Did God make us free? Yes. Is this an argument for libertarianism? No. The libertarian conception of freedom is one based on choice and non-coercion, but this has never been the Christian conception of freedom. Man is made in the image of God. God is perfectly free, but God’s freedom is not distinguished by his ability to choose. (See St. Anselm.) To say that God is capable of choosing evil is blasphemy. Freedom, therefore, must be more than mere choice.
St. Paul is particularly helpful in this regard. He speaks of freemen as “slaves to Christ.” In Romans 6 he tells us there is no distinction between freedom and service. There is only a distinction between the objects of our service:
“Ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you… Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness… When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness… But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God.”
It impedes advancement of the Christian message to refer to those who continually choose sin as people merely exercising their “freedom to do so.” They are not free. They are in slavery and will remain in slavery until they begin serving the good.
Lost in the discussion of “Christian Libertarianism” is any reference to man’s first use of freedom as they define it. It resulted in a rather famous eviction. This shows that even if God did make us free, he did not make us to be free. Freedom is not the object of our existence. We are made to love, and anyone who loves is necessarily bound to the object of their love. Any philosophy that makes liberty the object and center of existence is, quite frankly, a lie.
Russell Kirk once said that defining yourself as a Conservative-Libertarian is like saying you are a Christian-Muslim. It is oxymoronic. I think he would agree that “Christian-Libertarianism” is a term that reeks of the same metaphysical madness.
