Laissez-faire for Disciples

In economics, laissez-faire (English pronunciation: /ˌlɛseɪˈfɛər/  ( listen), French: [lɛsefɛʁ]  ( listen)) describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies.

The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means "let do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone".

Students gravitate to that phrase, like steel to a magnet, because it offers a magnificent vista of possibilities.  It's a grand concept, and a short trip to Wikipedia will reward you with lessons in French, in economics, in psychology, and lots of other things under that word.  A short trip in HISTORY, however, takes some of the shine off the silver that turns out to be pewter, after all. 

A well-respected elder relative who had taught constitutional history and law, and historical political science, gave a short course in constitutional freedoms:  "Your freedom to swing your fist ends at the tip of your neighbors nose.  I know 6,000 ways to say it, but that's what it is!"

Isn't it amazing how the words of Jesus to "love your neighbor" really trump sophisticated selfishness?   Laissez-faire, in the real world of lived-through business, often ends in monopoly that manages to "whack" everyone below "first place".   Just enough control to make the system work is a happy thing, and difficult to achieve.  It doesn't exist in a pure form anywhere in the world, but it remains as a shining ideal, just not the ONLY ideal.

As disciples, it is a joyous thing to know that you are a child of the King!  But it becomes very self-destructive if you begin to imagine that you are NOT one in a billion!  Loved, but not primary!

Love your neighbor.   Accept no freedom which is built on diminishing your neighbor.  "They will know we are Christians by our love..."