July 2, 2024
A personal message from Perry Willis
I want Jim Babka to do something, and I think he’s up to it. I want to tell you about a recent interview Jim did that justifies my confidence.
The Big Picture
I am not a Christian, but I think Christian support is absolutely necessary for libertarianism to succeed.
Sixty-three percent of Americans self-identify as Christian. That amounts to 210 million people out of 332 million. That’s not just a majority, it’s very close to a super-majority.
I can’t see any path to libertarian success that does not succeed in persuading millions of Christians to embrace our philosophy.
Fortunately, that should be fairly easy, if only we will focus on it, because…
The Christian scriptures are there to help us.
It’s hard to find any text less fond of aggression than the New Testament.
Many people, from the Quakers to Leo Tolstoy, have found non-aggression and even political anarchism in those pages.
Of course, some passages could be interpreted to point the other way, but not many. The weight of the message is very clear.
Do not aggress against others. Forgive. Tolerate. Persuade. Love.
This makes it all the more frustrating to me that most Christians advocate things that are the opposite of these values. It’s a double whammy. They’re committing sins of both omission and commission.
But I’m not the right person to address this problem. I’m not a Christian.
We need Christian libertarians to focus on this task. That’s why I was so enthusiastic when Jim Babka and Bill Protzmann started the Gracearchy podcast.
I’ve been very pleased with Gracearchy’s content and the growth of its audience. I like that Gracearchy has a light touch. There has been more philosophy, economics, and history in it than there has been theology and proselytizing, though those things are there too, as they should be.
As they need to be!
I think Jim Babka is the right guy to do this job. But we need more than just Jim, and Jim needs more outlets than just Gracearchy. That’s why I was very pleased to learn about the Libertarian Christian Institute.
I was also pleased when they had Jim on their podcast to talk about this crucial subject.
Can Jim Babka make the case that full Christian practice requires libertarianism? I think he can. I think he did. But I want you to judge for yourself.
Watch the interview!
One of the things Jim said during the interview that really resonated with me was the theoretical possibility of a pastor and pornographer having friendly relations at libertarian events. But this is NOT just theoretical to me. I have seen it happen, and to me, it shows the virtue of our movement and cause.
I want to see the whole world work that way. And I think Jim’s interview with the Libertarian Christian Institute was a small step in that direction. I hope you watch it and enjoy it.
ZAP The State and have a nice day,
Perry Willis
Co-creator, Zero Aggression Project
P.S. There are two parts of this interview already generating controversy. One involves immigration in the light of the Imago Dei (image of God). And Jim’s novel take on the cake baker’s controversy will bother most progressives and conservatives. But it shows precisely the kind of nuanced, libertarian thinking that I believe should be magnetic to Bible-based believers.