The Tax Collector’s Morality

[Flanders]

The title of a great piece —— The Religious Left's Moral Fallacy —— by Eugene Slaven over at the American Thinker reminded of an observation I posted on my first message board in 2000:

Self-defined liberals in the private sector were so busy defending against the Religious Right they never saw the Religious Left sneaking up on them. Flanders

The very existence of an unconstitutional Religious Left is the moral fallacy. Unconstitutional because it survives on tax dollars in direct violation of the First Amendment. A moral fallacy because the Religious Left uses the public purse to subjugate every other religion’s moral principals to the tax collector’s morality.

Slaven’s entire piece is well-worth reading. Here are a few excerpts on a theme that brightened the coming Christmas season for me:

. . . at no point in the Bible does Jesus advocate for a coercive government that confiscates wealth from some citizens to give to others.

Jesus was a moral philosopher, not a political philosopher. He preached what the moral individual ought to do and how individuals ought to treat one another. That is decidedly different from advocating a political system in which the government determines what portion of their incomes individuals must forfeit to the state.

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. . . the government coercing individuals to act "morally." This is a perversion of the very essence of morality.

An action is moral only if the individual, endowed with the gift of free will, chooses to act morally. If you strip the individual of choice, forcing him to give up his income to a cause the state decides is moral, it cannot be said that the individual has acted morally.

Moral action via coercion is a paradox. Only voluntary action can be deemed moral or immoral.

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. . . they're talking about government force, not voluntary cooperation among individuals. The former is statism; the latter is the cornerstone of a free society.

. . . confusing voluntary charitable action with state coercion,

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. . . even if you believe that forcing an individual to be "charitable" at the point of a gun is consistent with Christian theology or general principles of morality (it isn't), the inevitable outcome of state coercion will be not a more charitable and prosperous society, but a more economically depressed and despotic one.

December 8, 2013
The Religious Left's Moral Fallacy
By Eugene Slaven

Articles: The Religious Left's Moral Fallacy​

 

[Votto]

If Christians are going to vote for those who support abortion over what their church teaches about abortion then what makes you think that Christians will give a damn about any of this?

Christians in the US care more about their political party ideology than they do church doctrine.

 

[Flanders]

If Christians are going to vote for those who support abortion over what their church teaches about abortion then what makes you think that Christians will give a damn about any of this?

To Votto: Because the tax collector’s morality, i.e.; coerced charity, is a penalty everyone is forced to pay. If you read the article I excerpted you will notice that I selected text about government force under the pretense of morality.

Incidentally, you seem to be saying that all Christians are imperfect because some support abortion. In truth, most opposition to abortion comes from Christians; so “one bad apple spoils the barrel” does not apply.

Christians in the US care more about their political party ideology than they do church doctrine.

To Votto: No so. Irrespective of their political party of choice American Christians advocate the doctrine of Separation of Church & State. That is certainly the opposite ideology put forth by Democrats as Barack Taqiyya’s moralizing shows.

Most Americans mistakenly believe that Democrats, liberals, progressives, etc, are the great defenders of the separation of church and state because they hear about liberal groups filing lawsuits demanding that Christian symbols and such be removed from public property. The opposite is true. The Religious Left is working overtime time to establish a Socialist theocracy. The misconception is understandable because the public hears very little about the religious pretensions of Barack Taqiyya & Company. Taqiyya’s determination to be seen as America’s spiritual leader is responsible for letting the cat out of the bag.

President Obama is pivoting once again to decrying the alleged sin of income inequality -- the left's perennial and favorite class-warfare theme. At the same time, the religious left is becoming more vocal in American politics, couching its opposition to income inequality in theological rhetoric.

Articles: The Religious Left's Moral Fallacy​

In plain English, Socialism/Communism has never been legally defined as a religion; so Socialists/Communists can hardly be accused of erasing the line that separates church and state for themselves in order to get at Supreme Deity religions.

Abortion aside, I think your critique is better aimed at Islam and Socialism. Both are theocracies. In practice, Socialists and Muslims see their religion as their political party and vice versa. That allows them to pick and choose which parts of each they can ignore or practice. In every instance the selection process breeds fanaticism rather than freedom and moderation.