9\/21\/2010 – Fr. Patrick Reardon –
\n Our country appears to be, at this moment, on the verge of a very big political upheaval. One has the sense of hearing a distant trumpet. We will know more, surely, after the fall elections.<\/p>\n
Even now, nonetheless, one would be deaf not to detect a growing dissatisfaction\u2014louder each day\u2014with the \u201cprogressive movement\u201d that controls much of our culture, including education, social services, entertainment, politics, publishing, and religion. Especially controversial is the nation\u2019s recent reorganization of health care, widely regarded as a significant step in the direction of socialism. <\/p>\n
To be sure, a favorable disposition toward socialism is hardly new in this country. Even without a clear political expression of it, an underlying sympathy for social equality has always been\u2014as John Stuart Mill remarked in 1869\u2014\u201ca probable result of democratic feeling, combined with the notion that the public has the right to a veto on the manner in which individuals spend their incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admitting that reports of this tendency in America were \u201cdoubtless much exaggerated,\u201d Mill feared, nonetheless, that a further \u201cdiffusion of Socialist opinion\u201d would, in due course, weaken America\u2019s commitment to personal liberty and individual achievement.<\/p>\n
Well, maybe, but perhaps not. At the very moment Mill expressed his apprehension on the subject, America\u2019s \u201cdemocratic feeling\u201d was in the process of ratifying the Constitution\u2019s Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited the denial or abridgment of suffrage \u201con account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sympathies & Wisdom<\/strong> For example\u2014and salva reverentia<\/em> to some of our hierarchical leaders\u2014it is not obvious that the gospel injunction to visit the sick will necessarily compel Christians to feel enthusiasm for the nation\u2019s new health care policies. Economic and political wisdom\u2014and not simply proof texts\u2014are needed to discern how best to care for the sick, to meet the needs of the unemployed, to safeguard the economy, to regulate immigration, to protect and educate children, and so on.<\/p>\n We should not expect all Christians to agree among themselves on the specifics of such matters. For this reason, itemized Christian solutions to complex social problems are preferably advanced with modesty and circumspection.<\/p>\n There are exceptions to this preference, nonetheless: Neither modesty nor circumspection is appropriate when a controversy involves the structure of Creation (such as the definition of marriage) or actions intrinsically sinful (such as the murder of the innocent). Cases like these call for bold address in clear prophetic tones.<\/p>\n Although the gospel does not always yield specific answers to individual social and political questions, we entertain the hope that its influence will widen the sympathies and make wise the souls of those who live by it. This hope, too, is modest. It is not a utopian dream but the reasonable expectation of gaining\u2014by God\u2019s grace\u2014a somewhat better world.<\/p>\n We also believe that enhanced liberty will be the mark of such a world. With Lord Acton we are persuaded \u201cthat the action of Christ who is risen on mankind whom he redeemed fails not, but increases, that the wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but the improvement of the world, and that achieved liberty is the one ethical result that rests on the converging and combined conditions of advancing civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n HT: Touchstone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 9\/21\/2010 – Fr. Patrick Reardon – Our country appears to be, at this moment, on the verge of a very big political upheaval. One has the sense of hearing a distant trumpet. We will know more, surely, after the fall elections. Even now, nonetheless, one would be deaf not to detect a growing dissatisfaction\u2014louder each … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68,37,5,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-culture-war","category-orthodox-christianity","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMeanwhile, today, debate continues about America\u2019s social and political future. Even as we hope Christians are active in this discussion\u2014bringing to it the truth and charity of the faith once delivered to the saints\u2014we are not so deluded as to imagine that the light of the gospel will invariably yield clear, immediate, specific, and compelling answers to every social, economic, and political question America currently faces.<\/p>\n