1 00:00:06,700 --> 00:00:11,539 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church 2 00:00:11,539 --> 00:00:16,859 with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and 3 00:00:16,859 --> 00:00:24,179 faith. And today I want to ask you, why is the libertarian agenda for America the wrong one 4 00:00:24,179 --> 00:00:32,679 for America? And why is an agenda of the Christian Republic the precise right one for America? 5 00:00:32,679 --> 00:00:39,979 Now, let me stipulate that there is much about the libertarian agenda with which I sympathize. 6 00:00:40,679 --> 00:00:47,899 They believe, for example, in limited government, sound money, and fiscal responsibility. This is 7 00:00:47,899 --> 00:00:55,939 from the libertarian party platform, and I quote now, all persons are entitled to keep the fruits 8 00:00:55,939 --> 00:01:02,539 of their labor. We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service, 9 00:01:02,679 --> 00:01:07,980 and all federal programs and services not required under the United States Constitution. 10 00:01:08,379 --> 00:01:13,359 We oppose any legal requirements forcing employers to serve as tax collectors. 11 00:01:14,099 --> 00:01:18,939 Government should not incur debt, which burdens future generations without their consent. 12 00:01:18,939 --> 00:01:24,319 We support the passage of a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 13 00:01:24,719 --> 00:01:31,459 provided that the budget is balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures and not by raising taxes. 14 00:01:31,459 --> 00:01:38,420 Oh, wonderful, from the libertarian party platform. They also comment on money and financial markets 15 00:01:38,420 --> 00:01:44,219 too, and I quote once again from their website, we favor free market banking with unrestricted 16 00:01:44,219 --> 00:01:50,739 competition among banks and depository institutions of all types. Individuals engaged in voluntary 17 00:01:50,739 --> 00:01:58,980 exchange should be free to use as money any mutually agreeable commodity or item. We support a halt 18 00:01:58,980 --> 00:02:08,319 to inflationary monetary policies and unconstitutional legal tender laws, unquote, from the libertarian party 19 00:02:08,319 --> 00:02:15,280 platform. And to all of this, I can say amen. If this were the sum and substance of the libertarian 20 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:21,960 party, I would support it in a moment. But for me, there are several other aspects to the libertarian 21 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:28,080 program that I have to critique. Kind of a poison pill for me. What are these aspects? 22 00:02:29,199 --> 00:02:33,479 Well, let me cite them for you. I've been articulating, for example, in previous 23 00:02:33,479 --> 00:02:42,340 episodes, the absolute fundamentals for the United States of America, that we might survive and thrive 24 00:02:42,340 --> 00:02:49,180 into the future. And that is a return to three C's, to Christ, Constitution, and Capitalism, 25 00:02:49,180 --> 00:02:55,719 and how they are all intertwined and interconnected. Christ has been central to who we are as a people, 26 00:02:56,340 --> 00:03:00,259 fundamental to the formation of our culture, our religion, and our institutions. 27 00:03:01,060 --> 00:03:06,400 The Constitution itself has been shaped and formed in the fiery forge of Christian principle and 28 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:12,560 tradition. And of course, capitalism, that third C, as we have seen, especially over the last few weeks, 29 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:19,819 requires a Christian moral framework and a Christian written constitution to operate at its optimum. 30 00:03:21,020 --> 00:03:26,300 Libertarianism, by its own admission, rejects the very thing that binds these things together. That is a 31 00:03:26,300 --> 00:03:34,319 strong, clear, explicitly Christian moral framework. Utterly essential. This is my critique of the 32 00:03:34,319 --> 00:03:42,099 libertarian agenda. Instead, as one might expect from the name libertarian, a kind of free moral approach 33 00:03:42,099 --> 00:03:48,580 to social issues and to personal life choices obtained. I quote now from the libertarian 34 00:03:48,580 --> 00:03:55,280 party platform again. And I quote, it says, we believe that respect for individual rights 35 00:03:55,280 --> 00:04:01,379 is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be 36 00:04:01,379 --> 00:04:06,939 banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized. 37 00:04:06,939 --> 00:04:14,539 Consequently, we, that is the libertarian party, defend each person's right to engage in any activity 38 00:04:14,539 --> 00:04:21,699 that is peaceful and honest and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is 39 00:04:21,699 --> 00:04:27,459 one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways without interference from 40 00:04:27,459 --> 00:04:34,259 government or any authoritarian power, unquote, from the libertarian party platform. Well, all of this 41 00:04:34,259 --> 00:04:41,459 is fine sounding sentiment, but it is very bad government, I'm afraid, an insipid failed public 42 00:04:41,459 --> 00:04:48,980 morality. There is a public morality in every single culture and society. Number one, for me, government 43 00:04:48,980 --> 00:04:55,879 by definition is force. Government by definition is force. The older Webster dictionaries, for example, 44 00:04:55,879 --> 00:05:02,759 define government as force, compulsion. Think for a moment, dear listener, behind every law, 45 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:08,759 though we expect a general willing compliance on the part of the general populace, behind every law 46 00:05:08,759 --> 00:05:14,740 lies the implied use of force, if voluntary compliance is not achieved. This is why government 47 00:05:14,740 --> 00:05:22,160 is good at and properly charged with police powers and military protection and the legislating, 48 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:27,339 executing and adjudicating the laws of the land and punishing those who break the law. This is what 49 00:05:27,339 --> 00:05:34,220 government is meant to do. Government is force and compulsion. Conversely, its essential nature, 50 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:41,779 force and compulsion, is always why it is very bad at things like creating wealth, that is managing and 51 00:05:41,779 --> 00:05:47,980 running an economy, why they're so lousy at it too, or commanding compassion. That's an oxymoron. 52 00:05:47,980 --> 00:05:56,839 Commend compassion. Compassion by nature is voluntary and free will, right? So for the libertarians to say 53 00:05:56,839 --> 00:06:02,639 that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships is just naive and wrong. The real 54 00:06:02,639 --> 00:06:09,420 question is what are the proper roles and spheres for government force in our human relationships, not 55 00:06:09,420 --> 00:06:15,879 how can we banish force altogether from them? You cannot banish what is intrinsic to a thing's very 56 00:06:15,879 --> 00:06:22,540 nature, forces the only improper role for government. Therefore, define it, limit it, and watch it 57 00:06:22,540 --> 00:06:29,279 closely. That is what our founding fathers did by crafting our constitution. Secondly, my second 58 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:36,860 critique of this aspect, the social aspect of the libertarian party platform, is not only can you 59 00:06:36,860 --> 00:06:43,680 legislate morality, government by definition does legislate morality. It does. How often do you hear this 60 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:49,800 logical non-sequitur? That is, you can't legislate morality. Oh, it's especially used by libertarians. 61 00:06:50,199 --> 00:06:55,180 How wrong this assertion is. People usually mean something like this when they say this, you can't 62 00:06:55,180 --> 00:07:00,300 legislate morality. They usually mean something like, so many citizens are taking drugs these days 63 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:06,160 that it is futile to buck the tide. You cannot make people stop taking drugs merely by passing a law. 64 00:07:06,500 --> 00:07:12,139 So, legalize marijuana. Or you may hear them say, so many citizens are patronizing prostitutes 65 00:07:12,139 --> 00:07:17,680 these days. That is, it is futile to buck the tide. You cannot make people stop going to prostitutes 66 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:23,879 by passing a law. So, legalize prostitution. Or you may hear people say something like, so many people 67 00:07:23,879 --> 00:07:29,759 find abortion a convenience in place of birth control that it is futile to buck the tide. You 68 00:07:29,759 --> 00:07:36,579 cannot make people stop getting abortions by passing a law. So, ergo, legalize abortion. Oh, and on and on it 69 00:07:36,579 --> 00:07:42,939 goes, of course, the libertarian argument is just as they make it in their party platform. Once again, 70 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:49,800 quoting from their party platform, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is 71 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:56,420 peaceful and honest and welcome the diversity that freedom brings, unquote. Well, these days, 72 00:07:57,220 --> 00:08:05,339 that activity is so magnanimously opened to include abortion, and they say on their party platform, 73 00:08:05,339 --> 00:08:11,379 recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good faith views on all sides, 74 00:08:11,379 --> 00:08:16,899 we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for 75 00:08:16,899 --> 00:08:23,379 their conscientious consideration, unquote, from their libertarian party platform. They include 76 00:08:23,379 --> 00:08:29,819 openly, once again, gay marriage. And they say, once again, from their party platform, sexual orientation, 77 00:08:30,220 --> 00:08:35,240 preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government's treatment of 78 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:41,320 individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration, or military 79 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:46,960 service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, license, or restrict personal 80 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:53,000 relationships. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal 81 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:59,899 relationships, unquote, from the libertarian party platform. And they also magnanimously open the 82 00:08:59,899 --> 00:09:07,559 choice and so forth up to drugs from their party platform again. We favor the repeal of all laws 83 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:13,480 creating crimes without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, 84 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:22,700 unquote. So libertarians advocate a neutral hands-off position to these social issues at best and an open 85 00:09:22,700 --> 00:09:37,600 view of the social issues facing our country. Many Americans, for example, are already at this point. 86 00:09:37,779 --> 00:09:44,480 They're conservative on fiscal matters and the obscene bloating of government, but they're liberal 87 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:50,860 or indifferent to the social issues that we have described above. Other citizens who think very little 88 00:09:50,860 --> 00:09:56,759 about any of these issues and we euphemistically tag them as low information voters, but they're really 89 00:09:56,759 --> 00:10:03,679 ignoramuses about these issues. Many of these might possibly be persuaded of the libertarian position when 90 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:08,419 they finally pay attention after they're hit hard in their pocketbook with taxes, inflation, and job losses 91 00:10:08,419 --> 00:10:13,879 due to government policies. Already liberal on these social issues, they are turned off by conservative 92 00:10:13,879 --> 00:10:20,840 positions and would probably be repelled by sound fiscal policies unnecessarily if they're 93 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:25,580 too closely associated with backward policies on abortion, gay marriage, and drugs. So goes 94 00:10:25,580 --> 00:10:32,500 the libertarian rationale. Additionally, we can always hope that some of our liberal friends, family, 95 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:38,559 and fellow workers might be persuaded by reason and facts as we patiently, persistently present them. 96 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:44,679 How much easier it would be, goes the rationale, if we only have to convince them how to 97 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:52,919 issue foolish fiscal policies and not foolish personal and moral choices? All in all, it must be admitted by even 98 00:10:52,919 --> 00:10:59,320 a conservative, an advocate of a Christian republic, it must be admitted by me that the libertarian point 99 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:05,220 of view has greater political appeal to a morally indifferent age like ours than a classically 100 00:11:05,220 --> 00:11:11,340 conservative point of view from the point of view of a Christian republic. Now, I would welcome anyone who 101 00:11:11,340 --> 00:11:17,840 advocates sound fiscal policies, only I would strongly admonish them that this is only half the story of 102 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:24,379 America. If you buy the fallacy that you can't legislate morality, and it is a fallacy, then you will 103 00:11:24,379 --> 00:11:31,440 journey down the road to ruin for yourself and for your country. Consider, I appeal to you, consider history 104 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:38,480 and philosophy and religion, laws against murder thou shalt not kill, laws against theft thou shalt not steal, 105 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:44,860 and crimes against one's person and property. These are all intrinsically moral. Very few people would 106 00:11:44,860 --> 00:11:50,720 dispute this, although there is increased advocacy recently to redefine sexual predators and pedophiles 107 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:57,440 as minor attracted persons, for example. This is coming down the pike, dear listener. Dr. Fred Berlin, 108 00:11:57,700 --> 00:12:04,279 for example, and others of his ilk advocated before the American Psychiatric Association a few years ago 109 00:12:04,279 --> 00:12:10,039 that we need to come out of the dark ages of sexual behavior and realize that those we have 110 00:12:10,039 --> 00:12:16,179 traditionally labeled pedophiles are in reality normal people who have an alternative sexual 111 00:12:16,179 --> 00:12:22,519 orientation. This is the term they use, minor attracted persons. You're going to be hearing more and more 112 00:12:22,519 --> 00:12:28,279 of this term of pedophiles in the future. They are merely normal people who are minor attracted persons. 113 00:12:28,279 --> 00:12:34,879 Therefore, age of consent laws in their minds should be abolished and the stigma of pedophilia should be 114 00:12:34,879 --> 00:12:42,919 discouraged. Dr. Berlin and his ilk go so far as to assert that children are themselves sexual from 115 00:12:42,919 --> 00:12:48,799 birth and deserve to have sex with adults or youth. This is coming down the pike, dear listener. 116 00:12:48,799 --> 00:12:58,799 So, this is the very path down which the homosexual lobby traveled a generation ago, beginning in 1973. 117 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:05,799 They too appeared before the American Psychiatric Association and bullied and browbeat them into doing the 118 00:13:05,799 --> 00:13:12,019 very same thing the pedophilia lobby is attempting. That is, remove our sin from your list. 119 00:13:12,019 --> 00:13:23,980 Currently, our society has legislated morality. Sexual contact with a minor by an adult is a crime and one of the 120 00:13:23,980 --> 00:13:31,200 worst taboos in our culture. It is considered a violation of that minor's innocence and very person. In the Bible, 121 00:13:31,419 --> 00:13:38,039 it was grounds for the death penalty. Remember that there was a very similar taboo and inertia against 122 00:13:38,039 --> 00:13:44,519 homosexuality a generation ago. Sodomy laws were on the books across the nation. Medicine, religion, 123 00:13:44,940 --> 00:13:51,159 considered it a deviation homosexuality, and a perversion of the normal sexual state of things. 124 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:56,419 And parents did all within their power to discourage their children from becoming homosexuals. 125 00:13:57,259 --> 00:14:04,500 Morality was indeed legislated and enforced. Now, of course, not only is such behavior legal and accepted, 126 00:14:04,500 --> 00:14:12,580 many find it cool and exciting. There is a supposed though yet undiscovered gay gene that makes one gay. 127 00:14:12,679 --> 00:14:18,320 Even the taboo has been reversed. It is now considered discriminatory and uncool 128 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:26,519 to be anti-homosexual. So, behold the trajectory, dear listener. How long will it be before the 129 00:14:26,519 --> 00:14:34,080 Libertarian Party has a neutral or advocacy position for the minor attracted person? You can legislate 130 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:38,500 morality. You must legislate morality. You must legislate morality, dear listener. Government by 131 00:14:38,500 --> 00:14:44,759 definition legislates morality. You can take the measure of a society, as a matter of fact, by what 132 00:14:44,759 --> 00:14:52,840 morality it legislates or does not legislate. Every country has a social morality. We advocate a Christian 133 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:59,980 republic social morality. It is the foundation for all culture. This is why it is so foolish to mouth 134 00:14:59,980 --> 00:15:06,460 the cliche. You can't legislate morality. The foundation and framework for America has always been 135 00:15:06,460 --> 00:15:15,580 a Christian moral framework. Now, as I have made a point of emphasis here, the Christian faith has 136 00:15:15,580 --> 00:15:23,700 informed both the development of our constitution, for example, take Bishop Stephen Langton and his role 137 00:15:23,700 --> 00:15:32,580 in shaping the Magna Carta. And Christian faith and social morality has also been foundational in the 138 00:15:32,580 --> 00:15:38,779 development of capitalism, like the individual right to private property. That's a Christian principle. 139 00:15:39,340 --> 00:15:47,139 Both of these are put in jeopardy if you remove an explicit Christian social morality founded in a 140 00:15:47,139 --> 00:15:54,879 Christian republic. So I assert in the strongest terms that so far are we from the maxim, you can't 141 00:15:54,879 --> 00:16:02,000 legislate morality, then instead we must legislate morality and explicit Christian morality. As I have 142 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:07,879 observed for you over the past few weeks, our constitution was made only for a virtuous and religious 143 00:16:07,879 --> 00:16:15,100 people. It is entirely unsuited to any other. John Adams said this. All of our founding fathers agreed 144 00:16:15,100 --> 00:16:20,659 with this. This is precisely because they understood that our constitution reversed the power relationship 145 00:16:20,659 --> 00:16:26,460 between government and the governed. Whereas government in the past had complete liberty to act 146 00:16:26,460 --> 00:16:33,100 as it saw fit for its own interests and placed the greatest limits upon the governed. That's what we have 147 00:16:33,100 --> 00:16:40,080 today, I'm afraid, under secularism, statism, and socialism. Under the constitution of the United States 148 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:46,399 of America, it was the governed, that is the people, who had the greatest liberty to act as they saw fit, 149 00:16:46,519 --> 00:16:52,700 and it was the government that had the severest limits placed upon it. History is replete with what 150 00:16:52,700 --> 00:17:00,919 it means when immoral government rules with unchecked impunity. Complete tyranny they have then over the 151 00:17:00,919 --> 00:17:09,759 people. Oh dear listener, our founders understood as well what it would mean if an immoral people pursued its 152 00:17:09,759 --> 00:17:18,220 interests. And this is what will degenerate under a libertarian government, under a libertarian agenda, 153 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:25,640 you will have an immoral people pursuing its interests completely unchecked, and anarchy will soon rule the day. 154 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:32,059 And since our nature is wired for order, history also demonstrates that tyranny follows right on the heels 155 00:17:32,059 --> 00:17:40,519 of anarchy time and time again. It is difficult to overemphasize how crucial it is to a free constitutional 156 00:17:40,519 --> 00:17:48,339 republic to have operative at all times and explicitly Christian social morality. The libertarian experiment, 157 00:17:48,599 --> 00:17:54,740 I submit to you, let's look at history for a moment, the libertarian experiment of a free, open 158 00:17:54,740 --> 00:18:09,599 your history book to the Gilded Age. For example, the second industrial revolution swept over the 159 00:18:09,599 --> 00:18:15,519 advanced nations in the latter half of the 19th century, including us. The United States of America 160 00:18:15,519 --> 00:18:22,559 was poised to benefit in ways no other nation could. We were in the forefront of inventions and 161 00:18:22,559 --> 00:18:29,380 improvements, the steam engine, railroads, utilities, inventions of all kinds, and also the invention 162 00:18:29,380 --> 00:18:35,339 of the financial instruments to benefit with profits, that is patents, and the invention of the 163 00:18:35,339 --> 00:18:43,339 corporation and stock, all of these things pioneered in the United States of America. Plus, we had before us 164 00:18:43,339 --> 00:18:49,980 a seemingly endless supply of natural resources in the West, in the untamed wilderness that stretched 165 00:18:49,980 --> 00:18:57,759 before us on our continent. Economically, financially, and personal freedom-wise, the United States of 166 00:18:57,759 --> 00:19:08,240 America of the 19th century was a libertarian dream. It was a libertarian dream. So what happens when you 167 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:19,319 give libertarianism a free, unchecked way to go? Well, we saw the libertarian ideal of a hands-off morality, 168 00:19:19,319 --> 00:19:26,319 deepened during this period. A libertarian hands-off morality has already been tried and experimented 169 00:19:26,319 --> 00:19:31,720 upon in the United States during this period of the Gilded Age, the latter 19th century. And it would 170 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:38,440 culminate, of course, in the roaring 20s following World War I, when booze and loose women, they were 171 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:44,700 called flappers then, and unchecked wealth, motion pictures, all these things made everyone forget 172 00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:51,440 religion and morals and virtue. But I submit to you that the roaring 20s began in the period of the 173 00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:58,220 Gilded Age. And it also demonstrates for all to see what happens when capitalism operates at a full 174 00:19:58,220 --> 00:20:05,380 head of steam without a Christian social morality. We have already had a libertarian agenda before us 175 00:20:05,380 --> 00:20:11,140 in history during this period. And we can also trace two of the most pernicious philosophies 176 00:20:11,140 --> 00:20:17,660 of the modern age through this period, too. That is, atheistic Darwinism and godless Marxism. Both of 177 00:20:17,660 --> 00:20:23,980 these developed during the Gilded Age. And a libertarian hands-off morality ruled the day. 178 00:20:26,299 --> 00:20:32,819 Conditions in factories and mines and industrial cities were shameful. Men and women and children 179 00:20:32,819 --> 00:20:39,059 labored in these places 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for less than subsistence wages. 180 00:20:39,059 --> 00:20:46,079 Children grew up ignorant and sick and they died young. Disease and injury and death stalked the 181 00:20:46,079 --> 00:20:52,579 awful tenements of places like the Garment District and Hell's Kitchen in New York City. And in great 182 00:20:52,579 --> 00:20:59,039 despair, working men turned to suicide and alcohol and prostitution for relief from their plight, 183 00:20:59,339 --> 00:21:05,819 a libertarian dream. In fact, alcoholism in major cities like New York and Pittsburgh and Chicago 184 00:21:05,819 --> 00:21:11,960 became as high as ever in history in these places during this time. In some quarters, there were 185 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:19,559 calls for reform and improvement. Many of the social reform movements we now know today began in 186 00:21:19,559 --> 00:21:24,500 this period. The women's temperance movement began during this period, for example, in response to 187 00:21:24,500 --> 00:21:30,819 alcoholism, later morphed into the women's liberation movement. Also, the union movement began in this period, 188 00:21:30,819 --> 00:21:38,960 too. But mostly, all of this was excused as the mere consequence of natural selection and the survival 189 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:45,960 of the fittest. From Darwin, the newest philosophy to explain why these were historical necessities. 190 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:53,619 Oh, dear listener, Darwin's explanation for the evolution of biological species, which was ensconced in 191 00:21:53,619 --> 00:22:00,519 the origin of species, published in 1859, right during this period, his explanation had been adapted 192 00:22:00,519 --> 00:22:08,000 to explain also the evolution of man as a social animal. And it was tagged social Darwinism. And here 193 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:15,980 was the perfect libertarian excuse for all of the conditions at hand. Now, not only could the robber 194 00:22:15,980 --> 00:22:23,220 barons mercilessly use the vast store of human capital at their disposal to build industrial empires for 195 00:22:23,220 --> 00:22:29,880 themselves and then view themselves as the fittest for survival, according to Darwin, but they could 196 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:37,599 also use Darwinism to excuse the suffering of the masses as the natural result of biological social 197 00:22:37,599 --> 00:22:45,240 evolution. It was not them as a morally responsible agent in God's world, as the Christian would say, 198 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:52,059 as the Christian social morality would say, that it was you, dear robber baron, as a morally 199 00:22:52,059 --> 00:22:57,640 responsible agent in God's world, that you're responsible for these beings' conditions. No. But 200 00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:04,519 rather, they could say under a libertarian agenda that the result of a godless amoral universe in which 201 00:23:04,519 --> 00:23:12,440 the strong survive and the weak die off. So they were only behaving as they naturally ought in such a 202 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:20,720 Darwinian universe. This was the social gospel at this time. These were the implications for the ideal 203 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:27,880 libertarian world for social Darwinism. That is, in the natural world, there was no explicitly Christian 204 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:34,559 morality. That was merely the artificial construct of one society. In the real godless universe of 205 00:23:34,559 --> 00:23:42,579 Darwin and his devotees, there was no mandated social morality, only that which best suited the survival of 206 00:23:42,579 --> 00:23:48,839 the species. And under the philosophy of libertarianism, there would and could be no solution to this 207 00:23:48,839 --> 00:23:55,380 situation. But that does not mean that no solutions were offered. There were also godless solutions 208 00:23:55,380 --> 00:24:00,180 offered. In the Library of London at this time, one troubled soul looked out upon the industrial 209 00:24:00,180 --> 00:24:06,660 revolution taking place in England, smokestacks billowing, a miserable poverty gripping his fellow man, 210 00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:12,980 suffering, being the only foreseeable lot for the future. And this man, sitting in that library, 211 00:24:12,980 --> 00:24:19,400 did something about it. He concocted an entire philosophy and economic system that would provide 212 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:27,539 a solution. Of course, his name was Karl Marx in his book Das Kapital, published in 1867. And he accepted 213 00:24:27,539 --> 00:24:34,519 two crucial assumptions of Darwin, that is, the evolution of humanity and its circumstances first, and then 214 00:24:34,519 --> 00:24:41,460 secondly, he also accepted the atheistic, godless nature of the universe. But what Marx distinguished was the 215 00:24:41,460 --> 00:24:48,259 ultimate end of mankind. That is, mankind would evolve from feudalism to capitalism, and then finally to 216 00:24:48,259 --> 00:24:55,839 communism, which would blossom into the workers' paradise. Oh, dear listener, for Marx, the only 217 00:24:55,839 --> 00:25:03,200 social morality that mattered was that which advanced the socialist state. As you peruse the communist 218 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:09,519 manifesto, for example, you see that he advocates, for example, the destruction of the family, as we know 219 00:25:09,519 --> 00:25:18,119 it, such that children become wards of the state. Libertarianism offers no counter to this in the 220 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:25,640 libertarian agenda, dear listener. Economics, by its nature, I submit to you, capitalism demands a 221 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:34,339 Christian social morality, not a libertarian a morality, or else we will descend once again into what 222 00:25:34,339 --> 00:25:42,099 we saw during the gilded age, a misery for humanity. What we need instead is a reformation, an entire 223 00:25:42,099 --> 00:25:48,119 spiritual reformation where Christ becomes the center of our social morality, where Christ becomes the 224 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:54,160 center of our constitution, where Christ once again becomes the center of our economic system. That is our 225 00:25:54,160 --> 00:26:01,339 practice of a free market economy, a free exchange of goods and ideas. That is a capitalist economy 226 00:26:01,339 --> 00:26:07,740 guided by a Christian social morality. Without this, you will see us descending into a libertarian 227 00:26:07,740 --> 00:26:16,079 amoral society again, as we saw in the gilded age. So, dear listener, though I agree with so much 228 00:26:16,079 --> 00:26:22,680 in the libertarian agenda on the economic side, I must say that what we need rather is a Christian 229 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:29,960 republic with a Christian social morality with Christ at its very center. I urge you to apply these 230 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:34,980 things, to live these things in your own life, dear listener. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva 231 00:26:34,980 --> 00:26:42,220 Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva Meets for Holy Worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street 232 00:26:42,220 --> 00:26:47,660 on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you can call us at 523-0196.