Today I rewatched a sermon from Apologia studios with Jeff Durbin on, "God's Law or Chaos." I had watched it quite a long time ago when I was a pretty die hard economic libertatian along the lines of the Mises Institute AKA for extreme economic freedom akin to being pretty close to lassiez faire while being for social conservative policies.
Since that time I have come to realize that Government does need to play a role in the economic situation and have come to support Government regulation of the economy and also supporting taxation based welfare/social safety net funding. Whereas previously I deemed that the government should only mainly use taxation for national and international tranquility by keeping the peace and social assistance should be as voluntary as possible and there should be as little regulation as possible.
I now realize that unregulated markets do not work in the real world and that certain sectors need a lot of regulation and over watch to function. I also realize that government funding is necessary for maintenance of people's welfare and social safety institutions in society. That does not mean they need to be government controlled in a command economic system, owned or operated I am not a Marxist or a Socialism proponent. However, the idea that they can always survive simply on voluntary contributions or non tax based financing is not tenable.
Watching it now I see that the last half of his sermon is essentially an anti tax Libertarian tirade against taxes being taken to help those in need. Should people try not to be on tax assistance? Yes, wherever possible people should rely on other means of assistance. However, to be anti taxation leaves lots of people out in the cold to literally die on our streets. Jeff Durbin literally said you either work or you don't eat. I dare say that is not very loving to the needy and your neighbor's in need. Sometimes people simply need a hand in life and while the Church should be the first place they go for help sometimes relying on tax based assistance is the only source of funds someone has.
I have not gone to the left on economics as much as I have gone from the extreme fringe on economics to more of the mainstream right of Centre or centre-right position on economics. At least within the Canadian Political Spectrum. Even within the USA, however, classical Republican Right wing economics is not Lassiez faire or anywhere near that. Only the Libertarianism within the fringes like the Freedom Caucus for example are in favor of unregulated lassaiez faire economy.
The point I am trying to make is that one should not mix up God's Law and lassiez faire economics. However, there is a second issue with his sermon and that is the very Christian Reconstructionist talk about taking the Nations for God as his Diciples. I have seen this sort of talk before by Doug Wilson's sermons wherein he espouses Theocratic Libertarianism. Essentially, the government does very little and the Federal one especially while the lower magistrates at the local level apply Christian Reconstruction to their locality unabated by the higher magistrates. He too combines this Reconstructionist view of reinstating The Moasic Law and its punishments locally with completely unregulated markets for an economic system.
God's Law says to love your neighbor's as yourself and to take care of those in need. I do not see how that is compatible with a system of completely unregulated Capitalism. Nor do I see how the idea that God's Laws contains moral precepts for us all is compatible with a Libertarian government that only regulates physical force or threats of and nothing else. I am not a Theocratic Reconstructionist, but, I am fully in favor of a system in which things like abortion or assisted suicide are criminalized. Or in which we remove no fault divorce and replace it with assistance for the issues causing the need for these things which requires tax based assistance programs.
My policies I would like to Reintegrate into the Centre-right parties in Canada mirror the social policies of Christian Democratic parties. Or to a certain extent the Christian Heritage Party here in Canada. While my economic views would find a home nicely in the current Conservative Party of Erin O'Toole. Of which I am currently an official registered member. This is becoming a novel, so, I will list my social policy recommendations in a second post to spare the readers eyes.
