The Libertarian Christian Podcast

Libertarian political strategy has always been shaped by a difficult question: should libertarians invest their energy in the Libertarian Party, or work inside one of the major parties (usually the Republican Party) to influence policy from within the duopoly? This double-header episode brings that tension into sharp relief through two contrasting voices — Mike ter Maat, who argues that the GOP is where the decisive battles for liberty can be fought and perhaps won, and James Mills, who believes the LP remains the most principled and viable home for advancing freedom.Chapters:0:00 Intro0:22 Welcome & Guest Intros1:56 Why Leave the LP?9:17 GOP Over LP Strategy13:37 Using the Republican Liberty Caucus17:17 Why the GOP Can Move24:39 Coalition Lessons29:39 Delegates Empowered Plan36:19 Ohio Libertarian Bid47:58 Ballot Access Hurdles54:20 Reaching Libertarian Neighbors59:15 Vote for Principle1:03:27 Trojan Horse or Outsider?Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.Learn more here.Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

Does democracy need Christianity to survive? Jonathan Rauch — a gay, atheist, Jewish journalist at Brookings and The Atlantic — has concluded that it does. His 2025 book, Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy, argues that Christianity is a load-bearing wall in the American experiment, and that two decades of de-churching have left the whole structure sagging.As an outsider who once celebrated secularization as progress and watched what filled the vacuum, Rauch now claims that democracy needs Christianity. What he found is that when the church stopped carrying its load, toxic partisanship, tribal politics, and substitute religions rushed in to take its place.Host Doug Stuart talks with Rauch to work through why the founders counted on Christian virtue, which three teachings of Jesus underwrite liberal democracy, why compromise is a Christian act rather than a betrayal, and what the church has to recover to be worth listening to again.Chapters:0:00 Intro0:22 Guest Intro and Book Origins4:03 Christianity’s Civic Role7:28 Churches, Decline, and Politics12:23 Liberalism and Democracy Defined13:56 Founders on Virtue18:52 Jesus and Liberal Democracy25:10 Compromise as a Creative Process29:53 Congress and Political Cynicism32:50 Reforming a Broken System33:45 Christians and Culture War35:38 Freedom, Fear, and Public Faith38:10 Pseudo-Religions Fill the Void41:25 Libertarianism and Christianity45:39 Altruism, Virtue, and Freedom51:15 Latter-Day Saints and Agency59:18 Make Christianity Peculiar AgainAudio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.Learn more here.Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

Black empowerment is often framed as a debate between pro-black, welfare state progressivism and anti-black, law-and-order conservatism. But what if free markets, not big government, is the key to black empowerment? In this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, Cody Cook talks to Dr. Rachel Ferguson about the dominant narrative that racial justice requires state intervention. Ferguson demonstrates that classical liberalism offers a more historically grounded, morally coherent, and economically effective path forward.Ferguson argues that the worst racial injustices in American history were not failures of markets but failures of the state — from slavery to Jim Crow to redlining to welfare policies that fractured families and communities. She also highlights the long, overlooked tradition of Black classical liberals who championed individual rights, entrepreneurship, and civil society as the real engines of flourishing.Chapters:0:00 Intro0:24 Welcome and Black Liberation Through Markets2:53 Challenging White Privilege Claims7:04 Douglass and Classical Liberalism9:00 Why Freedom Needs a Voice13:19 Slavery’s Economic Costs19:57 Defining Real Free Markets22:57 Welfare’s Perverse Incentives27:18 Beyond Bootstraps and Blame31:11 Sharecropping After Emancipation34:05 Lynching and Public Memory37:59 Racism Beyond the Law40:48 Populism and Immigration Fears44:39 Churches and Civil SocietyAudio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.Learn more here.Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★

Most abortion debates fail to advance the conversation because the two sides aren't arguing on the same grounds — one side makes a moral or religious case, the other a case from women's rights; so they talk past each other. Kerry Baldwin argues that there's a better approach. In this FreedomFest debate with Michael Shermer, Baldwin makes her case. Shermer approaches abortion from a secular humanist perspective, making a moral-pragmatic case for pro-choice that centers the lived reality and full moral status of women. Baldwin, though a professing Christian, does not argue from religious or moral grounds. Instead, she argues from a natural law, libertarian legal-rights, and free-market perspective. Both are critical of the conventional pro-life argument, and both believe that reducing unwanted pregnancies through free-market solutions is the practical path forward. What they disagree on is whether a consistent defense of women's rights can stop short of recognizing fetal self-ownership. Rather than relitigating the familiar culture-war framing, this debate advances the liberty conversation by asking what libertarian principles actually require and what the net benefit is for women's rights more broadly.Be sure to bring your questions and participate in Kerry's post-debate live Q&A here: https://mereliberty.com/freedomfest-attendee-email-list/Kerry's main site: https://mereliberty.com/The Reformed Libertarians Podcast: https://libertarianchristians.com/shows/reformed-libertarians-podcast/Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com Come meet fellow Christian libertarians, sharpen your thinking, and be part of a growing movement rooted in faith and freedom at the Christians for Liberty Conference.Lunch is included in the price of the ticket. We will send out a form ahead of the conference requesting dietary preferences and restrictions.Learn more here.Use code LCI50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings and also support LCI!Full Podsworth Ad Read BEFORE & AFTER processing:https://youtu.be/vbsOEODpQGs ★ Support this podcast ★