Why is liberty important enough to move for?

When Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was (Matthew 22), he gave a two part answer.  The second part was, to "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt 22:39 NIV).  Romans 13:10 (NIV) says "Love does no harm to its neighbor."  It's not always easy to figure out how to love your neighbor, but I believe initiating force against your neighbor to accomplish your goals is harmful to your neighbor and, ultimately, yourself.  Voting for or otherwise supporting representatives who, in our name, do that very thing is just as bad as doing it ourselves.  The importance of violating the second greatest Christian commandment can not be understated.

Having said that, most people are 'called' to do the best they can to live within the system they live in, even if the system itself is unloving to people around them.  A few are called to find a better way to do things and work to make those systematic improvements happen.  Government protected slavery was ended in that fashion, though there is no explicit prohibition of it in the Bible.  Government protected racism was largely ended in that fashion.  I hope that forcefully collected taxation, government imposed regulation, and other forms of government aggression will be ended by a few people committed to making the system itself better.  I hope to be one of those people who works to change the system for the better.

What have your personal experiences with the project been?

Like anything, there have been good moments and not so good moments.  In all, though, the people involved with the project seem more geared towards actually working to make life better for everyone, as opposed to just sitting around and arguing about it.  Though I don't expect perfection, I do expect a good effort and so far I've seen plenty of that.

What relationship is there, if any, between the Free State Project and a Christian world view?

The Free State Project is not a Christian project per se.  However, it was founded by a Christian, and there are several Christians in current leadership positions.  A libertarian society, which is what the Free State Project seeks to accomplish, is very compatible with a Christian world view.  It does bear pointing out that certain things promoted by many libertarians (and even the Libertarian Party) are contrary to a Christian world view (for example an inconsistent view towards the protection of human life).  However, I believe my view to be consistent, libertarian, and Christian.  The result of the success of the Free State Project would be a libertarian state, which should be very compatible with Christianity. 

What if the project fails?

The project has already succeeded in a very important role: designating New Hampshire as the Free State.  Also, many people have already moved to New Hampshire (we were not even in the first 50).  As dozens and hundreds more move, the project will be considered more and more of a success. 

However, there is concern on the part of some that we will never reach 20,000, or, if we do, a substantial number of those will not move.  While these concerns are valid, I believe the best approach is to do the very best we can at recruiting people to participate and encouraging participants to actually move. 

If, after the project succeeds, and many libertarians move to New Hampshire and work as hard as we can to promote liberty, we still cannot achieve our goals, we'll have to evaluate what to do next.  I suspect if that happens there really will be no hope in the foreseeable future for liberty in the United States.  I do not know what we will do in that case, but I trust God to take care of that, no matter what.

What are you going to do when you get there?

One of my personal goals is promoting the liberty message to the Christian community.  I also hope to be active in increasing educational freedom.  I have not decided yet if I will run for office or do other types of political and non-political activities to help achieve our goals.

What's your opinion on... (various issues)?

• Life:  I try to hold as consistent of a view as possible in favor of protecting life.  There can be no liberty without life.  Protecting life begins with ending government initiated killing and government protected killing.  I am opposed to all forms of war which are not in the explicit defense of life.  As a matter of American policy, I am opposed to government funded and operated wars that are not in defense of America.  I favor allowing individual Americans or groups of Americans to participate in defensive, life saving wars even when they do not directly involve America.  I oppose the death penalty for both principled and practical reasons (they frequently execute the wrong person).  I believe human life begins at conception and oppose legal killing of humans simply because they still live on the inside.  I oppose killing of born people for reasons other than self defense (i.e. I'm opposed to traditional murder, etc.). 
  

• Liberty:  I believe each person should have as much freedom as feasible to make their own decisions with respect to their time, talent, and treasure.  I am opposed to the initiation of force against people on the part of individuals and groups of individuals, whether they be disorganized criminals, organized criminals, corporations, or government.  I believe voluntary participation is healthy and agreements should be upheld (I'm in favor of legal enforcement of voluntarily agreed to contracts).  I am opposed to forcefully collected taxes, forceful restrictions of the possession or use of items which do not inherently reduce the liberty of other people (i.e. drugs, weapons, literature, art, contraband, etc.).  I am in favor of peaceful, voluntary solutions to social problems like poverty, health care, education, and so on.
  

• Property:  I believe legitimately owned property is an extension of the owner.  I believe in personal property rights (stuff), real property rights (land / buildings), and some intellectual property rights (ideas which can be patented or copyrighted).  I also believe in some types of property rights which are less commonly found in America today, like rights to movable resources, space not traditionally associated with land, and other transmission rights (like noise, radio, light, and so on).  I believe private ownership of property rights should be maximized and government ownership and regulation of property rights should be minimized. 
  

• The legitimate purpose(s) of government:  I believe government's legitimate purpose is to protect the rights listed above.  I believe government can and should enforce the protection of life, the protection of individual liberty, and the protection of property.  I do not believe government should be doing many of the things it does today.  I don't believe government should spend tax dollars on transfer-payment programs like government schools, government health care, government food and housing, government subsidies (farm, business, etc.), and foreign aid.  I don't believe government should regulate behavior that is not aggressive (i.e. doesn't initiate force or fraud), like the FDA, USDA, FAA, TSA, DEA, etc.  I believe if government sticks to its legitimate purposes, forceful tax collection could be completely ended and the beneficial functions of social programs (transfer payments, etc.) and regulatory programs (the alphabet soup agencies) could be handled entirely in the private sector with voluntary funding and participation.