At 12:50 AM 6/10/01 -0500 Ronn Blankenship wrote:
>P.S. I'm still curious if the following quote refers to "Roman Catholic"
>social thought and if so, why specifically that denomination?
>
>> >
>> > "Compassionate conservatism is the way to reconcile the two most vital
>> > conservative intellectual traditions: libertarianism & Catholic social
>> > thought."
>> > -Michael Gerson, advisor to George W. Bush
To be perfectly honest, I don't know, having not met Michael Gerson. I
personally find the quote appealing as the balance between my
libertarianism and my Catholic background in social justice has been a
rather back-and-forth battle in the past. Since the advent of George W.
Bush on the national scene, however, I feel like I have been making very
large refinements in my personal beliefs - refinements that are largely in
line with Bush's "compassionate conservatism," and that reconcile the two
intellectual traditions cited above.
Nevertheless, the quote does specifically refer to "Roman Catholic" social
teaching Here is some speculation on my part as to why:
1) They really isn't that much of a "Protestant Social Teaching" (and the
Orthodox Community in the USA is so small, that it wouldn't make sense to
talk about "Orthodox Catholic social thought" as being an important
intellectual tradition.) I know that the focus of Catholics on social
justice is a major dividing point between Protestants and Catholics.
2) There is also a blatantly political reason for this. There is no
question that Catholics currently constitute a major swing-voting bloc.
Although an over-simplification, Catholics are generally portrayed as being
torn between voting for their pro-life and pro-family inclinations on the
right, or their anti-death-penalty and social justice inclinations on the
Left. Moreover, Bush having been barely elected by a solid bloc of
Southern electoral votes, clearly needs to find some new electoral votes if
he hopes to win in 2004. There are an awful lot of Catholics in
potential swing states like PA and MI, and the Bush Administration has been
unabashed about actively wooing the Catholic vote from Day 1 in Office.
3) Conservatism has long had some very strong ties to the Roman Catholic
Church. I am guessing that part of this is the influence of William F.
Buckley, a godfather of mothern conservatism, as well as founder and editor
emiritus of the incredibly influential _National Review_ magazine.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Compassionate conservatism is the way to reconcile the two most vital
conservative intellectual traditions: libertarianism & Catholic social
thought."
-Michael Gerson, advisor to George W. Bush
