Joining us now booktv this doctor so that one of the coauthors of this book faith seeking freedom libertarian christian answers to tough questions. Hes also the founder of the libertarian crushed in institute which is what . Libertarian Christian Mission is to try to convince other of libertarian ideas so we do this by making the christian case for a free society and equipping people to help defend that predicted. We do that by creating all sorts of media like our book here to spread the word. Host is there a natural antagonism between libertarianism and christianity . Guest yes. To some extent we have seen that the last 30 to 40 years of American History in particular. But i dont think its because of the fundamental incompatibility. Its more like the loudest voices in the room arent always the christian so its important to realize in fact wherever you go most libertarian people 50 of them are christian. Often the problems that they have are not that they are afraid of trying to make that connection. They just dont know how all the t time so what we do we look at the illogical and economic principals and basically try to teach people that there is this effect between libertarian theory and the way we think about politics and ethics from that point of view view. Host unquote from your book to give allegiance to is the true if its power and authority. In the early days of christianity one of the mantras ofis early was is and the corollary to that is caesar is not so thats why we talk about her own power and authority instead of giving allegiance to the Roman Emperor who claims to be himself we give our allegiance only to jesus the one true son of. Rus a libertarian fearful that americans have given too much authority to the government . I wouldnt say im fearful. I know its the case in effect thats part of the problem that wee encounter as libertarians. In many respects our fellow patriots among us have looked to their State Government and looked at the people in power for direction and for solving their problems. This is not the way of the christian in the end. We have realized in order to solve problems we should not rely on the mission nation. Use persuasion we use our own devices to solve their own problems. We dont needto to endow a large government with grandiose powers that require it. So we start from that point of view at the very beginning. As libertarians how do you reconcile jesus saying we talkhi about that in the book a little bit and one of the things after realized as the render to caesar passage is what is on that coin that presents jesus . Hey would give me one of these scenarios and who is the inscription is on it . That actually is caesar himself and on that coin if you are part of that you would know on that coin itself it says this is caesar, son of god. Ironically enough thats like bringing an image into the temple where that occurred. When jesus is render to caesar what is caesars and to god whae is its calling out the pharisees during that. That we are doing something is fundamentally against what jesus is all about is to give honor and glory to god. In a sense what is caesar . Basically nothing. What is god . Basically everything. In a sense the typical interpretationon that you just need to pay your taxes is a bit shortsighted. Theres something more going on there. We try to bring that forward in the book and we do it in our publications. And you spend some time with jesus in, the desert. Why . In fact we refer to as the temptation of jesus and its crucially important point that we draw a lot of inspiration from. A big part of that is the who is tempting him shows in the kingdom of the earth and says if only you will bow down and worship t me i will give them al to you. Whats significant about that its not that jesus says oh this doesnt belong to you anyway. I control it. This is all my stuff anyway in effect what jesus does it grant that thats exactly what he could do. Could in fact give him the kingdom of t the earth if hes submitted. So in effect whats importantimo realize what jesus is saying the powers that be they belong to. This is where we draw a lot of inspiration and understand the institutionalization is fundamentally againstd god. It is from beginning to end and we see this in the way which jesus interacts with himself in the desert. Thats something we should turret take greatia heat up andi dont think a lot of pay close attention to that and that way so its something we do uniquely. I shouldnt even say uniquely. Its nothi like its something that we invented this goes back eons. Its just we have forgotten about it. Innocent as any earthly ruler to legitimate . On some level, yes. We believe basically whenever you anyone tries to c institutionalize that the territory a its illegitimate. Thats only way we are permitted scripturally to interact with the other and its not on basis of. Persuasion and peace letter actions of thosese that dont do that thatsgg illegitimate. So the nap you talk about. Exactly. Analogized that the other half of the coin of the golden girl where jesus is do unto othersrs as you would have themo unto you. The other half of that could be called thet nonaggression principle. Dont do to others what you dont want them to you. Which are theological background . I come from a stone Campbell Campbell specifically the churches of. Hit the smaller denomination but one that was formed in the United States of america in a congregationalist a dozen of the president or a higher good they are. A locally controlled basic theological principals basically believes in the and what we typified a standard of american christianity on some level. We doun have unique interesting and unique components to it for instant we have historically been antiwar. Its not quite that way anymore. Historically thats where we were in the 19th century. There were some interesting parts of our Church History trying to rehabilitate on some level. Are profits and markets an anathema to christianism . Some people think it is that they take things like in the epistles of paul where he says the love of money is the root of all kinds of and to kind of take that and twist it in various ways thinking that well if you are making a profit you are taking advantage ofat someone ee but the reality is thats kind of a misunderstanding of the nature of money and economics. So we understand we understand its important to engage in peoples interactions and indirect trade is a really important component of that. You cant do that without the use of currency. When his estate necessary at all in your view . In my view its basically not. Anything the government can do we can do better whether its the provision of law services or the provision of security or health care and food. Theres no fundamental problem withni trying to involve these with market mechanisms. Put that in christian principals. That basically means we dont have two initiate force against us in order to feel safe and have services to do this stuff. We, dont need, we do not needo stand in order to get a good result. Are there any policies in the federal system today that are based on christian principals in your view . On some level i suppose you could say that. There certainly policies that protect things like free speech and protect their ability to protect ourselves. All these things that these things that are part of our american tradition they are built in their dna these are porton things and principals of point to good things. Its not as if theres nothing good whatsoever that any government has ever doneme or se to that effect or an institution thats founded in a problematic manner that there will be blcompounding problems. Is their position of libertarian position on abortion and is it insync with the christian position on abortion and . There is a debate among libertarians about what it means to be prochoice or prolife. We come down on the nonaggression principle means one ought to be prolife even the knowledge that today and we have a whole chapter in the book written primarily by one of my coauthors kerry baldwin. What about immigration . Theres a fundamental right for people to move and we think its important for people to improve their lot and moving around and its a benefit economically so morally we dont think we should be a live prevent them from doing so sosin poor to have some type of restriction at the border . Ab in order to keep out the obvious criminal person a but we shouldntat be trying to prevent people from doing what they want to do in pursuing what their best interest is. Norman horn this a lot i guess the word would be split between liberal and conservative and christian nationals. How did you address that . Oh man. At some level we might even say we harmonize the fact that liberal have some good things to say in conservative have some good things to say but we want to be neither one of those. We just want to be so we want to look for the bedrock principals that we can all agree on and understand flowing from scripture but the christian nationals part of it is an aberration. Its got an unusual history to it. What is now called christianis nationalism used to look like what was called the atomic reconstructionism. It goes back to the 70s, 80s and 90s and a lot of this as a genesis there. We dont get into that so much of the book but we have a cool session coming up at freedomfest later on. Should in your view be a politically active and should they voted cedric . On some level to be christian is to have a political activity. Because nord say jesus is you are t saying hes not so on some level theres a base politica activity that we have power for a dont necessarily think its a moral obligation of every christian to get out there and vote and so on. I dont think thats necessarily a good thing but ultimately our allegiances to so when we find whatever way we can to promote if we should try to pursue that so long as it doesnt doesnt require us to initiate more norman horn looks close with this quote for your book. Libertarianism doesnt artificially bind morally or has left a mark. T with what we like to say aloud in the Libertarian Christian Institute is we are seeking after the concord values that we see as both consistently christian and consistently with the natural law that determines that those principals we find selfevident that all men are created equal and pursuing happiness and so on those things are what we see or promote and theres nothing about christianity that says thats wrong. Faith seeking freedom libertarian christian answers to tough questions is the name of the book. Norman horn, doug stuart, kerry baldwin, dick clark and the ford by lawrence reed. Thank you so much, peter
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