Aren’t libertarians hedonists who just want to live however they want to?
Question 22 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
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Libertarians don’t promote libertinism (the total disregard of any form of authority or social convention); we’re just about promoting liberty.
Libertarianism is not a full moral or aesthetic theory, but only a political theory, which is a subset of moral theory dealing with the proper role of violence in public life. Libertarianism suggests what the proper role of civil government is and how it should behave (if at all), since it claims for itself the power to coerce others with physical force. Ultimately, libertarians say that everyone should be free to do as they will so long as they do not initiate aggression against others. That may make it possible for people to live as a certain kind of hedonist (again, so long as they don’t commit aggression), but libertarianism doesn’t make a claim about every activity surrounding human life, much less condone hedonism.
With liberty, though, one is free to act upon their deeply held moral principles without fear of violent reprisal, and that includes the religious freedom that Christians have sought since the beginning of our shared faith.