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Norman Horn: Christians for Liberty
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Jun 5, 2025
Talk to the 7/28/14 meeting of Texans for Accountable Government at Sherlock's in Austin, Texas.
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blog all the time and the beautiful
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thing is is that his organization he's
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the founder and editor of an
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organization called libertarian
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Christians and um what I think is great
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is that I'm actually not Christian I'm
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not religious at all I have my own
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spirituality but I
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like but what I think is so beautiful
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about libertarian uh Christianity or
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just the libertarian Christians it's not
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actually a brand of Christianity it's
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just it it shows that uh libertarianism
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just defined as a found a found
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foundational uh a foundational
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philosophy that we learn in the
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schoolyard we learn as children that
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just means that we shouldn't hurt people
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we shouldn't commit violence against
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people that are just living peacefully
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even if we don't agree with how they're
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living as long as there's no victim at
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the end of their actions they should be
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able to do whatever they do and and and
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pursue their own Bliss pursue their own
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happiness that's that's all
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libertarianism is it's just nonviolence
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it's the philosophy of nonviolence so
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when you mix that with Christian
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Christianity you see how beautiful that
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like a positive moral uh
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philosophy even if they uh Christians
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sees that somebody may be living in a in
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a some in a in a way that's out of
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alignment with their beliefs they still
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don't use the state and they don't use
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violence to obstruct that they don't
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they don't try to be coercive they
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realize that morality exists only when
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there's volitional action right so you
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can only be a moral animal or a moral
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creature
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if you have a choice to do wrong and
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you've chosen the right you've chosen uh
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you've chosen to live peacefully you
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you've accepted for instance for
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Christians you've accepted Jesus as your
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savior voluntarily right so they're not
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going to use the state to try to
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prohibit immoral action because how
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moral can you be if the only reason
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you're not harming your neighbor is
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because you're scared uh of of or the
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only reason you're not harming your
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neighbor or the only reason you're not
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smoking marijuana is because it's
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illegal there's a lot there's a lot more
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to living in alignment with morality and
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human choices there and the libertarian
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Christian mindset is that that as long
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as there's choice you can be moral and
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you're truly Christian because you've
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actually chosen it not because of the
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negative consequences because it's
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really a part of your heart so without
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further Ado I'll bring up Norman horn a
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Dr Norman horn that is representing
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libertarian Christians and the invent
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Christians for Liberty thank you very
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much wow I had a grand introduction that
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I was going to begin talking about these
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very things except now I've now I don't
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know where I am anymore so I guess I I
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should begin with a well I I've done a
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lot of goofy things over the years in
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the pursuit of Liberty uh I've asked
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some they usually begin with bizarre
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questions such as what if we started a
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student group that you know hosted Ron
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Paul on the main mall of UT what would
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that look like or what if we asked a
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representative if we could write a bill
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for him or something really bizarre like
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that but I want to tell you about really
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this this is the thing that I'm I feel
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like I'm most proud of with regards to
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um thinking and doing Liberty and that
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is uh in 2008 I started a little website
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uh to little to no a claim at the time
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called libertarian christians.com and
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over the course of now five and a five
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and a half plus years almost six years
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now uh it was started in the wake of the
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in the wake of the 2008 presidential
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election so a thousand articles later
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and citations by everything from the
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Village Voice to giz moto to the
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Washington Times uh we're now to the
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point where we have thousands upon
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thousands of people coming to this
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website to learn about the convergence
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of Christian thought and libertarian
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political Theory and it's time now that
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we are uh we're going to expand this
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even more and I want to tell you about
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what we're doing and it's happening this
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weekend and so I want to invite all of
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you to come to the Christians for
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Liberty conference uh that we are
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hosting this Saturday is the main event
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it's at St Edwards University down south
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at roughly Congress in 290 just a little
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bit uh north of that uh it's most of the
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day uh we have a grand Stellar set of
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speakers coming uh from most of my
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authors from libertarian christians.com
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are going to be there uh representative
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David Simpson is going to be there the
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president of the independent Institute
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David thorough is going to be there uh
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Jason rink whom all of you know I'm sure
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is going to be there uh we have some
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people from The acon Institute The
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Institute for Faith working economics
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and I can't even remember them all
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because it's gotten so out of out of
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control uh how many people we got we
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have coming um so what I'm am
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encouraging you to do right now is think
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about whether you're the right person to
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come to this or if you can invite
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somebody who you know who's a Christian
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or a Libertarian or both and who wants
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to learn Le a little more uh this is
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going to be the start of something
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really big uh we are intending to really
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make this the the be the year one
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conference I I fully expect that we're
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going to do this again next year maybe
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it won't be in Austin so hey come now or
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or else it may be too late uh but I want
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you to think about who can you invite
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who can you bring along with you there's
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only a couple of days left to register
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at this point we got a plan for food and
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all this it's a complicated Endeavor if
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you've ever hosted a conference before
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don't it's really hard um but it's a
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it's something that if you if you want
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to come please let us know now I have a
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sign up board here I also have some
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flyers uh to where you can uh take these
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home with you and either give it to a
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friend or just remember uh or if you
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want to just remember libertarian
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christians.com go there and you can uh
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easily easily see how to sign up it is
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$30 for adults it is $15 for students uh
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if you have kids and you want to bring
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them do it it's going to be great um
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we're going to have again tons of time
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to uh to to learn about Liberty from a
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Christian point of view we're going to
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have time tons of time to fellowship
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with your fellow Christian Libertarians
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and there'll be also a few optional
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events that you can that you can hit up
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on the side uh the main event like I
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said is Saturday again it's at St
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Edwards University 9 9:00 a.m. and we
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also have some events going on on Friday
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and Sunday that are just optional we
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have a panel discussion which will
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include our very own Pat Dixon
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over but come anyway yeah I know and
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Jason rink and Lauren dowy who's our
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executive director for the libertarian
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party of Texas uh we'll have a panel
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discussion in ice cream social on Friday
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night uh we have also on Sunday a little
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devotional and open discussion session
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both of those events will be at the
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University Avenue Church of Christ um
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and you're welcome to come to those as
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well so again sign up either with me
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I'll I'll be around for the little
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breakout session please come and take a
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flyer sign sign up do what you can tell
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a friend uh I hope to see you there
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we've got about 100 people coming so far
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from literally around the country and so
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I hope to see you there too thank you I
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wanted to I wanted to stop you right
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here okay because I want you to take
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questions St because we can ask some
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amazing questions for you but I also be
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pre to preface this I want to let you
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all know that tag is actually an
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official sponsor of this event and uh
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the reason why we've chosen a sponsor it
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is because I feel like if we're going to
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create a a more free and prosperous
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Texas we need to to reach Liberty into
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Christianity I mean when Christians when
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Christians can see that Liberty works I
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I just think that it's going to
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accelerate the movement for all of us we
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would endorse and sponsor uh also uh
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Jews for liberty or Muslims for liberty
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or any kind of spirituality that wants
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to uh to to talk about why Liberty
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amplifies moral principles so uh I just
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want you to know we were going to be
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there and I would love for this body to
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join us uh at this event and let me
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follow on that with just one thing I I
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for me I'll tell you something when it
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comes to Liberty Christians really are
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easy
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targets
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okay the philosophy works it coincides
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with our theology it works both on a
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personal level and a spiritual level it
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is very easy to present this to
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Christians and to get them to buy into
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it I cannot tell you how many times I
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get emails I get hate mail too by the
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way but I can't tell you how many emails
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I get from people who said you know I
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never knew how easy this would be to to
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change my philosophy uh it starts just
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by asking the question you know put on
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your Morpheus classes and say what if I
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told you a Christian didn't need to be a
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fascist something like that seriously it
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is that easy at times and I I kid you
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not this is this is this this is the
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beginning so thank you very much so let
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me ask you uh a two-part question one
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what is the libertarian Christian answer
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to
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what what about gay marriage and what
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about marijuana because it seems like
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Christians align with the right a lot
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and they want to use the state to
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prevent those things so what is the
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libertarian Christian answer or just the
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authentic Christian answer I think well
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first of all the I think the authentic
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Christian answer to any type of drug
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related question is that the state
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should not be involved uh drugs are a
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health issue not a legal issue um that
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seems to be very clear God created the
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the this world to be good it seems
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really unlikely that some of these
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substances should be just considered
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automatically bad um so that's that's a
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very easy one for us although I admit
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it's it's sometimes is a hard sell for
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them but it takes it sometimes it takes
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time um with regards to marriage uh we
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do believe that marriage is a Christian
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institution uh it is also a social
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institution however and people should be
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free to interact and that in the way
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they see fit uh we have we believe in
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free association and if you believe in
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free association then it should be no
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problem to have uh to to uh to set up
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those associations and contracts the way
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that you see
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fit any questions please I just wanted
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to add that on that the uh State should
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not be involved it's between you and
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your gu or your church yeah it should be
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implied in fact by by the statement that
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we are free to do these and set set up
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these contracts as we said fit that the
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state has no business being involved in
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in the regulation of those
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contracts and it's an all day conference
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are meals included yes did I not say
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that I'm sorry we're providing food and
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it's going to be great in fact you're
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getting way more than $30 worth let me
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tell
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you what's the topic of the panel on
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Friday night oh oh so the topic of the
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panel on Friday night is uh is really
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just sort of an I I came up with the
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goofy idea of let's call it a AAAA ask
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Austin activists anything
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so anyway so yeah it's sort of focused
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on activism um and and in particular how
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we as Christians can interact in our
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communities in our churches to be a
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positive force for
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liberty y um you were you had your hand
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up first sorry Dana I actually um I'm
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part of libertarian party and we're
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having actually hosted by Tim Martinez
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here we're floating the river on Sunday
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so I wanted to say after your devotional
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if you would like to invite people to
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come down to the canal River and Flo
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with us baptism aome
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we have a
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little
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sorry yeah um I think that you know
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recently we've seen so much infiltration
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of the state in churches nowadays and
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it's like it's like a phenomenal you
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just see like so much state is the
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answer and you know the state is
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becoming synonymous Christianity is
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there going to be talks kind of
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addressing that that real concern and
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the attention of this uh of this
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conference or will that be highlighted
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focus on at
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all in a variety of ways yes
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um the question had has a lot of levels
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yeah
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sorry it's unfortunate the way that that
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uh that the state has shall we say
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infiltrated various elements of the
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churches whether that is through
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faith-based programs or through military
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recruitment or through variety of
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different things even even to you know
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flags being placed at the front of
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sanctuaries as if that were somehow part
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of our you know Liturgy of some kind um
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so that will be addressed in a variety
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of ways uh but our fundamental you'll
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see if you grab one of my business cards
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it'll say libertarian christians.com the
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state is not the kingdom of
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God and that has been the Mantra since
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the beginning because fundamentally what
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we believe is that the kingdom of God is
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Not not of this world and that it
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operates fundamentally differently than
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the kingdoms of this world and that
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whereas the kingdoms of Earth and the
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rulers want to Lord it over everybody
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and try and control that the Christian
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opportunity and our and our Mantra is
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not to be like that at all but to serve
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and that service takes on a lot of
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different forms it might take on the
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form of Charity it might take on the
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form of business it might take on the
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form of ministry but that's a
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fundamentally different set of
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operational principles than the way that
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the state operates and if you accept
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that premise then I think the the only
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logical conclusion then is that the most
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consistent expression of Christian
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political thought is
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libertarianism so last but not least
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libertarian christians.com go there you
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can sign up there come to me I can sign
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you up here
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and bring a friend this Saturday this
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Satur this Saturday this Saturday okay
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thank you Dr Norman show so now I'd like
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to bring up
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