Role of government in social justice

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SalesianSDB

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Ok for full disclosure I am a viewer of Glenn Beck…

When it comes to social justice I am all for it, however I don’t believe that the government should have a role in it. I am a person who sticks to the Constitution and there isn’t anything there that would point to this. Sure it says “promote the common welfare” but it doesn’t say provide it says promote.

Instead I believe that it is up to the people, churches and charities as well as other organizations to do this, not the role of the federal government or politicians.

Isn’t the view that the government must do this collective salvation and liberation theology, which was disapproved of by then Cardinal Ratzinger?

Didn’t Pope Benedict XVI say, “wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic.”

Your thoughts on this?
 
First, there can be no social justice if there is no simple justice. The common good talked about in the Constitution is simply justice; liberty, the right to life, the right to vote, protection of property rights, the pursuit of happiness (which really has more to do with economic liberty than free tickets to Disney world), the basic mechanisms that allow a democratic republic to function.

Second, social justice that is achieved through taxes is anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, anti-democracy, and in many ways it is anti-justice. Just because our government wants to play the part of Robin Hood doesn’t make it moral. Stealing is stealing, a thief is a thief, it doesn’t matter whether it is the thug hiding in the alley, or your congressman, or the President. Our government is charged with providing simple justice, not social justice.

The Bible places the burden of social justice on the Church. It is our job. Social justice can only be provided via the good works of people. Anything more and we will be living in a “brave new world.”
 
RWMorris said:
First, there can be no social justice if there is no simple justice. The common good talked about in the Constitution is simply justice; liberty, the right to life, the right to vote, protection of property rights, the pursuit of happiness (which really has more to do with economic liberty than free tickets to Disney world), the basic mechanisms that allow a democratic republic to function.

Second, social justice that is achieved through taxes is anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, anti-democracy, and in many ways it is anti-justice. Just because our government wants to play the part of Robin Hood doesn’t make it moral. Stealing is stealing, a thief is a thief, it doesn’t matter whether it is the thug hiding in the alley, or your congressman, or the President. Our government is charged with providing simple justice, not social justice.

The Bible places the burden of social justice on the Church. It is our job. Social justice can only be provided via the good works of people. Anything more and we will be living in a “brave new world.”
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Well said!
 
Thank you so much!

Glenn Beck has been saying the exact same thing on his program but has been getting a lot of criticism from people because of that and I would agree with him. Thank you.

If anyone could also explain liberation theology and how it is applied in Catholicism and in the “social justice” of the government?

thanks.
 
SalesianSDB said:
Thank you so much!

Glenn Beck has been saying the exact same thing on his program but has been getting a lot of criticism from people because of that and I would agree with him. Thank you.

If anyone could also explain liberation theology and how it is applied in Catholicism and in the “social justice” of the government?

thanks.
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Liberation theology is a strange animal indeed. It is basically communism and really has nothing to do with the Church, except for its horribly misguided leaders. I find it extraordinarily distressing that any priests or nuns would be involved with such evil. Communism has murdered over 21 million Christians in the 20th century, far more than all other Christians martyred by all other combined evils since the death of Christ.
 
SalesianSDB said:
Thank you so much!

If anyone could also explain liberation theology and how it is applied in Catholicism and in the “social justice” of the government?

thanks.
Click to expand...
If you can get a copy of “The Ratzinger Report” by Vittorio Messori, in Chapter 12, Cardinal Ratzinger gives an excellent summary of Liberation Theology and the problems with it. Basically, he says that in an attempt to define the Beatitudes as an earthly call to action, liberation theology takes a spiritual concept and turns it into earthly politics; specically he says its promises evolve into a “Marxist myth.”

I have tried to research this topic too. I haven’t found Wikipedia to be very helpful. Like always, when U.S. “progressives” get involved in a subject, the discussion becomes very muddled. It’s hard to separate the true core principles of liberation theology from what it’s interpretation has become in our culture.

It’s a wide spectrum, on one end it’s the Latin Americans all ready to arm up for a revolution to overthrow the opressive government, to the U.S. liberals who thing voting for Obama means they are practicing social justice and that’s all they have to do.

But I did find the above short chapter in this book to be enlightening. It describes how lib. theo. adherents evolve into haters of the Church hierarchy; ie the National Catholic Reporter mentality which I never could understand where they are coming from before, now I see where they got their ideas.
 
A lot of thoughtful people on this thread so far. Well said everyone. I don’t see any USCCB folks yet…watch out.
 
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