About the Libertarian Christian Institute

We are not affiliated with the Libertarian Party. We are a 501(c)(3) organization, and as such are unable to do so. For other reasons, however, we do not align with the Libertarian Party, even though we of course share some of the same views politically. We neither reject nor endorse the official platform of the Libertarian Party, and come to our own conclusions about the core values of the LP.

We believe that party affiliation is a personal choice, and that “small-l libertarians” can advance the cause of liberty from within any party with varying amounts of efficacy.

One might think that because capitalism has gotten a bad rap, and is essentially conflated with the idea of “cronyism,” that we would abandon the term altogether for a something more accurate, maybe even catchier. But all of the alternatives, even if they capture the essence of capitalism better than the connotations of the term itself, are not catchy, are in some ways clunky, and really don’t improve our ability to argue for it. Furthermore, it’s not always necessary for us to replace a perfectly good word, properly understood. In fact, we think of it as a pedagogical opportunity for Christians and libertarians alike to reclaim a proper understanding and appreciation for what capitalism is and does.

So while we don’t disparage the promotion of other words and phrases to describe capitalism in a way that captures its essence, we believe the larger purpose of those endeavors is to point us back to what capitalism really is all about.

As an organization we support the libertarian movement broadly and affirm the ecumenical Christian creeds. We may sometimes not have an official opinion or position on any given topic, as it is often the case that well-meaning and well-reasoned libertarians will come to different conclusions about the same topic. Even within the organization, individuals hold nuanced and sometimes opposing views. And we believe this is okay. One of the reasons we developed our Core Values statement is so that Christian libertarians can align with and maintain affinity for the same things as we advance the message of liberty.

The Core Values above, as well as our commitment to the historic ecumenical creeds, is the extent to which we have a “statement of faith.” We understand and encourage that those belonging to other faith traditions hold and defend more specific views, but we also recognize that the plurality of doctrinal alignments within the libertarian Christian movement is a strength and not a weakness. We do not all need to align to the same narrow doctrinal statements to preach the message of peace.