Some Christians are right-wing, others left-wing, and that will determine whether they choose to look to state-organised welfare or market-led individualism.
In American terms, I would say that the leadership of the CofE would be viewed as left-wing – Rowan Williams is left-wing in British terms, so that’s out-and-out-Communist as far as Americans are concerned…!
Actually, both individual efforts and communal efforts are needed. Only individuals really _care_, which is the part most often missing. And the Holy Tradition makes it abundantly clear that one’s extra coat and excess food by right belongs to the person who has none, and that if you offer your guest-room to the Lord, that the Lord will send the guests.
However, how can an individual, or even a little local parish, build water distribution systems, or sewer treatment facilities, or roadways, or industrial parks? How does an individual, or a parish, build masses of housing when the numbers of unhoused exceed the numbers of guest-rooms in the parish, especially when the parishioners are one or two paychecks from being unhoused themselves? As usual, things are not either/or, but both/and.
As for the secular politics of left and right, remember that Global South church leaders tend toward the left—commonly well to the left of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
This will pose an interesting challenge to those T19 commenters who regard the conventional left-right divisions of U.S. politics as lying on the fault line between good and evil. Their side is good; their opponents are evil. Their side is God’s side—as though God held the political philosophy of secular thinkers like Ayn Rand or Irving Kristol or sanctified the tactics of polemicists like Ann Coulter.
While this mindset persists, we may see some interesting encounters. I wonder whether such a commenter would look Archbishops Gomez and Orombi in the eye when she told them why laws against racial discrimination constitute an intolerable interference with property rights.
I wonder whether such a commenter would look Archbishops Gomez and Orombi in the eye when she told them why laws against racial discrimination constitute an intolerable interference with property rights.
Some Christians are right-wing, others left-wing, and that will determine whether they choose to look to state-organised welfare or market-led individualism.
In American terms, I would say that the leadership of the CofE would be viewed as left-wing – Rowan Williams is left-wing in British terms, so that’s out-and-out-Communist as far as Americans are concerned…!
Actually, both individual efforts and communal efforts are needed. Only individuals really _care_, which is the part most often missing. And the Holy Tradition makes it abundantly clear that one’s extra coat and excess food by right belongs to the person who has none, and that if you offer your guest-room to the Lord, that the Lord will send the guests.
However, how can an individual, or even a little local parish, build water distribution systems, or sewer treatment facilities, or roadways, or industrial parks? How does an individual, or a parish, build masses of housing when the numbers of unhoused exceed the numbers of guest-rooms in the parish, especially when the parishioners are one or two paychecks from being unhoused themselves? As usual, things are not either/or, but both/and.
Karen Marie [#2]: Agreed.
As for the secular politics of left and right, remember that Global South church leaders tend toward the left—commonly well to the left of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
This will pose an interesting challenge to those T19 commenters who regard the conventional left-right divisions of U.S. politics as lying on the fault line between good and evil. Their side is good; their opponents are evil. Their side is God’s side—as though God held the political philosophy of secular thinkers like Ayn Rand or Irving Kristol or sanctified the tactics of polemicists like Ann Coulter.
While this mindset persists, we may see some interesting encounters. I wonder whether such a commenter would look Archbishops Gomez and Orombi in the eye when she told them why laws against racial discrimination constitute an intolerable interference with property rights.
amen irenaeus:
I wonder whether such a commenter would look Archbishops Gomez and Orombi in the eye when she told them why laws against racial discrimination constitute an intolerable interference with property rights.