Paying Taxes to Caesar
20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" 23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 "Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?" 25 "Caesar's," they replied. He said to them, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." 26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
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Welcome to the Christian Libertarian Network
Christian libertarians believe, generally, that libertarianism is the political philosophy that best represents Christian principles. If you are a Christian and not already a libertarian, we understand you might be a little shocked by that statement and we'll be more than happy to explain it so please settle down and more will be revealed.
It's good to be skeptical so we don't expect anyone to change lifelong held beliefs overnight but let me just touch a couple of points here.
1. What is the only difference between government and private entities?
Answer: Force. Government entities are the only entities entrusted with the power to legally initiate the use of force. There is no other difference between private and government entities.
2. Where in the bible do Jesus or any of his followers ever tell us that we should initiate the use of force or even advocate the use of force against anyone for any reason?
Answer: You wouldn't believe us if we told you, so press Ctrl-D to bookmark this page, then go read the entire New Testament and come back. We'll wait.
- . . .
OK done? Yes, that's right, not one single place. Yes there are two places where it says that God wants us to obey the government so we won't be put in prison but neither of those passages indicates that Christians should try to use the government as a tool to control others.
If you still want to control other people, especially non-Christians, after reading the entire new testament and not finding any justification for doing so, then there's nothing we can say that will change your mind. If the Holy Spirit has not entered your heart and changed it, then we don't have a chance.
Still here? Good.
Christian libertarians are not a bunch of lock-stepping political clones. Neither of the two traditions embrace that idea much. It's difficult to pin down any specific beliefs on which all Christian libertarians will agree. If you really want to hang on to the idea of using government force to control others, it will be easy to find some specific ideas that some Christian libertarians promote that will give you an excuse to reject Christian libertarianism as a whole.
If you do that, we understand. Most Christians have been bottle fed on the idea of making sure others stay moral. They focus so much on those real or imagined splinters in the eyes of others that they miss the opportunity to be rid of the plank that blocks their own vision. We'll pray that you make it back here sooner rather than later.
Just to keep things straight, there is a time and place for reminding others when they are straying, but if you don't know what the rules are for doing that, you will be making things worse if you say anything.
Let's be careful not to get the wrong idea about libertarians. When we use the term libertarianism, we're not talking about the platform of a particular political party in a particular country. We're talking about the political ideology of individualism, decentralization, small government and property rights.
There are a lot of libertarians who are not Christians and who profess libertarianism for selfish reasons. As Christians, we should love them and treat them just as we would treat any other pagans. They do not, however, represent Christian libertarianism.
On this web site, we intend to serve God by serving Christian libertarians and the Christian libertarian idea. We will do that by providing information about Christian libertarianism and Christian libertarians. We will try to provide a communication link between Christian libertarians the world over and we can use your help.
We haven't officially launched this site yet but if you want to be notified when it does launch, contact us and we'll shoot you an email when we do. Then we'll need your help collecting information about Christian libertarianism and Christian libertarians around the world.
Thanks for sticking it out to the end of this page,
admin April 10, 2007, at 07:32 PM CST
