While I have a different blog to journal my thoughts about politics and current events, and I don’t intend to post much in this blog about either topic. However, there is one discussion I’ve had a few times, on my faith-based moral justification for being a libertarian. So there are a few items worth mentioning on the subject.

• I am in favor of legalizing many unsavory and currently illicit or illegal behaviors. This is not because I support those behaviors, but because I think that the law and government force isn’t the best way to stop or discourage those behaviors. Trying to stop drunkenness by banning alcohol gets you gangsters and intrusive government enforcement, and the more effective way for society to deal with the problem is Alcoholics Anonymous and church-led 12 step programs. People, as long as they’re not directly hurting others, should be allowed to make bad decisions regarding their own life, and the church should try and love and teach society to help them make better decisions. As a side note, and here’s the main faith tie-in, this pretty much mirrors how God set up this entire world: a neutral space to give people the freedom to learn to choose him.
• Similarly, I don’t think that Government programs to help the needy are compassionate. Taking money from one person to give it to another isn’t compassion, and supporting a program that does so isn’t either. Especially when such programs are always incredibly inefficient compared with private, usually religious charities that do the same thing.
• Lastly, and maybe most importantly, people tend to make politics too important in their lives, and turn politics into a sort of religion. One of the main reasons I support libertarian positions is that I think that we should do what we can to minimize the importance of big politics in people’s lives, and hopefully they’ll learn to fill those aspects with God instead.