[God] has shown all you people what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8, (TNIV)
One of the more beautiful compatibilities between libertarian social theory and Christian faith is that Christian faith is called to honor and respect those with whom we disagree. We don’t have specific formulas for people to follow, nor do we expect others to choose to live as we do. It’s actually quite simple: live and let live. Contrast that with progressives who have plans for everyone, regardless of their input or consent. Libertarians, if they are consistent, will not require nor seek ways to require everybody to live by their personal standards. In short, libertarians respect the personal beliefs and ethics of other people. What’s even more profound about this standard is that it advocates an equal respect to all persons, regardless of class, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Nobody gets to live above the law, no matter how popular or how powerful they may become.
If you think about it, nobody really likes to be told how to live, how to act, what to eat, what to drink, who to be friends with, or who to marry. When we are in smaller social settings, we don’t declare to people that they ought not wear a certain dress because we think it’s too immodest, or drink certain liquids because of their sugar content. At most we can publicly criticize smokers, but even then we admit their right to smoke.
In some sense we all live the way we do because we believe it is the right way to live. Whether we think we’ve figured it out or not, we’d like others to think and live somewhat similarly to how we live. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that. It’s part of human nature. We can even go an extra step forward and converse with others and encourage them to live as we do, join our cause, or believe our beliefs. Every friend in the world ought to encourage and challenge others in a way that is productive and that does not debase or take away somebody’s dignity.
Christians are notorious in name for being a group of people who have everything “right” and need to impress upon the world the behaviors that everybody ought to live by. Church history is filled with institutional prejudice, tyranny, and downright injustice. Whenever the Church and the State get in bed with each other, bloodshed is soon to follow. But the Christian faith is not about such violence and coercion. The Christian faith is about peace, respect, and love for one’s neighbor.
Libertarians are notorious for being being a group that is selfish and do not think about the common good. Oftentimes the public face of libertarianism is like the public face of Christianity: there’s a lot to be lacking, and a lot to be criticized. But the fundamental feature of libertarianism is peace. Peace is a principle that is often misapplied. Bringing “peace to the Middle East” through war is certainly misapplied. But truly following a principle of peace means that we acknowledge that others deserve the same peaceful action that we demand for ourselves. It requires that we give up our “right” to act as we please, and respect the rights of others whose peace we might disrupt. In other words, it requires us to humble ourselves in accordance with the respect we believe all others deserve.
In a nutshell, libertarianism and Christianity intersect in a very interesting way. Christian faith teaches us to respect and love others. It also teaches us to be humble and to consider others as better than ourselves. Libertarianism, rightly understood, advocates a very similar teaching; that is, we must respect others as their rights are equal to ours.
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