DGH Vindicated? Does Christ Command Leviathan?

Michael Gerson, guru of evangelical compassionate conservatism, argues against Christian libertarianism. Gerson concludes that “For millennia, artists, thinkers and politicians have shaped their image of Jesus, often into a mirror image of themselves. But the goal of Christianity is to allow Him to shape us, not the other way around. And just as Jesus the leftist revolutionary is a distortion, so is Jesus the libertarian.”

I am not a libertarian but sure vote like one. What Gerson does not seem to understand is the peculiar nature of the American politics. An authentic American conservative is a libertarian constitutionalist in national politics, a wide eyed realist at the state level, and a communitarian republican at the local. Jesus did not invent our federal ideas (although I do see parallels to ecclesiastical Presbyterianism) but I do not think he could object.

Special thanks to my friend Clayton for tipping me off to the Gerson article.