I got home today and discovered Joe Carter clipped my restatement of his post. Thanks for the link, and welcome Evangelical Outpost readers.
In the same post, Carter writes:
Personally, I have a hard time accepting the idea that libertarianism and Christianity are highly compatible. I think that libertarianism tends to favor the individual over other social structures, such as the family and community.
Disclaimer: I have yet to read Mike's essay: these are just a few quick thoughts that were prompted by Joe's comment.
Since I've picked on him lately, I'll continue. I haven't yet read the comments, so he may have clarified his position, but this hardly seems a tenable reason to dislike a philosophical position. After all, it was Christianity that gave us the concept of the individual (see Cochran's excellent Christianity and Culture). At the least, Christianity teaches that the individual is primary in the order of salvation, and I see no reason why this can't also apply to political structures.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
