In a recent article in Christianity Today, Philip Yancey writes of an insightful interaction that also has application to libertarians:
Several years ago, a Muslim man said to me, "I have read the entire Qur'an and can find no guidance in it on how Muslims should live as a minority in a society. I have read the entire New Testament and can find no guidance in it on how Christians should live as a majority." He put his finger on a central difference between the two faiths. Muslim societies tend to unify religion, culture, law, and politics. Whereas U.S. courts debate the legality of nonsectarian prayers at football games and public monuments to the Ten Commandments, in the Middle East even the airlines broadcast the call to prayer five times a day. And in countries with a variety of religions, like Nigeria, as the Muslim population increases, they seek to impose the religious Shari'ah law on all citizens.
The Muslim was wrong, of course. The New Testament does teach christians how to live as a majority, although it is implied and not specifically defined. Christians are to live as a majority in exactly the same way that they are to live as a minority: resolving life's daily issues through love and not initiating force; living in accordance with God's will (not "What Would Jesus Do?" but rather, "What Did Jesus Say?"), and insofar as it is within our means, at peace with others. This is indeed foreign to Islam, so he is not to be condemned for his misunderstanding.
Indeed, the New Testament, in its guidance for resolving disputes and providing discipline, can be applied to the daily lives of christians whether in a majority or a minority in society. These principles would apply across the board.
In the same way, those who believe in libertarian ideas and work to convince people and to establish a society based on liberty, predicated on the idea that it is wrong (sinful) to initiate force or the threat of force.
But BECAUSE neither being converted to the church nor becoming a libertarian is done through any use of force, it is highly unlikely that a majority of ANY society will ever be a christian or a libertarian, at least not a christian as defined by the New Testament, and not according to some tradition which has corrupted the religion; and not a statist minarchist libertarian-lite sort of political philosophy.
