Evangelicals and the State: a law professor makes a case for a libertarian Christianity.

• Author: Antle, W. James, III
• Position: The Choice Principle: The Biblical Case for Legal Toleration - Book review

The Choice Principle: The Biblical Case for Legal Toleration, by Andy G. Olree, New York: University Press of America, 274 pages, $37

BEFORE HIS FALL from grace, the cherubic Beltway operator Ralph Reed was one of the most influential evangelicals in American politics. So it was significant when Reed, a former executive director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, described the religious right as part of an antistatist "Leave Us Alone Coalition" alongside taxpayers, gun owners, and property rights activists. In his 1996 book Active Faith, Reed wrote that "most of the tension between moralists and libertarians was overstated" and agreed with then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey that social conservatives and free marketeers "are singing the same song" in "freedom's choir."

Well, it looks like the choir has broken up. At this point, one of the few things moralists and libertarians seem to agree about is that they don't like Ralph Reed, whose role in the Jack Abramoff scandal managed to offend both tribes. (When Abramoff's clients in the casino industry wanted to squash some potential competition, Reed helpfully launched an anti-gambling crusade and directed it at the appropriate target.) Armey has become a pungent critic of James Dobson and other "self-appointed Christian leaders" whom he views as "big government sympathizers who want to impose their version of 'righteousness' on others." The New York Sun's Ryan Sager published an entire book, The Elephant in the Room, about the conflict between evangelicals and libertarians, charging that the former are turning the Republican Party into a "God and government coalition." The maverick conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan is given to similar complaints about "big government Christianism."

God and Caesar do seem to have reconciled. Even prominent evangelical critics of the Christian right, such as Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, tend to be strong proponents of activist government: Instead of having the government police sexual behavior, they want the state to redistribute income and enact environmental regulations. Some religious conservatives, represented in the 2008 presidential field by Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee, combine both tendencies, touting big government in both bedroom and boardroom.

But it isn't that simple. Yes, Christian conservatives have launched many crusades to restrict or prohibit behaviors they consider immoral. But there is another side to evangelical activism: politics as a defensive maneuver. There are Christians who prefer homeschooling to abstinence-only sex education in public schools, who would...