Posted on 09/01/2013 5:46:15 AM PDT by Popman
Excellent point and well said...
I will post my American Thinker comments.
#1
In a world with free markets, rule of law, and very limited government, as espoused by Ayn Rand, proclaiming the Gospel is completely and freely possible.
In the world of fascist oligarchy promoted by the Progressives, Christians will be driven into the catacombs.
How Susan Harris can compare Rand to the Progressives is unbelievable. It is Harris who is the idiot.
Wherever did you get that idea? I stated that when the economic system, that is the means by which people satisfy their material needs and wants, becomes their raison d'etre, they tend to abandon the spiritual component of their existence. This can occur at any point along the continuum from purely free markets to a rigid command economy.
God is in my heart and mind, and there he will remain for all time even as the hands that control our commutation work to suppress and oppressed his follows and good words.
We must not falter in our faith toward him our father. We must remember that even in roman times when Christians were persecuted we stood strong and outlasted & out preformed theses hedonistic evils.
Time will deal with those who fall victim to theses self-destructive hedonistic ways. We must simply focus our efforts to see to it that we ourselfs do not become their victims or fall victim to this evil ourselfs. In the end should we remain true to God we shall survive & outlast this evil.
I will post my American Thinker comments.
#1
In a world with free markets, rule of law, and very limited government, as espoused by Ayn Rand, proclaiming the Gospel is completely and freely possible.
In the world of fascist oligarchy promoted by the Progressives, Christians will be driven into the catacombs.
How Susan Harris can compare Rand to the Progressives is unbelievable. It is Harris who is the idiot.
Well then you’ve raised a strawman, because I don’t think anyone, including Ayn Rand, has claimed that free markets are the raison d’etre. Instead, free markets are a natural corollary of some other raison d’etre, namely that human beings possess a right libery.
Here are all of the posts I made a American Thinker:
Amen!
I, too, ( a solid Christian) am tired of it, too. I believe that Susan and her ilk are being deliberately dense!
wintertime1 • 20 minutes ago
“. These pseudo-intellectuals are the reason Christianity has been quietly erased line by line, year after year in the popular psyche.” ( Harris)
Well! Gee! It couldn’t possibly be due to the godless K-12 INDOCTRINATION that the government imposes using the threat of police action in its monopoly and price-fixed cartel schools. N!. No! That couldn’t possibly be one of the reasons. ( with sarcastic eye roll) ( sigh!)
Ayn Rand would be utterly and completely opposed to any government run and price-fixed socialist-entitlement, especially schooling!
wintertime1 • 26 minutes ago
In a world with free markets, rule of law, and very limited government, as espoused by Ayn Rand, proclaiming the Gospel is completely and freely possible.
In the world of fascist oligarchy promoted by the Progressives, Christians will be driven into the catacombs.
How Susan Harris can compare Rand to the Progressives is unbelievable. It is Harris who is the idiot.
wintertime1 • 30 minutes ago
Susan,
Susan, just because a person is an atheist does not mean they are wrong on everything. I suggest that you remove your prejudiced blinders.
Ayn Rand was absolutely **right** about free markets, rule of law, and limited government. A society with free markets ( both economically and of ideas), rule of law, and limited government is the best setting for the spreading of the Gospel. Progressives espouse a political, religious ( “spiritual but not religious” paganism), and cultural worldview that is the utter antithesis of Rand’s.
Re: Kids who are raised Christian and then go off to college where they are swayed from their faith.
Maybe we should look to COMPULSORY ( that means police threat) and GODLESS, government owned and run. socialist-entitlement, K-12 schooling!
Rand would be absolutely opposed to police enforced, government-owned, and socialist-entitlement K-12 schooling. She would flat-out be against **forcing** children to think and reason according to the approved government religious worldview (currently godless). Children who attend our police enforced and godless socialist-entitlement K-12 schools must do this just to cooperate in the classroom.
Studies show ( Nehemiah Institute) that 85% of children, from highly active evangelical homes, who attend the government’s godless socialist-eentitlement schools will be inactive in their faith within 2 years of graduating from high school. Remember, please that Rand would **oppose** compulsory and socialist-entitlement schooling. Progressives favor it and pushed this on American citizens in the 19th century and are its greatest cheerleaders, today.
On the other hand, 95% of homeschoolers, from highly active evangelical homes, remain active in their faith. Rand would fully support complete separation of school and state and total delivery of education through the free market with NO government interference whatsoever! Progressives would outlaw homeschooling and are working at this as I type.
Finally, Progressives would use the power of government to kill Christians if they could. They just can’t get away with it....( yet). Rand, on the other hand, wrote passionately and strongly warned about the killing powers of the state. She witnessed it first hand.
wintertime1 • an hour ago
“The Progressive worldview, and the Libertarian, Rand-worshipping worldview — are all part of the same existentialist family tree containing Sartre and Alinsky.” ( Susan D. Harris)
Susan,
My neuron’s are exploding. It’s that or your’s have.
Huh...she didn't...
Did you even read the article?
Here it again:
The Progressive worldview, and the Libertarian, Rand-worshipping worldview -- are all part of the same existentialist family tree containing Sartre and Alinsky. Rand's humanistic objectivism is as cold and Godless as Sartre's humanistic existentialism. These pseudo-intellectuals are the reason Christianity has been quietly erased line by line, year after year in the popular psyche.
She is not making a comparison, just they have the same result..."Christianity has been quietly erased line by line, year after year in the popular psyche"
Really, it's not that hard to understand...
Gave up listening to Rush, etc. All they ever do is talk politics. They complain about the culture, but it’s like talking about the weather. People complain about it, but nobody ever does anything about it.
Meanwhile over at NPR, there are multiple programs that are non-political, at least not overtly so. No wonder people get the idea that conservatism is ideological/partisan, while liberalism is not.
right to liberty
Unfortunately, I don't think that will work in the USA...the left is burning down our culture brick by brick instead of all at once...I'm afraid burning it down just to start again will accomplish their goals a bit faster...
They're experts at it...
Free markets, limited government, and rule of law spring from the same root as those of Saul Alinsky and other Progressives?
I don’t think so.
It is interesting that Susan Harris can embrace the truths of Plato and Socrates ( both non-Christians) but lumps Ayn Rand with Saul Alinski. Wow! I guess she judges philosophy like wine. The more aged the better. ( The idiot.)
That's no strawman - that's the root of my argument. Randian "Liberty" has no constraints other than not impeding on the liberty of others. It becomes all about the satisfaction of one's own needs, wants and desires. Rand rages against the entire notion of an obligation or duty toward others, which is at the core of traditional Judeo-Christian morality.
Our founders pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for a cause greater than self. Rand was blind to any cause greater than self.
They can't separate Caesar from Christ.
the left is burning down our culture brick by brick instead of all at once.
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Like bringing down a castle. Dig a small tunnel. Light a small fire at the foundation, and crack the stones one at a time.
It was not just Catholics Livius. Most churches told their people what to think rather than arming them with spiritual principles which would allow them to understand the world in light of the truth. It is hard to catechize a people with just 1 hour a week.
Mel
The strongest and most effective part of Ayn Rand’s writing is against collectivism, not against Christianity. That’s why leftists universally hate her while a sizable minority of conservatives like her. It’s not just Christianity that’s in retreat nowadays, it’s the general principle of individual liberty, which most conservatives consider foundational. Rand wrote powerfully in support of the general principle even if she didn’t get there via Christianity.
Religious Conservatives and Libertarians
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I know plenty of Christian libertarians ( small “l”). I am one.
I don’t understand why so many religious conservatives are so hostile to Ayn Rand.
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Because they are knee-jerk Christians.
In some ways they are like the simple-minded animals in “Animal Farm”.”Two legs baaaaad! “Any idea from an atheist baaaaaad!”
It is hard to catechize a people with just 1 hour a week.
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Christians have FAILED to catechize their children! Shame on them! I suspect that God is very annoyed with Christians.
Christians send their children into the government’s socialist-entitlement K-12 GODLESS environment 5 days a week and then expect 1 hour on Sunday to undo that. Or...Haven’t we heard this excuse, “I deprogram my children when they get home from school.”
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