The Catholic Perspective (Clark Cochran) #3: Church and State in Tension

There needs to be division so the church can pursue its mission, but it will be in constant interaction with the state. There is not a strong wall. Tension is Cochran’s key word in all of this. There are four points of tension in CST. Cooperation with the state, transcendence, competition, and challenge are the key points of tension that shift according to seasons and issues. Virtues are stressed in CST more than structures.

The church needs to walk the line between assisting the state to help people flourish without assimilating into the culture. This tension means, based on the issue, the church needs to cooperate with the state for the good, transcend the state when it comes the eternal things the state cannot speak to. The church must challenge the state when it is unjust and compete when it will help raise the bar for the state’s performance and contribute to the common good.

The book I’m reading is one of those “five views” books, but I’ll let the differences emerge with each summary rather than comment on their rebuttals. I’m already getting tired of blogging this, which means I’ll never finish if I look at each rebuttal. Feel free to rebut, however.

The Catholic Perspective (Clark Cochran) #2: Purpose of the State in Catholic Doctrine

According to Cochran, government is the stewardship of God’s gifts. Here are the responsibilities of Government, according to Catholic Social Teaching (CST).

Government & natural order – The government is to help the flourishing of the human person for the common good. There is a restraining of evil that is valuable. When governments fail in this regard, peaceful resistance should b eordinar, but there are some times where revolutionary violence is acceptable.
Common good – Government is responsible to the good is why God grants authority to the state. This steers between individualism and collectivism. There is no fulfillment in isolation. Your flourishing is tied to your neighbor.
There is admittedly tension with capitalism here. There is a ‘universal destination of goods’ that means everyone has a share of the earth’s goods and this isn’t just national, but poorer nations have legitimate claims on wealthier nations.
Solidarity – I am my brother’s keeper. There is a common humanity, which impels action. We are responsible for all the others. This is where ‘structures of sin’ fit in – exploitation of labor, nuclear proliferation, or racial stigma. This solidarity applies within and across national barriers.
Social justice – The common good is valued and pursued. The broadest application is in the economic sphere. The poor are the test, particularly the gap between the rich and the poor in the US as well as dire poverty in the Third World. CST recognizes private property, but it has a ‘social mortgage.’ This is in tension again with capitalism. CST has no economic commitment. Key is preventing exploitation, which some conservatives and neo-conservatives think is best done in free-market capitalism. Catholics on the left disagree.
Freedom & human dignity – People are made in the image of God and this dignity is both individual and collective. People have a right to sustenance, protection, and no oppression. Democracy is the best hope for this, but not the only hope. CST universally teaches that governments are responsible to stop abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research, but there is debate on war, poverty, death penalty, lack of health care, etc…
Order & stewardship – There is a tension between the need for the government to punish evil and to and pursue the common good. Government has to help allocate the limited resources and “insure the preservation of God’s gifts into the future” (p. 56).

Some good stuff here. Some other stuff sounds nice, but doesn’t fit with our standard American values/structures. What do you think?

Tomorrow we’ll look at how this church/state tension is lived out from a Catholic perspective.

Ouch.

You mean the Mariners weren't bad enough this year?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2008231080_hawk060.html

The Catholic Perspective (Clark Cochran) #1: Mission of the Church in Catholic Doctrine

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is broad, but here are some key points – even if there’s diversity within perspectives. It isn’t a tidy enterprise. There are four key aspects of CST that will be discussed later when it comes to how church and state will engage – cooperation, challenge, competition, and transcendence. First, we’ll look at Cochran’s explanation of the Mission of the Church and the Responsibilities of Government from a CST perspective.

Micah 6.8 is a key text in CST – do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with our God. Here are some key elements of Catholic doctrine.

Incarnational – Just as Christ came in the flesh to redeem humanity, so the church is to redeem the human and material world. This includes “that there is a natural justice and a natural common good” (p. 43).

Sacramental – Everyday events are chances for intimacy and relationship with Christ – everything is potentially sacred, which makes CST comfortable with the tensions inevitable in church/state relations.

Social anthropology – There is individual responsibility, but we are social creatures and have responsibilities toward one another.

Option for the poor – Tension between value of poverty and the relief of it. Monastic orders both honored voluntary poverty and worked to relieve the suffering. This has been characteristic of the Catholic left, but conservatives Catholics recognize it as their responsibility, too. They do it by different means.

Church as public institution – Most of the above the elements make the Catholic church public because it is committed to societal transformation for the public good – not for theocracy.

What's the difference between evangelicals, Catholics, & Orthodox?

Scot McKnight has an interesting response toward a letter that asked him, since he's so fond of Catholic and Orthodox tradition, why he hasn't converted.

He lays out some key issues in a helpful, brief way. There are strong issues, but his appreciation for these other traditions make this an gracious disagreement. Check it out.

http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=4368

Church, State, & Public Justice: Introduction

By way of introducing the complexity behind the issues of church and state relations, there is undoubtedly a history that includes a diversity of opinion and approaches. Even during great triumphs of social action by the church (slavery, for example), there was no unified golden age where everyone was in harmony. Christians have historically been on both sides of the issues at stake. Before concluding that there is no consensus voice on how Christians should engage the public and political squre, Kemeny sketches a brief history of the church’s role in society:

* Protestantism as established religion.
* Protestantism as de facto established religion (after separation of church and state is established in the Constitution)
* “Second Disestablishment” – Protestantism loses “hegemony” in society from 1920-1950s (examples of Scopes trial; JFK a Catholic president)
* End of the Protestant Establishment (1960s) – Global immigration along with the previous disestablishments lead to the most diverse nation in the world.

The current climate of disestablishment gave rise to what has come to be known as the Religious Right in the late 70s, early 80s as Christians have tried to return from irrelevance to make a difference in public policy and governance. The views on how this is best done is incredibly varied and there is no consensus.

Fear and Trembling: Politics Coming …

‘Tis the season! I’m somewhat interested in politics, though I’m not an intense partisan. I listen to talk radio and I’m conservative, but I think it is a place where thoughtful people can disagree – even as Christians. There are some issues that I think are pretty black and white – you can probably guess what they are since I’ve said I’m a conservative. But when I talk to my godly, smart friends who are more liberal – even Democrats! – they make sense and they are, by any standard, every bit the Christian as a passionate evangelical Republican.

I’m not going to open the politics can of worms – at least in a partisan way. Not my bag – and certainly not something I’m going to argue about, particularly online. I’d love to chat over coffee or lunch and learn more about how people who hold like values express them differently in the ballot box, which I’ve recently had the pleasure of doing.

The next few blog posts are intended to be descriptive of different Christian perspectives on how church and state are to interact. It is a summary of Church, State, and Public Justice, edited by PC Kemeny. I hope it is of interest to you. Feel free to interact with what you think the strengths/weaknesses are of each perspective as we go. This won’t be as exhaustive an outline as my Stetzer summary was, so I’m not sure I can even do these chapters justice (they’re beefy), but I’ll try. I’ll hit the intro tomorrow and then I’ll get each view rolled out as soon as I can – I hope I can get it all out by election day.