Today we celebrate the founding of our country when the
brave men and women of the 18th century British colonies declared independence
from England. They did so for two
primary reasons: to attain economic and religious freedom. The prevailing economic system of their
time, referred to as “mercantilism,”
was based on the notion that each nation was in competition with every other
nation, and that economic success could only be achieved at the expense of
other, competing nations. This resulted
in heavy tariffs and the requirement that all goods and services must pass
through government agencies or approved nobles and their companies. Today, we call this “crony capitalism”
whereby wealthy and influential companies and individuals are given government
support or protection against competition and regulation. American colonists were not allowed to trade
freely with neighboring colonies of Spain or France (Louisiana), but instead
had to pay a steep tariff or sell their goods to a British intermediary who in
turn would sell their goods at a profit.
Not only did colonists lack representation in the British Parliament,
they were hampered economically, and taxed mercilessly.
On the religious front, many colonists had fled to America
to escape religious persecution.
Notably, Catholics were being persecuted in England, as were Protestants
in France. The only colony
that briefly enjoyed religious freedom was Maryland, founded by a prominent
Catholic, Lord Baltimore in the 1630s.
But by 1649, this freedom was revoked, only to be reinstituted briefly
from 1658 to 1688 when it was revoked again.
In 1776, Catholics in Maryland were not only prevented from voting, they
had to pay double taxes on their income.
As outrageous as this may sound, the HHS mandate would punish employers
for their religious belief with monumental taxes. Had the Green family lost the Hobby Lobby
case, they would have been subject to $450 million a year in taxes. The most prominent and wealthy businessman in
1776 was Charles Carroll of Maryland. He
was the only Catholic allowed to sign the Declaration of Independence. Carroll was well-educated and grew his family
fortune immensely, then spent most of his wealth to fund the revolution. His cousin, John Carroll became the first American
Catholic Bishop in the archdiocese of Baltimore, and was the founder of
Georgetown University.
Coincidentally, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in
1776. His case for economic freedom was
studied and well-understood by our founding fathers. Not
only did Smith advocate for free trade, he described how free markets served
the common good by making products and services competitively priced and
readily available, thus growing the economy, creating jobs, and encouraging
innovation, as well as the virtues of industriousness, self-discipline, thrift,
and support for the common good. Smith
outlined all this in another, lesser known book, Theory of Moral Sentiments,
which discusses the importance of virtue and the moral life, as the basis for
civil society. For the most part, the
Catholic Church agrees. In Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church, we find this statement: “A truly
competitive market is an effective instrument for attaining important
objectives of justice: moderating the excessive profits of individual
businesses, responding to consumer demand, bringing about more efficient use
and conservation of resources, rewarding entrepreneurship and innovation… and
an atmosphere of healthy competition.”
In his first encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict
XVI said, “In and of itself, the market is not the place where the strong
subdue the weak. Society does not have
to protect itself from the market… any society that commits itself to human
flourishing must allow market-oriented relationship if it is to be
authentically human.” More recently, the
Catholic bishops have observed that, “In place of virtue, we’ve seen an expansion
in government regulation. A society that
is held together just by compliance to rules is inherently fragile, and open to
abuses which are met with further expansion of regulations.”
In the year or so leading up to this week’s Supreme Court
decision on Hobby Lobby, the Catholic church has been a leader in opposing the
government’s blatant violations of religious freedom. Not only has religious freedom been a theme
of weekly “Prayers of the Faithful” in parishes across the country, hundreds of
Catholic dioceses, hospitals, social service agencies, and charitable
organizations have filed lawsuits opposing the HHS mandate. In the process, the church has taken the
opportunity to explain the importance of authentic freedom which is so commonly
misunderstood.
Increasingly, the secular worlds understanding of freedom
means exemption from any moral precepts, especially those held by religious
belief, in particular, Christian belief about abortion and marriage. From the very beginning of Christianity,
freedom has been thought of as Jesus taught it: liberation from sin. St. Paul proclaims, “Christ set us free; so
stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1).
In the fourth century when St. Augustine penned The City of God, he wrote, “the good man, although he may be a
slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave.” In contrast, pagan philosophers such as Cicero,
described freedom as the ability to live as one wishes, essentially ruled by
feelings. In response to the
Enlightenment philosophers who picked up this theme, Pope Leo XIII published an
encyclical in 1888 entitled, The Nature of Liberty, in which he
emphasized that God created man free, and the church is no enemy of
freedom. He explained that there is a
difference between liberty and license to do as one pleases, and human
reason makes it possible to know the truth that there are evils which must be
avoided if human society is to flourish.
When God gave us the 10 Commandments, He was giving us a guide to
freedom, happiness, and common good, not limits on our freedom. Violating God’s commands harms individuals and
society at large. Freedom detached from
man’s natural capacity for reason, is harmful to human flourishing and the
common good. Even civil law recognizes as much, although in recent years our legislators
and courts have overturned God’s commands about adultery and the murder of
innocent (unborn) life.
The question at hand is how to define the common good. The Church teaches that whatever supports and
upholds marriage and the family, whatever is beautiful and respects the dignity
of every human life, is good. Whatever
hurts marriage and family, diminishes human dignity, and is ugly, most likely harms
the common good. Our founding fathers
knew that our liberty would depend on the morality of our society, and that
religious liberty was foundational to our republic, hence they passed the First
Amendment immediately after the Constitution.
The day after the Hobby Lobby decision, the White House press secretary
said, “We do not believe that employers should be able to ignore federal
mandates on the basis of religious belief.”
In other words, our president wants to dictate what we should believe,
and force everyone to accept his definition of freedom, even if it violates our
deepest religious beliefs. In his
cabinet meeting the same day he said he would be looking at Executive Orders in
response to the recent high court decisions, and he urged his cabinet heads to
do the same.
God help America.
No comments:
Post a Comment