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Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods

The Catholic Communications Service for England & Wales have delivered a nifty rejection of a host of the intellectual bits of the Catholic church’s philosophical underpinnings which actually make sense, via a press release called Catholic Bishops: Why we must render unto Caesar. This pertains to a booklet called ‘Taxation for the Common Good’.

Yet again the church in England shows it has no problem superceding individual moral choice (there is no other kind really because a decision cannot be moral if it is not the product of individual free will) by using the collective force of the state.

Moreover taking the property of others is just fine by them. The problem is that when they say the word ‘moral’, they do not actually know what that means. Hint: it is not the same as ‘manners’ or ‘social conventions’ and is certainly not the same issue as ‘desirable outcomes’. If some members of a church (i.e. Catholic bishops in England and Wales) find the rarified air of pure moral theory too taxing compared to issuing pronouncements on plain ol’ politics, perhaps they are in the wrong line of work.

The Tenth Commandment:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s

Presumably this has now been updated:

The Tenth Commandment, revised:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s… unless the manner in which thou shall covet these things is intermediated by the state

If the Catholic church wants to spurn its role as a persuader of individual moral decisions and instead be just another collectivist political advocacy group, albeit one with rather interesting buildings and distinctively dressed employees, that is fine by me… but it should not then be surprised if people treat it as just another shrill NGO or perhaps think of it as being rather like that paragon of virtues, the United Nations.

For a far more interesting discussion regarding Christianity and Liberty than you will ever find on the arid pages of the Catholic Communication Service, take a peek at the interesting Volconvo site.

14 comments to Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods

  • Well, as a Catholic myself, I have long been dissatisfied with the leadership, who all too often seem to want to make socialism the one and only commandment. It is sure easier than teaching the “deal-breaker” rules on sexual morality, for example.

    I predict this phase will end, fairly soon. The ’60s generation of Catholic leadership is entering its Brezhnevite stage of grumbling, ineffecutal senility.

    In five years we’ll see visible progress. It’s happening now, but spottily. The Church will become more forthright about the hard stuff and drop much of the intellectually vacuous leftish fellow-travellerism. In other words, it will start acting like a Church again.

    Or so I hope, anyway.

  • I think you may well be correct. The Catholic priests I know personally, which is to say several, one of whom is a good chum I went to university with (and one of whom recently became a bishop) are a fair old distance from the sort of view being spewed forth in ‘Taxation for the common good’.

  • The Catholic Church is the most successful multi-national of all-time. Head-Quartered in Rome it has offices all over the world. The current management thinking favours social-democracy/solidarism.

    Be assured that the

    One True Apostolic Church

    will continue to prosper in a competitive environment. This century’s triumphant Ism has yet to be decided.

    The Church of Rome will settle for Western Dominance.

  • DougM

    The way I read it, Jesus was tortured and executed by the Roman army at the order of the imperial Roman government of occupation as an exercise of political power. Pilate could have told the Jewish leadership to pound sand… he didn’t.

    Ergo: Jesus was killed by Italians (the same hereditary strain who directed the slaughter of more Jews centuries later in Spain, for example).

    Then again, maybe the New Testament was just the propaganda of a new state religion, and the judgement/crucifixion didn’t really happen that way. (Unfortunately, the Holy Inquisition really did.)

  • We put a big graphic at the end of each article and a divider line across the page above the large bold title of the next piece and still some people post comments to the wrong article. Perhaps we should add flashing red strobe lights and the message WARNING! NEXT ARTICLE FOLLOWS!

  • fnyser

    The lefty revisions of the 10

    You shall have NO god for The State is supreme and is god as far as you are concerned

    You shall make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth, for these all are the property of The State and worship of them is by extension worship of The State that provides them. Your State is a jealous State and will not tolerate the notion that there is a higher authority than The State. The sins of the father against the state will be visited upon his wife and children, dogs, cats, and goldfish.

    You shall engage in blaspheme and profanity at every opportunity as long as it is not in the context of questioning the means or motives of the almighty State.

    Observe each State mandated workers day off to serve The State without extra rations or to rest and consume nothing.
    The State toils tirelessly and without the benefit of market efficiencies, to passing laws ensuring your comrade is gainfully employed providing for you those things you might provide for yourself: so should you toil to serve The State that takes such pains to provide for you or at least insure you do not do for yourself what another could be made busy doing for you.
    On your allowed days off you shall not employ yourself in labour for your own benefit nor should you employ your comrade to do labour for you without submitting the proper labour requisition forms with the prevailing wage compensation to The State and the additional 100% processing fee. Under no circumstances are you to use your ass for your own benefit. In case of personal emergency it is required you get off your ass and solve your own problem while The State rides your ass.
    You shall remember that you were once free too succeed and prosper yet were also free to fail and had to rely on the good will and charity of others. The State, with its authoritarian fist, has saved you from the humbling experience of asking for help from others by insuring that none can be in the position of offering help in place of the one humbling State; therefore The State, your LORD, has commanded you serve the collectivist whole AND The State on all days that you may submit to the idea that no day is truly your own.
    Thou shall not honour your biological father or mother as The State has mandated it is your singular parent, that The State is fully responsible for you in all of your days and that you shall in no way be the sole beneficiary of your biological family’s concern. If your life be prolonged by your own effort or that of your biological family, your life or one of your biological family members may be terminated in order to preserve the statistics proving EQUITY in health care. Conversely you may be kept on life support against your wishes and at public expense if your body fails to meet the average. The United Nation’s World Health Organization’s D.A.L.E’s must be met at all expense.

    Thou shall not kill murderers and rapists as finite sentences guarantee recidivism and as recidivism affirms the need for The State for the protection of the masses. The state reserves the right to re-educate and kill those who oppose the state but only in secrecy so it does not occur as for as the citizen is concerned.

    You shall commit adultery as often as possible, as a stable family produces stable children whos’ beliefs reflect their parents’ beliefs rather than The State’s does not further the will of The State. Children with a stable traditional and regressive family are less likely to rely on The State therefore it is the duty of all men and women to procreate irresponsibly to further The State agenda.

    Thou shall not steal; The State will do it for you. Thou shall not steal directly from your comrade unless his product is made without the sanction of The State.

    Thou shall not bear false witness: This right is reserved for the DNC, but Thou shall bear false witness against thy neighbour if prompted by The State

    Thou must covet everything that everyone else earns: The State will work tirelessly to insure there is nothing to covet.

  • Theodopoulos Pherecydes

    It’s “superseding”, not “superceding”.

    [I’m sorry: I can’t help it.]

  • Nigel Holland

    I notice the name of the pro tax booklet is entitled “Taxation for the Common Good”. I have another booklet entitled “The Common Good”. I wonder have the Catholic bishops replaced Jesus with Chomsky as their son of God.

  • Richard Cook

    Lexington:

    And don’t forget the talking like they have oatmeal in their mouths.

  • toolkien

    All this to simply point out that the Church is collectivist? No surprise here. The Church exists on the left and right, merely opposing means to try and reach the perceived same goal shrouded in Biblical babble. When it is the State, it is merely one form of the tithe/alms system, the system of dependency, reward and obligation. It’s no wonder that whoever controls the State there will be religious folk egging it on. I have not met many libertarians who are involved in a church. I have met a few who are Deists but that’s about it. I am aware of a ‘clan’ of ‘libertarians’ in the US South (one of the Carolina’s as memory serves) who call themselves libertarians and are active Church goers.

  • limberwulf

    toolkein,
    I still consider myself a christian, but I dont involve myself in church, they are all beurocracies. Besides, even an exhaustive study of scripture will not reveal anything remotely similar to churches. In short, I agree, there is no suprise whatsoever that churches are collectivist, or in some cases, dictatorial.

    fnyser,
    brilliant.

  • Alan McCann

    Two better sources for the teaching of the Church are:

    Acton Institute: http://www.acton.org

    This group presents the Catholic teaching in the light of virtue and freedom (they are strong supporters of Capitalism).

    For the Pope’s views….
    http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0214/_INDEX.HTM

    You will find with both of these resources that collectivism is rejected outright.

    However, helping others in need is still a moral requirement – the question is how to best help them (hint: collectivism is not one of the answers)

    It is unfortunate that the teachings of the Church with regards to economics are not promulgated clearly.

  • toolkien

    I still consider myself a christian, but I dont involve myself in church,

    I contrast myself with my brother. I am an atheist (though agnostic) and my brother I’d classify as a Deist. He believes in a higher force or power that controls the universe while I don’t believe any such thing, yet we both consider outselves right libertarian. His belief does not translate into a specific religion or a Church as he finds them too meddling and constricting as you seem to. While I think his view point is superstitious, he is welcome to his ‘illusions’ as he doesn’t use it as an excuse to muscle other people in the conduct of their lives, and that is all that can be asked. Ultimately we all operate under our own illusions of form and function of the world and endeavor to invest it with meaning or else we would be unhinged from ‘reality’. It is when we are so enamored of our contructs that we feel obligated and entitled to coerce others that the problem arises. In the case of organized Churches, the mentality and focus is already there and it is not surprising that one faction or the other (left or right), if not allowed to be the State, will certainly support its endeavors to interfere in the lives of individuals.

  • Toolkien,

    It is clear that you are personally opposed to any type of collectivism but it isn’t axiomatic that libertarians oppose collectivism per se. Surely what we all object to is coerced collectivism?

    The problem with the Church propounding statist propaganda is not only that this is objectionable to a libertarian but that it directly contradicts their own teaching. There is no virtue in assenting to theft. Surely virtue resides in doing good works voluntarily?