Free is Beautiful by Randy England uses the scriptures, the writings of the Saints and the Catechism to show why Catholicism is essentially libertarian.
PARTIAL CONTENTS
What is libertarianism? ● Catholicism, liberty and free will ● Jesus and the scriptures on government ● Jesus and taxes ● The limits of obedience ● Romans 13 ● The common good ● The test of a legitimate government ● Subsidiarity ● Charity and the welfare state ● Liberty and the right to Life ● Saints Thomas Aquinas & Augustine on the criminal law ● Liberty and economic regulation ● Occupational licensing ● Crime, police and the courts ● Restitution ● Marriage and discrimination laws ● National defense ● Christianity and the progress of liberty ● Doing liberty: our duty to our neighbor ● Catholic answers to objections to libertarianism
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The golden rule teaches that we must not do to another what we would not want done to ourselves. Don’t cheat. Don’t steal. Don’t hit. Don’t harm others. Live and let live. Mind your own business. Libertarians call this the non-aggression principle.
Centuries ago, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine recognized the futility and evil in trying to force people to be virtuous. They taught that government should limit itself to keeping the peace by protecting people’s lives and property. The modern state knows no such limits.
It is time to consider libertarianism, the most just system in a fallen world and the only political philosophy that takes human dignity and free will seriously.
FREE IS BEAUTIFUL is available, here, in trade paperback at Amazon $18.95. Kindle version, here, is $3.99
Randy England is a writer, former prosecutor
