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.
So, do you want a theocracy?
Why are you posting Liberation Theology commie crap on FR?
Strange. They sure as hell respect Muslim and atheist values.
So it’s libertarians fault that the church couldn’t “protect” us from gvt?
LOL!
I guess the papacy should be supreme over the United States, then, replete with forced conversions for all Proddies and Jews. I mean, it worked so well for the Spanish Empire.
“I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.”
-— Ronald Reagan, Reason Magazine, July 1975
So God provides the funding for these goods? How does that work, exactly?
Ya need about... oh, maybe three more paragraphs of padding between these mutually exclusive statements. While that won't actually respect the reader's intelligence, it will at least provide a polite illusion of doing so.
“Moral: A secular state cannot be expected to respect Christian values.”
Moreover, a secular state cannot be expected to respect any value system not determined to benefit the state. That is precisely why our founding fathers but huge constitutional restrictions on the power of the government that was formed.
They did not limit religion, they limited government.
Socialism, not libratarianism, is the cause of our current malaise. It has nothing to do with care of the poor and the sick and everything to do with power and control.
You need to work on your premise as it is flawed.
The problem is liberals claiming to be libertarian, who are nothing more than pinko scum.
True Libertarians believe in freedom from government, freedom of religion and freedom to pursue your own happiness as long as it doesn’t intrude on other people’s lives.
The author is a mouth-breathing idiot. Libertarians had absolutely nothing to do with this bed. Try reading up on what Libertarians think about this monstrosity.
L
What you (seem to) be advocating would require a new Constitution.
While our fellow FReepers have (rightly) been chopping up what passes for the "logic" of this argument as if it were a sheep dumped into a pirhana tank, this sort of personal insult is rather uncalled for.
Huckabee is that you?
Libertarianism means individual freedom but the individual has total responsibility for his own acts and must be held accountable.
Liberalism means individual freedom, if approved by the govt, but the individual has absolutely no responsibility for his own acts and cannot be held accountable.
Only an utter idiot thinks both are the same.
I want a Catholic monarchy. One won’t appear as the result of positive action, however; the restored Christian society will arise organically after the fall of the current global social order.
Reading for comprehension is obviously not your strong suit.
No they don't, they believe in pot smoking, orgies with underage children, open borders, carrying assault rifles everywhere...
< /S >
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