How did I become interested in politics?
I’ve always been interested in ideas, whether they be political, theological, or philosophical. During high school, I discovered a Christian apologist named Ravi Zacharias (someone who defends the Christian faith). Along with some encouragement from my mentor Monty, I started studying a lot of these subjects dealing with Christianity and how to give a reasonable defense of it.
But it wasn’t really until college that I developed a passion for politics. During my freshman year, my cousin sent me a link to this documentary called Money Masters, which gives a 3 1/2 hour history of central banking. To you, that might sound completely dull, but it was so interesting to me, I couldn’t stop and watched the entire thing in one sitting. It opened me up to a completely different world of subjects I had never heard anything about before. (In case you would want to watch a shorter more updated version of the same information, there is a 2 hour documentary called The Secret of Oz made by the same director.)
During the course of watching this video, I came across Ron Paul, whom I vaguely recalled had run for the Republican nomination (this was in the Fall of 2008 before the election). I started watching videos of some of his speeches. Similar to the documentary, Ron Paul discussed economics, foreign policy, monetary policy, personal liberty, civil rights, etc. in ways I had never heard before, and what he said by and large made sense to me. So, I began to study libertarianism and the Austrian school of economics. Pretty soon, I was knee-deep in political and economic philosophy. In 2011, I campaigned for Ron Paul in Nevada when he ran for the Republican nomination in the 2012 election cycle. In Spring 2012, I started a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter at the University of Utah just before I graduated.
Bringing Faith and Politics Together
After college, I started a journey of trying to reconcile my political beliefs with my theological beliefs. Certain aspects of libertarianism never really sat very well with me with what I knew about the Bible. In particular, libertarianism’s view of anthropology and philosophy of government didn’t seem to line up with passages like Romans 3:23, 5:12, or 13:1-7. I hold the Bible to be God’s Word and the premier authority on all subjects. Of course, it is not an exhaustive encyclopedia on politics by any stretch of the imagination, but it provides a basic framework for how to approach these issues.
Today, as I have studied these issues from a biblical perspective, I have become more of a conservative with some libertarian leanings, especially in economics.
My studies in religion and politics is also a reason why I have this blog. It allows me to explore political and theological issues and discuss how they intersect with one another. It also gives me an outlet to publish my findings so that others can benefit from it as well or offer helpful feedback.