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To: TradicalRC
libertarian nature and moral ethos of the Christian faith

If you are using current definitions of the term, "libertarian" and Christian are not in the least bit related. In fact, Libertarianism is the antithesis of Christianity.

You might have meant 'liberal,' in the 17th Century sense, which would be less a slur on Christianity.

257 posted on 05/08/2005 2:04:06 PM PDT by ninenot (Minister of Membership, TomasTorquemadaGentlemen'sClub)
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To: ninenot

I appreciate the point you are making. Precision in language IS important, but I was refering to the stance that Christians had historically and Scripturally had towards government; small 'l' libertarian, not big 'L' Libertarian.

In the old testament I often reference 1 Samuel chapter 8 as a starting point for Christian libertarianism. Christian libertarianism recognizes an ethos that comes directly from God which states in essence that the love of God and the love of man are indivisible. Liberal libertarianism on the other hand largely assumes an atomistic ethos which states that as long as I am not physically hurting another person or his property, anything goes.

Liberal, whether used in the classical, romantic or decadent sense of the word is man-centered, rather than God-centered, so I'm not sure that I WOULD use that term.

Again, I may be wrong and it would be interesting to have entire threads that revolve around the precise definition of terms, if only to increase our understanding of the issues and each other and to avoid a ton of entirely unnecessary arguments.


260 posted on 05/08/2005 5:02:08 PM PDT by TradicalRC (I'd rather live in a Christian theocracy than a secular democracy.)
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