Harper's Watch!!! September, 2005
The fabled Harper's Watch!!! returns with another edition. Harper's tries something totally novel and takes on the subject of American religion as it relates to politics. As usual its own assumptions get in the way of saying anything with substance.
After recounting how woefully ignorant American Christians are:
Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.-Bill McKibben
Harper's posits that there is a "paradox" in American Christianity- that at once we are the most professedly Christian nation on earth but we act like it the least. What is the evidence marshalled for such a broad claim?
In 2004, as a share of our economy, we ranked second to last, after Italy, among developed countries in government foreign aid. Per capita we each provide fifteen cents a day in official development assistance to poor countries.
Let us get this straight. Harpers first interest isn't whether Christians actually giver their money voluntarily to the poor but whether, to use Marxist phraseology, they countenance the state engaging in compulsory "surplus" income extraction and re-distribution on a global scale. I can imagine Our Lord now, saying to his disciples "Go into the world, and tax the rich at a high rate of their income so that ye may employ a person to be charitable for you, in the name of the state."
In all fairness Mr. McKibbon goes on to note:
And it’s not because we were giving to private charities for relief work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It’s also not because Americans were too busy taking care of their own; nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty (compared with, say, 8 percent in Sweden). In fact, by pretty much any measure of caring for the least among us you want to propose—childhood nutrition, infant mortality, access to preschool—we come in nearly last among the rich nations, and often by a wide margin.
The import is explained
The point is not just that (as everyone already knows) the American nation trails badly in all these categories; it’s that the overwhelmingly Christian American nation trails badly in all these categories, categories to which Jesus paid particular attention.
Now, let us put aside the fact that this is a very shallow and facile analysis that ignores political tradition and the incredibly "individualist" political culture of the United States. Let us also put aside the fact that as McKibbon notes: "Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that 'God helps those who help themselves.'” which should be enough to put a serious dent in the claim that America is in any sense traditionally "Christian" in its convictions.
Let me put the question out there. Why do modern liberals believe that the measure of a nation's charity is how many people they threaten to punish if they don't cough it up to the charity bureaucracy? Why do modern liberals trust the words of Jesus (much as they fail to understand them) recorded in the Scriptures yet ignore let us say, the words of St. Paul -also deemed canonical by the same Bishops who deemed the Gospel of Luke canonical? Do you get the feeling Bill McKibbon is the type who would take a bowl of soup to his sick neighbor? Or is he the type who contents himself with the conviction that were he in charge of things he would tax "the rich" like crazy and hire someone to make soup? Why don't liberals take the mote out of their own eye before they assess the taxes on mine?
I'm just putting it out there. Today's "Conservatives" as broadly defined are probably as modern, and anti-Christian in their politics as lefties.
For another view of what Christianity says about morality in regards to economics and "aid" try this.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Harper's Watch!!!
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4 Comments
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Source: The Christian ParadoxThree quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbo -
Related: CATHOLIC MORALITYThis is a familiar argument. Rich nations, we have been told ever since the Communist Manifesto, have a positive obligation to share their wealth with poor nations. When this question comes up, as it did in my web column where I commented on the Prophet Bono’s revelation, the response—from atheists, Protestants, and Catholics breaks down into the familiar categories of so-called conservative and so-called liberal. One side argues supports a global obligation to help the world’s poor through an o
Reader Comments (4)
Not only Christ's central message, but likewise the incarnation. As St. Athansius writes in On the Incarnation : "He surrendered his body to death in place of all, and offered it to the Father. This he did out of sheer love for us."
What is most lacking is charity, of which "being nice to people" is an example of. The world scorns "being nice", just as the world scorns gentleness. Being nice to people is a virtue well worth cultivating, just as gentleness is.
When I behold the gentle kindness of my little ones, I am always amazed. They are such beautiful little flowers in Christ's garden. They are wonderful examples of "being nice". As opposed to the world which is most childish in its hardened scornful selfishness.
You think that's putting it well? Really? One ingorant Ann Coulter quote outweighs how many gospel passages?