Shockingly, it’s true: You can love liberty and still be a Jesus follower

By David McElroy · June 4, 2011

The popular stereotype is that libertarians are just Republicans who want to smoke pot and live libertine lifestyles. It’s true that some of my libertarian friends love their recreational drugs and wild lives. But it’s just as true that many committed Christians are libertarians or anarchists. I’m one of them.

A person’s religious faith is about his spiritual life, not necessarily his political or civic beliefs. For those of us who follow Jesus and believe in individual liberty, there’s no contradiction between the two. In fact, if you actually study Jesus’ words — instead of taking what you hear from social conservatives as Gospel, no pun intended — you won’t find a hint that He ever told His followers to coerce people in any way. He told His followers to give to the poor and needy, but there’s never one instance where Jesus is recorded as having told His followers to take things from other people to give to the poor.

Jesus taught His followers to live in certain ways, but He never taught His followers to force other people to live as they lived in obedience to Him. The people who came along in later years and used the power of government to force people to live certain ways — and those who would like to do the same today — have no biblical basis for their actions. It’s nothing short of blasphemy to force other people to live as you prefer they would — or take money from them to spend as you believe it should be spent — and pretend that it’s because Jesus told you to do it. There’s no scriptural support for that.

Those among my friends and acquaintances who are both libertarians and Christians are some of the smartest, most compassionate and most loving people I’ve ever known. Among those who immediately come to mind are a college professor/researcher with a PhD, an engineer whose biggest loves are theology and Austrian economics, a successful attorney, and a brilliantly competent woman I used to know who I still admire more than anyone else. These aren’t intellectual or philosophical lightweights. They’re people you’d like and trust.

Personally, my own lifestyle is very, very conservative by most people’s standards. I don’t smoke or drink or use other recreational drugs. I don’t even use profanity. I try to love other people, but I’m very flawed and do a lousy job of it much of the time. But despite my own lifestyle, it’s not my right to use force to get you to adhere to my beliefs or my lifestyle. It’s up to you how to live your life. Even if the majority were to agree with me that the things you might do in your own life are unwise choices or even (in some cases) things I would call sin, it’s not my place to use the force of law to compel you to follow what I believe.

My libertarian friends have all sorts of spiritual practices (or non-practices). Some are militant atheists. Some are agnostics. Some are mildly or seriously religious in various other faiths, whether they’re Jews or Hindus or pagans or something else. We have a wide variety of beliefs. But here in the United States, Christians are the biggest group that’s ripe for conversion to the ideas of liberty. That’s going to mean that people are going to have to understand that they need to focus on what they do agree on, not spend all their time arguing with those who hold beliefs they don’t. (I’m planning to write later about the wrong attitudes that Christians have about libertarians and the wrong attitudes that libertarians have about Christians.)

If you’d like to learn more about libertarians who are also Christians, there are a number of online resources. A friend of mine has written for a site called LibertarianChristians.com. The Acton Institute is dedicated to the intersection of liberty and religious values. And you’ll find other articles by people explaining how their faith and civic beliefs go together at LewRockwell.com, NolanChart.com and Students for Liberty. For one take (among many) on Christians who are also anarchists, see ChristianAnarchy.com. There’s plenty more out there.

Libertarians are a diverse bunch. Christians are, too. It’s a mistake to automatically stereotype people in either group.

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A state legislator in Maine has been stripped of the ability to speak in the state Legislature — and her votes are not being counted on legislative issues — all because she made a truthful social media post. Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn, Maine) opposes allowing boys to compete against girls’ teams in school athletics and she’s become known for making an issue of it. On Feb. 17, she posted on Facebook about a recent example that she found outrageous. She posted side-by-side photos of a boy named John who competed last year in a state track event and won fifth place against other boys two years ago — and a photo of the same boy (now called Katie) who won first place in the same event this year against girls. Whether you find this outrageous or not, Libby is clearly being honest and truthful about the objective facts of an issue of public importance. But the state Legislature censured her. Democrats decreed that she could not speak in the House and that her votes would not count on legislation — until she apologized for the outrage of telling the truth. She refused and her constituents have been unrepresented in the state House since then. The people who promote this ideology are out of touch with reality and won’t rest until they force the rest of us to join them in this delusion. But even if you agree with “trans” ideology, you should be appalled at this heavy-handed attack on political speech.

The late Steve Jobs was at the center of our culture’s transition from analog to digital. He co-founded Apple Computer. He led the team that revolutionized personal computing with the first Macintosh. As CEO of Apple, he led the development of the iPhone and later the iPad. You would think the children of such a man would be surrounded by technology. But Jobs and his wife Laureen didn’t let their children use iPads. Their home had few screens of any kind. Even though Jobs spent most of his time developing and selling Macs and iPhones and iPads, he was home with his wife and children for dinner when he was in town. The family ate together at a simple wooden table in their kitchen — and there were no digital devices or focus on popular culture. Instead, he’s said to have guided his family toward deep discussions of art, philosophy and education — with no iPads to be found. If the man who guided the development of such products chose a different path for his own children, does that suggest that his digital experience taught him that children need human connection, not screens? And does it suggest the possibility that we might be better off if we made the same choice for our families?

For four years, Donald Trump’s supporters screamed that everything that went wrong was the fault of Joe Biden. They were sometimes right and they were sometimes delusional. (Anybody who knows me understands that I can’t stand Biden any more than I can stand Trump, just for different reasons.) But for two months, Trump has rampaged through U.S. political life — vandalizing pretty much everything in sight — and the vast majority of his supporters are silent at best. Many watch as he blows up the world economy and they make excuses for him. They’re in absolute denial, even about things that Trump is doing very intentionally. Anybody who understands economics and history knows that tariffs are a terrible idea from a pragmatic point of view. Anybody who values individual freedom knows that tariffs are massive taxes on individuals — and they’re a tool of political control over the ability of people to trade freely. Trump is the antithesis of everything which political conservatives stood for just a few years ago. It’s far past time for people who claim to be conservatives to reclaim the principles and values which they used to claim — and stop this mad man before he can accelerate the day when we experience economic and social collapse. Open your eyes to reality and reject this lying narcissist.

On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

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