Render Unto Caesar

Josh Claybourn has a “Christian libertarian” take on the apparently now-deceased Federal Marriage Amendment:

At the root of Christian libertarianism is the biblical conviction that God grants men the freedom (never the permission) to sin. It allows Christians to transform the culture through the church and the family. This transformation is no business of the state’s. The early Christian church, and America’s Founders, saw this and kept the church and state in two different spheres, permitting the church to influence the populace (and the state) freely. The church best flourishes in that sort of environment. The virtuous life cannot be brought about by government.

I would add that the Christian emphasis on humankind’s proneness to sin also speaks in favor of limiting state power (it speaks in favor of limiting economic and social power too; balancing these is the trick).

As C.S. Lewis put it:

I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to the rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments.