A papal message on socialism

[Tigermike 3,039]

A papal message on socialism

Star Parker

April 12, 2005

In 1991, Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical called "Centesimus Annus." It is a sweeping and fascinating discussion about socialism, capitalism, the welfare state and the nature of free society.

The encyclical is a deeply thoughtful and courageous document and it is something every American, of every religious persuasion, should consider taking a few hours to read and think about. It touches in the most serious way the major issues about individual freedom and the role of government with which we Americans struggle every day.

It's hard to read this document without concluding that we cannot compartmentalize and separate how we think about government from the way we relate to the rest of our lives. There is a clear message that the abuse and misuse of politics and government is itself a moral problem.

This is relevant to all Americans. But at this moment I'm thinking about African-Americans.

If intensity measures religiosity, then African-Americans are the most religious of all Americans. A survey done by the Pew Center a number of years ago showed blacks responding at higher rates than whites that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives. Yet churchgoing blacks continue to overwhelmingly support welfare-state politics and politicians.

I believe African-Americans mistakenly, and destructively, disconnect the way we express our religious convictions on Sunday and what we do in the voting booth on Tuesday. In church we express our conviction that our lives reflect and are the result of our faith, our choices and our responsibilities. Yet, we then buy a political message that government is the place to turn to solve our problems.

Here is what John Paul II had to say about the welfare state:

In recent years the range of such interventions has vastly expanded to the point of creating a new type of state, the so-called "welfare state"... Malfunctions and defects in the social-assistance state are the result of an inadequate understanding of the task proper to the state.

He added:

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the social-assistance state leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.

The welfare state is, of course, our limited version of socialism. Here are John Paul's observations about socialism:

Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socioeconomic mechanism. Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good and evil.

John Paul was a unique combination of personality and experience. This Polish pope lived through the worst abuses of government in the last century - Nazism and communism. He saw firsthand the human suffering that resulted from government and politics becoming religion itself.

This encyclical, however, does not point to excessive government and politics as the exclusive source of evil.

The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the state and the marketplace. At times it seems as though he exists only as a producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of state administration.

The images of rap music that offend us so are the product of kids digesting a message, delivered by our popular culture, of a materialistic society devoid of meaning. If our ultimate values are acquisition and power, then it doesn't matter how we behave or how we acquire these things. Dealing drugs is as reasonable a means to this end as getting an MBA.

People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the state as its final purpose, since life itself has a unique value which the state and the market must serve. Man remains above all a being who seeks truth and strives to live in that truth, deepening his understanding of it through a dialogue which involves past and future generations.

This is a message for all Americans. However, African-Americans, in particular, need to focus on this. Government cannot and should not provide our answers. On the other hand, freedom without values is not freedom at all. We need to digest this critical message and pass it on to our children.

Star Parker is president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education and author of the newly released book 'Uncle Sam's Plantation.'

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/StarPar...p20050412.shtml

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[Tiger Al 0]

OK, Tigermike, I'm with you. Let's say we just wiped out welfare programs and they no longer exist. No more Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), no more Aid to Families with Dependent Children, no more Medicare/Medicaid, no more job assistance/training programs, all gone.

Then what happens?

[Tigermike 3,039]

OK, Tigermike, I'm with you. Let's say we just wiped out welfare programs and they no longer exist. No more Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), no more Aid to Families with Dependent Children, no more Medicare/Medicaid, no more job assistance/training programs, all gone.

Then what happens?

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Not only are you not with me Al, you have no idea what I think about "Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), no more Aid to Families with Dependent Children, no more Medicare/Medicaid, no more job assistance/training programs".

Never have you seen me write or advocate that WIC should be terminated!

Never have you seen me write or advocate that there should be no job assistance/training programs!

Never have you seen me write or advocate that people should be left to starve.

OK, Tiger Al, I'm with you. Let's say we just said no one has to work. The government will provide housing and food and transportation and medical and money for entertainment for all people for life. This does not only apply to citizens of the United States but to any and all immigrants, legal or illegal.

Then what happens?

[Tiger Al 0]

Not only are you not with me Al, you have no idea what I think about "Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), no more Aid to Families with Dependent Children, no more Medicare/Medicaid, no more job assistance/training programs".

Then what welfare programs are you against? I can only come to the conclusion that there have to be at least some that you'd like to do away with because you not only posted an article equating them with socialism (which to a degree they are) but also because your (and others) response to them is always something like...well...like this:

The government will provide housing and food and transportation and medical and money for entertainment for all people for life. This does not only apply to citizens of the United States but to any and all immigrants, legal or illegal.

Perhaps I overemphasized for effect in my earlier post. Your posting history leads me to believe that you have a universal disdain for welfare programs and their recipients. So, I'm just asking, which welfare programs should be abolished and what happens then?

As for your rhetorical question posed to me, I don't believe, nor have I advocated or written, that no one should have to work or pay for housing and food and transportation and medical and money for entertainment for all people for life. Maybe my posting history has led you to believe that and, if so, let me clarify that I do believe that all of us should be gainfully employed, if for no other reason than because we live in a capitalist society and some form of currency is needed to get things, whether it be food, shelter, medicine or ipods. I also believe that there are those who, either because of temporary circumstances or because of lack of will, need our money, in the form of taxes distributed through welfare programs, to get the minimal amount of things necessary to have a livable existence. I'm not naive enough to think that everyone that gets this assistance will die if they don't get it. I do know that the bulk of welfare programs are targeted toward those least able to live without them: children. Does abuse of the system happen? Certainly. I just haven't gotten so jaded that I buy into Reagan's view of the "welfare queen" as a universal reality just yet.

Maybe my perceptions of welfare are different than yours because, as I've said before, we received welfare when I was a kid and without it I would most probably not have the quality of life I have now.

[Piglet 0]

Most people I know want to make something of themselves, not just obtain a check to get by. Most people who've gone on welfare did it because they had to, and they got off as soon as they could.

When the government offers a safety net, people are inspired to take bigger risks in pursuit of greatness. Some few have used the safety net as a hammock, and I suppose there will always be some that do, but they are the exceptions. We should maybe do something about the few who become bums, but it shouldn't be at the expense of the others.

My understanding is that it costs the government more money to go hunting for welfare cheats than to just pay the benefits. What's the point of that? It sure don't save money...

[Auburn85 432]

My understanding is that it costs the government more money to go hunting for welfare cheats than to just pay the benefits.  What's the point of that? It sure don't save money...

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Because more and more people would take advantage of this program, which hurts the people who really need it.

Why do we have IRS people going to try to go after people to collect taxes? Probably costs more to go after them than to just ignore it?

Why do we put people in jail for using ,selling, & dealing drugs in a non-viloent matter. People will always sell, deal, and use drugs.

Why does the government do anything?