Position Papers

Hyperlinks are in blue.  Future links, (to be added later), are in red.

    Abortion is the removal and murder of an unborn child.  The libertarian, who actually believes and lives by the libertarian philosophy, will adhere to the following; No person has the right to initiate violence on another person.  Taking the life of an innocent, unborn child is an obvious case of the initiation of violence against another person. The protection of the right to life against violation by others is definitely one of the few legitimate functions of government.  Legally, abortion should be treated exactly like all other forms of murder.  Those who participate, perform or conspire in an abortion should do so with the expectation of being apprehended, prosecuted and brought to justice.  People who can practice freedom of association also have the right not to associate with those whose actions they believe to be wrong.  People who practice abortion should do so not only with knowledge of its legal repercussions but from societal ones as well.  From the Christian perspective, abortion is obviously a sin and Christians should not participate.  When a Christian is wronged, his attitude toward the offender should be one of forgiveness, love, compassion and mercy, but what should his reaction be when there is injustice directed at someone other than himself?  Forgiveness seems to be a personal matter.  I don't believe I have the ability to forgive what Al's done to Bob.  I can say that I do, but those are just words with no actual effect on the situation between Al and Bob.  I think what Christians should focus on in regard to abortion is education and prevention.  Teaching abstinence, individual responsibility and some common sense about cause and effect to lower the instance of unwanted pregnancies is the first line of defense.  That will not always succeed.  Unwanted pregnancies will still occur.  When they do, the Christian should shift his focus to the protection of the unborn child.  The new mother should be reassured about God's plan for her life and that of her child.  She should be told about the opportunities and options before her.  She may believe that she and the father would not be able to provide a good life for the child.  Her view may or may not be valid.  People can do amazing things with God's help.  If there is little hope of persuading the new parents to keep and care for their child then adoption should be forwarded as the last viable option.  Any discussion of abortion should be done from the perspective of its sinful nature and the magnitude of that decision's consequences.  If all these fail and the mother still wants an abortion, the Christian should never be a party to it.  A Christian should not condone it, make provision for it, perform it or even drive the get away car.

   Coercion is the use of force or threat to bring about an act or choice.  Coercion is employed by several methods.  Most come in the form of third party intervention by governments and concern trade.  Some of these methods include taxes, price controls, prohibition, eminent domain and licensing.  The use of coercion is not advocated by Christianity or libertarianism.

    Eminent domain is defined as, "the right of government to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction."  That sure is a pretty sounding way to say theft, but at least they usually candy coat it with what they consider to be "just compensation."  There are however, some major problems with eminent domain, not the least of these being that rights belong to individuals, not to groups.  The individuals in government have rights, but the right to steal is not one of them.  Governments, in and of themselves do not have rights.  The second problem is the involuntary nature of eminent domain.  Say what you will but when all the fancy talk is done they are going to take your property.  There have been some victories.  There have been a stubborn few who have managed to beat the system but these are the exception, not the norm.  When the state wants what you have, your rights mean very little.  The third problem is "just compensation."  This is usually the market value of your property.  The fact is, nobody can know what the value of your property is to you.  I may have a quarter that was given to me by my Grandfather on my birthday. To me, it's priceless.  To the state it's worth twenty-five cents.  A retired couple might have spent years in search of the perfect piece of property on which to build their dream home.  They may have even spent more than its actual value because to them it was "perfect."  The kitchen could have tiles flown from across the oceans and the fireplace could have been built by hand from stones individually chosen by Mr. and Mrs. Hypothetical.  The den might overlook the pond where a grandchild learned to swim.  The garden might have yielded prize winning tomatoes back in '97.  Ask this couple what they'd trade for their home and they might tell you that it's priceless.  However, if the state wants it, it's worth $89, 487.22.  One of the most important legs upon which a free society rests is the individual's right of private property, It's also one of the first that needs to be severed when the state wants control.  Libertarianism stands firmly against eminent domain.  Christians should see eminent domain for exactly what it is, theft, and oppose its use.

    Fraud is the intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.  Fraud is not only lying but is also the intentional omission of truth as well.  Fraud is not advocated by Christianity or libertarianism.

    The freedom of association is one of the most valuable yet most easily yielded of all rights.  The freedom of association must, by its nature, include the freedom to choose those with whom we will associate and those with whom we will not.  It is impossible to evoke coercive powers to guarantee rights on one side of that equation without violating rights on the other.  To use force to cause you to associate with me against your will is to take away your right to not associate with me.  No good end can come from depriving individuals of their right to freely associate.  In every case where government intervention is used to limit or force the association of individuals or groups with one another the right of the individual to choose the path he believes to be most beneficial is taken away.  This always allows those who wield the power of government to place those under that power in a position of submission.  Where resolution becomes required the benefit of the doubt is always given to the group wielding the greatest amount of government power.  (If you question this assumption simply try suing the IRS.)  The right of freedom of association can be violated by various methods.  The most obvious are discrimination laws which give special rights to individuals within certain groups by the violation of the rights of another.  Less obvious examples include wage and labor laws, and protectionist tariffs and trade laws.

    Price Controls can take many forms.  Subsidies (funded through taxation) are given to some producers when they agree to limit the quantity of their products or services.  This limited production brings about an unnatural imbalance in supply and demand which artificially increases the price for that particular good or service.  On some goods and services the government will impose ceilings or floors on the legal price one can ask for a good or service and will employ coercion to attempt to ensure compliance.  The most pervasive form of price controls are wage laws.

     Prohibition is when certain actions or the sale, purchase and sometimes ownership of particular items are forbidden.  Prohibition by government mandate is usually presented on moral grounds or as a means to increase the general safety, health or well being of society.  Several questions arise from the use of prohibition.  When does the state have the right to impose prohibition?  What are the potential benefits of prohibition?  What are the potential costs of prohibition?  Libertarians believe the proper roll of government is to protect individuals from violations of their rights of life, liberty and property by others.  From that perspective, government has the right only to prohibit such actions as theft, fraud, slavery and murder.  In fact, it is impossible for the government to go beyond the prohibition of those actions without violating the very rights they are there to protect.  As Christians we live by a more strict set of rules than does the world.  There are many prohibitions in the Bible to which Christians should adhere.  However, there is no Biblical imperative to use the force of the state to impose those moral prohibitions on everyone else.  In fact, I believe, to do so does nothing more than to drive the sinner further from salvation and make Christians appear as hypocritical busy bodies.  Christians do not have the right to take away the rights of life, liberty and property or use the state to do so for them.

   Taxation wears many disguises.  Like Satan himself, it must deceive in order to gain acceptance.  People dress taxation up, falsely attribute to it all manner of benefits and give it all kinds of cute names.  Even the dictionaries I have dance around it and fail to come right out and say what it is.  However, boiled down to its essence, taxation is the use of coercion by government to take property.  If you take the words "by government" out of the previous sentence you have a perfect definition for theft.  Taxation is nothing more than theft by the people in government.  Do we benefit from taxation?  Only if you ignore the enormous costs.  The least expensive form of trade is voluntary trade.  Every form of intervention includes the added cost of the bureaucracy required to finance, regulate and enforce its goals.  Add to that the cost of inefficiency, since payment for government services is not voluntary, there is no fear of competition, no profit motive, no incentive to produce higher quality or greater quantity or do so at a cheaper price.  No government office ever went out of business.  On the contrary.  The government's solution to its own failure is always to throw more money into it.  Unlike services provided in the free market, government services are rewarded for poor performance.  The costs are not only monetary.  Taxation always requires a loss of freedom as well.  The tentacles of taxation reach into every nook and cranny.  No stone is left untaxed.  If you honestly consider the possibilities, there is not one single thing provided through taxation which could not be provided better and cheaper through private, voluntary trade, and without having to be a participant in theft.  There is some unnecessary confusion over what the Bible says about taxes.  Christians need to remember that the tax equation has two sides.  On one side, I believe Christians are to pay their taxes.  However, on the flip side, because of what the Bible says about theft, I believe Christians should do everything they can to prevent being recipients of the state's plunder.  The US has become such a socialist country that some taxpayer provided services are practically unavoidable, but most government services, welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, FEMA, et al. can be easily identified and avoided.  What about being a government employee?  I'm sorry to be blunt, but if your paycheck comes from taxes, you're an active participant in government theft.  Libertarians also denounce taxation, espousing the ideals of a market free from the coercive powers of the state.

    Theft occurs any time property is transferred by any means other than absolute, voluntary trade.  Theft can be accomplished by taking your property while you're unaware, as in burglary, through trickery or deceit, fraud, or through coercion, where the threat of force is used to influence your "choice."  When one individual steals from others, there's rarely any gray area.  We know it's theft and we know he's guilty.  So why do we somehow think it's different when we use the government to steal for us?  Are we really that gullible?  I don't think so.  The Bible says, "Thou shalt not steal."  There's no semantic argument following ascribing various acceptable methodologies.  It's as cut and dried as is possible.  The Bible says, "Love thy neighbor."  I don't think I can do that and allow the government to stick their hands in his pockets at the same time.  The Bible even says, "Love thy enemies."  Guess I can't let them rob him either.  "Do not covet."  I can't even want what someone else has.  Lastly, the Bible says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  Be honest, how many of us like to be robbed?  The ruler of this world, Satan, is the master of trickery.  He doesn't have the ability to steal your property and it really wouldn't do him much good, but he derives great pleasure in deceiving us into robbing each other.  He'll dress sin up nice and pretty for you, give it nice sounding names, give you all the right excuses and even someone else to blame if you need it, and he's got you!  Make no mistake about it, he's got you.  My service for those who aren't sure is this.  I'm going to provide a short list of some of the names Satan has given to theft to help you avoid participating.  There are the obvious ones, theft, robbery, burglary, fraud, and then, to make more of us fall, he gets creative.  There's the biggest lie, taxation, there's licensing, tariffs, and one of his favorites, not just because it induces us to steal but also because it pits us against each other is called eminent domain.  There's more to steal than just property, too.  You can steal freedom and time, you can injure someone, stealing his well being, his faculties and even his very life.  War is the most pervasive and destructive form of theft.  Satan really likes that one, especially when he can get us to blame it on God.  Do not be deceived.  There is nothing on this earth you could possibly need or desire that's worth stealing.  If you didn't inherit it, earn it, trade for it or get it as a gift, all of which must occur voluntarily, then it's not yours.   

    Trade occurs anytime an exchange is made between two individuals or groups.  I'm not an economist but I believe there are three natural forces which influence trade; quality, supply and demand.  Free trade is voluntary trade based on these natural forces without fraud or coercion.  It is the only legitimate form of trade and the only form condoned by both libertarianism and Christianity.  Trade ceases to be free whenever fraud or coercion are used to influence the quality, supply or demand.

    Wage Laws; Wages are payments given in trade for labor or services usually according to contract on an hourly, daily, or piecework basis.  In the case of free trade, two people will mutually and voluntarily agree upon the value of the labor or services.  In the case of government controlled wages the real value of the labor or services is ignored and an arbitrary price is set.  While wage laws might seem to be beneficial or necessary, they are actually neither and, in reality, only serve to upset the natural balance of trade.