Most of you know me for supporting extreme amounts of liberty. My overall position is that if there is no specific victim of an activity, I don't support there being a law against it. Any law I support (generally few) must simultaneously be constitutional, affordable, necessary, popularly-enacted, and respecting of the individual. I prefer the government to be as small as possible and mainly focused on crimes of violence, breach of contract, and breach of property.
With that said, my philosophy leaves most "vices" as legal, unregulated activities, provided they are done voluntarily and not by force. I think people have the right to poison their own bodies and ruin their own lives without government playing the nanny. People have the right to manufacture, possess, and sell property -- even guns or addictive substances. I could do without government licenses -- all of them. "ATF" would be better as a convenience store than a government agency.
Drugs, prostitution, and gambling -- oh my! I have even argued against incest laws.
I regret that people have misunderstood my unusual political stances to be an indication of my personal morality. Because, while liberty is important to me, it is not my god. First and foremost I am a Christian and my life is centered on salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. (Notice the title did not say "Rationalizing Christianity to liberty.") I look at everything through the lens of the Bible and take it very seriously. Some people find that startling and hard to reconcile.
It is true that many of the activities I listed above are sins. Its a common misconception among Christians that if something is sinful, we must pass a law against it. We have seen the types of things that "moral majorities" are known for banning. (One of my "favorites" is that in Florida it is still a crime for a couple to live together before marriage.) And as such, religious people have an unfortunate stereotype of being controlling statists.
But that "ban-everything" attitude is not consistent with Biblical Christianity. It doesn't take much bible-reading to know that sin is everywhere: in our words, in our thoughts, and in our actions. Anything that goes against God's will is sin. To attempt to ban sinful things using secular government would be futile; for starters, we'd have to repeal the 1st Amendment so that blasphemy could be prohibited. It couldn't be done and shouldn't be attempted.
Christ died to fulfill the Law of Israel in the Old Testament. Christians are not called to recreate it!!
I am not suggesting that Christians get used to sin, or shut up about sin. No, very much the opposite. It is up to you, Christians, to hold yourselves to Biblical standards and do what is pleasing to God. Avoid sin and remain accountable to each other. This is one of the functions of the church. But, it is very misguided to impose Biblical rules on the outside world. As Paul writes, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside" (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).
So I guess the point is, Christians, don't get hung up on the fact that the corrupt institutions of men are not displaying Christian values and traditions. The outside world is not a reliable moral standard for anything -- and it never was! Christianity was/is naturally counter-cultural. Instead of inventing of ways to put sinners in jail -- exhibiting our "values" at gunpoint -- we should be convincing people to depart from their sinful ways, voluntarily, and find faith in Jesus Christ.
With that said, my philosophy leaves most "vices" as legal, unregulated activities, provided they are done voluntarily and not by force. I think people have the right to poison their own bodies and ruin their own lives without government playing the nanny. People have the right to manufacture, possess, and sell property -- even guns or addictive substances. I could do without government licenses -- all of them. "ATF" would be better as a convenience store than a government agency.
Drugs, prostitution, and gambling -- oh my! I have even argued against incest laws.
I regret that people have misunderstood my unusual political stances to be an indication of my personal morality. Because, while liberty is important to me, it is not my god. First and foremost I am a Christian and my life is centered on salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. (Notice the title did not say "Rationalizing Christianity to liberty.") I look at everything through the lens of the Bible and take it very seriously. Some people find that startling and hard to reconcile.
It is true that many of the activities I listed above are sins. Its a common misconception among Christians that if something is sinful, we must pass a law against it. We have seen the types of things that "moral majorities" are known for banning. (One of my "favorites" is that in Florida it is still a crime for a couple to live together before marriage.) And as such, religious people have an unfortunate stereotype of being controlling statists.
But that "ban-everything" attitude is not consistent with Biblical Christianity. It doesn't take much bible-reading to know that sin is everywhere: in our words, in our thoughts, and in our actions. Anything that goes against God's will is sin. To attempt to ban sinful things using secular government would be futile; for starters, we'd have to repeal the 1st Amendment so that blasphemy could be prohibited. It couldn't be done and shouldn't be attempted.
Christ died to fulfill the Law of Israel in the Old Testament. Christians are not called to recreate it!!
I am not suggesting that Christians get used to sin, or shut up about sin. No, very much the opposite. It is up to you, Christians, to hold yourselves to Biblical standards and do what is pleasing to God. Avoid sin and remain accountable to each other. This is one of the functions of the church. But, it is very misguided to impose Biblical rules on the outside world. As Paul writes, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside" (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).
So I guess the point is, Christians, don't get hung up on the fact that the corrupt institutions of men are not displaying Christian values and traditions. The outside world is not a reliable moral standard for anything -- and it never was! Christianity was/is naturally counter-cultural. Instead of inventing of ways to put sinners in jail -- exhibiting our "values" at gunpoint -- we should be convincing people to depart from their sinful ways, voluntarily, and find faith in Jesus Christ.
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