How should I explain Paul's more extreme libertarian positions...

[lilymc]

...to a very, VERY socially conservative, legalistic Christian, who is convinced that I need to repent for supporting Ron Paul.

This is a guy who I've known online for many years and I don't think he will EVER support Ron Paul, but I still want to know how to best respond to his objections and accusations. His view is that anyone who supports drug legalization, legal prostitution, gay marriage, etc, "supports sin." And therefore, since I support Ron Paul, I "support sin."

The reason that it's hard for me to respond to this is because I have always considered myself more of a conservative than a libertarian. So I've never been 100% convinced that things like legalization of hard drugs or legal prostitution are good ideas. But I don't have to agree with a candidate on 100% of the issues, and I think our country is so far gone in the wrong direction, that we absolutely need a pro-liberty, small-government, strict constitutionalist like Ron Paul, or we are finished.

I think there are lots of conservative Christians who we could convince, but the issues I mentioned above are things that turn some people away.

So any advice on how to respond to those objections would be greatly appreciated!

PS - I'm sorry if there have been numerous other threads on this topic already. (I saw some similar ones but I figured I'd start a new thread)

[Travlyr]

Give him a copy of "Liberty Defined" by Ron Paul

[James Madison]

By existing, all of us 'support sin'. 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'. Only through Christ can this be overcome.

Seriously though, I'd give him a copy of The Bible. One without 'Scofield' on the cover.

[lilymc]

Give him a copy of "Liberty Defined" by Ron Paul

That sounds good, thank you. I'll look it up.

By existing, all of us 'support sin'. 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'. Only through Christ can this be overcome.

Seriously though, I'd give him a copy of The Bible. One without 'Scofield' on the cover.

Yes, I definitely want to have a talk with him about looking at his own heart first, before looking at everyone else. He has a lot of hate and anger towards Muslims/Islam, terrorists, extreme leftists, etc. Oh, and he has read and studied the bible. But he still somehow interprets it a lot more like a Pharisee than someone who truly wants to know God's heart and do God's will. Thanks!

[BeauGeste]

Don't frame the issues in the sense that Ron Paul supports drugs, prostitution, gay marriage. Remember that Ron Paul is a devout (I would think the most devout of the bunch) Christian and does not believe those things are moral. And from what I can tell of Ron Paul's platform, he is not so much for legalizing those things as he is for leaving it to the states to decide.

One avenue that I use, is that laws are a double-edge sword. Yes, we can make laws banning these activities. But if we choose to live in such a law-making society where each group is forcing the whole country to abide by their morality, someday they will be forcing private institutions to recognize gay marriages etc. While not banning those sins may seem like support for them, in the long run we are also saving ourselves from having to obey future laws that we wouldn't agree with. For example, we all pay for abortions now.

[hard@work]

First, take a good look at what you define as "extreme". Then compare it to the extremities of what our government does every single day. You'll find a lot of answers there.

[tfurrh]

I didnt know Ron Paul had any extreme positions. The ones in charge now are the extremists.

[CJLauderdale4]

Easy: lean to a "State's Rights" argument. Tell them that Ron Paul simply believes that the Federal Government shouldn't be involved in spending all of this money on the War on Drugs, etc. - it should be left up to the States to decide.

Yes, Ron Paul honestly believes that most if not all drugs should be legal, and I don't necessarily agree with that completely (having known someone killed in a car accident by a high driver), but from his position as President, he would simply allow the States to decide what they want for their residents, and not take tax dollars from folks to run a Federal bureaucracy that is inept and wasteful.

[gerryb]

What exactly is his solution?

To make those things MORE illegal?

To what end?

[Sola_Fide]

...to a very, VERY socially conservative, legalistic Christian, who is convinced that I need to repent for supporting Ron Paul.

This is a guy who I've known online for many years and I don't think he will EVER support Ron Paul, but I still want to know how to best respond to his objections and accusations. His view is that anyone who supports drug legalization, legal prostitution, gay marriage, etc, "supports sin." And therefore, since I support Ron Paul, I "support sin."

The reason that it's hard for me to respond to this is because I have always considered myself more of a conservative than a libertarian. So I've never been 100% convinced that things like legalization of hard drugs or legal prostitution are good ideas. But I don't have to agree with a candidate on 100% of the issues, and I think our country is so far gone in the wrong direction, that we absolutely need a pro-liberty, small-government, strict constitutionalist like Ron Paul, or we are finished.

I think there are lots of conservative Christians who we could convince, but the issues I mentioned above are things that turn some people away.

So any advice on how to respond to those objections would be greatly appreciated!

PS - I'm sorry if there have been numerous other threads on this topic already. (I saw some similar ones but I figured I'd start a new thread)

Tell him that advocating liberty from government is not the same as supporting a sin.

If we really wanted a tyrannical government, we would start making every sin a crime, but this is ridiculous. It's authoritarians who want to make sins crimes. There is, and must be, a real difference between sin and crime. If not, we are slaves to government...and a Christian is called to be free.

What came out of the Protestant Reformation was the idea of the "two kingdoms" of Martin Luther. Breaking away from the tyranny of Rome, he argued that worldly governments apply only to acts by men which are injurious to others. Government must never compel behavior or control the conscience.

This was the very seed of liberty in the Western world. Your friend who loves authoritarian government should read about the Reformation.