This is why Christians should listen to their politicians

Some people are suggesting that Rand Paul is a racist. If it was only that simple.

Commenting on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a recent interview, Paul noted, “I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners—I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant,” Paul said, “but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership.”

In the world of “No Government is good government,” business owners must be allowed to discriminate if they choose. Not that we want them to, or like it, or affirm it in any way. But it is the natural outcome of our worship of individual freedom, that we must be willing to tolerate the words and acts of others with whom we disagree for the sake of the greater good. It is not, nor can it ever be, the place of government to tell individuals how to think, what to say, or how to act.

Which is pretty much the problem with the world.

It is assumed, of course, that “market” forces will correct anti-social behaviors, that a business would in time realize that it is unprofitable to discriminate, and change. When I read history it looks to me like slave-owners found racial discrimination rather profitable, but perhaps that’s not what we mean here. Rather, I’m guessing, we are asked to believe that freedom-worshipping people will, by nature of their God-given Free Will, in time, come to do that which is right and best for themselves and society as a whole.

When was the last time that happened?

I have to admit that I love discovering how absolutely right Martin Luther really was. About everything.

The failure of libertarian thinking ought to be self-evident by this point . Where are all the benefits of this great free-will? Where are all the acts of charity and love? Where is the wide-spread prosperity promised by the exercise of an unfettered marketplace?

Mine got buried under a pile of mortgage-based derivatives I guess.

People are not good. No, not even you. Occasionally they do good things, but that does not make them good. No, we never have been, and unless human evolution takes an unimaginable turn in the very near future, we never will truly be. Shall I list megalomaniacs, tyrants, mass-murders and criminals? Shall we peruse the daily news and read of drug wars and pollution, pedophilia and hate crimes? In every age, of every degree, people have been bad. We lie, we cheat, we steal, we speed on the Freeway in rush hour.

We are not good. We are bad.

Under what false assumptions do libertarians believe this will change? If we just give people their freedom, do you really believe they will then be good? No, in societies where there is less restraint, less powerful government, there is more corruption, more oppression and violence, more evil.

Human good will is the ultimate tenet of atheism. If we believe that people are by nature good and will do the right thing left to the acts of their free will, then we need neither God nor Savior. Both of those are, in actuality, a great restriction on human freedom, what with their demands of absolute devotion and total obedience to their superior divine will.

No, Christianity is not Libertarian. It is very likely the opposite of it.

For God at least knows that people need to be told what to do. There is a reason why He gave Moses 631 commandments, starting with the big Ten on Sinai. He knew that left to their freedom the Israelites would soon destroy themselves and each other. And he soon discovered (to His holy chagrin) that the provision of Law did by no means create or empower a good people. It would require a much greater work to finally put the lie of human freedom to death.

It would require a crucifixion.

Jesus, by the way, was a big believer if the work of governance to regulate the behavior of individuals in the community. Read Matthew 18 even once. He says, if your brother sins against you, go to him. If he does not listen, bring a witness. And then two or three. And then bring him before the whole congregation. He does not say, well, sometimes you have to put up with what your brother does because he is, after all, free to choose how he wants to be. No, this is Christian community: to exert the will of the whole and demand change from each of us.

The kingdom of God, Jesus tells us, is wherever people are gathered. Together. Bound to one another in mutual love, respect and desire for the good that transcends individual freedom.

To know the Grace of God is to love his truth more than freedom itself.