[Peace-discuss] Religion and liberalism in America

[Morton K. Brussel]

A (partial) apology:

In rereading Daly's piece, I realize that I was unjustifiably harsh  
in criticizing it. I am in sympathy with the thrust of his thesis  
that "the common good" he discusses needs to be brought back to  
society's consciousness, over and against the pseudo laissez-fair  
capitalism/corporatism that reigns today. What I object to is his  
claim that it was the church, the Catholic church, which guided the  
progress in social welfare that took place under the New Deal. It may  
well have been influential, to what degree I can't judge, in the  
Roosevelt administrations' thinking, but their were very strong  
socialistic, indeed Marxist, currents that influenced this  
"progress".  Debs won quite a few votes in the twenties and early  
thirties, and the country was worried about socialistic tendencies  
that had to be thwarted. These socialist tendencies were mostly  
secular and I believe more powerful than anything the Catholic church  
(as distinguished perhaps  from working Catholics in their  
population) represented. The church was divided, and Ryan et al was  
not the only voice in the arena.

I also reject his thesis that the progressive developments in the  
60's, for civil rights for blacks, for women, for sexual freedom, …  
were antithetical to a social conscience in an economic sense.

This is an attempt to show the progressive nature of Catholic  
teaching on the "common good". But that is far from the whole story.
--mkb


On Jul 6, 2007, at 9:23 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> No, I'm sure you're right, Mort -- it's much better to discuss  
> these matters on the basis of uninformed prejudices about how  
> religion and liberalism function in America than it is actually to  
> learn the facts...
>
> Nice to have a prejudice, too, that precludes having to read what  
> someone "committed to a liberal Catholic religious point of view"  
> writes.  In this case however you may be wrong: the author, Lew  
> Daly, was a prison chaplain (perhaps Presbyterian?) and published  
> "God and the Welfare State" with MIT Press (not a major source of  
> Catholic propaganda) in 2006.  He studied Christian Ethics at Union  
> Theological Seminary (not a Catholic institution) in New York City  
> and holds a Ph.D. in seventeenth-century English literature and  
> political thought (not a particularly Catholic environment). The  
> article appeared in The Boston Review (not a journal known for  
> Catholic apologetics) and seemed to me to sketch the complex story  
> of how in 20th century America religious notions of the common good  
> combated liberal  ideology in the New Deal attempt to salvage  
> capitalism after its collapse.  Uninformed notions of American  
> religion and liberalism were indeed attacked.
>
> Daly, whom I've not met, is said incidentally to be writing a book  
> on "distributive justice in the knowledge economy" with Gar  
> Alperovitz. --CGE
>
>
> Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>> You've got to be kidding to suggest folks read this over-long,  
>> over-elaborated text by one committed to a (liberal--not all are  
>> liberal) Catholic(?) religious point of view.
>>  I would suggest instead a subscription to the Humanist Magazine.
>> --mkb
>> On Jul 6, 2007, at 1:17 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>> [There seems to me to be a good bit of hasty comment (for lack of  
>>> a better term) at the moment on the subject of religion and  
>>> politics, from Christopher Hitchens to our own Robert Dunn.  Some  
>>> facts might be appropriate.  Here's an interesting description of  
>>> the matter from the Boston Review.  --CGE]
>>>
>>>
>>>     In Search of the Common Good
>>>     Lew Daly
>>>
>>>
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