truly insist on any but the most necessary of moral laws (abortion, euthanasia, sexual abuse, physical abuse, etc.). For a libertarian Christian, anything else other than the most necessary of moral laws would need to be relegated to the area of persuasion, moral suasion, and free will.
“The challenge is that libertarians do not believe in interfering in the life of anyone else unless there is a demonstrable need.”
Or, as it is often stated (given here in the neo-pagan form): “Do as you will as long as you do no harm.”
Well, that is the rub: ANY action that anyone takes can involve at least potential harm, not only to oneself, but also to society and the planet. (If I harm myself, am I not harming others by depriving them of what I can offer them?) Thus, the question (any question) then becomes a matter for society and therefore, often for government to determine whether or not the benefits of allowing a given action outweight the costs. In terms of certain things we call “rights”, we have determined that this is precisely the case (or at least we have decided that the costs are worth bearing in order to freely allow the behavior).
If the Christian Right makes all the laws according to their beliefs and expects everyone to live under them, what makes them any different than any other religion making laws according to their beliefs and expecting everyone to live under them. I am not necessarily speaking of the “certain rights” mentioned by Fr. Greg. There are lots of sects with tons of minutiae that I wouldn’t want to live under. I am not only thinking sharia law here, but there are plenty of Pentacostals, Baptists, Catholics, LDS, etc I wouldn’t want writing laws for me, either.
Thank You, Father, for this wonderful and concise piece. I never threw my hat in with the Moral Majority group and still don’t. Your last sentence – “For a libertarian Christian, anything else other than the most necessary of moral laws would need to be relegated to the area of persuasion, moral suasion, and free will.” – is definitely where many of my ilk stand. Thank You for articulating it so well.
PAX