Libertarianism Unexpected from the Pulpit

Christianity is progressivist by nature. Jesus Christ was a figure whose ministry was rooted in the Jewish orthodoxy of his time, but on occasion he challenged that orthodoxy to remind his following that it was the law’s spirit which mattered more than its letter. He consoled society’s downtrodden like lepers, prostitutes and foreigners to demonstrate that every soul is valuable to G-d.

Christians take these teachings to heart and strive to treat the marginalized fairly, if not kindly. A number of Christians, especially in the church hierarchy’s upper echelons, have fixated on the instrumentality of government to achieve such objectives. Several organized denominations have been pervaded by Christians favoring government as the most effective means of achieving “social justice,” such that since 2017, it is commonplace to hear statements from church leadership which amount to condemnations of President Donald Trump. Overtly politicized utterances are rare, thankfully. Often you will just hear pleas to pray for immigrants “unjustly” denied “free” housing in hotels, or denied entry to the USA due to the “persecution” of having a lengthy criminal record.

Wide is the disconnect between the church hierarchy and the rank-and-filers. In some denominations it is wider than in others, but at least outside NYC, one frequently sees congregants pour out of the church after another sermon on “Orange man, bad,” and in the parking lot, three of every four cars bears a bumper sticker for Trump!

Politics mixes poorly with religion, which is why churches are inapt for political diatribes. Matthew 22:21 (ESV) had it correct when Jesus commanded, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

More to the point, government is wholly inapt as an instrument for Christian objectives. Christians hoping to effectuate so-called social justice via government selectively forget the parable at Mark 12:41-44, wherein the poor widow at the temple donates her last penny to G-d’s glory. Jesus deemed her donation as immensely more valuable to G-d than the fortunes donated by the rich from their surplus. Similarly, charity from government – which in effect is charity with other people’s money – is not charity at all. Instead of volunteering value to the marginalized out of heartfelt compassion for them, all government can do is threaten extortion of a taxpayer, who then parts with his fortune out of a base desire to save his own skin. That is a tragic perversion of the ethic which Jesus was teaching.

It is against this backdrop that recently I heard an encouraging reversal in church leadership’s stance on the use of government to advance Christian ethics. During a call to prayer, the pastor at the pulpit reminded us of,

“The vainglorious, self-centered people now leading our government [i.e., Orange man, bad!]… let us pray that they be thoroughly divested of power, and thwarted by other branches of government!”

Discreetly I grinned in the pew.

G-d is omnipotent, so He is just as capable of softening our leaders’ hearts, even one as intransigent as President Trump. G-d could bend them all to His will and have them relent and repent on whatever course of action was considered undesirable.

Yet the pastor was not asking us to pray for this outcome, which if anything would be more miraculous and testament to G-d’s glory. Instead, we were being asked to divest government of all untoward power… which is exactly what Libertarians have been advocating for the last fifty-four years!

After church I wondered guiltily whether I should even mention the more miraculous alternative to the pastor. In the end, I decided just to remain silent. As soon as the next Democrat wins the presidency, all such pleas for untoward governmental power’s divestment will be forgotten, like the drunkard impenitent after the morning’s hangover. Soon enough we’ll be back to business as usual, urging government to do the Lord’s work… at point of bayonet.