Every criticism of Libertarianism I have ever read includes one also found in that article, completely ignoring the distinctions between moral laws against force and fraud and those that don't involve force or fraud in any way. A comparison of recreational marijuana use (which involves neither force nor fraud) with rape, or with abortion (both of which involve the use of force applied against an unwilling recipient) is completely illegitimate.

I do agree though, that a truly libertarian society could only exist among a moral people, just as George Washington warned. When the people abandon Christian values, liberty without morality becomes a liability; the people become wanton and savage, and the society is doomed to decline and self-destruct.

But neither extreme - merging Church and State as some so-called Theonomists would do; nor creating a pure Libertarian state with no civil penalties for immoral behavior - is appropriate in a society like that of my own, with a rich Christian heritage abandoned several generations ago. The answer is a God-sent revival among the remnant of His people, who should influence the culture as salt and light instead of imposing "Christian" values on God-haters using the power of the State. Republics give way to Empires because liberty only works in a moral society. When the society abandons morality, it must also surrender liberty, or else suffer decay, collapse, corruption, and even conquest.

-R