Christianity is not Socialism

That distinction has to be made again, particularly at this point in history.

Start with the end of this lengthy and weighty piece by Acton Institute’s president, Fr. Robert Sirico.

Christianity has adapted itself to many cultures and settings, but the advent of capitalism did provide its own special challenges.  

How can a religion born in a world of poverty, and centered on the eventual glory associated with death on a cross, thrive in a world of fantastic levels of material prosperity? The experience of Americans shows how, and the views of the thinkers highlighted in [Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon] explain how a reconciliation can occur. It comes down to the critical fact that the most productive economic system ever known also happens to be the one that is most respectful of human rights and dignity, and provides the freedom to worship.

How we have strayed…

Fr. Sirico looks at this particular book right now for obvious reasons. Given the need to see our way through the economic crisis we’re in, at the intersection of a major election that will determine which worldview will prevail in ruling our country and shaping this democracy….to find a good moral discussion about the whole thing helps center and ground the rest of the chatter out there.

So, bear with the weightiness, and look at a few snips like this one, where he cites “forgotten or unknown clerical economists”…

who were concerned “to explain how God was still part of the developing market economy, and . . . how this developing economy was good for America.” They were defenders of private property, the merchant class, and wealth production generally. They were at home with what later came to be called the American system, and they appreciated its genius. They counseled their flock to be at peace with enterprise, to work hard, to keep contracts, to defend their property, and to create wealth.

Among other figures in this work, he notes Catholic convert Orestes Brownson, one of those who “approved of the development of market capitalism but wanted to live as Christians within its confines…” [and] “focused on the individual’s virtue as an economic actor.”

Although never a ferocious champion of market capitalism, Brownson was perhaps attracted to accepting such ideas as the division of labor, free trade, and market institutions because he came to a different understanding of anthropology and how the person relates to any institutional and social arrangement—all of which are flawed aspects of the kingdom of man. With this understanding, Brownson came to repent of his earlier attempt “to translate Christianity into Socialism.”

No society under any economic system will be free of greed, but the free economy produces the wealth that also makes charity and philanthropy possible. In addition, for those who seek simpler lives and private piety, the free economic system provides the room and possibility to make that choice.

Now, to get back to making that system the most respectful of human rights and dignity. We can do this.