Libertarian Mythology
by Steven F. LeBoeuf
"The general theme of laissez faire, or 'live and let live,' would oil
the social mechanisms of a free nation."
The Moral Element In Free Enterprise
July 1962
by F. A. Hayek
"It is, on the one hand, an old discovery that morals and moral values will grow only
in an environment of freedom, and that, in general, moral standards of people and
classes are high only where they have long enjoyed freedom—and proportional to the
amount of freedom they have possessed. It is also an old insight that a free society
will work well only where free action is guided by strong moral beliefs, and, therefore,
that we shall enjoy all the benefits of freedom only where freedom is already well
established. To this I want to add that freedom, if it is to work well, requires not
only strong moral standards but moral standards of a particular kind, and that it is
possible in a free society for moral standards to grow up which, if they become general,
will destroy freedom and with it the basis of all moral values."
Mythology of a Free Nation
by Richard O. Hammer
The founders and the maintainers of a free nation need different
mythologies.
Myths for a Free Nation
by Roderick T. Long
A free nation would benefit from stories that promote both bourgeois
virtues and bohemian virtues.
Myths of the Nation-State
by Gordon Neal Diem
A nation state needs myths about its founding, dynasty, great struggle,
uniqueness, political community, and destiny.
Religion and the Free Economy
by Edmund A. Opitz
"The free society/free economy does not just happen in human affairs; only occasionally
has it emerged in history. The free economy is a contingent thing, dependent upon the
cultivation and application of the right ideas, the right philosophy. Freedom needs a
world view which makes mind central and gives truth its proper place; freedom needs to
be buttressed by firm moral convictions, by the idea of inherent natural rights, and by
belief in free will. And only a happy citizenry pursuing the goals proper to man will
struggle to become free, or fight to retain such freedom as they already enjoy. The free
society, in short, needs Theism. Of course we need sound economic and political theory
as well, but it must be emphasized once again that a people which has embraced an
untenable world view-one which denies the spiritual and the transcendent-will be seduced
repeatedly by crazy schemes of reform and revolution."
Religious Roots of Liberty
by Rev. Edmund A. Opitz
"Liberty rests upon the belief that all proper authority for man's relationships with
his fellow men comes from a source higher than man – from the Creator. Liberty decrees
that all men – subject and ruler alike – are bound by this higher authority which is
above and beyond man-made law; that each person has a relation to his Maker with which
no other person, not even the ruler, has any right to interfere. In order to make these
conceptions effective for liberty, they must be deeply ingrained in the fundamental
values of a people. That is to say, they must be part of the popular religion."
Religious Virtues, Religious Vices: Civic Education in the Liberal Polity
by George Thomas
"In asking whether liberalism must, even if in a roundabout way, care for the soul,
we should step carefully; it is terrain where angels fear to tread."
Sacred Choice: Myths for a Free Nation
by Philip E. Jacobson
The central value of a free nation would be choice. The mythology of a
free nation would need to elevate choice to a sacred position.
Does religion lead to small government or stonings?
October 8, 2009
by CLS
"The Religious Right, with which Acton Institute is allied, says that gay people should
either have fewer rights than everyone else, be criminalized and imprisoned for their
“crimes,” or executed in accordance with God’s word. They want to ban abortions and
institute widespread censorship of sexual material. Many would ban birth control,
contraception and criminalize “adultery” and “fornication” as well. Some of the
fundamentalists would even ban dancing, television and women teaching males. Yet Acton
Institute wants us to believe that a society dominated by people like this would be one
of small government."
Freedom of Religion and Public Schooling
by James R. Otteson
"Government support of religion, many people believe, violates freedom of conscience,
politicizes and trivializes important values, and violates people’s rights. If the same
is true of government support of education, doesn’t consistency require people to reject
it, too?"
God and the State
by Mikhail Bakunin
"All religions, with their gods, their demigods, and their prophets, their messiahs
and their saints, were created by the credulous fancy of men who had not attained the
full development and full possession of their faculties. Consequently, the religious
heaven is nothing but a mirage in which man, exalted by ignorance and faith, discovers
his own image, but enlarged and reversed - that is, divinized. The history of religion, of
the birth, grandeur, and decline of the gods who have succeeded one another in human
belief, is nothing, therefore, but the development of the collective intelligence
and conscience of mankind."
God and Totalitarianism
by Philip Vander Elst
Government as Idolatry
by Michael Tennant
"When once the people requested that a judge become king, that judge, Gideon,
replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule
over you” (Jud. 8:23 ). Gideon clearly understood that his role was to defend the people
but not to assume God’s role as king."
The Individualist Code
by Stephen Cox
"The great religions always challenge people to be better than they are. That challenge
is essential to New Testament teaching. Yet the emphasis remains on individual choice,
individual effort, individual freedom."
Karl Marx as Religious Eschatologist
by Murray N. Rothbard
"In contrast to the various groups of utopian socialists, and in common with religious
messianists, Karl Marx did not sketch the features of his future communism in any detail.
It was not for Marx, for example, to spell out the number of people in his utopia, the
shape and location of their houses, or the pattern of their cities. In the first place,
there is a quintessentially crackpotty air to utopias that are mapped by their creators
in precise detail. But of equal importance, spelling out the details of one's ideal
society removes the crucial element of awe and mystery from the allegedly inevitable
world of the future."
Mysticism and the Idea of Freedom: A Libertarian View
by Neal Donner
"Mysticism has a bad name in libertarian circles, partly because of Ayn Rand's
denunciations of mystics as antirational, coercive totalitarians. Yet a closer look at
the behaviors and ideas associated with certain important forms of mysticism in history
reveals that mystics have often been found in dedicated opposition to the State, indeed
to all forms of "tyranny over the mind of man," in Jefferson's phrase. Non-theistic
mysticism moreover proposes a respectful critique of reason that bears an uncanny
resemblance to some of the main principles of Friedrich Hayek's thought."
Religion
by Ludwig von Mises
"Praxeology and economics are not qualified to deal with the transcendent and
metaphysical aspects of any doctrine. But, on the other hand, no appeal to any
religious or metaphysical dogmas or creeds can invalidate the theorems and theories
concerning social cooperation as developed by logically correct praxeological reasoning."
Religion and Libertarianism
by Walter Block
"It is time, it is long past time, that the Austro-libertarian movement reject the
virulent Randian opposition to religion."
Religion, Politics and Liberty
by Simon Birch
Origins of Religious Tolerance
by Wendy McElroy
The free market promotes religious toleration.
Religious Influence on Political Structure: Lessons from the Past, Prospects for the Future
by Roderick T. Long
Whether religion is the friend or the enemy of liberty depends on the
content of the religious ideas in question.
The Right to Pray
by William Cage
"The answer to the “right to pray” in public institutions is the same as the answer
to the “right” to teach any particular theory or opinion on any other matter: there
is no “right” involved. It is outside the realm of public institutions. Thus it is
that general education, as well as religious instruction and practices, cannot be
provided by public institutions within the framework of our original philosophy of
government."
Unconventional Religious Practices
by Peter McWilliams
The history and effects of laws regarding unusual religious practices.
The Wall of Separation Between Church and State
by Judd W. Patton
"The purpose of the First Amendment was not to protect Americans from religion, it
was to protect religion from government intrusion. This “understanding” is in full
and obvious accord with the raison d'etre of the Bill of Rights to limit the federal
government's power and thereby secure the freedom of individuals and the rights of
the states. The Bill of Rights was a declaration of what the federal government
could not do."
Anarchy and Christianity
by Jacques Ellul
Chapter 1 of a book by this Christian theologian and anarchist.
The Bad Effects of Good Intentions: Why the Welfare State Inevitably Fails
by Jeffrey Herbener
A Christian and Austrian-economic critique of the welfare state.
"Christians today must not settle for reforming the welfare state.
It is by nature unfit to attain the ends of charity and serves only to
aggrandize state power whch rends the social fabric by hampering the proper
functioning of families, churches, and voluntary associations.
With de Tocqueville, Christians must call for abolition of the welfare state."
Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics by Doug Bandow
reviewed by Carl Helstrom
"This book is an important work that clarifies the relationship between Christianity
and politics. It is a spiritual message for those involved in the political arena who
struggle with their faith in Jesus Christ, their commitment to civic service, and the
proper way to use political power. And it is a sound political statement, reinforcing
the concept of limited government, individual responsibility, private property, free
trade, and the rule of law. Most significant, though, Beyond Good Intentions is
a personal message by a man who believes in what he writes."
The Bible Against the State
by Jérémie T.A. Rostan
"my contention, here, is not that all believers, or even all Christians, should be
anarchists. But it is my contention that all those who consider the Bible as God’s
Word – and His Words to be literally followed, should."
Biblical Anarchism
by Stephen W. Carson
"By clarifying what precisely we mean (and don't mean!) by anarchy as a political
system and what the Scriptures teach I hope to answer these objections and explain
how I both hold the Bible to be the revealed Word of G-d and also desire society
without the State."
Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism
by Murray N. Rothbard
"The brunt of this important new thesis is this: rather than saying that Hume and Smith
developed economic theory almost de novo, economics had actually been developed,
slowly but surely, over the centuries by the Scholastics and by Italian and French
Catholics influenced by the Scholastics; that their economics was generally individualist
methodologically, and stressed utility theory, consumers’ sovereignty and market pricing,
and that Smith really set back economic thought by injecting the purely British doctrine
of the labor theory of value, thus throwing economics off the sound track for a hundred
years. Here I might add that the labor theory of value has had many bad consequences. It,
of course, paved the way, quite logically, for Marx. Secondly, its emphasis on "costs
determining prices" has encouraged the view that businessmen push up prices or that unions
push up prices, rather than governmental inflation of the money supply. Third, its
emphasis on "objective, inherent value" in goods led to "scientistic" attempts to measure
values, to stabilize them by government manipulation, etc."
'Christian Anarchist': An Oxymoron?
by Jim Davies
"For reasons both theoretical and practical therefore, there's no melding of freedom
and religion, and "Christian Anarchist" is, unfortunately, a nonexistent species,
a hopeless oxymoron. If you, dear Reader, presently have a foot in both camps, it's
decision time; pick one thing or the other."
The Christian and War
by Stan Warford
"The thesis of this presentation is that Jesus teaches simply and unequivocally that
war is evil and that Christians should refrain from participation in it."
Christianarchy?
by Michael Tennant
"Thus we see that (a) the Bible does not require coercive government to exist
and, in fact, provides good reasons not to accept the existence of the state; and
(b) stateless societies have existed in the past and could exist in the present, with
the market providing the services now provided by the state. Therefore, the answer
to the question “Can a person be a Christian and also an anarchist?” is a resounding YES."
Christianity and Anarchism - A Match Made in Heaven
by Roger Young
"The recent column of Jim Davies makes the contention being a Christian is not
consistent with a life of individual freedom. He concludes that the idea
of “Christian” and “Anarchist,” together, is a contradiction in terms. I will
attempt, through my own personal testimony and understanding, but claiming no
authoritarian, expert knowledge of theology, that his conclusion is inaccurate."
Christianity and Liberty
by George H. Smith
Christianity and War
by Laurence M. Vance
"The early Christians were not warmongers like so many Christians today. They did not
idolize the Caesars like some Christians idolize President Bush. They did not make
apologies for the Roman Empire like many Christians do for the U.S. Empire. They did not
venerate the institution of the military like most Christians do today. They did not
participate in the state’s wars like too many Christians do today. If there was anything
at all advocated by the early Christians it was peace."
Christianity and War Revisited
January 13, 2005
by Laurence M. Vance
"These thirteen essays, although organized under four headings, have one underlying
theme: opposition to the warfare state that robs us of our liberty, our money, and in
some cases our life."
Christian Libertarians
by Roy Halliday
Argues that those who agree with the moral teachings of Jesus
ought logically to be libertarians.
A Christian Speaks Up for Capitalism
by James D. Gwartney
"Of course, capitalism does not impose the moral demands that Christianity does. But
economic systems seeking to perfect human nature have more often led to tyranny than
to bettering the human race. Christians would do well to settle for an economic system
that reinforces Christian virtues, improves living standards, and provides for minority
views. Capitalism is such a system."
A Christian View of Armed Warfare
by William E. Paul
"War demands retaliation against evildoers. It calls for both offensive attack and
defensive counterattack against an enemy bent on destruction. War requires putting a stop
to his evildoing. The prime means employed in war to accomplish this is for individuals
to kill individuals. And this very action is forbidden to a Christian who is commanded by
his Lord – not to return evil to the one inflicting evil upon him."
Civil Disobedience: A Christian Value
by Doug Newman
"We hear no end of how “America was founded on Christian values.” Yet we forget
that the Founders were, among other things, rebels, tax protestors, smugglers and
militia members who engaged in armed shootouts with their government."
Connections Between the Austrian School of Economics and Christian Faith: A Personalist
Approach
September 1, 2003
by Paul A. Cleveland
"One of the main problems of integrating Christian faith and economic analysis is that
most economists approach the subject using an anthropology that is decidedly
anti-Christian. While this is typically done without much forethought, economists
typically reject out-of-hand any approach that deviates from the one that they deem to be
integrally part of their study. Owing to the work of John Stuart Mill and his progeny, a
utilitarian approach to the subject became dominant. While economic analysis must be
grounded in the reality that the utility people find in goods plays a foundational role
in our understanding of how economies function, what is not needed is the endorsement of
utilitarianism. It is this endorsement that has led the profession to become largely
mathematical and empirical. However, the Austrian School has resisted this tendency
because scholars working in that tradition maintain an anthropology that is much more
consistent with Christianity."
The Early Christian Attitude to War
by John Cecil Cadoux
"Published shortly after the First World War, this book is an examination of Christian
ethics regarding war and peace which begins with the teachings of Jesus and continues
through the first 2 centuries of the Christian era."
Elijah vs. the State
by Laurence M. Vance
"Elijah didn’t make excuses for the evil deeds of the state. He considered lying,
stealing, and killing to be evil – regardless of whether it was done by or for the state."
God and Man in the Environmental Debate
December 12, 2005
by Jay W. Richards
"Because environmental policies perpetuate certain notions about the human person, and
because these notions have real world consequences, Christians have little choice but
to engage the debate over the environment. In particular, we should strongly challenge
the misanthropic strain in the modern environmental movement. Human beings aren’t an
accident. We are an intended part of God’s good creation. And while God called
everything he created “good,” he only called human beings, whom He created in his own
image, 'very good.'”
The History of Freedom in Christianity
by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
"In the ages of which I have spoken, the history of freedom was the history of the thing
that was not. But since the Declaration of Independence, or, to speak more justly, since
the Spaniards, deprived of their king, made a new government for themselves, the only
known forms of Liberty, Republics and Constitutional Monarchy, have made their way over
the world."
Jesus and War
by John W. Whitehead
"'For three centuries,' writes biblical scholar Walter Wink in The Powers That Be
(1998), “no Christian author to our knowledge approved of Christian participation in
battle.” This, of course, changed in the third century when the church was
institutionalized and became an integral part of the warring Roman Empire."
Jesus on Property Rights and Resource Preservation
by Robert Higgs
"The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the
shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and
runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away
because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my
own and my own know me."
Kill for Christ?
by Anthony Gregory
A review of Christianity and War; And Other Essays against the Warfare State
by Laurence M. Vance.
The Kingdom of God is Within You
by Leo Tolstoy
"Your duties as a citizen cannot but be subordinated to the superior obligations of
the eternal life of God, and cannot be in opposition to them. As Christ's disciples
said eighteen centuries ago: "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
you more than unto God, judge ye" (Acts iv. 19); and, "We ought to obey God rather
than men" (Acts V. 29)."
The Kingdom Without God: Roads End for the Social Gospel by Gerald Heard and
Edmund A. Opitz and The Powers That Be: Case Studies of the Church in Politics by
Edmund A. Opitz
reviewed by Frank Chodorov
"As these books make plain, the forces which would politicalize the Church are to be
found in the upper reaches of the denominational and interdenominational hierarchies;
they do not stem from the local clergyman and congregation. These two publications of
the Foundation for Social Research are most informative and most opportune. They provide
a well-rounded philosophy of Christian social responsibility from the standpoint of
sound theology, economics, and political theory; and they lay a substantial religious
foundation for libertarian social thought."
Let My Children Go: A New Case for Abandoning Government Schools
by Steven Yates
An approving review of Let My Children Go by Revenend E. Ray Moore, Jr.
The book presents a Christian argument for separating school and state.
Liberalism and Christianity
by Wilhelm Röpke
Must a Christian be a Libertarian?
by Clifford F. Thies
"In the last generation, the church has reconsidered the positions it formerly expressed
concerning classical liberalism. In his encyclical Humanae Vitae, in 1963, Pope John
XXIII, took the first, giant step, and finally put the Catholic Church on record as
favoring religious freedom. For those of you who are into church history, this completed
the reformation.
The next giant step was taken by the current pope, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical
Centisimus Anus, in 1991. In it, the pope described the private property, free enterprise
system as the only economic system compatible with human dignity. What's most important
is that there is no longer the animus previously directed against classical liberalism.
We're still against greed, and we're still for justice and charity, but the church
recognizes that a Christian society must be both a free and virtuous society."
My Christian Brothers, Leave Government and Cleave Unto Liberty
by Jim Fedako
"My Christian Brothers, we have to break free from the state. We must stop looking to
the next election and the Republican Party as our salvation. And we must stop using
the sword of government for our purposes."
A Plea to Christians: Reject the State!
by Roger Young
"As a Christian and former conservative, it is discomforting to me to see my
Bible-believing brothers and sisters holding on to their faith in The State."
Profits vs Society: Must We Choose?
August 4, 2003
by Stephen W. Carson
"The Scholastics demonstrated that a concern for the poor and for
mercy on the unfortunate does not require spurning the market. In
fact, it was these very concerns that led them to study carefully
the nature of property and market exchange. They found that the
market is a powerful institution for improving the lot of the common
worker and respect for private property provides opportunities for
charity. They had nothing but contempt for those who used government
privilege to violently interfere with the market for their personal
gain.
One can only hope that the clergymen of today will cease their war
on the market and learn that compassion is made more effective when
grounded in economic truth."
Romans Chapter 13
by Chuck Baldwin
"Remember that every apostle of Christ (except John) was killed by hostile civil
authorities opposed to their endeavors. Christians throughout church history were
imprisoned, tortured, or killed by civil authorities of all stripes for refusing to
submit to their various laws and prohibitions. Did all of these Christian martyrs violate
God's principle of submission to authority?"
Separating the State from the Church
July 4, 2009
by Laurence M. Vance
"Instead of worrying about the First Amendment, Christians should be more concerned about
the First Commandment. The Lord demands that no gods be put before him – inside or
outside of church. God will not give his glory to another (Isaiah 42:8, 48:11). The state
must be separated from the church."
The Shame of the Church
by Norman S. Ream
"Over and over again church leaders and church assemblies have passed resolutions
that, in substance if not overtly, praised socialism and condemned capitalism. As a
consequence, the Christian church and its leadership has made a large contribution
to the denial of a higher standard of living and a larger measure of freedom to
millions of men and women around the world."
Should the Church Wave the Flag?
July 4, 2009
by Jeffrey A. Tucker
"We live in times of hyper-nationalism, war, and all-intrusive statism that the Church
is called to resist in favor of truth, beauty, and true salvation. It is an easy-enough
step to sing the propers of the liturgy and leave the marches and statements of national
fidelity to civic-pride parades, which, whatever their merits otherwise, will do nothing
for our immortal souls."
Taking Stock: Christianity and the State
by Ryan McMaken
"The great libertarian activist and writer Frank Chodorov once wrote that while
he could see how a libertarian might not be a Christian, he did not see how a
Christian could not be a libertarian. Chodorov, the son of a Jewish immigrant, saw
in Christianity the greatest and most lasting opponent to the power of the state. Lord
Acton had said as much a century earlier when he noted that "liberty has not
subsisted outside of Christianity." Chodorov and Acton were not alone, of course. For
centuries, scholars have noted the close relationship between Christianity and
liberty. But why should this relationship exist? Murray Rothbard saw great value
in the work of the scholastics and other scholars of Thomist thought who forwarded
the idea that there is a natural law and order that we can know through reason, and
which transcends man, society, and government, and is answerable only to God."
A visit to Waco
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"The fancy BATF memorial in Waco does not mention the Davidians. Their lives, after
all, don't matter, any more than their privacy and property mattered. That is the
message the feds sent at Waco, and continue to send to all of us."
Why Is It God's Way to Allow the Government Control Over
Health Care – Life or Death – by Taxing and Rationing?
August 21, 2009
by Gary North
"Anyway, disease is part of God's curse. We are to pay out of our own pockets to roll
it back, along with all other curses imposed by God because of sin. But there is nothing
in the Bible that suggests that the State is to take money at gunpoint from one voting
bloc to heal people in other voting blocs."
Wickedness of War
June 1838
The Christian Review
"Christianity requires us to seek to amend the condition of man. But war cannot do this.
The world is no better for all the wars of five thousand years. Christianity, if it
prevailed, would make the earth a paradise. War, where it prevails, makes it a
slaughter-house, a den of thieves, a brothel, a hell. Christianity cancels the laws of
retaliation. War is based upon that very principle. Christianity is the remedy for all
human woes. War produces every woe known to man."
A Catholic Looks at the State
by Don Mathews
"Thus the State, being the embodiment of the spirit of conquest and the desire for
domination over others, is a manifestation of the antithesis of the way of Christ.
The State is a product not of man’s consent to love God with all his heart, with
all his soul and with all his mind, or to love his neighbors as himself, but rather
his refusal to do so."
Neglect of the Marketplace: The Questionable Economics of America's Bishops
by Walter Block
The Vatican and the Free Market
by John C. Goodman
"In his most recent encyclical on economics, Centesimus Annus, Pope
John Paul II noted that the modern welfare state is often costly, bureaucratic, and
counterproductive; further, he averred that it often substitutes for private sector
charity that does a better job. Although contending that it can be a mixed blessing,
the Pope called capitalism the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and
effectively responding to needs."
Christian Anarchy: Jesus' Primacy Over the Powers
by Vernard Eller
"The chapters here following will recount my discovery of the rather easily
identifiable but almost entirely subconscious and submerged tradition of
"Christian Anarchy." And with that tradition I had found my home and am at peace.
All of my battles of the past thirty years now fall into place and make sense. Now
I can see a consistency throughout; I knew what I was doing but didn't have name for it."
Citizen Jesus
by Retta Fontana
"Jesus would no doubt have come under surveillance by the current Christian administration
for associating with prostitutes and drug users, because he was the kind of man who would
not judge them or turn them in to authorities like a good citizen. He would have put out
a welcoming hand to them and called them “brother.” Jesus would be lucky to only be picked
up for vagrancy and driven out of town, rather than prosecuted repeatedly and locked up
permanently under the three strikes law if he were an American today. I doubt he would
have expended much effort fulfilling the requirements of his parole if he ever got out.
God help him if he were an immigrant – sounds like a possible enemy combatant – they could
just throw away the key."
Jesus Is an Anarchist
by James Redford
"If you are a Christian and find the above title at all hard to believe then
you of all people owe it to yourself to find out what the basis of this charge
is, for if the above comes as news to you then you still have much to learn about
Jesus and about the most vitally important struggle which has plagued mankind
since the dawn of history: mankind's continuing struggle between freedom and
slavery, between value producers and the violent parasitical elite, between peace
and war, between truth and deception."
Palm Sunday and Politics
by Isaac M. Morehouse
"The kind of freedom and righteousness He offers is far too great, too personal, to
be advanced by physical force (which all politics boils down to); politics is beneath
the spiritual life, not above it."
What Would Jesus Steal?
June 27, 2008
by Gary North
"I plan to edit a book by Christian economists on this baptized Social Gospel/Liberation
Theology movement, which is aimed at naïve and well-meaning evangelicals who barely know
their Bibles and do not know economics."
Environmentalism As Religion
by Warren Newman
Environmentalism as a religion:
Remarks to the Commonwealth Club
December 13, 2003
by Michael Crichton
"We know from history that religions tend to kill people, and environmentalism has
already killed somewhere between 10-30 million people since the 1970s. It's not a good
record. Environmentalism needs to be absolutely based in objective and verifiable
science, it needs to be rational, and it needs to be flexible.
And it needs to be apolitical."
The Immorality of Environmentalism
Autumn 1996
by David Gelernter
"Judaism and Christianity have a radical agenda; they may not live up to it in practice,
but their goals are clear. They deem every human life to be sacred. At the same time,
they wipe the slate clean of nature gods, nature spirits, any and all “duties to nature.”
(Paganism has traditionally been stronger in Germany than in any other Western culture,
and perhaps that is why environmentalism is so strong in modern Germany. In any case,
the “pure and holy Rhine” of the German lyric poets is incompatible with Christianity.)
In the Judeo-Christian view man is emphatically not part of nature. Human life has an
entirely different value from animal life, and protecting and preserving human life is
a moral duty that sweeps away all “duties” to nature whatsoever—that sweeps away the
very idea of 'duties to nature.'”
The new religion is Global Warming
May 20, 2005
by Tom DeWeese
"Global Warming is nothing more than a euphemism for redistribution of wealth from the
rich, developed nations, to jealous dictatorships, who refuse to allow their citizens
the right to gain their own wealth through free markets. It's about political
redistribution from strong, independent sovereign nations, into the hands of a
power-hungry global elite cowering in the United Nations. These are the same cowardly
scoundrels who used to try to rule the world through global communism. Today, they
pretend that the same lies have something to do with protecting the environment."
What Is Environmentalism?
by Michael S. Rozeff
"This article argues that environmentalism is an activist political movement, with
moral and religious overtones, aimed at alleviating perceived and fancied human woes
falsely attributed to misuse of the natural environment; a movement which uses the power
of state laws to regulate individual economic choice to the diminishment of human values
and life.
The Grandchildren of Islam
June 28, 2006
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
"The Muslim world deeply resents having lost the supremacy it once enjoyed. Instead of
drawing the correct lessons from its decadence, it lets political and religious leaders
make excuses for that decline. Unless Muslims shake off the spell cast by these leaders,
civil society will continue to suffocate under the confrontation between anachronistic
dictatorships and Islamism, the fraudulent ideology that lured Islam away from its
ancient tradition of freedom and tolerance, and promises worse forms of despotism."
Islam and the Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder Lane with introduction
and commentary by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
reviewed by George C. Leef
"For the most part, he documents points she makes, but occasionally corrects her
writing. By placing his commentary in footnotes, Ahmad is able to strengthen Lane’s
argument that Islamic civilization flourished because of its emphasis on freedom
and the rights of the individual without detracting from her beautiful writing style."
Islam's history of violence
July 28, 2003
by Daniel Pipes
"At present, admittedly, it is hard to recall the positive side, at a
moment when backwardness, resentment, extremism and violence prevail in so much of
the Muslim world. But the present is not typical of Islam's long history; indeed, it
may be the worst era in that entire history."
The Real Roots of Islamic Extremism
May 31, 2003
by Stephen Schwartz
"Wahhabism preaches an ultra-Puritanical way of life. Meanwhile the Saudi
elite swims in whisky. Wahhabism claims to be the purest form of Islam,
while the Saudi monarchy depends on secular bayonets for its protection.
These mixed signals, or, more bluntly, these forms of hypocrisy, have a
deranging effect on Saudi society. But they are also the essential source of
Islamist extremism and terrorism."
The Terror of Islam
by Antony Flew
Understanding Islamic Jihad’s Challenge to America
January 19, 2007
by L. John Van Til
"It certainly is accurate to call the jihadists terrorists as the president does, but
that is not enough! It would convey more of a sense of urgency for the president to call
these radical Islamic acts “jihads” because they are another chapter in the on-going
religious war against the West by radical Muslims. Likely that designation would not be
politically correct, or even multi-culturally correct. It is time, however, to move
beyond those social fads and do some plain talking about what we face."
Elijah vs. the State
by Laurence M. Vance
"Elijah didn’t make excuses for the evil deeds of the state. He considered lying,
stealing, and killing to be evil – regardless of whether it was done by or for the state."
Josephus on the Origin of the State
by Norman Horn
"As much as Josephus can be relied upon as a source, his account emphasizes four points:
1. The origin of human government is rebellion against God.
2. The government sets itself up specifically in opposition to the rule of God.
3. The rulers exalt themselves while deceiving the people.
4. Human government drives a wedge between people, pitting them against each other."
What Samuel Said About Solomon
by Frank Chodorov
"The designation of taxation as a yoke is a nice piece of biblical directness. A yoke
is worn by an ox, a beast of burden, which by nature is incapable of claiming a property
right in the products of its labor."
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This page was last updated on October 20, 2009.