The Difference Between Conservative and Libertarian

I saw an article recently that intrigued me. It was titled, “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage.” It was written by Theodore Olsen, and he was making a case that his support for gay marriage was consistent with his conservatism, despite the fact that many conservatives oppose gay marriage. The main gist of Olsen’s argument was that legalizing gay marriage is consistent with such principles of liberty and freedom. If the constitution guarantees people the right to right to live their lives as they see fit, should sexual preference be one of those protected rights?

First, the idea that there can be such a thing as gay marriage is absurd. The definition of marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Explicitly in the definition of marriage is the necessity of the two parties being opposite genders. So legalizing gay marriages would not simply be a matter of having the state recognize gay marriages, it would necessitate a redefinition of the word marriage. And changing the definition of marriage is a graver error than one might think (more on that later).

But enough about how advocates of gay marriage are unknowingly advocates of breaking down the meaning of words. The thing that struck me most about the article was what the title said: “The CONSRVATIVE Case for Gay Marriage.” The article did not define what conservative is, but it was apparent from what the article said that conservative means something like, “freedom to do and live as you want.” I would suggest that this is a deeper error than misunderstanding the definition of marriage.

Having “freedom to do and live as you want” is not conservative, it is libertarian. Libertarians have the idea that people should be free to do whatever they want as long as they do not infringe on other people’s ability to do whatever they want. A friend of mine described libertarianism this way, “Your freedom extends to the tip of my nose.” I like to think of libertarianism as controlled anarchy. But that is not what conservatism is. A very good explanation of conservatism is given in Mark Levine’s book, Liberty and Tyranny. On page 27 of Liberty and Tyranny, Levine says, “It is Natural Law, divined by God and discovered by reason, that prescribes the inalienability of the most fundamental and eternal human rights—rights that are not conferred on man by man and, therefore, cannot legitimately be denied to man by man.” The point I want to make here is that conservatism acknowledges the existence of God and that man’s liberty is given to him by God. Other prominent conservative pundits, such as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, also acknowledge the existence of God and derive their understanding of morality and freedom from their belief in God. This stands in direct opposition to libertarianism, for to the libertarian, man ultimately determines what liberty is. Notice, MAN can do whatever HE wants as long as it does not interfere with another MAN’s ability to do as HE wants. The limits of liberty are defined entirely in terms of man. The conservative, on the other hand, will acknowledge restrictions on their liberty based on the knowledge that man was created by God. So the conservative would say, gay marriage can not be legal because, traditionally, marriage has always been between a man and a woman. Why is tradition important? Because, ultimately, that tradition of marriage came from God. God created Adam and Eve to be the first couple, and all their descendants (or, simply, all people) are also to be joined together as man and wife in a marriage. This is why it is a grave error to change the definition of marriage as a union between a man and woman to something else. The word marriage is not a word created by man for the purpose of man: it is a word that describes an institution created by God.

I believe that this article is not simply reflective of thinking in the gay marriage debate. It seems to me that there is a widespread confusion of the terms “conservative” and “libertarian.” Some people treat them as being related, or treat libertarianism as a type of conservatism. While it is true that there is some overlap in the thinking of libertarians and conservatives, particularly in economic matters, both ideas have different core values which should not be confused.