My Argument to a Conservative Christian

While conservatives see the major flaw in the often liberal belief of social justice as compared to the Gospel, they often overlook that they make the same mistakes in their beliefs on sin. This mistake is clear, in both cases. It is that they forget that God has given humans free will.
Social justice, if used in a political way, is the belief that the government should take the money from the upper class, and spread it around to the lower class usually through health or welfare programs, so that it can be more even and fair for those in poverty. Keep in mind that I am speaking only from the political view of this issue. Conservatives naturally and rightly point out that although this sounds charitable and good, it really doesn’t involve any charity at all. No one helps because they want to be charitable like Jesus commanded, they are forced to give without a choice. This is not charity, and this is not what the Gospel commands. There are no good intentions behind signing your tax forms, there is only a feeling of forced surrender of property, and loss. Clearly the conservatives are correct in opposing this on moral grounds, but they don’t seem to realize that conservatism is based on similar principles.
Conservatism often attempts to stamp out sin. As a result conservatives in general are quick to go to war, and regulate what people are allowed to do in their homes if it disagrees with their beliefs. As Richard J. Maybury comedically pointed out in Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused? “Show them [conservatives] a communist and they are ready to send in the marines.” If we look at the Bible for our answer once again, we find that the same argument can be applied against conservatism that was used by conservatives against social justice. You see at the beginning of time, God purposely gave man free will. Why? I can’t fully answer that question, but no matter what the reason, it was a clear and purposeful decision by God. Therefore the government should not take the position that God Himself refused to take. The world would certainly be a better place if everyone followed Scripture and never sinned, but the government should not be responsible for insuring this, it is a decision of the will. We receive our help from Jesus Christ, not from the fear of being arrested. A Biblical reference supporting this can be found in Romans 13:5, “5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.” Does this mean that we should live in complete lawlessness because everyone has the God given right of freewill? Of course not. When our behavior affects the people around us in a negative way, it should be stopped (by the government if absolutely necessary). Which is why the verse started with, “submit to the authorities”. This also fits in with what Jesus was saying when He said “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”. The problem has become that the government has now tried to take what isn’t theirs: our inalienable rights, our God given liberties.
Although the argument against these two positions are the same, the positions themselves are truly opposite. That’s why it’s ridiculous for liberals and conservatives to argue over which one of them is freedom promoting, or statists, or helpful, or loving, because they are really on opposite ends of the spectrum when freedom and love lie in the middle. The difference is that while conservatives and liberals try to find help and love in government (which cannot give either), it truly lies with the people following the example of Christ.

Am I Really Just a Liberal or Conservative?

I have seen plenty of liberals telling libertarians that they are really just trying to force their conservative beliefs on others by labeling themselves as something else. I have also seen a few conservatives saying the same thing about libertarians being liberal. So am I really just trying to disguise my true beliefs in a middle-ground, freedom loving mask? Well obviously I'm going to tell you no, but how can I justify this claim? Well, considering my last post, I have a feeling that most liberals who look at this are going to think that I'm just another conservative, and most conservatives will probably agree with me. The reason for this though is in my earlier posts. If you'll notice, the last post was about money. In one of my earlier posts where I listed the general beliefs of liberals conservatives and moderates, I explained that generally conservatives promote freedom in fiscal areas, and liberals promote freedom in social areas. Since the last post dealt with the fiscal side of things, and Juris Naturalists always promote freedom, I would naturally agree with conservatives in this area. So while in the last post I sounded like a conservative, in later posts I may sound like a liberal, but truly I am something completely different.
Before I end this post, I would like to go back to my claim about conservatives making the fiscal side of things free. This is obviously not always true. If you go back to any conservative, or liberal president within the last 100 years, they have increased restrictions on all of the peoples freedoms, not just the social side. The reason for this is political power. Conservatives tend to argue with this and often make the claim that they are the party that promotes small government and freedom, but if you look at their beliefs on issues, they simply don't agree with that claim. I recently saw a summary on liberal vs. conservative beliefs (obviously done by a conservative) that stated at the beginning that the conservatives were for small government, and complete freedom and liberals were for large government to help the people, but as I went down the list of issues of conservatives vs. liberals, I noticed that not one of the issues on either side promoted freedom in the least, but instead took more away from the people. Both liberals and conservatives restrict freedom not promote it, and that is why I am a Juris Naturalist.