A Christian Case for Liberty

I'd like to take you back to a lesson I learned WAY back in the middle 70's, back when I was still in elementary school; to the point at which I first realized (even though I didn't know it at the time) that I'm a libertarian.


There was a girl in my 3rd grade class - Ann R - who was Jewish. One winter Ann's mom came to talk to our class about Chanukah and Judaism. I remember little of what she said; if indeed she said much at all. Mostly what my 3rd-grade mind was able to take in was that Mrs. R made awesome peppermint taffy, and that Jews don't eat pork. The rest I don't remember (and it's not really relevant to this blog post anyway).


Some time after Mrs. R's visit I was with my family heading down the road in the family car. As you drive along I-55 in Illinois, south of Springfield, you'll see a huge hog farm that's been there for as long as I can remember, probably longer. Near this farm is a billboard that has said essentially the same thing for well over 40 years: Pork - The Other White Meat.


This was during the middle 70's, when Jerry Falwell was preaching against the decay of the country's morality and garnering support for what would become the Moral Majority. Even though I wasn't sure of all of the specifics of what was going on at the time, I was aware that Christians were concerned about culture of the day. Rock & Roll, drug use, the Pill, and similar matters were of great concern to Christians, and Christians of the day wanted to use our legal system as a means of making sure that God's laws were followed. At least, that's how my 8-year-old mind understood things.


So what does the (now defunct) moral majority have to do with pork? Not a thing, as it turns out. You see, I figured that, since Jews don't eat pork, a big sign on a billboard advertising pork, near a giant pork farm, would naturally be of concern to Jews. So I asked my mom, "Why aren't Jewish people complaining about a pork farm being here if they don't eat pork?" Mom didn't have an answer for me; and indeed, I was well into my teens before I figured out the answer:


Unlike Christians, Jews aren't interested in everybody else being held accountable to their laws.


Consider Luke 10:27: Love your neighbor as much as yourself (CEV). This is what schoolchildren call the Golden Rule, and what philosophers call the Ethic of Reciprocity. It carries with it not only the idea that we treat others the way we want to be treated, but we don't treat others the way we don't want to be treated.


The principle laid out in Luke 10:27 tell us clearly that a Christian has no more right to demand that non-Christians follow Christian standards than Jews have to demand that Christians follow Jewish standards; or Muslims to demand that Christians adhere to Sharia law; and so on. Unfortunately, far too many Christians fall under the category of "Religious Right." Many Christians in the US favor economic freedom (and thus lean right), but tend to also want to limit others' social freedoms. As a liberty-minded Christian, I find this sad and rather distressing.


Remember, you cannot be truly free if you seek to deny freedom to others.