I don’t know if any other Christians read this site, but I found the drama compelling enough to share it on mine, with this preamble: “Christians ought to fully recognize the absurdity of their claims. We ought not to expect any understanding or concession from unbelievers. The claims of our creed are completely outside the experience of natural man. Christiandom we are not. The Kingdom of God we are. We ought not to place any expectations on the world except that they will laugh at us, scorn us, and persecute us, just as they did Christ. There’s nothing worse than a crybaby, whining, bratty Christian.”

Your point was spot-on. Those Christians who want special concessions from the state are as opposed to the claims of Christ as they are to liberty. John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Bonhoeffer, and the folks over at Jesus Manifesto recognize the distinction, and make it the cornerstone of their position. Christianity calls for the adoption of a peculiar ethic which mandates full and exclusive responsibility for caring for the least of these to be accepted by its followers. It fully renounces manipulation of the political mechanism, and requires sacrificial altruism towards all others. It claims this altruism is made possible through an alteration of human nature.

Atheist libertarians ought to welcome Christians as the solution for caring for the poor. Instead of “to heck with the poor,” they can now say, “well the Christians say they want to care for the poor, so let ‘em have ‘em.”