And if the last two had agreed with the first, we would never have learned their names. So which one was right? That's why I don't want to get into dueling philosophers. And why quoting people's opinions isn't "evidence".
I disagree. I don't think it's possible to separate our duty toward God from our duty towards each other.
I said, "That relationship will be judged as genuine by how he treats his fellow man. According to God's plan as revealed to us by Christ and the scriptures."
The answer is in the statement.
I believe that a free-market economy is the most efficient form of economy, but efficency is not the sine qua non of a moral society; concern for human beings is. An economy that sacrifices the dignity of human beings ton the altar of Mammon may perhaps be economically free, but it cannot be Christian.
It is not only the most efficent, it is the most loving. "Love is the greatest of these".
A moral society is what we get when after the people do the right thing. A system that follows God's commandments is moral, capitalism is not moral or immoral. Only people can be moral or immoral. Not systems. People can embrace systems that violate rights and God's laws, that would make them immoral.
Capitalism is the system which allows the greatest opportunity to show care for your fellow man, the highest calling.
In the end, I do not wish to live in a free society; I wish to live in a Christian society. In that desire I differ from most of my fellow Americans, my fellow Freepers, and from you -- and that39;s okay by me.
I will fight to the death to keep you from changing this blessed country into a religious theocracy ruled by people who think they are the arbiter of God's will for the rest of us. History shows us what happens then, Taliban, Japanese theocracy in the thirties, etc. And I will do my part to see to it that this country embraces the values of Christian love as I understand them. But not at the point of a gun.
Don;t be silly. I have no power to change this country into anything -- nor would I do so if by some miracle I gained that power. I'm not a politician; I'm a comic book artist.
And I have never advocated "changing this blessed country into a religious theocracy". I am a monarchist, not a theocrat.
History shows us what happens then, Taliban, Japanese theocracy in the thirties, etc.
And history shows us what happens when a culture forgets or opposes God: eventually, revolution. The Irish Famine; the guillotine; regicide; cathedrals sacked by mobs chanting "Freedom!", overturning the altars of God and replacing them with idols of Reason deified; the Soviet dictatorship; Hitler's pagan blood-and-soil cult; the God-Is-Dead '60s; Roe v. Wade; millions of dead babies every year; lust, greed, vulgarity, and decadence everywhere one turns; those are the fruits of the separation of church and state. The theocracies of Cromwell and Khomeni were nightmarish, but their crimes pale in comparison with the horrors dealt out by the thoroughly secular governments of our modern "peoples' republics".
And I will do my part to see to it that this country embraces the values of Christian love as I understand them.
Ditto.
But not at the point of a gun.
You're fooling yourself. All political power is ultimately based upon force; all political systems (including our own) are established and maintained at the point of a gun. The only question, then, is what kind of men will be behind those guns? You prefer a society where power is held by those with a secular, mercantilist worldview; I do not. Either way, someone's values are going to be enforced at gunpoint - mine, yours, or somebody else's. My hope is that the traditional values of western Judeo-Christian civilization are the ones that eventally triumph.
But there is no perfect political system; like human beings, there are flaws intrinsic to every form of government devised by man. This is why Our Lord and His Apostles did not much concern themselves with government or politics; relative to the pefection of the Kingdom of God, which is not of this world, all forms of government are equally poor. As Christians, our duty is to fight the cultural war, not win the political struggle; to obey the law and respect the government of our homelands no matter how wicked those governments might be. As long as we take care to render unto Caesar only that which belongs to him -- our taxes, our obedience to his laws, and our loyalty -- we are doing our Christian civic duty. It is only when Caesar presumes to demand of us that which we rightly offer only to God -- our worship, our obedience to the natural law, and our love -- that we as Christians may rightly refuse to obey.