Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Bible believers should take a hard look at libertarianism. I’m not talking about joining the Libertarian Party, which spends a lot of time masquerading as a dumpster fire. I’m talking about libertarianism as a philosophy of government.
You believe you are under a New Testament mandate to “take every thought captive” to Christ, but you’ve spent no time doing this when it comes to the ideas that seek to control your life from the outside.
At some point you picked a party to join and have generally echoed its talking points. This is done out of a certain amount of laziness, because studying the Bible and applying its principles to every area of life is hard work. It’s work that our pastors have not done, either.
Space here won’t permit a long discussion. I’ll quickly mention examples of how libertarianism lines up with the biblical data.
Many modern writers base the whole philosophy on a so-called Non Aggression Principle or NAP. This is the idea that it’s fundamentally wrong to use force, or the threat of it, to make people do your will.
One (atheist) writer has suggested this is nothing other than Jesus’ Golden Rule applied to government. I can’t think of a counter argument.
If you don’t like being stolen from, don’t vote to steal from other people. If you can’t stand nosey do-gooders telling you how to run your life, stop populating Congress with them. Let your neighbor live his life without being forced to participate in your version of a great society, whatever that may be. Let’s agree to protect each other from harm and loss due to violence, but then, y’know, leave people free and trust that God will balance the scales in the end.
A close reading of the Gospels shows Jesus teaching this sort of non-coercive leadership. He leaves you morally responsible for your own choices. He doesn’t force you to swear allegiance to him. He consistently taught that true leadership is through patient instruction, service to the less powerful, and by example. But modern Christians can be heard begging loudly for more and more exertion of government force over all their neighbors, to suit either a Left or Right-wing agenda.
When God created a nation for himself, he installed an extremely minimal form of civil government. In fact, there was no executive power in that nation, other than the people themselves. When powerful executives came along later, it was a punishment from God, on those who had rejected him. See 1 Samuel 8.
Yes, this sort of thinking does leave foolish ones with the freedom to do stupid things (as long as they’re not physically damaging bodies or property) but the other side of that is true as well: It leaves me free to decline paying for their foolishness once they’ve ruined their lives. I’m free to help them and show them Christ’s mercy, but that’s on me. If you’re scared not enough people would help, then be a leader: show them how it’s done by your example and instruction.
It is thoroughly pagan to use force to transform the world to fit your vision. If your great ideas have to be implemented at gunpoint, they’re not so great.
Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at: