The Libertarian Christian Podcast

Nearly every libertarian has heard the classic objection, “But who would build the roads?” This question is so common that it has become a point of ridicule by libertarians to mock weak arguments for why libertarianism supposedly can't work in practice (as if the state's nearly-endless track record of failures hasn't proven its method dysfunctional). In this episode, renowned libertarian Christian...

As part of our summer lineup, we're revisiting several of the most popular and informative talks given at Christians for Liberty conferences in previous years. Though instead of just reposting those talks, we've filled them with some extensive supplemental commentary, so even listeners who have heard the original talks with get all new material. In our final Annotated Talk for the summer, we work...

Theologians have struggled for almost the entire history of the Church to analyze and explain the violence attributed to God in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. As libertarian Christians, this issue is often raised regarding the compatibility of libertarianism and Christianity. Some ancient theologians resolved the conundrum using allegorical interpretation. Many others have argued along...

As part of our summer lineup, we're revisiting several of the most popular and informative talks given at Christians for Liberty conferences in previous years. Though instead of just reposting those talks, we've filled them with some extensive supplemental commentary, so even listeners who have heard the original talks with get all new material. This week, we review Norman's talk in which he walks...

Brian Zahnd is a pastor from Saint Joseph, Missouri, whose own thought journey mirrors that of many libertarian Christians: away from neoconservatism and nationalism, and towards skepticism of empire and the pursuit of peace. Though he doesn't self-identify as a libertarian and we have some differences, Zahnd's work does have substantial overlap with LCI's as it relates to militarism, nationalism,...

As part of our summer lineup, we're revisiting several of the most popular and informative talks given at Christians for Liberty conferences in previous years. Though instead of just reposting those talks, we've filled them with some extensive supplemental commentary, so even listeners who have heard the original talks with get all new material. This week, we begin with Doug Stuart's “Things That...

One of the most common questions asked to libertarian Christians is what we think about LGBTQ, gay marriage, and other related issues. Libertarian political philosophy only addresses the matter up to the point of state involvement: because these things constitute voluntary actions, they should not be regulated by law. In short, the libertarian position on marriage and voluntary relationships is si...

C.S. Lewis is undoubtedly one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the past 100 years, and despite his death being more than a half century ago, his work contains many insights which apply to contemporary trends in philosophy, politics and society just as much as they did in his own time. Today, we are joined by one of the modern liberty movement’s most well-known and effective leaders: D...

It's Independence Day once again, when hundreds of millions of Americans will celebrate a history most of them know very little about. One of the high holy days of what has become American civic religion, it's very probable that the Founding Fathers would greatly lament what it has become. However, what Americans have done to the Fourth of July pales in comparison to the far more important issue o...

One of the most common issues raised by non-libertarian Christians about libertarian thought is marriage licensing. Because the family unit is essential to social order, the argument goes, Christians should allegedly support state regulation of what constitutes 'marriage' and who is allowed to 'marry.' But state power is a sharp and dangerous sword; what happens when the proponents of such a plan...

Today we are joined by Shane Claiborne, an internationally-recognized author, speaker, and activist, and perhaps the leading western Christian voice for the New Monastic movement. While Shane does not identify as a libertarian, there are many aspects of his thinking which overlap with libertarianism. In this episode, we discuss capital punishment in Christian ethics. Libertarians are divided on th...

In our first ever debate on the Libertarian Christian Podcast, author Keith Giles returns to debate author/activist Mark van Steenwyk on Two Kingdoms theology and Christian involvement in formal politics. As he explained in our earlier interview, Giles holds that formal politics is not a proper task of the Christian life. Van Steenwyk counters that Christians must be involved in direct political a...

Isaac Morehouse is longtime contributor to and friend of the Libertarian Christian Institute, and today he joins us to discuss his organization, Praxis. As its very Misean name suggests, Praxis is about action; specifically, it's about helping people to gain practical experience and skills which matter in real world business situations. For years, conventional wisdom has pushed on innumerable hapl...

On today's episode, we are joined by libertarian Christian economist Art Carden to tackle one of the most pressing and divisive issues in contemporary American politics: immigration. President Trump's stance on this issue was one of the key factors that propelled his victory in last November's election, but since then many of the hard-line promises he campaigned on have not come to fruition. This...

On this episode, the always insightful (and frequently controversial) biblical scholar Dr. Pete Enns joins the show to talk to us about the journey of faith, trusting God, how to disagree with other Christians, pitfalls in biblical interpretation, and much more. Those familiar with Enns' work typically have a strong opinion either for or against him. The listener is of course free to reach his or...

Several weeks ago, Pope Francis escalated his political and economic rhetoric with a direct attack on libertarianism. Jeffrey Tucker, one of the liberty movement's most influential thought leaders and himself a Roman Catholic, was told by his publisher that it seems as if the Pope's comments were aimed at his book A Beautiful Anarchy (recently released in Spanish to strong sales). Jeffrey delivere...

In this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, Norman, Doug and Nick venture into the metaphorical woods with a discussion of things we've been thinking about lately relevant to faith and freedom. We start off with aritificial intelligence and robotics, jump over to Russiaphobia and the New McCarthyism, round the corner with Rene Girard and Hank Hanegraaff, and close out with some practical...

It's obvious that throughout history, books have been one of the primary methods for communicating ideas. However, certain books stand out above the rest in terms of their perennial relevance and impact across hundreds or even thousands of years; these have come to be known as the Great Books. In this episode, humanities scholar Dr. Jason Jewell joins us to discuss the immense value of the Great B...

God & Country: for generations, it has been the refrain of 'respectable' Christianity for many Americans, but is it really a Christian concept? What about the majority of the world's Christians who live outside the United States, many of them under oppressive regimes? What about the earliest Christians living under Rome? We talk a lot at LCI about why nationalism is not Christian. On the other...

In this week's episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, we are joined by author and pastor Keith Giles, whose new book  Jesus Untangled  is making waves with its thesis that the Church must separate itself from the state. Doug and Nick discuss with Giles how he reached his conclusions and his insights on contemporary Christian political thought, as well as explore what he thinks of libertaria...

In last week's episode, Nick and Doug interviewed communications expert Robin Koerner on how to effectively reach people with the libertarian message. In this episode — recorded independently of the previous interview — Norman and Jason discuss their take on the subject, including a corollary issue which is sometimes raised by LCI supporters: how can libertarian Christians better communicate Chris...

We libertarians tend to be a philosophical bunch, and many of us can spend countless hours arguing over the finer points of economics, or trying to explain how Rothbardian political economy applies to environmental issues. But the reality is that the vast majority of the population does not reach political conclusions on the basis good arguments; in many cases, people make decisions for subjective...

Today we are going to talk about an issue that is familiar to most Christians but one they might not be inclined to associate with their libertarian beliefs. Christians believe in doing what is called “spiritual warfare,” and this has implications for what it means to engage the world we live in with the power of the gospel. What we hope to do in this episode is open up a discussion about the impo...

On this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, we respond to questions from you: the listener. Does a Christian's view of libertarianism differ from that of a secular libertarian, or from the philosophy of Ayn Rand? What should we think about ever-recurring issues such as abortion and gay marriage? And how about the much-discussed Great Wall of America? The gold standard, libertarian movies...

On this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, we dive into yet another contentious topic. Libertarians (particularly of the anarchist variety) are very much divided on the issue of whether or not it is ethically acceptable to vote in government elections, while the resounding consensus amongst Christians seems to be that voting is at least a civic right, if not a divine command. But how mu...