Why are Christian Conservatives so bent in including Ayn Rand?

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I’m a Christian Conservative and I’m not. Conservative means different things to different people though. 🤷 With Christians who do like Ayn Rand’s philosophy, I’m confused.
 
I claim to be Christian and I’m conservative in some, but not all, ways.

I think there are elements of Rand’s philosophy that are consistent with Christianity, or at least not inconsistent with it.

Rand believed in the free exchange of services and goods. Aquinas maintained that a “just price” is that price at which each party in the exchange values what he gets in the exchange more than what he gives for it. When you think about it, that’s what mankind has done from time immemorial, except to the extent that it’s skewed by monopoly or government coercion. There’s nothing inconsistent with Christianity in that.

Where I think Rand goes off the high side is her callous treatment of those who really can’t help themselves. In that connection, I think of The Fountainhead.

Rand was totally critical of elites who use power to coerce a bogus egalitarianism that really harms everyone. Nothing inconsistent with Christianity in that.

Her books generally treat earnest labor well, at any level. She admires a hard-working and honest mechanic as much as a hard-working and honest capitalist. Nothing inconsistent with Christianity in that. There is, at minimum, a touch of “the laborer is worthy of his hire” in her treatment of working people. Nothing inconsistent with Christianity in that.

Her atheism and sexual libertarianism are, to me, extremely off-putting, and there is more than a hint of eugenicism in her work. Serious negatives.
 
Ayn Rand worships the god of Self. The individual is all that matters, not the community. “I’ve got mine, who cares about the rest of you moochers”. There is a decent sized number of American Conservatives whose philosophy can sound close to that.

I don’t know how they reconcile that with the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, but that’s between them and God. I don’t agree with it, but I am not judging them-above my pay grade.
 
MillTownCath said:
This article

katiekieffer.com/2012/09/10/christianity-is-compatible-with-ayn-rand/

makes an argument that Ayn Rand is compatible with Christianity. In my opinion, that is trying to make the impossible happen.

Basically I’m just dumbfounded as to why a Christian would accept the selfish, anti-Christian philosophies of Ayn Rand. I honestly want to know.
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What about Ayn Rands Political Philosophy completely incompatible with Christianity? I do not know Ayn Rand that well but agree with what little I have read (Laissez-faire economy, minimal government and the opposition to statism) I haven’t read anything past her Politics though.
 
Freedom, independence, liberty… excellence…

Rand (whether she knew it or not) described and espoused an individual who maximized and/or optimized their time, talent and treasure. Again, not that she meant it in a Christian Catholic way, but regardless, if we all maximized our time talent and treasure for the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory of God, now and forever, what a beautiful world it would be. Thy Kingdom come, the Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven." No better place to start than at the individual level. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us, who?

In the truest sense, all politics is local… the most local level is with the individual.

And, her scatheing social critiques were, for the most part, right on.

Otherwise, she was a bit of a circus act and became a caricature of herself. But we must also remember that being Jewish and a woman at the time was at least constraining and she did what she needed to do to be heard. Once she got her voice, she couldn’t stop. If she was 20-30 years later she would probably would have gone unnoticed.

Tune In - to the Holy Spirit; Turn On - to Jesus Christ; Drop Out - of the culture of Death
 
Skeptic92 said:
What about Ayn Rands Political Philosophy completely incompatible with Christianity? I do not know Ayn Rand that well but agree with what little I have read (Laissez-faire economy, minimal government and the opposition to statism) I haven’t read anything past her Politics though.
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I can’t quite do it justice. I did, however, just finish reading her book titled “The Virtue of Selfishness” which discusses the importance of putting your own self interests above all else. (Not exactly Christ like)

But here is an article that lays it out well
usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-06-05-Ayn-Rand-and-Jesus-dont-mix_n.htm
 
Consider that in ATLAS SHRUGGED, she extolled a group of elitists who allowed the society to collapse because it would not let them be as rich as they wished; where is Christuan community in that?
 
Some of them at least, do not understand her and her works properly.
 
MillTownCath said:
This article

katiekieffer.com/2012/09/10/christianity-is-compatible-with-ayn-rand/

makes an argument that Ayn Rand is compatible with Christianity. In my opinion, that is trying to make the impossible happen.

Basically I’m just dumbfounded as to why a Christian would accept the selfish, anti-Christian philosophies of Ayn Rand. I honestly want to know.
Click to expand...
And who says they are? I’m conservative and what I thought of Rand you can’t put in a post and keep your privileges. Was she totally wrong on everything, no. For one thing she believed and taught that everyone should work and to the best they could do and be the best they could be. Nothing wrong with that. She also taught that the only motive for doing anything was " selfishness. " Certainly we do act in our own self interest in most things we do but for most of us there are also other reasons for doing things. Doing God’s will, and loving our neighboor, helping the poor for example. She just carried things too far. And of course, since she didn’t believe in God, her " morality " was pretty much none existent. I certainly wouldn’t recommend her books to anyone. As far as I’m concerned, all of them fall just short of phornography. :tiphat:
 
"Two novels can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other involves orcs.” Kung Fu Monkey
 
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

–Kung Fu Monkey
 
april32010 said:
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

–Kung Fu Monkey
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Love that quote!
 
april32010 said:
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

–Kung Fu Monkey
Click to expand...
lolol That’s amusing. 😃
 
There are plenty of things that she was right about. Discarding everything she said because of some of what she said is foolish.
 
I’m not sure the bad is so easily extricated from the good. Ayn Rand champions the worst form of capitalism - a capitalism that opposes all restrictions upon itself, not out of concern for the government’s power or genuine belief in the dignity of human labor, but sheer selfishness and a desire to hoard money and power for itself. It’s the sort of capitalism that leads the rich man to despise the poor laborer who works for him, and to treat his workers badly in order to create more money for himself.
 
Bill_Martin said:
There are plenty of things that she was right about. Discarding everything she said because of some of what she said is foolish.
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One could say the same about Karl Marx! He was RIGHT in much of his criticisms of how the wealthy (“noble”) classes of Europe exploited the rest of society and nurtured economic structures that primarily served to keep the nobles rich and the commoners poor. Like Rand, his proposed cures were worse than the disease!
 
manualman said:
One could say the same about Karl Marx! He was RIGHT in much of his criticisms of how the wealthy (“noble”) classes of Europe exploited the rest of society and nurtured economic structures that primarily served to keep the nobles rich and the commoners poor. Like Rand, his proposed cures were worse than the disease!
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So…
 
migueltojose said:
Freedom, independence, liberty… excellence…

Rand (whether she knew it or not) described and espoused an individual who maximized and/or optimized their time, talent and treasure. Again, not that she meant it in a Christian Catholic way, but regardless, if we all maximized our time talent and treasure for the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory of God, now and forever, what a beautiful world it would be. Thy Kingdom come, the Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven." No better place to start than at the individual level. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us, who?
Click to expand...
So…? Not sure how to take that. Looking back on your older post, try this on.

Marx (whether he knew it or not) described and espoused a society in which solidarity was valued over personal indulgence. Again, not that he meant it in a Christian way, bur regardless, if we all collectively used our time, talent and treasure to glorify God by doing what Jesus commanded (feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless), what a beautiful world it would be…

Sound familiar? I just put Marx and his idea into your defense of Rand and hers. Each of them made valid points in diagnosing problems in society, but when on to propose solutions that were far worse.
 
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