Dear Libertarian,
Results from our poll asking Libertarians to name their religion are in!
Below we compare the Libertarian responses to Americans overall.
| Religion | Libertarians | Americans* |
| Catholic | 10% | 25% |
| Baptist | 5% | 16% |
| Methodist | 3% | 5% |
| Lutheran | 3% | 4% |
| Mormon | 3% | 1% |
| Other Christian | 25% | 25% |
| Jewish | 2% | 1% |
| Eastern Religions | 2% | 1% |
| Muslim | 1% | 1% |
| Other Non-Christian Religion | 6% | 1% |
| None (including Agnostic and Atheist) | 39% | 15% |
| Don’t know/Decline to respond | 3% | 5% |
(*) Results from American Religious Identification Survey according to Wikipedia.
Obviously, this is not a scientific poll and we greatly simplified the categories so that we could compare them against another major poll. But the poll gave us some interesting insight into the membership of the Libertarian Party.
We’ve received over 15,000 responses so far! People asked to add Hindu, Unitarian, Episcopal, Druid, Pagan, and many more options to our poll. I hope to do another religion poll soon with dozens more choices.
I responded Baptist to our poll. Although I rarely discuss it publicly, I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church and consider myself to be Christian. Although I claim to be Christian, let me be clear that I’m a pretty poor example of a Christian in many ways.
Nevertheless, I’ve recently been added to the speaker line-up for the upcoming Christians for Liberty Conference which will be held in Austin, Texas, on August 7 and 8.
I have never been to a Christian Libertarian event before and I’m not an expert in this area. As one of the speakers, I won’t just be sharing my opinions; I’ll be asking lots of questions.
I’m particularly interested in discussing the following topics:
- Are all libertarian principles compatible with Christianity?
- Why do some Christians seem so eager to go to war? Can that be changed? What about “loving your enemy” or “turning the other cheek?” I’ve seen plenty of Christians praying for the safety of our troops. What about praying for the creative energy to figure out how to avoid a war, or to turn an enemy into a friend instead of antagonizing him?
- My understanding is that free markets have lifted more people out of poverty around the world than have government welfare and religious charities combined. Why isn’t the Pope promoting free markets, and how do we encourage him to do so?
- When is it okay to break laws that restrict liberty? History is full of examples of heroic people, especially religious leaders, refusing to obey their governments.
I’m looking forward to being part of this Christians For Liberty Conference. I invite you to attend as well. Click here to find out more and register.
Thanks again for your devotion to liberty, and stay tuned for the next poll.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
