Is humanitarianism a viable option to liberalism and conservatism?

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It’s really humanitarianism as a political force that will overcome social ills such as homelessness and poverty. Many of the world’s great peacemakers were underlying humanitarians; Jesus Christ, Gandhi and even Pope Francis. Humanitarianism is the weapon against greed and exploitation, which are the cause of many social ills. Humanitarian values are the key to fighting social afflictions.
 
Jesus was not Robinhood.

50 years fighting the war on poverty, trillions spent, poverty is worse, out of wedlock births are around 41% (6%then), breakdown of the family, dependency, etc…

The solution is personal responsibility, something government cannot provide.
 
Humanitarianism, whatever that may mean, will never be able to solve all the world’s problems. Only Jesus can do that, which gets shown ever more clearly by the internal collapse the West is starting to experience from a lack of a moral foundation on which to base itself.
 
As far as I can tell humanitarianism is nothing more than Christianity with God replaced by “the greater good” (an ill defined, poorly defended concept of how people who only have this one life somehow need to engage in non-selfish or self-serving behavior).
 
Robert_Sock said:
It’s really humanitarianism as a political force that will overcome social ills such as homelessness and poverty. Many of the world’s great peacemakers were underlying humanitarians; Jesus Christ, Gandhi and even Pope Francis. Humanitarianism is the weapon against greed and exploitation, which are the cause of many social ills. Humanitarian values are the key to fighting social afflictions.
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Look at what’s being called humanitarian in so many words—abortion, so-called gay "marriage, contraception on demand paid for by American taxpayers and religious and embryonic stem cell research.

Also, I really don’t get how a truly orthodox Catholic could have that much of a beef with conservatism or classical liberal thought.

The fact is those core values work in reality, and I think folks need to really sit down and form their consciences on the issues. 👍
 
No. Is this question meant to be a serious one? :confused:

Address of His Holiness John Paul II
A related concern however is the temptation in the world today to reduce the Gospel message to a form of humanitarianism.
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Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris (On Atheistic Communism)
They try perfidiously to worm their way even into professedly Catholic and religious organizations. Again, without receding an inch from their subversive principles, they invite Catholics to collaborate with them in the realm of so-called humanitarianism and charity; and at times even make proposals that are in perfect harmony with the Christian spirit and the doctrine of the Church. Elsewhere they carry their hypocrisy so far as to encourage the belief that Communism, in countries where faith and culture are more strongly entrenched, will assume another and much milder form…See to it, Venerable Brethren, that the Faithful do not allow themselves to be deceived! Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever. Those who permit themselves to be deceived into lending their aid towards the triumph of Communism in their own country, will be the first to fall victims of their error. And the greater the antiquity and grandeur of the Christian civilization in the regions where Communism successfully penetrates, so much more devastating will be the hatred displayed by the godless.
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buffalo said:
Jesus was not Robinhood.

50 years fighting the war on poverty, trillions spent, poverty is worse, out of wedlock births are around 41% (6%then), breakdown of the family, dependency, etc…

The solution is personal responsibility, something government cannot provide.
Click to expand...
I’m in no way inferring that Christ was a Robinhood. Where do you get this? Humanitarianism Is simply the state of being concerned with the welfare of others.
 
Humanitarianism , without a spiritual element of justification is both futile and extremely difficult to maintain. Have you seen some of these humans… Really. To try to continue their tribal breeding interspersed with internecine wars and the most disgraceful table manners as if this is a moral good, needs some serious justification.

Now if we brought a spiritual value to the human as a creation of God, to be respected in its own right based on this status alone, then we are getting somewhere to at least a justification to be politely pleasant to them.
Without a Divine demand to love them, it is beyond me why we should expect anything more.
 
I think I understand what is being proposed here. In a perfect world, humanitarianism could unite all of us, with all of our differing beliefs and desires, for the benefit of all - including the most vulnerable among us. But where is the profit in humanitarianism? Both liberalism and conservatism, in their own distinct ways, create and maintain systems for establishing and distributing wealth that enable people to profit one way or another. Greed is just too inherent in our fallen nature to expect altruism or humanitarianism to become a guiding principle in any sort of large scale or sustained manner. The OP mentioned certain charismatic individuals who have indeed inspired humanitarian efforts, but their impact is often short-lived. Even our Lord Jesus Christ gets a lot of lip-service, but when there is money to be made, then greed, profit, and fear for self-preservation too often win out over love for fellow man.
 
Robert_Sock said:
It’s really humanitarianism as a political force that will overcome social ills such as homelessness and poverty. Many of the world’s great peacemakers were underlying humanitarians; Jesus Christ, Gandhi and even Pope Francis. Humanitarianism is the weapon against greed and exploitation, which are the cause of many social ills. Humanitarian values are the key to fighting social afflictions.
Click to expand...
The problem with this is that there are myriad ideas of what is considered “humane”. Your humanitarian distribution of food to the poor is another person’s humanitarian euthanasia cocktail.

We’re fallen and we can’t get up. Only God can lift us out of the mire and much of the world is busy worshiping their own household gods. In theoretical terms, “humanitarianism” is terminally short of the target:
  1. Humans are sinful, and so make bad decisions, even in charity.
  2. If humans weren’t sinful, we wouldn’t need “humanitarianism” in the first place.
  3. There’s always a profit motive, in some form or other. ALWAYS. Look at the Apostles: Peter had a profit motive. Judas obviously had a profit motive. Heck John and James had a profit motive. Shoot, the Church has had a profit motive – it’s run by human beings.
It doesn’t have to be a malicious motive, but it always undercuts someone else. Humanitarianism in the terms you present seems out of reach.
 
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