Posted on 11/10/2009 11:55:00 AM PST by B-Chan
The passage of sweeping national health care legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives has set the stage for the greatest intrusion of the State into the everyday lives of the American people in the nation's history. Across the Web, the groans and cries of the free-marketers, capitalists, and libertarians have begun to echo in response. Surprisingly, many of these voices condemn the Catholic Church for its "socialist" commitment to feeding the poor, caring for the sick, and doing the other things Jesus Christ commanded of us. "Without the support of you bleeding-heart Catholics," the refrain goes, "this socialist nightmare could never have passed."
An element of truth exists behind this complaint. A pious Catholic's heart does bleed for the sick, the aged, the destitute, the lame, and the suffering; in this, it mimics the Sacred Heart of our Lord Himself, who gave all He had, including His life, for the sake of the suffering.
But is the Catholic Church "socialist"? Impossible. Socialism is a materialist doctrine with a dialectical and teleological basis that is utterly incompatible with the word and example or our Lord. As such, it has been repudiated specifically in the teaching of the Church, most notably in the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) of Pope Leo XIII, which states
the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal. The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property.1But if the Church is not socialist, neither is it capitalist. Capitalism, like socialism, is both philosophically materialist and ethically libertarian -- and libertarian thought (which is just Liberal thought with a different name) is completely in opposition to the teaching of Jesus Christ. Our Lord is not a free marketer, a capitalist, an entrepreneur, or a salesman. As the ultimate altruist and counter-example of rational sef-interest, He stands at the opposite end of the ideological spectrum from Rand's Nietzschean superman John Galt. Jesus Christ is a King, not a CEO*, and He commands His servant Church to uphold the Natural Law, which proclaims that every human being is a Child of God -- and as such, is deserving of food, medical care, and the other basic hallmarks of human dignity.
The Church is called upon to provide these social services. The State has no just role in pubic life except to keep the peace, protect the borders, establish justice, and preserve the national patrimony. In a Christian social order, the State officially recognizes the Church's special role in the life of the nation, and protects and support the Church in its provision of social services. This was the pattern of social organization throughout Christendom until the advent of the Lutheran heresy, which proclaimed the cult of individual Liberty and its separation of Church and State.
By destroying the proper relationship between Church and State, the "libertarian" movement invited the State to overstep its ordained bounds and intrude into areas of life within which it has no just business. In a post-Reformation representative republic such as our own, which pretends neutrality in matters of faith, the State cannot fulfill the role of Protector of the Church given to it by God; as a result, over time, popular demand forces the State to assume the provision of social services which in a Christian social order would be provided by the Church.
Human beings have the positive and Divine right to daily bread, health care, and other aspects of human dignity. In his Luciferian quest for individual Liberty, however, Western man has destroyed the Divinely-ordained social order under which the Church provided these goods. As a result, the heavy hand of the State will now intrude into every aspect of public life in its futile attempt to build a just society. Ironically, the worship of individual liberty instigated by the "reformers" of the Church and the secular counterparts of the "enlightenment" has destroyed the liberty under God that individuals once enjoyed as organic parts of the Catholic and medieval social order.
Nationalized health care is a fact. Soon, the power of life and death will rest entirely in the hands of the State. And as the smothering blanket of socialism settles slowly across our land, I invite libertarians to quit their whining. In their quest for freedom from the Church, they destroyed the institutions that kept the State in its proper place. Libertarians made this bed; we are now all going to be forced to sleep in it.
*That was L. Ron Hubbard's gig.
I do neither.
Then again, I’m not the one hearing things.
Did you change Uriel’s post or not?
Do they burn weed as incense in your Romanist Church that causes you to howl?
OK I resolve to make it none of my business.
I will state, however, that the original poster who proposed a Roman Catholic Theocratic government replete with the defense of the Inquisition -— and whose posts I passed around on certain Jewish webboard, probably stupidly -— successfully insured that large numbers of otherwise-converative Jewish people will never align themselves with the Republican party.
Pretty much confirmed the worst fears of what certain Christian groups are all about.
Of course not. Not even moderators can change posts.
Read "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber.
It will clarify a lot of your misconceptions.
I have no Romanist Church and I do not howl.
Seriously. Get help.
Is it the holy water? Do they taint the holy water? Is that the problem?
There is no problem (not on my end anyway).
When the Pilgrims first arrived they set up a communist system and they all nearly starved as a result. This is not opinion, this is historical fact.
I do not dispute that they later adopted a work ethic and prospered, but so did Catholic, Anglican and Quaker colonists.
How about the wafers? Have you checked them? Are they mixing anything in with the flour?
And maybe a drive-thru Starbucks.
The Pilgrims' "collectivism" was simply an expedient means of surviving in a hostile world when they had very few supplies.
Read Max Weber"s "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism."
It's obvious the Pilgrims knew more about capitalism than many Roman Catholics on this forum (and certainly on this monarchy-loving thread.)
Your anti-Catholic hatred is obviously driving you quite mad.
I would agree the church of Rome (the papacy, the Roman Catholic church, the Vatican) is the antithesis of individual liberty, freedom of conscience and initiative, capitalism and world peace.
Anyone who reads Ratzinger's "global authority" encyclical can recognize the fascist tyranny inherent in it.
What about the juice? Have they juiced the juice? Did you consider that?
And when that expedient means--their first impulse--failed fantastically, they were forced to consider capitalist methods.
Just like Lenin and the NEP.
You need help.
Do you actually think God appreciates that kind of falsehood and deceit?
We've heard certain RCs believe telling lies is permissible if those lies move the agenda along.
Apparently we're witnessing that maneuver firsthand.
As I said, if you keep doing this under-handed posting, be prepared to find yourself on the receiving end of it.
Absolutely false.
His post, #128, remains exactly as he posted it.
Another false statement by Dr. Eckleburg, as is per usual.
LOL
Dr. Eckleburg threatening to produce under-handed posts is like Ahmedinejad threatening to start hating Jews.
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