Ep. 17: David VanDrunen’s View Of Civil Government, with Taylor Drummond

An interview with Pastor Taylor Drummond about his article “Fool’s Gold?: A libertarian analysis of VanDrunen’s account of state legitimacy,” which appreciatively, but critically, examines arguments in the book Politics After Christendom by Dr. David VanDrunen. Pastor Drummond introduces himself and recounts how he became a confessional, Calvinistic Baptist, and a libertarian-anarchist. He speaks about how VanDrunen’s biblical arguments for the legitimacy of the state fail his own standard for justifying the state. Drummond also explains how VanDrunen’s theoretical argument is at odds with his own view of law, justice, and rights, and is in tension with many of his economic and theological insights.

https://reformedlibertarians.com/017

Main Points Of Discussion

00:00 Introduction

00:32 Episode description

01:50 About Pastor Drummond

06:54 VanDrunen’s brief biblical arguments and Drummond’s response

17:22 Monopoly, Noahic covenant, and negative natural rights

24:26 VanDrunen’s view of customary legal order

27:50 Drummond’s response on law and rights

34:44 Need for clearly distinguishing just and unjust coercion

38:56 Protectionism, sin, politicization, and inefficiency

47:29 Concluding thoughts

Additional Resources

Article discussed: “Fool’s Gold?: A libertarian analysis of VanDrunen’s account of state legitimacy,” by Taylor Drummond: https://libertarianchristians.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CLR-5-Drummond.pdf

Politics After Christendom by David VanDrunen: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0310108845/

Taylor Drummond
  congregation: Grace Community Church, Allentown PA https://gracecommunityallentown.org/
  Politics substack: https://thearchy.substack.com/
  Theology site: https://servantofthesovereign.wordpress.com/

Other books mentioned:
  The Road To Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek: https://mises.org/library/book/road-serfdom
  The Law by Frederic Bastiat: https://mises.org/library/book/law
  Foundations of Economics: A Christian View by Shawn Ritenour: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1556357249/
  The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0895261715/
  For A New Liberty by Murray Rothbard: https://mises.org/library/book/new-liberty-libertarian-manifesto

Christian Libertarian Review call for papers 2024: https://libertarianchristians.com/2024/02/03/call-for-papers-2024-volume/

The Reformed Libertarians Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute: https://libertarianchristians.com and a member of the Christians for Liberty Network: https://christiansforliberty.net

Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com