Jesus Was Libertarian

Posted at the requested of Katie who was pondering whether Jesus was a liberal or conservative.


I think Jesus was libertarian. He gives us total freedom to choose with the consequences coming only after we make our choices. Rich people have to give to the poor but He doesn’t make them. People must pray and honor God but He doesn’t make them.

He didn’t kick down the door of the rich guy’s house, take his money and give it to Lazarus at the gate which is what the left pretends to do. And of course He didn’t refrain from saying what the ultimate fate of the rich guy was, which would be a message Ayn Rand conservatives would not want to hear.

He didn’t use force to stop the stoning of the adulteress, He just shamed those who wanted to do it into considering what it was they wanted to do.

And of course, He didn’t enforce the law commanding that the adulteress be stoned.

So I think Jesus was a libertarian.

Judas, OTOH, was the classic lefty.

Jesus Was A Libertarian

 Jesus Was Libertarian

13 thoughts on “Jesus Was Libertarian”

  1. While I agree with what you say, I have to point out that he is only a liberal if you look at it from the bible’s point of view. If you look at him from the point of view that he was not the son of god, but just someone preaching christianity, then he would be conservative. Christianity was even stricter then than it is now. He told them that if you do this, you’ll get through those pearly gates, and if you don’t, you’re gonna burn. Nobody wanted to burn, so they did whatever the bible said – you had to live in a confessional, because it’s a sin to be jealous, which every person feels. And if you read the bible, you have to to A LOT to get through those gates. So if he was the son of some higher being, he was liberal. If not, a conservative. (just my 2 cents)

  2. Kristina, in your response to this column, you’re confusing “libertarian” with “liberal”, they are not the same thing (except, perhaps, that many big-L Libertarians and Liberals are both potheads, but there, it ends). Jesus certainly was a conservative, in that he preached that we must each decide for ourselves to work towards salvation, not that someone else must compel us. The author is correct in her description. To take her point further, the Sanhedrin and the priests were liberals, in that they believed in compelling everyone else to do what they thought was best. And in they were liberals in our current, modern American sense, because, though they preached this right way to live, and compelled compliance, they frequently violated the very rules they enforced on others.
    So, the illustration is apt.
    Best regards!

  3. Nobody can blame them for becoming rich as it is necessary to live good,to make money. In that sense he was a liberterian. But now a days its cut throat looting and it is going to bring misery to the rich.

  4. As usual, I, the atheist, know more about Jesus and the Bible than you do. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers, said no rich person would enter heaven, and told the rich prince to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. The early Christians were socialists: Acts 4: 32: “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.” Also note Acts 5: 1-10 where Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead for withholding their offerings from the socialist collective. I don’t think the guy who said “Go and sell everything that you have and give it to the poor” was a libertarian, certainly he was not a free-market capitalist. You said, “Rich people have to give to the poor but He doesn’t make them”. If you don’t think the story of the rich man and Lazarus is meant to have coercive force, then you don’t understand what a threat is. Take care of the poor or you’ll go to hell! If you Christers take the story seriously, this sounds even more threatening than “kick down the door of the rich guy’s house, take his money and give it to Lazarus”. You guys disgust me. You take on the label of Christ but don’t know anything about him and certainly don’t take him seriously. I may be an atheist, but at least I think Christ meant what he said.

  5. As usual, you the atheist, don’t know what you think you do.

    The moneychangers were not sinning because they were changing money or making a profit. It was because they were desecrating a holy place and cheating those who sought to worship.

    You don’t see an account of Jesus driving moneychangers from the market do you?

    And He did not say “no rich person would enter heaven.”

    He said “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” And then He added “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

    You really don’t know about Jesus or the Bible.

    He told the rich man to sell what he had and give to the poor. He did not make him. As far as we know, the fellow never did.

    Ananias and Sapphira were not struck dead for “withholding their offerings from the socialist collective.” They were struck dead for lying to God i.e. “Peter said: ‘Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost, and by fraud keep part of the price of the land?'”

    That rich man was not forced to give to Lazarus. Someone who warns you not to speed down the road where the bridge is out isn’t forcing you, yet you most certainly will suffer the consequences.

    The fool says in his heart “There is no God,” Psalm 14:1.


  6. That would make George Soros and Jon Corzine “classic conservatives”.

    I don’t think so.

  7. As usual, you the atheist, don’t know what you think you do.

    The moneychangers were not sinning because they were changing money or making a profit. It was because they were desecrating a holy place and cheating those who sought to worship.

    You don’t see an account of Jesus driving moneychangers from the market do you?

    And He did not say “no rich person would enter heaven.”

    He said “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” And then He added “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

    You really don’t know about Jesus or the Bible.

    He told the rich man to sell what he had and give to the poor. He did not make him. As far as we know, the fellow never did.

    Ananias and Sapphira were not struck dead for “withholding their offerings from the socialist collective.” They were struck dead for lying to God i.e. “Peter said: ‘Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost, and by fraud keep part of the price of the land?'”

    That rich man was not forced to give to Lazarus. Someone who warns you not to speed down the road where the bridge is out isn’t forcing you, yet you most certainly will suffer the consequences.

    The fool says in his heart “There is no God,” Psalm 14:1.

  8. Look, I know I’m not going to convince you. I just love to see how Christers dance around the plain message of the Gospels. I do notice, though, that you don’t address the most explicit of the scriptures I quoted, namely, Acts 4:32. Pretty hard to get around that one, but I’m sure a lying spirit will come upon you and you’ll find a way. This “fool” is waiting for your answer, Christer.

  9. Poorly played. You’re just repeating my insult. As Norman Mailer once observed, the man who comes back with a repetition is eating the spit.


  10. I apologize. I missed it. Please use paragraphs. We accept them here.

    The congregation did not consider their possessions their own. They shared. Sharing is good. Forcing people to share is not good. It’s not complicated.


  11. I’m not treating your comment as an insult but as a claim to a definition.

    If a “classic conservative” is someone who is willing to do anything for money then George Soros and Jon Corzine would be “classic conservatives.”

    As they are not, your definition is incorrect.

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