Book Review: Papal Teaching on Private Property – 1891 to 1981
…more to come when I get a chance to think about them more fully. (Namely, Patriotism -and- Christian Unification)
but in the meantime, this struck me about my political philosophy whilst meandering around this morning on the interwebs:
- [This one’s gotta be quick, because I could write a book on the thesis.] Catholicism is being killed by left-thinking. A bold statement, I know, but it is true. Not merely in this country, but abroad as well. The recent example that I am referring to is a bill in the UK that may disallow the Church from having male-only priests. At home, the publicly-funded abortion debate follows the same path. The left has taken the First Amendment and construed it to divorce religion from politics under all circumstances (even deluding many constituents into believing the same [See Pelosi], while not acknowledging that belief/faith need not be God-centered to be religion [See environmentalism, statism, Keynesianism, atheism, sexual-ism, etc.]), while using political means to ensure the state forces religious people to do that which is against their belief system. Abortion is only the first of many issues that rings in this tone. Euthenasia, mandated charity, sex-education in schools, and so many other issues come to mind in just ten seconds that I spend thinking about it. In short, the mantra of the left has become: “who cares about what religion thinks? It should be compartmentalized to a very narrow place in your life, if you wish to have it at all.” …Though it may seem like a bold analysis to many, I don’t think this is an unfair assessment of the political climate of the left. Think about what undergirds the political philosophy – Equality. Unconstrained humanity (hilariously oxymoronic). Will-to-power philosophy… An ideology that promotes equality before freedom and the idea that human beings have the ability to solve every problem if they are smart, powerful, or elite enough inevitably will lead to disparaging Church teaching. The Church has always held free will (freedom) above any other value (even charity [love], hope, & faith). Why? Because it is essential to all of the others. The Church has always held that humans are constrained first and foremost by Original Sin, secondly by the fact that we are human and therefore not capable of the insights our God is. There is no perfection of humanity we can take part in during this life. This is no different for government systems and political figures. No one can remedy all of our problems by being powerful enough a government figure. It has been tried and miserably failed, time and time again. Our hope is in free will and freedom… This entire “Church-killing”-leftism phenomenon is quite sad, because Democracy used to be the place where all Catholics could find themselves. Now, the constant implicit anti-religious themes throughout the ranks are pushing the Church away from its followers… The institutional Church on earth may be marginalized by current and future legislative efforts, but included in that marginalization will be a majority of the orphanages, hospitals, educational institutions, private charities, homeless shelters, and many other benificial, nay necessary, arms of the Church in this country and all over the world. Since the people seeking to dismantle the Church’s influence in this country are surely utilitarian, why is it so difficult to see that the “evil” of having true believers in politics and the ballot box is far outweighed by the good the Church is doing here? Alright, I know it is a dense rant, but I have to study. I will clarify someday when I have the time, or when someone requests I do so…