Contrary to Gillespie’s endless denunciations of politicians being religious in public, it is a fact that Christian-based morality and limited government are like love and marriage.

 
The reasoning is quite simple: the more we as a nation turn to God and prayer as our answers, the less we turn to government.

It has always been the churches that provided social services to those in need. The never-ending rise of the welfare state is setting out to undermine that premise, and libertarians like Gillespie and his fellow travelers at Reason, better grasp that.

They can join the Left in kicking around Governor Jindal for publicly expressing his faith, but they fail to see the disconnect between public virtue expressed through Christianity, and the limited government they champion.

Another way to check on the accuracy of John Adams’ quote?

Remember all the libertarian denunciations of then-Senator Jim DeMint in 2010 when he said, “You can’t be a fiscal conservative and not be a social conservative.”

Every libertarian of note, including Gillespie, as a response pulled their dress over the head and foamed at the mouth in outrage.

But, John Hawkins of Right Wing News, decided to investigate the seriousness of DeMint’s assertion by comparing voting records of U.S. Senators from the previous year. (see the totality of Hawkins’ conclusions here)

The takeaway from Hawkins’ research:

The average Family Research Council score of people who scored a perfect 100 on the Club for Growth scorecard? 94.5. The average Club for Growth score of the people who scored a perfect 100 on the Family Research Council scorecard? 93.5.

The data shows that at least in the Senate, where you have a paper trail and a voting record, there is no such thing as a fiscal conservative who was not also a social conservative and vice versa.

But the stats also undermine Gillespie’s claim that calling for the nation to turn back to God is evidence of creeping statism, or shows a lack of true dedication to limited government.

On the contrary, it demonstrates a dedication to the cause of liberty that is unmatched.

Gillespie admits as much that at the top of his article:

“Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) has proven to be one of the most effective and incorruptible legislators that the Bayou State has had.”

Sorry, libertarians, but you can’t force people to divorce their religious faith from public policy, no matter how cool you think it is.

Of course Gillespie also throws in a few other straw men to burn in his flaming wreck such as:

That’s not to mistake the current world for a shining city on a hill, but we’re certainly not a 21st-century Sodom. Unless you simply cannot countenance the political equality of gays and lesbians.

Gillespie routinely labels opponents of a government-mandated same sex marriage as homophobes. The fact that he cheers at courts overturning this institution of marriage solely on the feelings of people who never respected the institution to begin with, but nevertheless feel inclined to change it to suit their personal whims, makes me wonder if he’s not the closet statist.