Christian Libertarianism

Or, The Christian Ethic and the Spirit of Right-Libertarianism

DISCLAIMER: Before we go forward, I will state that you do not have to be a right-libertarian in order to be a member of this group or participate in our activities. This is only my own vision for this group’s overall orientation, and I do not seek to force it on any individual member.

I’ve used the word “libertarian” when talking about this group, but realized I’ve yet to define it. And for those who have heard it elsewhere, they may have good reason to question that word’s association with any kind of Christianity.

This brief article will seek to accomplish three things: 1. define the word “libertarian,” 2. explain the two basic principles of libertarianism, and 3. discuss whether any form of libertarianism is compatible with Christianity.

Defining Libertarianism

Let’s begin with the word itself. The word “libertarian” can mean any one of three things. One meaning is philosophical, one is sociopolitical, and the third is a political label.

Philosophically, the word libertarianism describes the extreme “pro-freedom” position in the debate between free will and determinism. That is to say, the philosophical libertarian is one who believes the human will is absolutely free, and that humans have free agency. Both Catholicism and Orthodoxy allow for this position, something the Roman Church clearly expresses in both the VI Session of the Council of Trent, and also in the Church’s decision in the debate between the Molinist Jesuits (who supported libertarianism) and the Banezian Dominicans (who didn’t deny free will but were inclined toward determinism).

The second meaning is sociopolitical, and is usually referred to as “small-l libertarianism.” This refers to a person whose social and political beliefs revolve around the core concept that “other people are not your property.” That is to say that I do not own anyone and nobody owns me. Rather we are free individuals possessed with the gift of self-determination.

The third meaning is expressly political, and refers to membership in the Libertarian Party. As a result this is called “big-L Libertarianism.” The easiest way to understand their platform is by a slogan from 2012: “We seek to keep the Republicans out of your bedroom and the Democrats out of your wallet.”

Basic Principles of Libertarianism

Whether big-L or small-l, The libertarian ethic is based on two foundational principles, both of which can be drawn from the Bible and influenced the Founding Fathers when they drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These principles are: 1. the Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property; and 2. the Non-Aggression Principle.

Natural Rights

The first principle can be called the Three Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property. This formulation comes to us from John Locke’s Two Treatises of Civil Government, and actually divides into two concepts, the first being Natural Law – i.e. the belief that the Law of God can be discerned from the Book of Nature – and that a reading of Nature indicates that mankind has the inherent rights to live, to be free, and to own his own stuff.

From these three “primary” rights one immediately discerns other, “secondary” rights, for example the rights to Life and Liberty automatically imply that one’s right to Self-Defense shall not be infringed. The right to Property implies the right to seek redress if either the government or a fellow-citizen attempts to seize or damage your possessions. And so on and so on.

That the rights to Life and Liberty can be found in the Bible is obvious from turning to any page in the New Testament at random. For example, the Christian may rightly discern a right to Life from the simple fact that God is the Author of all Life. Likewise, the Christian may discern a right to Liberty from Paul’s epistles, where Liberty and its accompanying responsibilities form a central theme of his teaching.

A right to Property may also be found in the Bible, first implied in God’s blessing Abraham with land and livestock, and followed up by the commandments that “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s ox.” We also see it in Jesus’ teaching, in the Parable of the Laborers (Matthew 20:1-16), where the Master asserts his right to dispose his possessions as he wishes, and no one else may lay a special claim to them. We can better understand this by the fact that even though the “Master” in this parable represents God, the parable would make no sense if Jesus did not support the individual’s right to private property. In fact if Jesus had actually condemned private property, then the parable’s message would fall apart completely.

The Non-Aggression Principle

A corollary to Life, Liberty, and Property is the Non-Aggression Principle or “NAP,” which is seen as the core inviolable principle of libertarian ethics. This principle may be summarized as the belief that no one may infringe on another’s Life, Liberty, or Property except in self-defense. This principle is intended to restrain the government as well as the private citizen, and serves as a check against totalitarianism.

This too, in my mind, is compatible with both Scripture and Tradition, which consistently upholds the commandments of “Thou shalt not kill,” or “Thou shalt not bear false witness” in addition to the above mentioned commandments against theft and covetousness, with the exceptions being as punishments for those who commit murder or otherwise attempt to infringe on what is not theirs. Likewise, Christian Social Teaching has consistently affirmed its own version of the Non-Aggression Principle, which can especially be seen in Just War Theory.

Libertarianism’s Compatibility with Christian Teaching

Thus far I have spoken in generalities, but now I must be more specific. Before we go further, I must clarify that the form of libertarianism I endorse is right-libertarianism of the “small-l” kind.

This is because there are many varieties of libertarianism, and many of them are categorically not compatible with Christian teaching. For example the “objectivism” of Ayn Rand is openly anti-religion, and the Libertarian Party does not internally agree on same-sex marriage and abortion, and allows for several other things many Christians may rightly find off-putting.

This is why I specify right-libertarianism, because right-libertarians commonly side with traditional Christian values, even though not all right-libertarians do it for the same reasons. For example one right-lib might oppose abortion because his religion teaches that it’s a sin, while another right-lib may oppose abortion because it’s a violation of the infant’s natural right to Life and thus a violation of the NAP. However, in the end the result is still the same, the belief that abortion is the unjust taking of a human life.

Likewise, upon the intellectual complex of right-libertarianism one may find the structure of Christian ethics, although explained under the rubric of “enlightened self-interest” as opposed to “Christian morality.” Yet again the end result is the same.

My point here is that not all libertarians are Christian, but there is nothing in Christian teaching that prohibits a Christian from accepting and baptizing some forms of libertarianism, just as Christianity happily baptized many practices of our Pagan ancestors and redirected them to God as their true Author and true End.

This is what I mean when I refer to a Christian right-libertarianism. I mean that we find that part of libertarian thought that matches that Christian observation of the world, and then baptize in the same manner as Christianity baptized Stoicism in the first century, Plato in the fourth century, and Aristotle in the thirteenth.

All good things come from God, and all good things should be redirected to Him. Amen.