Posted on 08/14/2009 7:23:40 AM PDT by ikeonic
I may have lost my mind, but I emailed the following to Archbishop Chaput in response to his August 12 column on health care reform:
Subject: Advocating for Caesar to render a welfare state unto us To: shepherd@archden.org Date: Thursday, August 13, 2009, 10:58 AMArchbishop Chaput, I just finished reading your recent Archbishop's Column in the Denver Catholic Register. I'm very concerned when a so called conservative American Catholic bishop is advocating for the welfare state:
"This is why the Church always seeks to work cooperatively with people of other faiths and no faith to secure the basic elements of human dignity for all our citizens—decent housing, a living wage, justice under the law and adequate food and health care."
Jesus didn't lobby Pontius Pilate or Caesar to render unto us decent housing, a living wage, adequate food and health care. Instead, he called on each and every one of us as individuals to voluntarily serve and love one another. Our failure to do so does not mean the Church should now be advocating for a welfare state to absolve us of our duty to love and serve each other.
Indeed, if anything, the Church should be asking for voluntary collections to provide the very services (such as health care) we advocate the government provide instead! That would be far more in keeping with the imitation of Christ that all Catholics struggle to achieve.
Instead, I expect that one day I shall hear instructions at the end of mass to lobby Caesar to render us decent housing, a living wage, adequate food and health care. Apparently, going forth to love and serve the Lord means lobbying the government to provide that love and service in today's Catholic Church.
(Excerpt) Read more at ikeonic.blogspot.com ...
"This is why the Church always seeks to work cooperatively with people of other faiths and no faith to secure the basic elements of human dignity for all our citizens—decent housing, a living wage, justice under the law and adequate food and health care."
Archbishop Chaput said that, huh?
If you do a search for Bishop Murphy, you will find that the Catholic Bishops of the United States do NOT back the healthcare bill as it is.
They recommend that there be NO abortion and No euthanasia included in it. (Abortion by default — The fact that it is NOT mentioned, means that it will happen as FOCA intended.)
Chaput supported Ritter the Democrat for Governor. Both Ritter and Beauprez are Catholics, “You will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:20).Brother Chaput is so blinded wanting to take credit for supporting illegal aliens,
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
that he will support the rest of the Democrat Party platform.
Then he claimed he was shocked that Ritter funded the abortion mills.
but Chaput supported Ritter the Democrat.
I am thinking as a good Christian, devoid of political leanings, it is our responsibility in this system that laws are just and justly enforced. When it comes to Caesar this should be the end of the discussion and is where subjects like abortion and marriage dwell.
Charity, that which provides adequate food, shelter and health care to our neighbors, should be the provence of individual Christians and the Church, Catholic or protestant, though the vast sums given joyously by those whose hope lies in Christ. This is the heart and soul of what Edwardian’s would have recognized as the animating force of the progressive movement.
I am not Catholic, so I perhaps cannot understand the Archbishop’s reasoning. I witness the effective outreach in Christian love for our neighbors my protestant church accomplishes daily and on a personal level, that covers the needs of the downtrodden, both in worldly terms and spiritual and wonder why this is not evident to the Archbishop. Indeed, it is the familiar touch of ordinary Christians going into the community to bring help with their own sweat and their own resources that brings the greatest results.
Lobbying Caesar, I do like how this is put, to coerce charity from the citizenry leads to impersonal handouts designed to pacify the hoi polloi for the purpose of political power in place of genuine concern, at a deeply Christian personal level, for their well being. Ultimately it is an infection of corruption that murders the poor. It is well to understand that it is not an article of Christian Faith that counting compassion does not come by the number of people accepting government largess, but rather by the number who your personal Christian charity has helped to no longer need it.
As the Government increases the resources it takes from God loving Christians to accomplish all the Archbishop believes Christians must support, does it not seem logical this results in less resources that can be set aside to do those things Christians must do to emulate Jesus in direct love for our neighbor. I should hope the Archbishop sees the fallacy of hiring government to be our agents of compassion as a worthy competitor for resources that could be used more effectively with our own hands and by the power of a Church centered effort.
If we continue down this path, passing charity to government, I see Christian churches as empty as those of Europe.
The NappyOne
Bingo, NappyOne. You hit the nail on the head and I can tell you are an "it getter".
Outsourcing charity to Caesar solves nothing and does not absolve Christians of the individual responsibility that we have to voluntarily be charitable to our family and neighbors.
I'm afraid the Church will one day regret its continued attempts to join forces with government. I believe Jesus was quite clear when he separated Caesar from God. Love can only be freely given from each of us. Caesar's coerced charity is devoid of any love at all by the very fact that it is coerced via taxation and penalty of imprisonment if one fails to pay those taxes.
It's a matter of conscience versus coercion. God always sides with conscience and is eternally patient with His creation, though we continually fail to keep His Word and obey His commandment to love one another.
Both Ritter and Beauprez are Catholics, but Chaput supported Ritter the Democrat.
That's because Archbishop Chaput is a self-professed liberal. From the thread Denver Prelate on the Catholic Political Vocation - "Tolerance Is Not a Christian Virtue" [Chaput]:
...Partly because I'm a bishop and partly because I'm older and a little bit wiser, I don't belong to any political party. As a young priest I worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign. Later I volunteered with the 1976 and 1980 campaigns for Jimmy Carter. So if I have any partisan roots, they're in the Democratic Party. But as I say in the book, one of the lessons we need to learn from the last 50 years is that a "preferred" Catholic political party usually doesn't exist....Related threads:
I strongly object to the self-rightous When Yah'shua judges these people NAsbU Mark 10:19 "You know the commandments, '... DO NOT STEAL..." NAsbU Luke 18:20 "You know the commandments, ' DO NOT STEAL,....'" Thanks for the links.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
who encourage the government
to steal from me to give
to their favorite charity.
His commandments about stealing
will apply to all who claim to be followers
NAsbU Matthew 19:18 And Jesus said, ".... YOU SHALL NOT STEAL..."
I tithe only to those who need.
Incorrect. It is a sin to bear false witness.
Admit it, you and XeniaSt are one in the same.
See #10shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Source?
Source?
He has self identified himself as a Democrat since Bobby Kennedy. He has supported abortion since the late sixties. His own words.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Really cool stuff.
Freegards
Not to mention that the gubberment almost always screws things up. Over and over and over again. You have to hand it to the Archbishop as concerns baby butchery though. It sounds like he would love to vote lib if it weren’t for that issue.
I would like to hear from the A.bishop why he thinks gubberment funded healthcare/welfare isn’t a form of socialism, which the Church doesn’t dig at all.
Freegards
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