The Case for Christian Libertarianism and Anarchy
We first had the idea for this blog a while ago, when Laine was trying to find the right words to describe her political leanings. Libertarian isn’t quite right. Anarchist is more accurate, but Anarchy as a whole seems like…a description of the problem more than a fully fleshed out societal plan. The fact is, what we both believe takes pieces from Libertarianism and Anarchy – but mostly, it coincides with the core tenet of Christianity. Since we first thought of doing this blog, we’ve learned thanks to our Libertarian community that actually…the overlap of Christians and Anarchists (and presumably Libertarians) is a common pattern.
Some Definitions, because Context
Libertarianism (see also the other posts we’ve written on the topic):
Libertarianism (from French: libertaire, “libertarian”; from Latin: libertas, “freedom”) is a political philosophy and movement that upholds liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism and voluntary association. (Wikipedia)
Libertarians also typically believe that the only time force against another person is warranted is if that person is violating the Non-Aggression Principle (or the “NAP”).
The non-aggression principle (NAP), also called the non-aggression axiom, is a concept in which “aggression”, defined as initiating or threatening any forceful interference with either an individual or their property, is inherently wrong.
Anarchy:
Anarchy is the state of a society being freely constituted without authorities or a governing body. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. (Wikipedia)
The Core Tenet of Christianity
We’ve talked about The Jesus Cheat before, but the very very condensed arc of the Bible, Christianity’s origin story if you will, goes something like:
- God gave people a lot of rules they had to follow in order to be in a relationship with him…
- …they were terrible at it.
- God got pissed, because is it really that hard to keep your commitments, you guys?
- He tried again, with different people…
- …they were also terrible at it.
- Eventually, he sent Jesus, who was both 100% human and also 100% God (Yeah, that math tho…) to live as a person, among people, and be a sort of…proxy for all of the ways that people screw up and are broken and hide from each other and also God. Jesus was a proxy for this pain (or, if you will, sin) for all people, past present and future, because…God magic, basically? (there’s a reason we very lovingly call it a cheat…)
- Jesus died under the weight of all of that pain, including the worst pain of all which is complete separation from God. This served to allow God to (we think) freely give remaining in relationship with people even if they screwed up over and over and over. It also broke, or forgave, any obligation that people had to God and made the relationship purely choice-based.
Basically, God saved people from their own broken, and found a way to stay by pre-forgiving them forever. We get this pre-forgiveness and utter acceptance from God as long as we do one thing (instead of a long list of things) – and that one thing is, depending on who you ask, believing in the Jesus Cheat or just…trying to have a relationship with God – making the relationship “purely choice-based.” Said differently, the only requirement to be fully accepted by God is to choose to be in a relationship with him. Human choice was the only checkbox that God maintained, which would indicate that human choice matters a lot. To God.
…there are nuances of course, and several lifetimes of study and understanding possible regarding Christianity. Maybe in a month or a year or a decade, we’ll be like, no, that was dumb, it’s actually this other thing. But for now, that’s the best understanding we’ve got, and it’s done a LOT to inform our political beliefs.
Libertarianism and Anarchy and Christianity, oh my!
So, we’ve got…
- Libertarianism: people deserve to be free
- Anarchy: no human system is the boss of me
- Christianity: God is the only boss of me, and he appears to have actively preserved my right to choose
As you can see, there’s overlap there… God thinks we deserve to be free to choose, and if we choose a relationship with him, that relationship trumps all other relationships such that we are not subject to the “rule” of…anyone. That means that people do not deserve, or even need, to be controlled, because God’s got this even if sometimes people do awful things. As Josh is fond of saying, karma always comes. If God doesn’t want to control us, then people definitely don’t get to.
Radical Choice-ist
If God worked that hard to preserve human choice, then…so should we. If we don’t try to control other people, and we don’t accept that we deserve to be controlled, then all of our interactions become rife with choice and personal freedom. As long as we aren’t violating the NAP, we have the inherent right to live our lives as we see fit.