Thursday, June 19, 2008

Walter Block on Religion and Libertarianism

I just read Religion and Libertarianism by one of my favorite writers, Walter Block. Block is an atheist, but not against religion, something that can't be said about many atheistic libertarians. Prof. Block teaches economics at Loyola University, a Jesuit institution. The LewRockwell.com webpage bills Dr. Block's essay as: "Ayn Rand Was Wrong on religion and liberty, says Walter Block."

Even though I might be called a "fundamentalist" because I'm a Bible-believing Christian, there's a sense in which I'm against "religion." Dr. Block draws the contrast between the State on the one hand, and religion and the family on the other, noting that the State is often the enemy of religion and the family. I agree: the State wants a monopoly on community, and the family and the church are rival sources of community, rival objects of allegiance.

But so is the mafia, and I'm no defender of the mafia.

It's one thing to try to defend the institutional Church against the libertarian criticisms of Ayn Rand. Defending the Christian Faith against Rand's atheism is a completely different assignment. I would happily draw the connections between Christianity and Liberty, but I would dread having to draw the connections between the Church and Liberty ("Church" here not being limited to the Roman Catholic Church, but encompassing "the institutional church").

If I had been assigned the task of writing Dr. Block's article, I would have entitled it "Faith and Libertarianism." The Christian Faith is against archism, but the Church is archist. The Church is not the Faith, even if it claims in some sense to be the protector of the Faith. "Religion" is often defined as loyalty to the Church (though I admit that the Bible doesn't always use the word this way; see the magnificent use of the word in James 1:27).

Faith is not just belief; the Christian Faith is a lifestyle; it is community arrayed against archism.

The Christian Church has not always been the enemy of the State, but the Christian Faith will always be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Excellent comment. I wish every atheist libertarian was Mr Block,

P Ghedini