Friday, May 28, 2010

A post at Sojourners

Jim Wallis posted over at Sojourners about libertarians. There are more strawmen than a county of corn patches, so I couldn't help but post. In case they delete or reject my comment, here it is in its entirety:

I managed to have a very nice post. Unfortunately, disqus proceeded to eat it.

Mr. Wallis, you commit the same error you claim to detest in the Christian right: you are defining the True Christian.

I am a Christian, and I am a Libertarian. God does not compel giving by the sword; the Law showed us that that doesn't work. We are instead to give freely, of our own will. Government does not ask; it takes.

If the church cannot meet God's will, then the church is in sin. God no more needs a government to feed His people than he needs it to convert the sinner.

There is no racism or hypocrisy in pointing out that the government is broke. The federal government will borrow 1 trillion USD this year. Illinois can't pay its bills at all; California is next. Social Security will spend more this year than it draws in, and Medicare is only solvent on paper because it systematically abuses and underpays doctors in the system. If we do not default on the US sovereign debt before then, the US will need 100% of our GDP just to service the debt before my children grow old.

Moreover, the government is inefficient. The government has around 70% overhead rates (for every .30 going to the poor, the government spends around .70 to do so). Good charities manage 10% overhead or less (.1 overhead for every .9 spent), and any charity with more than 25% overhead is probably a scam.

Facts aren't racist or classist. They are still the facts.

The libertarian doesn't favor the strong; the libertarian KNOWS that the strong regularly abuse the weak, and they usually use the government to do so. To paraphrase Lewis, at least give me a petty tyrant. He will sleep or might grow lazy. God save us from the righteous tyrant; he will never sleep for fear of someone harming themselves.

We have a government of righteous tyrants, afraid that one type of "marriage" will corrupt me, or that my incandescent lights will ruin the world. Neither "side" has the least compunction from using the same means; they just argue over goals.

The Libertarian believes in the law of unintended consequences. Pass a minimum wage law, and fewer people get jobs. Regulate companies, and they can't compete with their foreign competitors. The government that has the power to take over GM is the same government with the power to shoot the workers (coal miners and railroad workers of the 1800s). The government that can force a waiter to serve a black man is the same government that can force a waiter to not serve a Christian, or a Jew, etc.

I do not believe that Government is evil; it is worldly and flawed. The Mosaic Law failed when it attempted to impose charity just as it failed when it tried to impose Godly behavior. Our brethren who want to outlaw sin are just as flawed as those who want to outlaw poverty.

As for racism: Mr. Wallis, might I suggest you attend a Tea Party rally? Or perhaps look at the pictures from the right-wing nut job blogs. The people showing you the lilly-white pictures have an agenda to keep them looking that way.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

1 comment:

Stilicho said...

Pearls before swine.