Libertarianism, State Law, and Sexual Sin
By Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
9/20/2023
Ideally, secular nations will eventually learn the lessons of Godliness from observing the feedback of life and adopt the patterns of Biblical legislation by rightly judging the observed consequences of life. But, looking at history, it appears that such accurate observation, the connection of cause and effect over years, decades, and generations, rarely occurs. On the other hand, those who follow “The Book,” the revelation of God’s Word, The Bible, follow the prescription as best as they can and survive. Some even thrive.
The secular principles of libertarian self-determinism/sovereignty, willing contract, and the Golden Rule are good principles but incomplete. The problem with libertarianism is that it seems like a religion crafted around rationalizing how to have sex and do drugs without the government restricting you. The problem with the principles of this religion is that it still has the seeds of decay in it. The choice to practice unbiblical sexuality, use spirit-channeling drugs, and worship other gods will cause societal problems that will cause it to fail. God’s principles, if followed, will produce happiness, prosperity, health, and peace. Those principles are revealed in the Bible. Government is the agent of God on earth enforcing goodness by prosecuting evil, as per Romans 13, and the States should legislate against sin. These issues of choice are the points of contention between libertarianism and Godliness.
Limited government is a good and important principle of the Founders, and libertarianism champions it. But libertarianism (libertinism) uses its principles of sovereignty, non-aggression, willing contract, and the Golden Rule to justify the government’s non-intervention in sexual behaviors and drug use as outside of the domain of government legislation and enforcement.
I don’t know the motivation for the libertarian focus of government non-intervention in self-destructive behaviors, but it has the fervor of a religious tenant. I believe this is the reason libertarianism has floundered as a political force. The Bible has clearly defined some types of sexuality as unGodly and condemned Pharmakia, which is drug-induced spirit-channeling witchcraft.
Libertarianism rejects the imposition of any type of worship/religion on others, which is also a Christian principle. However, the focus of libertarianism activism/advocacy is against legislation limiting/punishing sexuality and drug use. This is the problem with libertarianism: its principles surrounding sexuality and drug use oppose Christianity. Drinking wine is Biblical; drunkenness is unBiblical. Sexuality for bonding and procreation is one of the highest principles of Godliness.
The Old Testament defines unGodly sexuality and prescribes the death penalty, but the New Testament offers grace with repentance. The Old Testament forbids the use of drugs in witchcraft and prescribes the death penalty for it. Thus, there is much Biblical leeway in the choice of government legislation regarding sexuality and drug use, but libertarianism advocates a prohibition of government legislation and enforcement on these issues.
God has rules/laws (He has a will and way regarding sexuality and drug use); self-determination and willing contract are irrelevant. The practice of sin will still bring pain and destruction regardless of its sincerity and justification. Libertarians justify sexual sin and spirit-channeling drug use by their principle of personal sovereignty and the non-harm done to others.
But we are not sovereign; we are subject to God’s judgment. Damage to ourselves damages society. UnBiblical sexuality damages the family bond, which damages society. Allowing demonic influence on the mind damages society because people act upon their ideas and feelings. If God prohibits such acts and gives government the responsibility to prosecute evil, why has the modern American government avoided legislating against unGodly behaviors?
The principle of a limited federal government is good because it gives the States a space to regulate and conduct experiments in the laboratory of representative democracy. If the Federal government controlled all behaviors, there would be no possible alternatives available to compare and find the best solution. But then the question is whether the State governments have the Constitutional right to regulate sexuality and drug use. I contend that States should regulate unGodly sexuality and drug use, which they did in the past. I believe it is within the Constitutional purview of the States to legislate against and punish any unGodly behavior.
The first question regarding whether the States should legislate and prosecute unGodly sexuality and drug use is determined by answering the moral question of whether sin should be a crime according to divine law. The second question is whether God considers legislation of morality to be a power of the States. In Romans 13, we see that God does give the government that power.
We see in Romans 13:2-7 “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”
In this, we see God authorizing taxes for the government to enforce righteous behavior and punish evil. Thus, God expects governments to be His agents on earth. Therefore, governments must rightly judge good and evil. So, from the Biblical perspective, God gave governments the authority to prosecute evil. The question is, then, what is the definition of evil? We must refer to the Scriptural text to judge evil.
The Bill of Rights does not restrict the States from declaring sin to be a crime. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The Bill of Rights restricts the establishment of a religion by Congress, but it does not restrict the States from enacting laws regarding acts prohibited by the Bible or prescribed by a religion. A State may name a religion as its official State religion and support proselytizing and spending money to facilitate or expand its practice.
This contradicts the opinion of Everson vs. Board of Education, which ruled against the State funding of busing to a Catholic school. This opinion used the quote from Jefferson, “Separation of Church and State,” taken out of context and reversed. This phrase has become a meme and is so frequently repeated that it has become a central concept of jurisprudence and is widely believed to be stated in the Constitution – it is not. Today, the “Separation of Church and State” is invoked to justify the prohibition of any local, State, or federally funded activity from supporting, taking part in, or allowing any activity deemed related to religion.
But the premise of the Constitution prohibiting Biblical reference, prayer, mention of God/Jesus, or prayer is a false/made up/fabricated concept, substantiated by the unprecedented principle of “Separation of Church and State” in the Everson opinion. There is no Constitutional injunction against legislation prohibiting behaviors defined as sin by the Bible. This is because laws prescribing Godly/Biblical behavior are not equivalent to laws establishing a religion.
The 10th Amendment is, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.”
The 10th Amendment does not permit Federal legislation regarding establishing a religion, laws about sexuality, or drug use. The Federal government has overextended its reach in these areas of life.
Regulation of sexuality is not a Constitutional power given to the Federal government. But as argued above, the States may legislate, define, and prohibit sexual sin and spirit-channeling drugs. And, as per Romans 13, the government should prosecute evil. Sin is evil; therefore, the government should prosecute sin and declare it a crime by man’s legislation.
However, the libertarian philosophy advocates against government defining and prohibiting sin. In this, the libertarian stands for national rebellion against God. God will not bless a nation that authorizes/endorses sin. The libertarian spirit of advocacy for the sovereignty of man in the determination of sexual standards and drug use is the heart of the libertarian error.
As per my thesis about God’s omnipresence, He is intimately interested in men’s experiences and lives. Men cannot hide from God as He is closer to us than our breath. He occupies the very substance of our being. The most private acts of man are fully seen, known, and felt by God. Every use of man’s body is felt and known by Him. He is pleased or angered/repulsed by men’s choice of acts. He blesses the nation which pleases him and withdraws His spirit from rebellious nations. When he withdraws His Spirit, the liberty in Christ is also withdrawn.
The government, which does not rightly judge and approve/disapprove of men’s acts as judged by God, cannot expect His blessing. The libertarian ideal of government does not include God’s standards in full, only a subset. In fact, the libertarian standard elevates man’s freedom from government rather than acknowledging the role of government God has given to enforce Godliness/prosecute evil.
The libertarian advocates that the government not judge or prosecute any personal, non-coerced/mutually agreeable, seemingly private activity. But, to God, there is no private behavior. He gives each man the right to exercise free will/liberty to act/not act and choose any Godly or unGodly acts. But, if we choose unGodliness, we are bound by the chains of unavoidable punishment. Choosing unGodliness only appears to be an expression of our liberty because the consequences/the divine punishment, the cost to society and family may be delayed by years, decades, or generations, or until after death.
The libertarian believes that private consensual behavior should not be regulated, but there are no such things as private acts. Everything done in private will be shouted from the mountaintop. All private acts have public effects because they reflect our character. Every man is a part of the larger body of society, and God has charged the government with regulating His people. As George Washington said in his 1796 Farewell Address, “The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.”
The libertarian seeks to limit the purview of government to acts that seem plausibly outside of the moral jurisdiction of government. The libertarian wants to form the government into an agent who only enforces acts that involve aggressive acts. But God does not draw the boundaries of the government’s duty this way.
God has allowed man to choose between virtuous/Godly or malevolent/evil actions. This division separates those who love Him from those who choose another god as their lover. (Thus, acting out His will and way are the equivalents of loving God.) God gave the government the charge of prosecuting evil, and as per the Ten Commandments, sexual sin and worshiping other gods are violations of His will and way. The government is God’s agent for enforcing His will on earth.
The government is thus charged with judging evil and prosecuting it. Therefore, private acts of evil are part of the domain of acts that He gives the government the authority to support, ignore, or promote. The government’s job is to guide a nation toward His righteousness. The libertarian ideal of personal sovereignty has misjudged God’s principle of judging. Freely choosing consensual acts does not give men and their societies immunity from divine prosecution.
God is disinterested in whether men engage in displeasing acts by consent or by government coercion. Evil spirits provoke and tempt men to act against the Almighty. But, eventually, the rebellion against Him will be crushed. The nations following this human-elevated insurrection against God’s rule will suffer for their rebellion. The rebellion seems noble if it is against a seemingly righteous cause. But if one misjudges the morality of one’s stand, then destruction will come. The nation that misjudges God’s will and way will miss the peak of its potential to the extent of that misjudgment.
Even if a nation begins its journey with a Christian population and Biblical laws, it can fail if its people fall away from their faith in God and commitment to Biblical principles. That decay can follow many routes but let us take the current fall of America as an example. We have passed legislation recognizing/legalizing/giving government sanctions and endorsing sinful sexuality.
If America’s rebellion stopped there, if there were no effect on morality, education, management, and government, the effect would probably be small on American society. But the behavior does not stop in the bedroom. The decay spreads. The rejection of Biblical morality in sexuality is the equivalent of rejecting the Bible as an authoritative source of moral standards for society. Thus, sexuality is a proxy for a nation’s spiritual commitment to and love of God.
Thus, as the rebellion against Biblical sexuality deepens and hardens, the society loses its commitment to teaching Biblical morality/ethics in schools and using Biblical morality as the standard of legislation. Celebrating sexual sin is incompatible with honoring Jesus Christ as the Lord of our Nation. In each act of government, our representatives choose between the God of the Bible and the morality of the god of men.
The turn from Jesus as Lord by the majority to the minority takes a few generations. Teaching by the parents penetrates and stays with 65% of children into adulthood, as per a 2019 study.
[Google Palm: According to a 2019 study by the Pew Research Center, 65% of Americans who were raised Christian identify as Christian as adults. This number has declined in recent years as more people leave Christianity. The study also found that the percentage of people who remain Christian as adults is higher among those who were raised in more conservative Christian denominations.]
If this trend continues, the percentage of Christians in the culture will be much smaller in several generations. The changes in the spiritual allegiance of individuals take time to manifest in the group behavior of laws and social customs. Various events, such as natural disasters, economic changes, new technologies, crimes, riots, wars, elections, charismatic leaders, court rulings, epidemics, and social movements, all act to change the dynamic of public and private interactions. The combination of societal events, changes in worldview, and diminishing Biblical literacy and allegiance result in a changed culture where a system shift can occur suddenly.
When a society flips, it can appear that society has suddenly changed. But in actuality, the forces may have been building for generations and finally manifested as a new societal norm. The character of a population changes gradually as the society-wide moral-behavioral codes shift. When the change comes, it can be sudden, an almost overnight transition from one state to the next. Changes will happen as technology, nature, and life events change. But radical changes in the moral standards of society are not inevitable with strong triggering events. Rather, society can maintain its moral alignment if the people remain faithful to the Bible as their absolute standard of God’s will and way.
In America, no schools allow Christianity to be taught as a correct worldview –
Ref [ Google Palm: No public schools in the United States allow Christianity to be studied and taught as a correct worldview. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a religion or favoring one religion over another. This means that public schools cannot promote or endorse any particular religion. However, public schools can teach about religion neutrally and objectively if they do not promote or endorse any particular religion.]
But Christianity may be taught in an academic/secular way.
Ref [Chat GPT: in the United States, public schools can include the study and teaching of Christianity as part of their curriculum, but it must be done in a manner that is consistent with the U.S. Constitution and the principles of religious freedom. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government, including public schools, from promoting or favoring any particular religion.
In public schools, the study of religion, including Christianity, is typically approached from an academic and objective perspective rather than a devotional one. Social studies, history, or comparative religion courses often include it. The purpose is to provide students with a well-rounded education that includes understanding various religious traditions, their beliefs, practices, and historical significance.
The teaching of Christianity in public schools must be done in a way that is educational, informative, and neutral in its presentation. It should not involve proselytizing or promoting religious beliefs. Teachers are expected to present the information in a secular manner, focusing on the historical, cultural, and social impact of Christianity rather than advocating for or endorsing any particular religious viewpoint.
It’s important to note that public schools’ specific approach to teaching religion, including Christianity, can vary depending on the state, school district, and individual school policies. Some schools may have more comprehensive religious studies programs, while others may cover religion as part of broader social studies or history courses. It is advisable to consult the policies and curriculum of the public schools in your local area to understand how religion, including Christianity, is addressed in those institutions.]
Likewise, schools in America allow Islam to be studied and taught.
– Ref [Google Palm: Some schools in America allow Islam to be studied and taught. In fact, there are a number of Islamic schools in the United States, both public and private. These schools offer a variety of courses on Islam, including history, culture, and religion. In addition, many public schools in the United States offer courses on Islam as part of their world history or social studies curriculum.].
We do not have a public school system that allows teachers to testify to the Truth of the Bible. The educational system/society trains its children to see all religions as equal. If the Bible/Godly morals produce the best society, we are hampering ourselves from reaching our potential by not teaching a Godly/Christ-honoring/Bible-guided society.
It is unlikely that the school systems are completely unbiased with regard to religion, given the antagonism of much of the educational establishment to Christianity. We see this antagonism in the evolution-only, no creation story, pro-abortion, safe sex education, and toleration of/pro-LGBT curricula.
The incompatibility of Christianity with such moral lessons is a de facto anti-Christian indoctrination. Thus, Christian parents send their children to schools that actively or by implication/omission train them in a neutral or anti-Christian theology. This produces a bias of each generation away from Christianity and toward secularism/other religions. Each generation’s loss of Christian/Biblical bias makes America susceptible to a sudden and radical shift from its Christian expression of morality in its culture and customs when disaster/big changes occur.
Vast changes can occur in a society with the waning of the Judeo-Christian ethic in the foundational areas of work, employment, and industry. The religions of secularism/Scientism/atheism do not include a transcendental reason for living. So, the motive for living and working may be only for the tangible rewards of recognition, pay, leisure, necessities, etc. These are all good and necessary, but lacking transcendent accountability and larger accomplishment reduces the motivation for living well.
When the government pays people not to work, such as during the pandemic, or when unemployed or sick, people can have trouble reentering the flow of life. People can lose motivation and drop out of the workforce, go homeless, panhandle, use drugs/alcohol, and camp out in the cities. This lack of motivation, or ability to participate in the mainstream, has become a national malaise. Employers have signs saying, “Hours reduced for lack of workers.” Journeymen can’t find apprentices. Tent cities are ubiquitous in the big cities along the West Coast.
For men who can work but who do not, the Bible prescribes that they should not eat. But society does not administer this remedy. We give money to panhandlers, provide food banks, and build projects. However, such interventions will not solve the problem. Sadly, such well-intentioned help may enable those who can work but don’t to continue in low-level participation with life.
Work is important. Work is a type of service to humanity. Work develops character and self-esteem. Society suffers as it diverts resources and personal wealth to pay for another man’s leisure or low-productivity life. Something must change. Taxes rise, production falls, and prices rise as people leave the workforce for a life on the streets.
The homeless problem reflects a societal breakdown. Our educational system is not charged with training in Godly character, skills, service, and work ethic. Life has no meaning without a larger purpose and a goal to work toward. Accountability for performance in life should be motivating. Without purpose and accountability, some find it easier to live on the street, getting by, avoiding the pain of discipline, and anesthetizing the pain of a meaningless life with drugs and alcohol.
The moral boundary breakdown reflects the nation’s porous borders. We are being invaded, and we are not defending ourselves. We have not overtly fallen under the rule of a hostile foreign power, but we are owned. The borrower is a servant to the lender. As a debtor nation, we are under obligation to serve our masters who fund our debt-based support of our lifestyle.
The decay, the homelessness, the shrinking workforce, and the flight from the urban centers follow from the Godless worldview that refuses to educate and train children in the way of the Lord. The Evolutionists/relativists/libertarians/secularists/communists, and atheists of all stripes… kick at the restraints of Biblical standards, and society suffers. All who reject the Biblical standards give support to the decay. Only God’s way produces the good and pleasant world that we all desire.
The libertarian worldview of self as God is the mother of all decay. Personal sovereignty is a good and true principle in God’s intended role for man. God has allowed us to love Him and choose to follow His law or rebel. But we do not get to choose God’s laws. We will suffer if we reject them. We should use our free will to choose to love God and follow His law. Man is completely justified in ignoring laws that require following Biblical standards.
In society, all laws that contradict Biblical principles will produce suboptimal results in happiness and peace. But such experiments can take generations to see their ultimate fruit. Even those who believe in and want to live by Biblical principles can legislate badly. We must observe and learn from the feedback of results. Pain will result from a deficient understanding of moral principles or the circumstances. It’s time for America to repent and commit to living and legislating Godly standards.