The Libertarian Deception

As both major political parties in the US continue to look more and more like carbon copies of each other, there is a political movement that is picking up steam, especially among traditional Conservatives.

That movement is libertarianism, and it is essentially a hybrid of conservative and liberal politics. Libertarians support conservative economic values such as low taxes and minimum government regulation of the economy. But they also support liberal/left-wing positions on social issues such as abortion and illegal drugs. In other words, libertarians are moral-relativists. They do not believe in absolute right and wrong.

Moral Relativism

Many Conservatives are almost magnetically drawn to libertarianism because, on the surface, it seems to align with what they already believe. Low taxes, free market capitalism, and a small, non-intrusive Federal government are the points that libertarians and Conservatives all agree on. And in most conversations with a libertarian, social issues never come up. Most everyone is so preoccupied with the economy that they have placed it at the top of the list, well above social issues like abortion. During the rare times a Conservative expresses a moral absolute to a libertarian, the libertarian reacts much like a slug reacts to salt being dumped on its slimy back. He squirms, winces, and tries to get away. Retired libertarian talk-show host Neal Boortz refused to allow the word "abortion" to even be mentioned on his show and avoided the topic altogether. Many libertarians react the same way. Libertarians are generally fearful of any discussion about absolute morality or religion. I think most Conservatives recognize the libertarian's moral relativism, but they push it to the back of their minds.

Politics as a Religion

Libertarianism and liberalism/leftism have one thing in common: They both treat politics as a religion. In the leftist mind, the party collective is the arbiter of right and wrong, good and evil. In the libertarian mind, the individual decides what is right and wrong, and has no duty or right to impose his views on anyone else. Both liberalism and libertarianism strictly prohibit any connection between apolitical religious principles and the state. Political religious principles, however, such as equal justice under the law, and innocent until proven guilty, are allowed.

Legislating Morality

Libertarianism is seducing Conservative Christians into supporting an amoral political philosophy. Many self-proclaimed Conservatives are quite liberal when it comes to social issues. They will promise to help restore the economy, but they will not support any laws to end abortion. They will affirm their commitment to lower taxes, but they will not do anything to stop p-rnography from littering the airwaves. In fact, they will even support the imaginary "right" of others to practice abortion and exploit women, because they aren't in the business of legislating morality. Or so they say.

The stark reality is that all laws legislate morality. It is against the law to steal because it violates the right to private property. And violating another person's God-given rights is absolutely wrong. Absolute morality is the foundation of all law. Law in and of itself is not an authority, but it supposes to receive authority by virtue of being based on morality. No law can withstand reason if it is based on the arbitrary will of a legislator.

Law must be discovered through morality. This is where the libertarian worldview begins to crumble. Even though libertarians proclaim the inherent rights of humans, they arbitrarily limit those rights to people who are not in utero, that is, unborn babies. Furthermore, they contend that each person owns himself, and can therefore do whatever he pleases with his own body. This, too, directly contradicts another libertarian view, that the government has a right to force a person to act against his will in certain cases. The libertarian philosophy is internally inconsistent. It does not even agree with itself.

Since all laws should be derived from moral principles, it stands to reason that those moral principles will work in favor of that which those laws hope to achieve. This is a brief but powerful truth that we all would do well to remember. Said differently: If we speak out against the very moral principles that our laws are based on, that which our laws were designed to achieve will ultimately fail.

It's not the Economy

What this means is that if our laws are based on Biblical moral principles, and the goal of those laws is to achieve a positive economic outcome, then speaking out against (or remaining silent) on moral/social issues will necessarily result in a poor economic outcome. Why? Let's look at some examples.

People are necessary for any strong economy. Some of our laws are designed to protect and empower people to succeed and prosper according to their talents, skills, and efforts. These laws are based on Biblical moral principles. But there are other laws that confer legal protection to those who murder people—unborn children, children which would otherwise grow up, join the workforce, and further strengthen the economy.

You would think that most Conservative politicians would gladly support the pro-economy and pro-life legislation. But, no, they would rather avoid the moral issues altogether, even when it makes no sense to do so. Why? Because our country has become scared to death of the idea of absolute morality. Absolutely terrified of it. Even Christians will refrain from taking a moral stand on a fundamentally moral issue like abortion or p-rnography. Conservative voices like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity became hushed on moral issues a long time ago, preferring to adopt a libertarian stance and avoiding talk of morality altogether. And when a moral issue does come up, most people say they'd rather focus on the economy instead. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott exemplified this false dichotomy recently when he wrote:

The issue of same-sex marriage was decided by the Supreme Court. Working families are being crushed by inflation, high gas prices, and economic uncertainty. Right now, I am uniquely focused on helping vulnerable Americans by enacting responsible economic policies and shutting down reckless spending proposals.

He's too busy to even discuss moral issues because he's "uniquely focused" on money. Such excuses are all too common. Any philosophy that separates morality from economics is dangerous and counterproductive. Libertarianism is a convenient trap for Conservatives, but it is still a trap. Instead of giving into the increasingly popular movement, align yourself with the Truth of God's Word and His views on politics and government. We will see little economic improvement until we bite the bullet and deal with the real problems plaguing our nation. And they are all moral problems.