Corageous Christian Pacifist Lawrence M. Vance Endorses (almost) Chuck Baldwin

“The Lesser of Two Goods”

Author and writer on moral theology Lawrence Vance has penned an incisive analysis of presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin’s politics on the Lew Rockwell site:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance151.html

I would like to say that this is an endorsement by Vance of Baldwin, but for technical reasons only fully comprehensible to theologians in Pensacola FL, Vance eschews the formal term “endorsement.”

Let’s face it, for us ordinary sinners (libertarians and whatnot) Pensacola FL is a pretty scary place, stuck as it is out on the Gulf Coast between the hard place of military discipline and hard rock of its flourishing and fundamental churches. So Mr. (I think he is a lay-theologian not a Rev.) Vance has come to the aid of us backsliders and philistines, with the assurance that his fellow Pensacolan not only has no intentions of establishing the Kingdom of God by edict…but that his version of liberty under the constitution is actually more reasonable and practical than anything that the Libertarian Party has managed to come up with in recent history.

Let’s face it, a lot of hand holding and reassurance is in order. If you have ever been to Pensacola you’ll realize that it is nothing so much as a miniaturized and modernized version of ancient Constantinople. It was said that in Constantinople of the fifth century that if you went to a baker, in stead of the price of bread you would have to defend your understanding of the Trinity, if you went to a barber the small talk was all about the economy of the Incarnation, and if you had your shoes repaired you were liable to stumble on the cobbler’s opinion on valid apostolic succession. Likewise a rigorous Pensacola lay-theologian like Lawrence Vance does not allow loose language like “endorsement” to pass his lips, for it might put the rest of us under obligation to vote for Chuck Baldwin at penalty of near-mortal sin.

Endorsement or none, one gets a very edifying view of Baldwin from Vance’s article. Interestingly enough the two Pensacolans are not close friends, which eliminates the “favor” factor. And Vance being Vance: he rails against military service in wartime as intrinsically evil and sinful…that in a town crawling with naval service men, we can eliminate the “fear” factor as well! So Vance’s quasi-endorsement (remember the Ron Paul’s was really only “qausi” as well) is not only made without fear or favor…but is an attempt to overcome fear itself. The fear, by libertarians, of Pensacola Baptists.

Given that our choice in the major parties is between a stealth Socialist and an aging bipolar militarist, it is time to confront our fears. So listen all you lifestyle libertarians out there, take a swig of Jack Daniels or a puff of marijuana, screw up your courage and vote for the preacher man!

The republic you save may be your own.

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Posted in constitutionalism, Uncategorized, US Election 2008
Tags: Chuck Baldwin, conservatives, Lawrence Vance, libertarians, US Election 2008