Seth's politics

[Sethomas]

I think the absence of any political guidelines speaks volumes on that subject, unless you keep in mind that Jesus was a socialist in a religious sense. As for imposing socialist government, I think the "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" statement you mentioned does give Christianity the liberty to adopt any godless government it requires. That statement was brought up in Scripture because of the transgressions of the Roman State upon the Jewish religion. You could argue that Jesus was only saying "sure Rome is evil, but at this point in time you'd get your ass wipped anyways." He did predict the Fall of the Temple, after all.

I personally believe that Jesus had the prescience to be able to say "American leftism is WRONG!", but he didn't. He told tax collectors and whores to "sin no more", but he never told anyone to ostracize sinners.

Plus, you may have heard of the conservative political philosopher Jean Beth Elshtain. I was in a class she taught on Augustine's De Civitate Dei, and she was quite clear on the matter that Augustine never intended the City of God to take place on Earth. So, if theocratical impositions of the state go against Augustine, then I'm all for secularism.

Someone at the Phatmass forums keeps bringing up the fact that the Catechism states that the State must concede that it derives its power from God, but I feel that this simply means it's our responsibility to choose moral leaders. As a metaphysical body, the State can't really concede much of anything except through its legislation and social programs. The purpose of the State is to mutually benefit the human race, and it makes perfect sense for that to entail the unborn.