{"id":5806,"date":"2004-07-15T08:42:46","date_gmt":"2004-07-15T15:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/07\/15\/christian-libertarianism.html"},"modified":"2004-07-15T08:42:46","modified_gmt":"2004-07-15T15:42:46","slug":"christian_liber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/15\/christian_liber.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian libertarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nice article by Josh Claybourn on Christianity and the (mercifully-failed-for-the-moment) FMA<\/a>. The money quote:<\/p>\n

Is the Christian faith more concerned with changing hearts or controlling actions?<\/p>\n

If I can wax Biblical here for a moment (I promise, I won’t bite), the answer for Christians must <\/em>be the former. Indeed, Paul is adamant on that point (and, as far as I can read, so is Jesus). The Law (religious law, that is) cannot lead to salvation, because nobody can perfectly adhere to it. Salvation is only possible through grace, and and adoption of belief in Jesus and his forgiving power. Becoming a follower of Jesus, in this model, causes you to be virtuous; being forced to be virtuous is not at all the same. <\/p>\n

(Ironically, where Paul falls most short, at least for me, is where he gets this turned around, and starts imposing thou-shallts and thou-shan’ts. One might argue that adherence to God’s will would lead to behaviors X, Y, and Z, but that’s an outcome, an after-effect, not the motivator <\/em>for trying to discern such adherence.)<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean that private and public virtue aren’t important, but that they must flow from <\/em>belief and the heart, not the other way around. <\/p>\n

You can certainly argue secular <\/em>reasons for any law — indeed, that’s what you should argue. Because to impose a law as a moral <\/em>prohibition, to try to legislate a “Godly nation,” seems to be strictly bass-ackwards from a Pauline perspective. Yes, good habits can promote a good heart, but calling on the state to dictate religious law as civil law not only flies in the face of orthodox Christian theology, but makes the Church dependent upon — indeed, subservient <\/em>to — the State. <\/p>\n

And that’s just what good Christians ought most <\/em>to fear, no matter how attractive the idea of imposing their particular denominations values on the general population might be — in the short run. Because once you stop trying to change hearts, and go instead for controlling actions, you’re vulnerable to exactly the kind of restrictions you seek to place on others.<\/p>\n

Thus Endeth the Lesson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nice article by Josh Claybourn on Christianity and the (mercifully-failed-for-the-moment) FMA. The money quote: Is the Christian faith more concerned with changing hearts or controlling actions? If I can wax…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7397,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/15\/bothand.html","url_meta":{"origin":5806,"position":0},"title":"Both\/And","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Mar-05 3:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An couple of interesting articles cited by Rich on how some Christian evangelicals on both the Left and Right are beginning to reconsider whether extremism in support of their wing's...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133884,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/18\/thou-shalt-not-pay-taxes-thou-canst-avoid.html","url_meta":{"origin":5806,"position":1},"title":"Thou Shalt Not Pay Taxes Thou Canst Avoid!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Jul-17 4:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Ark Encounter\" creationist theme park has been an exercise in tax jiggery-pokery from Day 1. They started up business as a for-profit entity so that they could qualify for all sorts of tax incentives -- but have then played at being a tax-exempt religious organization whenever it was necessary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16857,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/07\/some-guy-and-prayer-some-thoughtful-considerations.html","url_meta":{"origin":5806,"position":2},"title":"[Some Guy] and Prayer – some thoughtful considerations","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Mar-10 1:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"A very nice lady of my acquaintance forwarded me (and some dozens of other people) an essay attributed to Andy Rooney on prayer and how awful it is that all those atheists are so sensitive about someone praying in public. *sigh* First (though it's not all that important) the essay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/church-and-state.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/30\/defensiveness-for-christ.html","url_meta":{"origin":5806,"position":3},"title":"Defensiveness for Christ","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Nov-10 3:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commercials & Branding"","block_context":{"text":"Commercials & Branding","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-commercial"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/atheist-katie.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":127702,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/24\/how-great-thou-art-threatened-to-be-fined.html","url_meta":{"origin":5806,"position":4},"title":"How Great Thou Art (Threatened to be Fined)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Aug-15 11:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"\"How Great Thou Art\" is a great old classic hymn. But, no, it's not appropriate for a high school football halftime show -- especially when your district has already been sued for proselytizing events, been fined, and are under court order (http:\/\/www.clarionledger.com\/story\/news\/2015\/08\/21\/brandon-high-school-how-great-thou-art\/32143307\/):'Defendants are permanently enjoined from including prayer, religious sermons\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25224,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/09\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-girl-leader-cooties-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":5806,"position":5},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (Girl Leader Cooties! Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-Jan-12 5:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, Brian -- the trouble with the world today is that we've \"feminized\" public policy, moving away from the manly-man attributes of \"stability, ... rule consciousness ... and vigilance\" (i.e., conservatism, authority, and suspicion) into the cootie-filled girly-girl attributes of \"sensitivity, warmth and fear\".That's probably why we're moving away from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}