Theocratic libertarianism may sound like an oxymoron, but it appeals to a segment of the American population that could never embrace Ayn Rand's atheistic Objectivism. It draws heavily from those in the South who still harbor anti-federal government animosity left over from the Civil War and Cold War warriors who sanctified capitalism as the godly alternative to atheistic communism. The idea that America was founded as a divinely ordained bastion of laissez-faire capitalism, to be governed by biblical law at the local level, was codified by the late Rousas Rushdoony in his 1973 Institutes of Biblical Law.  

The numbers of self-proclaimed "Dominionists" in the Christian Reconstructionist camp are small, but Rushdoony's foundational narratives have spread like wildfire throughout much of the Religious Right, contrary to denials in the press. (See 1, 2, and 3.) We are not likely to see the stoning of adulterers and homosexuals in the streets any time soon, although that was a feature of Rushdoony's plan for a reconstructed America, but Rushdoony's narratives have been widely embraced - including his version of American history in which there was no intent of separation of church and state and his claims that unfettered capitalism is biblically mandated.  

Rushdoony provided the foundation for the "myth of separation" narratives being taught across the nation by David Barton, former vice chairman of the Texas GOP.  Rushdoony also claimed that the American Revolution owed nothing to the Enlightenment, but was a "Conservative American Counter-Revolution." He claimed the First Amendment was designed to prevent the federal government from interfering with biblical law at the local level and taught that God and scripture are the sole source of reason and knowledge. He rejected religious pluralism as the product of secular humanists. In The Institutes of Biblical Law, Rushdoony wrote,

"In the name of toleration, the believer is asked to associate on a common level of total acceptance with the atheist, the pervert, the criminal, and the adherents of other religions."

Waiting for the Day When We Can Say We're All Austrians

In his speech following the Iowa Caucus, Ron Paul said,

"I am waiting for the day when we can say we're all  Austrians now."[At 2:35 in the linked video.]

That's Austrians, as in the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, founded by Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr. in 1982 as the center for Austrian School Economics in the U.S. In a 2003 Southern Poverty Law Center report, Chip Berlet describes the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

It also promotes a type of Darwinian view of society in which elites are seen as natural and any intervention by the government on behalf of social justice is destructive. The institute seems nostalgic for the days when, "because of selective mating, marriage, and the laws of civil and genetic inheritance, positions of natural authority [were] likely to be passed on within a few noble families."

But the rule of these natural elites and intellectuals, writes institute scholar Hans-Hermann Hoppe, is being ruined by statist meddling such as "affirmative action and forced integration," which he said is "responsible for the almost complete destruction of private property rights, and the erosion of freedom of contract, association, and disassociation."

A key player in the institute for years was the late Murray Rothbard, who worked with Rockwell closely and co-edited a journal with him. The institute's Web site includes a cybershrine to Rothbard, a man who complained that the "Officially Oppressed" of American society (read, blacks, women and so on) were a "parasitic burden," forcing their "hapless Oppressors" to provide "an endless flow of benefits."

"The call of 'equality,'" he wrote, "is a siren song that can only mean the destruction of all that we cherish as being human." Rothbard blamed much of what he disliked on meddling women. In the mid-1800s, a "legion of Yankee women" who were "not fettered by the responsibilities" of household work "imposed" voting rights for women on the nation. Later, Jewish women, after raising funds from "top Jewish financiers," agitated for child labor laws, Rothbard adds with evident disgust. The "dominant tradition" of all these activist women, he suggests, is lesbianism.

In 2008, two journalists writing for Reason Magazine concluded that Paul's racist newsletters from the 1990s were probably ghost written by Lew Rockwell, founder and currently chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and a former chief of staff for Paul. This conclusion has been repeated recently by other media outlets, but without including the fact that Paul continues to contribute on a regular basis to Rockwell's newsletter at www.LewRockwell.com. Paul's latest post was dated December 28, 2011 (last week).

For more from Lew Rockwell about his work with Ron Paul, Rockwell's split with the Koch brothers and their libertarian financing, and his view of Martin Luther King, Jr., read his interview at at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It is an interesting window into the internal struggles of the libertarian world.

Another regular contributor to LewRockwell.com is Gary North, one of the most prolific of Christian Reconstructionist writers,  son-in-law of Rousas Rushdoony, and adjunct faculty at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Gary North also worked for Ron Paul during his first term in Congress.  Gary North's latest contribution is listed in the archive as "Ron Paul is our Moses" and was posted on December 31, 2011.

North was the topic of a New York Times article in April, 2011, titled Christian Economics' Meets the Antiunion Movement.

"According to Reconstructionism, a Christian theocracy under Old Testament law is the best form of government, and a radically libertarian one. Biblical law, they believe, presupposes total government decentralization, with the family and church providing order.

...Mr. North, who is Mr. Rushdoony's son-in-law but was not on speaking terms with him from 1981 until Mr. Rushdoony's death, focuses on how that biblical libertarianism applies to economics. He concluded that the Bible forbids any welfare programs, is opposed to all inflation, and requires a gold-coin standard for money."

When Rushdoony died in 2001, Gary North wrote the following in his post at LewRockwell.com,

Rushdoony's writings are the source of many of the core ideas of the New Christian Right, a voting bloc whose unforeseen arrival in American politics in 1980 caught the media by surprise. This bloc voted overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan. Two weeks after Reagan was inaugurated, Newsweek (Feb. 2, 1981) accurately but very briefly identified Rushdoony's Chalcedon Foundation as the think tank of the Religious Right. But the mainstream media did not take the hint. They never did figure out where these ideas were coming from. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were on television, and the media's intellectuals, such as they are, believe that television is the source of world transformation. Rushdoony in 1981 was almost unknown outside of the leadership of New Right/New Christian Right circles. So he remained at his death.

Rushdoony's ideology was boosted by support of wealthy sponsors including Howard Ahmanson, who served on the board of Rushdoony's Chalcedon Foundation, and by politicians including Howard Phillips, the founder of the Cons