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Human flourishing should be the goal of any human-based institution, both private and public, so long as it is done within its sphere of capacity and ability.

Christians who believe the state should guide or lead us to human flourishing usually have in mind initiatives and programs that force individuals and businesses to behave in certain ways they view as conducive to human flourishing. Yet they fail to recognize that governments are particularly bad at guiding free human beings in ways that yield certain results. When governments try to pick winners and losers through subsidies and special privileges, they almost always fail.

As an institution on the monopoly of violence in society, the state’s narrow role should be to enable human flourishing through means that actually achieve human flourishing. That is, if the state’s role is to protect private property by enabling free exchange, not only would the economy grow, individuals and communities would flourish not because of the state but because the state was in its proper role in society.