First, I absolutely agree that a budget, be it a family's, a parish's, diocesan, state, or national or any other, is a moral document. There, however, ends my agreement with him.
Catholic social teaching offers us a beautiful and challenging understanding of what human dignity is, our call to always uphold it, and even some understanding of what is required to uphold it. What follows is my personal response to Jim Wallis' radio statement and blog, based on my understanding of Catholic social teaching.
From a moral perspective I utterly disagree with Jim Wallis' statement (and underlying assumptions) when he speaks about our nation's current budget: "[Obama's 2009 budget is] a budget aimed at redressing the imbalances." He goes on to say this is a very good thing: "The new budget proposed by the White House is a dramatic step in the direction of the common good, with strong support for the middle of America, real help for the poorest among us, and the proposition that the wealthiest pay their fare share."
Let's start with the underlying presumptions in his moral analysis. He presumes that inequality is a bad thing. Poverty (of any kind, defined as anything that prevents us from becoming who God created us to be), is a bad thing. Barriers which prevent people from having equal opportunity are a bad thing. But inequality in results is part of what motivates us to take ownership of who we are and what we do. Inequality in results is part of what compels us to co-create with God. Imposed equal results is not a moral principle that upholds human dignity. Imposition of equal results undermines natural law, demotivates people from responsibility, ownership, risk, and reward. It undermines human dignity and is sinful.
A second, and equally sinful presumption under Wallis' statement is that it is the right and proper role of government to address the issues that need addressing, particularly by taking from those who are successful and giving to those who aren't as successful. This inherently undermines subsidiarity, one of the three required pillars upholding human dignity. From a moral perspective we have to stop presuming government is required to address moral issues simply because we've ignorantly forgotten that we are supposed to do that ourselves.
The solutions Wallis advocates as "moral" are, in fact, immoral because they are highly socialist. They redistribute wealth and undermine the right of the people to freely enter into contracts, keep the fruit of their labor. Catholicism has long recognized the right to own property, and keep the fruit of one's labor is a fundamental individual, God-given right (going back to Aquinas and even earlier -- long before Socialism existed as we know it).
Socialist answers to the poverties of our world are wrong and immoral and deepen the poverty of the world. From a Catholic moral standpoint, Socialism and socialist answers (which this budget is) are irredeemable because they inherently undermine human dignity.
What of the free market? That can hardly be a moral system, Wallis and friends will claim. Ahhh, but they are wrong. Free will is just as immoral as the free market it. Put another way, both free will and the free market are neutral -- their morality depends on the choices made by those exercising or within them.
Here's the hard truth about our current economic situation. Part of it is our fault as a Church. What? To to extent that we have failed to speak with the moral teaching authority of the Church in the areas of faith and morals, we are responsible for failing to invite and challenge the people of the free market system to be moral in their business practices, use of debt, the rightful role of government to protect and defend the inherent rights of her citizens instead of entering into the markets as a power hungry, greedy participant who no longer is capable of regulating the free market playground because it is a horse in the race. Quite simply, we've failed to teach human dignity and the three pillars required to uphold it. We've failed to teach our faithful and society morality. We've failed to compel our faithful to answer their God given mandate of faith to reach out to our neighbor and help them become the fullness of who God created them to be (yes, that's our responsibility, not government's!).
As a Church we have advocated for specific solutions and ignored our own moral teaching. It's one thing to advocate against the mortal sin of abortion (it is an inherently grave mortal sin), quite another to advocate specific economic solutions such as farm subsidies, universal healthcare, minimum wage, when there are other solutions which aren't inherently morally grave.
The reality is that it's poor theological and moral understanding like what Wallis touts that leads to the type of irresponsibility and lack of ownership on many moral issues required to uphold human dignity, abortion included. There is a reason that abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, and other inherent evils are part of the platform of our current administration. It fundamentally does not understand human dignity or how to uphold it.
Are we compelled by our faith in Jesus our Christ to respond to the needs of our poor? Absolutely. But let's not make the mistake of foolishly falling for the argument that the government is the only or even the best way to accomplish what we are called to do as individuals, and which we as a Church have poorly taught.
Truth can not contradict truth. In that same vein, human dignity is not upheld if one of it's three required pillars is undermined. It is an error to uphold "common good" as if it is a stand alone principle. It's not. Human dignity is, and it requires all three pillars of common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity to be upheld. A social action which takes power and rights which rightfully belong to families and individuals and churches and the free market undermines subsidiarity and fails to uphold human dignity. The government ought not be in the business of forcing us to do with our money what they think we ought to do, making it so we have less to do what Christ calls us to do.
Christ's challenge to all of us is to find a way to address society's poverties that actually upholds human dignity. Our current path does nothing of the kind.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment