The Enlightenment sought to throw the Church out of politics and political theory. Thus was born in the West a political fiction and intellectual dead-end: the individual freed from constraints in nature, for whom all relationships are merely social constructs. This is most consistently expressed by political Libertarians. Protestants, who are more individualistic to begin with, because of their theology and ecclesiology, often gravitate towards these ideas. These resources explore early Christian political theology as relational and weighted towards human responsibility on par with, if not greater than, human rights.

The Heart of Restorative Justice in the Heart of God

In this 35 minute chapel message given at Eastern Nazarene College, Mako introduces four principles of justice: meritocratic-retributive (rewards); distributive (human needs and rights); libertarian (freedom); and restorative (relations). Every public policy debate involves a question about how to order and organize these four principles. Explore how and why Christian faith organizes these four principles, and how and why secular thinking cannot order them. Christians therefore have an opportunity and calling when engaging the public square. Here are the slides.

Christian Restorative Justice:  A Response to American Christian-Libertarian Syncretism

A long essay reflection on how a Christian restorative justice vision engages the libertarian viewpoint, especially as practiced and articulated in the United States.

Debate with a Christian Libertarian on the Role of Government in Romans 13. Facebook, Nov 10 - 12, 2020. Mako’s debate with a libertarian Christian over biblical interpretation.

Andy Crouch, No Jesus, No Justice. A Sista’s Journey | Natasha Sistrunk Washington blog, Jan 9, 2014. “The crazy thing is that you can bring Jesus without justice—at least, as those early modern missionaries largely did, without the clear sense of political and social implications of their preaching that we would take for granted today—and, without even meaning to do so, you will bring justice as well. Justice is an abstract noun. It cannot look, feel, think, move—or love. And like all abstractions it is susceptible to idolatry, becoming an absolute good rather than a good dependent on the One who is Good. But Jesus—Jesus is a Person, the Icon of the invisible God. Worship him and serve him, and he will step into your life, like he did into his hometown synagogue, and proclaim his mission. Jesus the Lord will bring the justice that is the mark of true lordship. Indeed, he will not just bring justice—he is justice, the embodiment of God’s yearning that creation be restored as his image bearers are restored. If you follow Jesus, he will use you to bring justice. If you want justice—follow Jesus.”

Dawson Vosburg, Does Libertarianism Work for Christians? Evangelical Labor Institute, Aug 13, 2021. “For this review, though, I want to focus on the foundations the authors set in the second chapter, particularly what they say are the two essential principles of libertarianism: the non-aggression principle (NAP) and private property rights. Everything else they argue is built on these two principles. If these principles are sound, the rest of the arguments are worthwhile; if they are not, the rest of the case becomes suspect. Unfortunately, the NAP and private property rights not only fail to entail one another but are in fact fundamentally at odds.”

Adam Kotsko, The Political Theology of Milton Friedman. The Bias Magazine: Voice of the Christian Left, Jul 19, 2022. “This connection between the secularized market-God and the God of the Bible provides us with another lens to analyze Friedman’s bizarre notion of freedom—namely, the relationship between freedom and slavery. Biblical discussions of human freedom and obedience to God are absolutely saturated with the language of slavery, in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. . . Even if we bracket the real-world effects of Friedman’s ideas in the concrete practices of neoliberalism, the freedom he is offering doesn’t sound like a freedom worth having.”

Top articles: Jamin Andreas Hubner, “Libertarian”? What? Curious Jamin, Oct 26, 2020. “This past summer, after three years, I resigned as the (founding) Editor of The Christian Libertarian Review. There were various reasons for this, including the unique demands and requirements of trying to run a new publication, but also ideological ones as well.” D.C. Schindler, Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty. University of Notre Dame Press | Amazon page, Oct 18, 2017.  A tremendous social commentary of Western individualistic freedom by a Catholic philosopher. Will Wilkinson, Public Policy After Utopia. Niskanen Center, Oct 24, 2017.  Wilkinson recognizes that "the liberal-democratic capitalist welfare state...is good for freedom" and therefore rejects the hard-line libertarian rejection of the welfare state; note the appreciative comments of the Niskanen Center by Jonathan Chait, I Have Seen the Future of a Republican Party That Is No Longer Insane. New York Magazine, Dec 16, 2018.  See also the Vision Paper of Niskanen by Brink Lindsey, Steven Teles, Will Wilkinson, and Samuel Hammond, The Center Can Hold: Public Policy for an Age of Extremes. Niskanen Center, Dec 13, 2018. and David Brooks, A New Center Being Born. New York Times, Dec 20, 2018.  Brooks narrates how Niskanen formed by a split from Cato because of libertarian denial over climate change. Matt Bruenig, How Did Private Property Start? Jacobin Magazine, Mar 16, 2018. “Libertarians tend to get flummoxed when confronted with this simple question.”  Charles W. Mills, Black Rights / White Wrongs:  The Critique of Racial Liberalism. Oxford University Press | Amazon page, 2017.  Re: the Enlightenment dethroning Christian tradition and building a racial ideology in its place.  See review by Christopher Lebron, Up from Rawls. The Nation, Jul 18, 2018.

Peter Thiel, The Education of a Libertarian.  Cato Institute, Apr 13, 2009.  A very illuminating, if idiosyncratic and technocratic, approach to libertarian ideology which maximizes human freedom for the strong.  “I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good. I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual. For all these reasons, I still call myself “libertarian.”  But I must confess that over the last two decades, I have changed radically on the question of how to achieve these goals. Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. By tracing out the development of my thinking, I hope to frame some of the challenges faced by all classical liberals today.”  See update by satirical news comedy Some More News, Peter Thiel and His Dorky Little Goons.  Some More News, Nov 2, 2022.  Thiel’s interest in the “new right” and non-democratic movements is very disturbing.

Josh Eboch, Health Care and the Fallacy of Positive Rights. Tenth Amendment Center, Nov 16, 2009.  Eboch highlights a libertarian position.

Joshua Holland, Ayn Rand Railed Against Government Benefits, But Grabbed Social Security and Medicare When She Needed Them. AlterNet, Jan 28, 2011.

Alyssa Bereznak, How Ayn Rand Ruined My Childhood. Salon, Apr 4, 2011.

Stephen Metcalf, The Liberty Scam: Why Even Robert Nozick, the Philosophical Father of Libertarianism, Gave Up On the Movement He Inspired. Slate, Jun 20, 2011.

Noam Chomsky, Ron Paul's Ideas are Savage. youtube video, Nov 2011. a short 2 min clip

Richard Gallenstein, Why Libertarians Are Wrong About Subsidiarity. Distributist Review magazine, Oct 1, 2012.

David J. Davis, Adam's Smith, Communitarian. The American Conservative, Dec 19, 2013.  A book review of Jack Russell Weinstein's book Adam Smith's Pluralism

Edwin Lyngar, Why I Fled Libertarianism and Became a Liberal. Salon, Dec 28, 2013.

Chris Ladd, The Tension Between Civil Rights and Limited Government. GOPLifer, Jan 20, 2014.  Ladd points out how federal Civil Rights Acts in '64 challenged libertarianism:  "Southern states nearly caught up with the rest of the country in terms of literacy, average incomes, even life expectancy. A solid African-American middle class emerged along with vast new political power. Frustrating gaps still exist, but the expansion of basic personal liberty for African-Americans and other formerly marginalized communities has been impressive."  All the more important because it's from a Republican.

Kathleen Miles, This Map Shows Why the Plan to Split Up California Would Be a Dystopian Nightmare. Huffington Post, Mar 7, 2014.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown. Verso | Amazon page, Apr 15, 2014.

Dan Barry, Libertarians Trail Meter Readers, Telling Town: Live Free or Else. New York Times, May 4, 2014.

Mark Lilla, Why The Truth About Our Libertarian Age. New Republic, Jun 17, 2014. "Why the dogma of democracy doesn't always make the world better"

Andrew Leonard, What Would the Founding Fathers Have Thought About Our Libertarian Crazies? Salon, Jul 5, 2014.

Richard Eskow, The 7 Strangest Libertarian Ideas. AlterNet, Aug 28, 2014.

Sean J. Rosenthal, 15 Supreme Court Decisions that Shredded the Constitution. Foundation for Economic Education, Apr 20, 2015. Informative from a libertarian perspective

Matt Bruenig, Why Are Libertarians Mostly Men?  Matt Bruenig, Oct 24, 2015.  “if I had to speculate, I’d say that the reason libertarians are mostly men is that men are not as good as women at logical reasoning. This is not to say all men are not as good at logical reasoning as all women. It’s just to say that the logical-reasoning bell curve for men is to the left of the logical-reasoning bell curve for women. This means that there simply are more men in the bottom 10% of ability to logically reason, which accounts for their overrepresentation in libertarianism, a philosophy that is internally incoherent and operates mainly through tautology and begging the question on entitlement.”

Will Wilkinson, The Freedom Lover's Case for the Welfare State. Vox, Sep 1, 2016.

Andrina Tran, The Libertarian Party’s Dangerous Fusion. Jacobin, Oct 14, 2016.

Bruce E. Levine, Clinical Psychologist Explains How Ayn Rand Helped Turn the U.S. Into a Selfish and Greedy Nation. Raw Story, Dec 15, 2014.

Will Wilkinson, What if We Can't Make Government Smaller? Niskanen Center, Oct 19, 2016.

Robby Soave, White Identity Politics Gave Us Trump. But Did the Left Give Us White Identity Politics? Reason.com, Nov 29, 2016.

Mark Karlin, Misinforming the Majority: A Deliberate Strategy of Right-Wing Libertarians. Truthout, Jul 9, 2017. re: James Buchanan's theory on how to dismantle the liberal state, and the Koch brothers

Lee Fang, Sphere of Influence: How American Libertarians Are Remaking Latin American Politics. The Intercept, Aug 9, 2017.

Jeremy Scahill, Intercepted Podcast: Atlas Golfed - U.S. Backed Think Tanks Target Latin America. The Intercept, Aug 9, 2017.

D.C. Schindler, Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty. University of Notre Dame Press | Amazon page, Oct 18, 2017. tremendous social commentary of Western individualistic freedom by a Catholic philosopher

Will Wilkinson, Public Policy After Utopia. Niskanen Center, Oct 24, 2017. Wilkinson recognizes that "the liberal-democratic capitalist welfare state...is good for freedom" and therefore rejects the hard-line libertarian rejection of the welfare state; note the appreciative comments of the Niskanen Center by Jonathan Chait, I Have Seen the Future of a Republican Party That Is No Longer Insane. New York Magazine, Dec 16, 2018. For further consideration, see the Vision Paper of Niskanen by Brink Lindsey, Steven Teles, Will Wilkinson, and Samuel Hammond, The Center Can Hold: Public Policy for an Age of Extremes. Niskanen Center, Dec 13, 2018.  See also David Brooks, A New Center Being Born. New York Times, Dec 20, 2018.  Brooks narrates how Niskanen formed by a split from Cato because of libertarian denial over climate change.

Robert Reich, Trump’s Brand is Ayn Rand. Robert Reich, Mar 4, 2018. Reich explains the demise of the “common good” in the conservatism of the 1970’s.

Matt Bruenig, How Did Private Property Start?. Jacobin Magazine, Mar 16, 2018. “Libertarians tend to get flummoxed when confronted with this simple question.”

Charles W. Mills, Black Rights / White Wrongs:  The Critique of Racial Liberalism. Oxford University Press | Amazon page, 2017.  Re: the Enlightenment dethroning Christian tradition and building a racial ideology in its place.  See review by Christopher Lebron, Up from Rawls. The Nation, Jul 18, 2018.

Lynn Parramore, Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America. Institute for New Economic Thinking, May 30, 2018. "Nobel laureate James Buchanan is the intellectual linchpin of the Koch-funded attack on democratic institutions, argues Duke historian Nancy MacLean." “The people who needed protection were property owners, and their rights could only be secured though constitutional limits to prevent the majority of voters from encroaching on them, an idea Buchanan lays out in works like Property as a Guarantor of Liberty (1993). MacLean observes that Buchanan saw society as a cutthroat realm of makers (entrepreneurs) constantly under siege by takers (everybody else) His own language was often more stark, warning the alleged “prey” of “parasites” and “predators” out to fleece them. In 1965 the economist launched a center dedicated to his theories at the University of Virginia, which later relocated to George Mason University. MacLean describes how he trained thinkers to push back against the Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate America’s public schools and to challenge the constitutional perspectives and federal policy that enabled it. She notes that he took care to use economic and political precepts, rather than overtly racial arguments, to make his case, which nonetheless gave cover to racists who knew that spelling out their prejudices would alienate the country.”

George Monbiot, Donald Trump Was Right: The Rest of the G7 Were Wrong. The Guardian, Jun 13, 2018. re: NAFTA sunset clauses 

Derek Robertson, Why the ‘Classical Liberal’ is Making a Comeback. Politico, Jun 16, 2018. liberty as the root of libertarianism, as a reaction to Trump and the far-right

Corey Robin, The New Socialists, New York Times, Aug 24, 2018. observes how democratic socialists are using the argument that capitalism makes us unfree, and socialism makes us more free

Cody Fenwick, Here's Why This Economist Believes Libertarianism Is Essentially a Form of White Supremacy. AlterNet, Jan 3, 2019.

Gildas, The Notion of Obligations Comes Before That of Rights. On the Ruin of Britain, Mar 1, 2019. a quote from Simone Weil 

Thom Hartmann, The Right-Wing American Love Affair With One of the Most Disturbing Serial Killers. Common Dreams, Aug 13, 2019. “A monster who boasted of how he had hacked up a 12-year-old girl—had Ayn Rand's ear, as well as her heart. What happened next was the modern Republican Party.”

Tom Nicholas, Neoliberalism: From Ronald Reagan to the Gig Economy. Tom Nicholas, Sep 12, 2019.  A 26 minute video which serves as a decent introduction

Saagar Enjeti, Saagar Demolishes a Libertarian Billionaire Who Freaks at Rising. Rising | The Hill, Dec 30, 2019.  Libertarian billionaire businessman takes tax-breaks, handouts, bailouts, and corporate welfare from DC as a hedge-fund manager.

Saagar Enjeti, The Death of Libertarianism. Rising | The Hill, Mar 19, 2020. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American right has turned away from the Chamber of Commerce, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” “meritocracy”

David Koyzis, Clash of Idols. Mere Orthodoxy, April 27, 2020.  Koyzis’s subtopic, “The Idol of the Classical Liberals”

Second Thought, Capitalism And Monopolies: How Five Companies Control All US Media. Second Thought, Aug 28, 2020.  A helpful examination of the problem and its consequences for democracy, information, fairness

Kurt Andersen, How Liberals Opened the Door to Libertarian Economics. New York Times, Sep 11, 2020. “Milton Friedman’s free-market ideas found favor in a free-love era and helped redirect the country toward the right. The aftershocks of his radical arguments are still being felt today.”

Jonathan Chait, Republican Senator Blurts Out That He Hates Democracy. New York Magazine, Oct 8, 2020. Utah Senator Mike Lee tweeted, “We are not a democracy.”

“Lee is articulating a view that has long been in vogue on the American right but which Republican politicians were generally hesitant to express openly. The premise is that liberty is a higher value than democracy, and they define liberty to mean a right to property that precludes redistribution. That is to say, the far right does not merely view progressive taxation, regulation and the welfare state as impediments to growth, but as fundamentally oppressive. A political system that truly secured freedom would not allow the majority to gang up on the minority and redistribute their income for themselves.”

Jamin Andreas Hubner, “Libertarian”? What? Curious Jamin, Oct 26, 2020. “This past summer, after three years, I resigned as the. founding. Editor of The Christian Libertarian Review. There were various reasons for this, including the unique demands and requirements of trying to run a new publication, but also ideological ones as well.”

Saagar Enjeti, GOP Establishment Wants To Hijack Party From Trumpism, Screw Over New Voters. Rising | The Hill, Nov 12, 2020.  Enjeti says libertarians are ~15% of the GOP but wields enormous influence because of its wealth. Yet Trump won Latino votes in the Rio Grande Valley, TX because of the stimulus checks and the perception that Trump was for small businesses. The comments are also interesting, including, “Saagar yearns for the Republican party of Eisenhower, but he still carries water for the Republican party of Trump.”

David Doel, Secret Recordings Reveal Alberta's Conservatives Overruled Top Doctors. The Rational National, Nov 28, 2020.  Doel shows how conservative elevation of “personal freedom” failed in Alberta, Canada especially when compared with other provinces, showing that the ideology of personal freedom has the same results in Canada as in the U.S.

Knowing Better, Redefining American Capitalism | Libertarianism. Knowing Better, Feb 28, 2021.

Lynn Parramore, Chicago School Economists Got it Wrong. Strong Antitrust Policy Boosts the Economy.. Institute for New Economic Thinking, Mar 29, 2021. Interview with Mark Glick, exploring history starting from the Sherman Act, Woodrow Wilson’s Progressivism, FDR’s New Deal, the rise of the Chicago School and Pareto efficiency, and the response from the New Brandeisian legal scholars.

Krystal Ball, Elitist National Review Writer Blames Voters For National Mess In Anti-Democracy Piece. Rising | The Hill, Apr 8, 2021. Ball critiques Kevin D. Williamson, Ben Shapiro, and the National Review’s intellectual origins; libertarian thought reduces people down to economic units who shouldn’t care about conservative values, like living in your home town, stability, etc.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Texas Power Grid Fails Again, What The Hell Is Going On?. Breaking Points, Jun 21, 2021. “The villain is libertarianism. Basically… the “free market” created a massive market failure, where you’re not incentivized to create any excess capacity, so that when you have unusual events, like a deep freeze… or 110 degree weather… you’re not prepared.” See also Saagar Enjeti, Shortage Crisis Shows How Elites Made Us Into a Clown Country. Breaking Points, Jun 21, 2021.  Enjeti covers other shortages: silicon semiconductors, cars, toilet paper, diapers, cheese, oxygen, labor, etc.

George Packer, How America Fractured Into Four Parts. The Atlantic, Jul-Aug 2021. “People in the United States no longer agree on the nation’s purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?” Packer gives valuable storytelling. First is the traditionalists and libertarians constituting “Free America.” Second is the professional, managerial, meritocratic class constituting “Smart America.” Third is the patriotic, anti-intellectual, fundamentalist Christian class constituting “Real America.” Fourth is the activist, critical, marginalized-oriented “Just America” or “Unjust America.”

Sam Seder, Seder Debates Ayn Rand Institute Libertarian Yaron Brook. The Majority Report, Jul 7, 2021.  See also the short summary by David Doel, Libertarian Exposes His Deranged Ideology In Debate With Sam Seder. The Rational National, Jul 8, 2021.  Doel focuses on a clip about the collapse of the condominium in Miami, Florida, killing dozens of people. Brook’s response was that it was their individual responsibility, which cannot be true of children.

David Doel, Reformed 'Dogecoin' Creator Slams Cryptocurrency. The Rational National, Jul 18, 2021. Doel makes intriguing points about cryptocurrency as a libertarian ideal.

Thom Hartmann, Meet the Child-Killer Who Inspired the GOP’s Cruelty.  Thom Hartmann Program, Aug 1, 2022.  Ayn Rand was inspired by a child-killer, the modern GOP is inspired by Ayn Rand.

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, Sam & Emma Dismantle Libertarian Anarcho-Capitalist's Entire Ideology.  The Majority Report, Sep 11, 2022.  

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, How Little House on the Prairie Beamed Libertarian Propaganda Into America’s Homes.  The Majority Report, May 28, 2023

Derek Thompson, Why Americans Care About Work So Much.  The Atlantic, Mar 31, 2023.  “Workism is rooted in the belief that employment can provide everything we have historically expected from organized religion.”  This is the inevitable result of the libertarian ethos of needing to demonstrate one’s value, as opposed to rest on a communitarian and relational framework where a person’s value is a given.

Claire Provost and Matt Kennard, Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy. Bloomberg Academic | Amazon page, May 4, 2023. See interview by PoliticsJOE, Investigative Journalist Charts How Corporate Greed Has Destroyed Democracy | Matt Kennard Interview. PoliticsJOE, Jun 10, 2023. A one hour interview, excellent overview of the book, mostly focusing on how US and UK corporations controlled foreign policy, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. to control democratic power in the developing world.

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, How Big Business Tricked Americans Into Loving Them.  The Majority Report, Jun 3, 2023.  Naomi Oreskes joins the program to discuss "the tripod of freedoms".  Business framed consumerism and working as “freedom.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Republican Voters Turn On Anti-Wokeness. Breaking Points, Aug 7, 2023. Social libertarianism.

Thom Hartmann, The Corrupt Hell That Birthed Libertarianism.  Thom Hartmann Program, Sep 30, 2023.  The party formally started in the 1950s with the real estate lobby.  The philosophy started with Ayn Rand.  

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, Debunking the Myth of Self-Made Success.  The Majority Report, Sep 30, 2023.  Alissa Quart, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.  Ecco | Amazon page, Sep 2023.  “In "Bootstrapped," acclaimed journalist Alissa Quart delivers a searing critique of the deeply ingrained American fixation on self-reliance, a belief that has left us more unequal, less healthy, less productive, and ultimately less fulfilled. She challenges the core tenet of the American dream, the idea that hard work and individual resourcefulness alone lead to success, revealing how this myth perpetuates income inequality and engenders feelings of shame and self-blame. Quart exposes the fallacies of this self-sufficiency ethos, examining the pitfalls of concepts like "grit" and the deceptions of hyper-capitalist philanthropy, all while highlighting how society's focus on personal achievement has diverted us from implementing essential social programs. Instead of investing in robust systems addressing our societal problems, responsibility for survival has shifted onto ordinary individuals, saddling them with debt rather than offering free higher education or universal healthcare. Through incisive analysis and compelling storytelling, "Bootstrapped" uncovers the flaws in the very foundations of the American experiment, offering a path towards freeing ourselves from these self-defeating narratives and creating a more equitable society.”

Greg Palast, Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon Describes the Struggles of the Osage People.  Here’s Why They Are Still Fighting.  The Guardian, Oct 20, 2023.  That oil money went to the Koch family.

Nikki McCann Ramirez, Florida GOP Chair Accused of Sexually Assaulting Threesome Partner.  Rolling Stone, Nov 30, 2023.  “Police are investigating Christian Ziegler, husband of Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, over accusations that he sexually assaulted the couple's alleged partner.” See also ABC News, Conservative Activist Bridget Ziegler Rocked by Sex Scandal. ABC News, Feb 8, 2024. This sordid episode shows how a white couple who engages in a three-way LGBTQ relationship could pretend to stand for conservative values as political activists. It highlights how libertarian economic policies really do align well with libertarian social morality.

Unlearning Economics, Thomas Sowell Is Worse Than I Thought: Part One. Unlearning Economics, Mar 13, 2024. A long but engaging 2.5 hour video