The conceptual distinction between the exercise of authority and the exercise of power provides an essential guide to understanding the present and future status of Christendom, which has not been abolished but, rather, has taken on new forms in our times. The Second Vatican Council, in its document Lumen Gentium, clarified that the Kingdom of God is not a place or a government, much less an earthly end-state arrived at through the political process.
These two great Christian pastors probably would have liked each other as well as deeply appreciated each other’s vision of the Christian life, each marked by intellectual vigor, theological substance, doctrinal orthodoxy, compassion, and a love for people.
The popular media's use of the words community, society, state, and government interchangeably introduces a fallacy with potentially dire consequences.
Just as Judeo-Christianity is linked to the blessings of prosperity in a free and virtuous society, so too human sin is linked to all that has made Detroit a city that evokes associations with Hell.
It is worth remembering what George Washington said in his farewell address about religion: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports …. Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.
Our current monetary policy leaves much to be desired when evaluated against the Christian moral tradition and the thought of several Christian historical figures.
Christian thinkers no longer speak about culture and politics in terms of the more enduring principles of moral virtue, law, and the common good but now focus on social justice, understood as solely the immediate, material rights and dignity of the human person.