Roman Catholic Social Teaching

Posts Tagged ‘Roman Catholic Social Teaching’

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses, Part 23: Summary and Conclusion of the Series

Posted in Immigration, Politics, tagged Antichrist, Exsul Familia, Immigration, Mexico Mass Migration and the Example of Moses, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Strangers No Longer, Universal Destination of Goods on March 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

You gotta fight for your right to migrate. Then Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s remarkable promise to fight for the right of everyone in the whole world to migrate to the US is what first prompted me to write this series beginning in June 2018.

“Mexican Presidential Candidate Calls Mass Migration to US a ‘Human Right,’ ” ran the Daily Caller’s headline on June 22, 2018.

No sooner had I finished reading this remarkable statement than I realized that I’d soon be writing my second extended series on immigration.

It may seem to some that Lux Lucet has become an immigration blog, what with the subject occupying such a large portion of my posts over the past two and a half years. My first series, Immigration, Citizenship and the Bible, took me nearly a year-and-a-half to write and represented my first extended effort on the subject of immigration.

So why, after spending all that time and energy completing on extended immigration series, did I start another one less than six months later? There are several reasons.

First, immigration is a fascinating topic, one that incorporates a number of my favorite fields of study. It’s part politics, part economics, part philosophy and part theology. What’s not to like?

Second, it’s a critically important topic. Parents, at least wise one’s, naturally want to pass their heritage to their children and to see them prosper in the way. In Deuteronomy, we see this expressed in the saying that the Lord keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him. Likewise, we’re told in Proverbs that a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. Fathers are encouraged to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and children to obey their father and mother. But if current trends continue in the US and in Western Europe, it may well be that in a few decades not a few of these nations will cease to exist in anything like their historic form. There may be a France and a Germany and a United States, but these could well be just legacy place names only, with the actual peoples that historically occupied those places and their cultures being largely or entirely wiped out. The destruction of one’s heritage is not a blessing, but a sign of God’s curse. If the public policies pursued by the leaders of a nation and its people result, not in prosperity for their posterity, but in their destruction, it is reasonable to conclude that those policies are contrary to the law of God and must be repented of.

Third, immigration is one of the most poorly understood topics. If one is to prevent the destruction of one’s society, one first must understand why his society is being destroyed. But discussions of immigration policy, being prone as they are to emotional outbursts, are, for that reason, not always fruitful. I’ve heard Daniel McAdams, a former Congressional staffer for Ron Paul and Dr. Paul’s current co-host on the Liberty Report, say that immigration was his least favorite topic because of the extreme positions taken by various sides on the issue. For this reason, it’s important to find a way to talk about immigration in a way that focuses on ideas and not on people.

Fourth, immigration is a major weapon on the Roman Church-State’s arsenal for imposing an updated version of the Holy Roman Empire, not on Europe only, but on the whole world. Call it scalable tyranny if you will. It is imperative to understand the danger of Rome’s immigration gambit, yet most Americans are clueless about this. Former White House Chief Political Strategist Steve Bannon, himself a Roman Catholic, understands, at least in part, why Rome pushes immigration so hard. According to him, “unable to really come to grips with the problems in the Church, they need illegal aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches. It’s obvious on the face of it…They have an economic interest. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.

Fifth, Protestants, who should be at the forefront of the immigration debate, generally are missing in action. Either they avoid the subject out of fear or ignorance, or, when they do discuss it, they show themselves the intellectual thralls of Antichrist. Instead of going to the Scriptures to understand the mind of God on immigration, they instead are satisfied with repeating the tired and unbiblical arguments of the Roman Church-State, tricking it out in Evangelical garb to sell Rome’s nonsense to the unsuspecting sheep.

Sixth, immigration is a topic tailor made for Scripturalists. Scripturalism, the Christian system of thought developed by Gordon Clark and John Robbins, holds that the Bible has a systematic monopoly on truth. If Americans are to solve the knotty problem of immigration, they will not do so by turning to secular economists or political theorists. They must turn to the Word of God and seek his mind on the matter. It has been the goal of this author to begin the process of applying Scripturalist thought to the critical issue of immigration policy.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses Part 22: Moses, Edom, and Sihon King of the Amorites

Posted in Immigration, Politics, tagged Antichrist, Babylonian Harlot, Exsul Familia, Immigration, Mexico Mass Migration and the Example of Moses, Property Rights, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Universal Destination of Goods on March 10, 2019| 1 Comment »

The Israelite army defeats the armies of Sihon and Og.

And the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more” (Numbers 21:19).

“The émigré Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, is the archetype of every refugee family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, living in exile in Egypt to escape the fury of an evil king, are, for all times and all places, the models and protectors of every migrant, alien and refugee of whatever kind who, whether compelled by fear of persecution or by want, is forced to leave his native land, his beloved parents and relatives, his close friends, and to seek a foreign soil.”

Thus began Pope Pius XII in his 1952 Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia Nazarethana (hereafter EFN), the most important statement to date by the Roman Catholic Church-State on the subjects of immigration, migration and refugee resettlement.

Having gone over EFN is some detail in earlier posts in this series, I shall not repeat myself here. But I wanted to mention EFN in connection with this week’s post, because my topic today ties back to the prior discussion on EFN.

In this respect, the words of John Robbins on philosophic systems is worth calling to mind. I don’t have the reference immediately handy, but I do recall hearing or reading Robbins state that when philosophic systems go wrong, they tend to go wrong right from the beginning. That is to say, you don’t have to plow through a thousand tedious pages of argumentation before you realize someone’s talking nonsense. If you know what to look for, you can spot the foolishness quickly.

Such is the case with EFN. Infallible Pope Pius XII drops the ball right away when he makes the rather shocking blunder of saying that the Biblical account of Joseph’s taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod, “is the archetype of every refugee family.” Now an archetype is defined by Merriam Webster as, “the original pattern of model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.” But it seems to this author that the Pope is manifestly wrong in his assertion.

In the first place, the scale doesn’t quite fit the sort of mass migration that was occurring at the time Pope Pius XII wrote his Apostolic Constitution, or, for that matter, the sort of mass migration the current occupant of the office of Antichrist is encouraging. One family versus millions is not really a great comparison.

Second, the Bible is silent about how the Joseph and his family were supported. While Rome boldly asserts that the governments of receiving nations have an obligation to take property from citizens (i.e. Rome claims governments must steal from their own people) and transfer it to migrants, immigrants and refugees, the account of Joseph and his family in Egypt supports no such theft.

Third, unlike many of today’s migrants, Joseph took his family and returned home once the danger was past. But unlike Joseph, the representatives of the Babylonian Harlot fight tooth and nail to make sure all migrants remain in the receiving countries, even when they entered the receiving country on explicitly temporary terms. For example, in January 2018 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a press release lamenting how disappointed they were to hear that the Trump administration had cancelled the Temporary protected Status (TPS) of Salvadorans who had been allowed to stay in the US as a result of the devastation wrought on El Salvador by Hurricane Mitch. What the bishops failed to mention in their release is that Hurricane Mitch had hit El Salvador in, wait for it, 1999. In other words, the Salvadorans “temporary” status in the US was in its nineteenth year. Still, nearly nineteen years of American generosity wasn’t enough to satisfy the moral conscience of USCCB as they proceeded to lecture Americans on their need to “love the resident alien” as if they hadn’t already gone far any above any reasonable efforts. What part of “temporary” do the bishops not understand?

Clearly, even a brief consideration of the flight to Egypt reveals that it does not support the case for unlimited, taxpayer subsidized immigration, migration and refugee resettlement that Antichrist and his representatives in the USCCB want you to think it does. This, however, does not mean the Bible is silent on these topics. Actually, it has quite a lot to say about migration, but you have to look in the right place. And where would that be? Is there an example of a mass exodus to be found anywhere in Scripture? Why yes, there most certainly is. And the account of that mass exodus is found, oddly enough, in the Book of Exodus and the following books of Moses.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses Part 21: Robert Filmer, John Robbins and the Biblical Origin of Private Property

Posted in Immigration, tagged Antichrist, Exsul Familia, John Robbins, Mexico Mass Migration and the Example of Moses, Robert Filmer, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Strangers No Longer on March 3, 2019| 2 Comments »

Sir Robert Filmer

“The Prime duties of the second table [of the ten commandments] are conversant about the right of property. But if property be brought in by a human law (as Grotius teacheth), then the moral law depends upon the will of man. There could be no adultery or theft, if women and all things were common.”

– Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha

Rome’s teaching on migration, which is the theoretical basis for the ongoing migration crisis in both Europe and the United States, rests on the doctrine of the universal destination of goods.

The universal destination of all goods is the idea, repeated time and again in the official documents of the Roman Church-State, that in the original state of nature, before the fall of man, that God gave the world to mankind collectively. This idea, dating back to the pagan stoics, was picked up by the church fathers, repeated by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, and used by popes and other thinkers in the Roman Church-State as the foundational idea for socialist economic and political thought which characterizes the Social Teaching of the Church.

Since Rome’s teaching on migrants is one facet of the Church’s Social Teaching, it should come as no surprise to find that the universal destination of goods is foundational to the Church’s teaching on immigration, migration and refugee resettlement as well.

A second key point to this series is that the universal destination of goods is unbiblical. Rather than positing the idea that God gave the Earth to man collectively, the Bible teaches that private property was the original economic order of things.

The third key point is that, if it can be demonstrated from the Scriptures that Rome’s doctrine of the universal destination of goods is false, not only is Rome’s socialist migration doctrine likewise refuted, but the entirety of its Social Teaching is overthrown as well.

In this week’s post, we shall continue to examine the arguments against the universal destination of goods and for original capitalism made by 17th century English political philosopher Sir Robert Filmer as discussed in John Robbins’ doctoral dissertation, The Political Thought of Sir Robert Filmer.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses Part 20: Robert Filmer, John Robbins and the Biblical Origin of Private Property

Posted in Immigration, Philosophy, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged John Robbins, Mexico Mass Migration and the Example of Moses, Robert Filmer, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Universal Destination of Goods on February 24, 2019| 1 Comment »

English political philosopher Sir Robert Filmer, c. 1588-1653

“[F]or it is not possible for the wit of man to search out the first grounds or principles of government (which necessarily depend upon the original of property) except he know that at the creation one man alone was made, to whom the dominion of all things was given, and from whom all men derive their title.

– Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha and Other Political Works, 203-204

One of the major, perhaps the major, overarching themes of this series of essays, which has now stretched to twenty installments, is that Rome’s faulty economic and political thought, which itself is derived from Rome’s faulty theology, is the primary cause of the migrant crisis in the United States and in Europe.

But while there are many problems with Roman Catholic theological, political and economic thought, the examination of which is beyond the scope of this series, one error in particular stands out as relevant to the topic of mass migration: Rome’s doctrine of the universal destination of goods.

This series has examined the universal destination of goods at some length in previous installments, and it is not my intention here to go over it again in close detail. Let it suffice for our purposes today to quote John Robbins’ magisterial work on the political and economic thought of the Roman Catholic Church, Ecclesiastical Megalomania,

The Thomistic notion of original communism – the denial that private property is part of the natural law, but that common property is both natural and divine – is foundational to all the Roman Catholic arguments for various forms of collectivism, from medieval feudalism and guild socialism to twentieth century fascism and liberation theology. The popes refer to this original communism as the “universal destination of all goods” (38).

As this quote points out, the universal destination of goods depends upon the idea that God, at the time of creation, gave the world, not to individual men, but to mankind collectively. This view, what John Robbins calls “original communism,” is the official position of the Roman Catholic church, having become part of the warp and woof of Roman Catholic Social Teaching, not only as a result of the Church-State’s establishment of Thomism as the official doctrine of the Church, but also through the many repetitions of this idea through papal encyclicals and other important church documents over the past 100 plus years.

The universal destination of goods resting on the idea of original communism is the foundational idea of all of Rome’s teaching on the issues of immigration, migration and refugee resettlement. If you doubt this, please read, or re-read the last two posts in this series where, quoting directly from Roman Catholic sources, this author has made this assertion abundantly clear. You may find these posts here and here.

Having the universal destination of goods as a unifying concept behind all its Social Teaching, including its teaching on migration, has allowed Rome to systematize its economic and political teaching in a way that would not otherwise have been possible. Instead of having random ideas strewn about, Rome’s teaching on political and economic issues is highly organized, with statements on one topic serving to reinforce the Church-State’s teaching on another topic. Roman Catholic Social Teaching is, for all its many errors, testament to the power of systematic thought.

But while Rome’s systematic approach to addressing political and economic questions is a great strength, at the same time, it’s also Rome’s great point of weakness. Why is this? For the reason that, if one can demonstrate from the Scriptures that the “community of goods” is false, that God did not, in fact give the Earth to mankind collectively, then the entire system of Rome’s Social Teaching comes crashing to the ground, including its dogmatic assertions about the right of migrants to impose themselves on host nations. Or, as Martin Luther might put it, one little word shall fell them.

It is the contention of this author that not only is it possible to demonstrate from the Scriptures that Rome’s community of goods is a fiction, but that this point already has been demonstrated in the works of 17th century political philosopher Sir Robert Filmer.

Today’s post, and, Lord willing, the next few posts will focus on showing that, far from endorsing the idea of “original communism,” the Bible instead posits a system of original private property. God did not give the Earth to mankind collectively, but rather he gave it to Adam individually, and it is from Adam that “all men derive their title” to private property. Far from being a late addition to the economic order, private property, original capitalism, was what was established by God at the time of creation.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses Part 19: The Universal Destination of Goods and Rome’s Ungodly Doctrine of Migration

Posted in Immigration, Politics, tagged Antichrist, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Exsul Familia, John Robbins, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Strangers No Longer, Universal Destination of Goods on February 17, 2019| 2 Comments »

Thomas Aquinas, official philosopher of the Roman Church-State and conduit for the unbiblical notion of the universal destination of goods, an idea central, not just to the Social Teaching of the Church, but to Rome’s destructive doctrine of migration. A doctrine that the Church-State is using to destroy the remnants of the Protestant West.

In Roman Catholic economic thought, there is a hierarchy of principles, and the most important principle, to which all others are subordinate, is the principle of the universal destination of goods.

– John W. Robbins, Ecclesiastical Megalomania, p.39

Last week, we began a more detailed look at the Roman Catholic principle of the universal destination of goods. That post, I emphasized the point that Rome’s doctrine of mass, taxpayer subsidized immigration, migration and refugee resettlement is not some isolated teaching, quite apart from other ideas advanced by the Roman Church-State. Rather, it is part of a larger body of teaching by Rome known as the Social Teaching of the Church.

Economics is part of the Roma Catholic Church’s Social Teaching. And, as noted in the quote at the top of this post, the most important principle in Roman Catholic economic thought is the universal destination of goods. The universal destination of goods rests on the false idea – a false idea promulgated by Greek and Roman philosophers, transmitted by the early church fathers, taught by Thomas Aquinas, the official philosopher of the Roman Church-State, and which serves as the foundation of all of Rome’s Social Teaching – that God originally gave the Earth to all men in common. That is to say, Rome believes in original communism.

Remember, Roman Catholicism is not a random collection of ideas. It is a system of thought. As such, it is held together by certain common ideas. The latent original communism found in Roman Catholic economic thought, what the popes call the universal destination of goods, is one of the consistent threads binding together the vast body of Rome’s Social Teaching, of which its teaching on immigration is a part.

To give you a visual representation of the relationship that exists between Roman Catholic Social Teaching, it’s general position on immigration, and the specific application of its teaching on immigration to the United States. a simple outline will suffice.

The Social Teaching of the Church (begins with the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum, 1891) >

General statement of the church on migration (Exsul Familia Nazarathana, 1952) >

Specific application to the Church’s teaching on migration to the United States (Strangers No Longer, 2003)

Last week, I provided a quote from The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church illustrating the fundamental importance of the universal destination of goods in Roman Catholic Social Teaching. In part, the quote read, “The universal right to use the goods of the earth is based on the principle of the universal destination of goods…The right to the common use of goods is the first principle of the whole ethical and social order’ and ‘the characteristic principle of Christian social doctrine.’ ”

Lord willing, perhaps as soon as next week, I will make the Biblical case against the universal destination of goods. Since Rome’s Social Teaching is systematic, and since the universal destination of goods is, by Rome’s own admission, central to The Social Teaching of the Church, a Biblical refutation of the universal destination of goods constitutes a refutation, not just of Rome’s doctrine of immigration, but of the entire body of Rome’s Social Teaching. That is to say, the whole structure of Rome’s Social Teaching, including its ungodly doctrine of immigration, collapses like a house of cards.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. But before laying the axe to the root of Rome’s Social Teaching, I would like to demonstrate to you just how systematically Rome has worked the universal destination of goods into it teaching on immigration.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses Part 18: The Universal Destination of Goods and Rome’s Ungodly Doctrine of Migration

Posted in Immigration, tagged Antichrist, Ecclesiastical Megalomania, Immigration, John Robbins, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Roman Church-State on February 10, 2019| 4 Comments »

The popes have expressed their hatred, not only of Protestantism…but also for the political and economic expression of Christianity: capitalism..such statements…are part of a system of thought that is one of the most impressive systems yet devised by men.

– John W. Robbins, Ecclesiastical Megalomania, p.24

One of the many problems with Protestantism in its dilapidated, early 21st century manifestation is the refusal of both its leading thinkers and church members to think systematically. One of the hallmarks of the Reformation was the rejection of logical contradiction by Luther, Calvin and others. But today, the heirs of the Reformation think rejecting logical thought to be the very height of piety.

In the decadent early 21st century, many of those who lay claim to the mantel of Luther and Calvin seem to long for a sort of theological medieval magical mystery tour where logic is curbed and paradox rules the day. To the extent that they reject logic in favor of intuition, paradox mystery, these men unfit themselves not only to proclaim the Gospel of Justification by Belief Alone, but also to deal with the massive and ongoing assault by the Roman Church-State on the remnants of Western Civilization, a civilization born out of the preaching of the Gospel in 16th century Europe.

As this author has discussed throughout this series, the mass migration of Mexicans and people from other Latin American nations into the United States though our southern border with Mexico is the practice of the migration theory of the Roman Church State. Further, the migration theory of the Roman Church-State is itself derived from a larger body of Romanist thought know as the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Not only does Rome teach heresy, but it teaches organized, systematic heresy.

Were its teaching on immigration, migration and refugee resettlement merely ad hoc doctrines, they would be dangerous enough. But because Rome has integrated its teachings in these areas into “one of the most impressive systems [of thought] yet devised by men” to borrow John Robbins’ turn of phrase, its teachings on migration have become a category five hurricane that threatens to blow away the tottering structure of what remains of Western Civilization.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Mexico, Mass Migration and the Example of Moses Part 17: What Christians Must Do to Defeat Rome’s Ungodly Immigration Policies

Posted in Immigration, Politics, tagged Antichrist, Pope Francis, Roman Catholic Social Teaching, Roman Church-State, Universal Destination of Goods on February 3, 2019| 2 Comments »

Pope Francis holds mass in Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border, February 17, 2016. Shortly afterward, Francis attacked then presidential candidate Donald Trump for his promise to build a border wall to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S.

“We can no longer sustain unacceptable economic inequality, which prevents us from applying the principle of the universal destination of the earth’s goods.”

– Pope Francis

Of all political issues of our time, immigration has to rank among the most likely to trigger a viscerally emotional response. This is true regardless of which side of the debate one is on. Daniel McAdams – a Libertarian, former Congressional staffer for Ron Paul and current co-host of the Liberty Report – has said that immigration was his least favorite topic to discuss for this very reason.

On the other hand, there are few topics that this author finds more interesting and perhaps none on which he has written more extensively. Although immigration can bring out the emotions as few issues can, ultimately the immigration debate is not one of competing emotions, but of competing ideas. As such, it has been this author’s endeavor to keep the focus of this series on ideas, not on people. My hope in doing so is to make the case that, contrary to the propaganda one hears from the globalists, immigrants, migrants and refugees have no claim on the goods of the citizens of host nations. Further, there exists no concomitant obligation on the part of the citizens of host nations to meet the perceived needs of the migrants.

Anyone who makes such an argument has opened himself up to charges of racism, bigotry, xenophobia and selfishness. Such is the underlying assumption in nearly every article that appears in the mainstream press. All such assumptions are rubbish.

Rather than asking why those who oppose the sort of mass migration prompted by the globalists in general, and by the Pope and the Roman Church-State in particular, are such bigots, the proper question is to ask why those who promote mass, taxpayer subsidized, nation breaking immigration, migration and refugee resettlement are such thieves. For the sort of immigration programs supported by the Pope are in reality nothing less than an attempt to justify theft, and theft on a global scale at that.

As John Robbins noted in his lectures on economics, the concept of theft logically depends on the prior concept of property. The context for his remarks was his discussion of the famous maxim of French anarchist Pierre Joseph-Proudhon “Property is theft.” Robbins argued that Proudhon’s statement was nonsense. Theft, said Robbins, depends on the idea of property. If one believes that the idea of property itself is illegitimate, as Proudhon’s statement implies, it is pointless to talk about theft.

It may come as a surprise to many on both sides of the immigration debate – both those promoting Rome’s vision of unrestricted mass immigration, migration and refugee resettlement and those opposed to it – to hear that having a correct, that is to say a Biblical, view of property is the key to settling the issue of immigration. Yet this author is convinced that such is the case.

Lord willing, this discussion about property will look at the issue from two angles. First, I would like to recap some of what has already been written in the series about Rome’s antichristian, collectivist theory of property known as the universal destination of goods. Second, I shall refute Rome’s false doctrine of property with the words of Scripture, using John Robbins’ doctoral dissertation on Sir Robert Filmer to highlight what the Bible says on the subject of the origin and transmission of property.

To summarize what shall follow, it is this author’s contention that the Bible’s teaching on property represents a complete refutation of Rome’s false doctrine of the universal destination of goods. Since the universal destination of goods is the philosophical foundation of all Rome’s teachings on immigration, migration and refugee resettlement, by refuting it, one refutes the entire theoretical body of Antichrist’s teachings in these areas and exposes his practices of them as the enormous sins and crimes which they truly are.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

The Bible alone is the Word of God.

Posts Tagged ‘Roman Catholic Social Teaching’

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Radio Lux Lucet

Radio Lux Lucet

The Bible alone is the Word of God.

Articles of Interest

Blogroll

Intellectual Ammo

Archives

Categories