If you doubt that libertarians inhabit an alternate moral universe from the one we Christians live in, check out this article by Steve Horwitz on how capitalism has "humanized" the family. His take on the pre-modern family, which indeed has basic, material needs it had to meet, is stunning. No sense that common work and effort brings human dignity.
At Millennial, an interview with Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng.
And at Crisis Magazine, Kishore Jayabalab on the "Economic Manicheanism at the Vatican." The entire piece is a bit ridiculous as Jayabalan, who heads the Acton Institute's Rome office, rants and rants because the pope does not share his devotion to Hayek and commitment to laissez-faire economics. But, read this graph which impunes the motivation of Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez and Archbishop Blase Cupich:
Allow me to attend to personal business first. The authors devote several pages of a chapter entitled “The Attacks against ‘the Marxist Pope’” to a monthly newsletter piece I wrote in October 2014. In “Economic Liberty’s Episcopal Discontents,” I asked why bishops such as the newly-nominated Archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich, and Cardinal Oscar Rodriquez Maradiaga have such a dim view of the market economy as evidenced by their public remarks at a conference on Catholicism and Libertarianism. I attributed Cupich’s nomination to what the press calls “the Francis effect,” i.e. favoring fights against poverty and human trafficking to those against abortion and homosexuality, and wondered if the cause of this effect wasn’t more secular progressive than orthodox Christian.
These are churchmen, who have given their lives to the service of God's people. They are not motivated by a "secular progressive" agenda. They are perfectly orthodox, as regards Christian faith. They are not orthodox libertarians. And we can all thank God - and Pope Francis - for that. Keep an eye on Jayabalan when the encyclical on the environment drops. I am predicting conniptions.
To one and all, a happy Feast of St. Dymphna.
