....Since the inherent inequality of various individual economic zones endangers the free play of the market, attempts at restoring the balance have been made since the 1950s by means of development projects. It can no longer be overlooked that these attempts have failed and have even intensified the existing inequality. The result is that broad sectors of the Third World, which at first looked forward to development aid with great hopes, now identify the ground of their misery in the market economy, which they see as a system of exploitations, as institutionalised sin and injustice....
....This reminds one of Max Weber's thesis about the inner connection between capitalism and Calvinism , between the formation of the economic order and the determining religious idea. Marx's notion seems to be almost inverted: it is not the economy that produces religious notions, but the fundamental religious orientation that decides which economic system can develop. The notion that only Protestantism can bring forth a free economy whereas Catholicism includes no corresponding education to freedom and to the self-discipline necessary to it, favoring authoritarian systems instead is doubtless even today still very widespread, and much in recent history seems to speak for it....
.... this cannot proceed purely as a dialogue within the Church. It will be fruitful only if it is conducted with those Christians who manage the economy.
The notion that capitalism is somehow necessarily and inevitably a friend of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest American delusions of the past century. That doesn't make capitalism evil. It makes it a "philosophy according to human tradition" and no necessary part of the Faith.
-- Catholic apologist Mark Shea, in the thread Capitalism, Colossians and the Miller Brewing Company....Catholics, even devout Catholics, are not ideologically conservative, as currently defined. We dont view low taxes, less government regulation, more capitalism as obtaining to the level of the moral law.
-- Catholic FReeper sitetest, on the thread Puzzling Over Why Catholics Back DemocratsCapitalism has failed in less than 300 years. No surprise that a system of calvinistic puritan Freemasons would not be able to understand and maintain TRUE freedom.
-- Catholic FReeper stfassisi, on the thread Pope to issue encyclical on economicsShow me just one Catholic bishop who will speak up against coveting your neighbors goods. That is why Catholics ignored the Bishops on abortion. They know abortion is wrong but overlooked the Dems on that point because those same politicians pandered to their covetousness. Same for protestants and evangelical pastors, leaders and activists. American politics and government at all levels is driven by government-mediated coveting. Until the Church takes a stand against this we can expect to sink deeper and deeper into socialism and, oh yeah, abortion.
-- Catholic FReeper all the best, on the thread With the Help of Catholics Obamas Victory