Thomas Fleming
Thomas Fleming is president of the Fleming Foundation. He is the author of six books, including The Morality of Everyday Life and The Politics of Human Nature, as well as many articles and columns for newspapers, magazines,and learned journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Greek from the College of Charleston. He served as editor of Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture from 1984 to 2015 and president of The Rockford Institute from 1997-2014. In a previous life he taught classics at several colleges and served as a school headmaster in South Carolina
I rather like the very high setting of the bar here. I’m under the impression that the First Amendment religion clauses were supposed to protect the church from the state. Perhaps they have worked better than many other provisions of the Constitution.
I couldn’t help reacting to your statement about fearing to subject your sons to the mercies of Mayor Buttigieg. Never fear, they are probably too long in the tooth for his honor.
Pope Leo XIII puts it nicely in Immortale Dei
“To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from the business of life, from the making of laws, from the education of youth, from domestic society is a grave and fatal error. A State from which religion is banished can never be well regulated; and already perhaps more than is desirable is known of the nature and tendency of the so-called civil philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. She it is who preserves in their purity the principles from which duties flow, and, by setting forth most urgent reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to turn away from wicked deeds, but even to curb all movements of the mind that are opposed to reason, even though they be not carried out in action.”
Of course, today the liberalism of the government is a secondary problem in this discussion. The Church has thrown away her Tradition, and is in no place to be cooperating with any government. The Pope and the Bishops are far worse than any of our government officials. The worst a government can do is harm and destroy a nation. Clergymen who’s job it is to protect souls are instead co-operating with the agendas of degenerate western governments. In doing this they make a mockery of the Faith and lead many souls to destruction in the process. If, as Leo says, a state can not be well regulated without co-operating with the Church, the restoration of the Church should be our primary concern.
I don’t personally have any such fears but used the rhetorical structure known as a “priamel” by the Germans, of the type, X is good, Y is better, but as for Z….. The trouble with Buttigieg has not his private life but the extreme bad taste he has in making his sex life public and denouncing anyone who disagrees with him as unChristian or anti-Christian, when his own views are entirely incompatible with both Scripture and Tradition. I have said it many times, I would cheerfully vote for a homosexual–so long as he or for that matter a heterosexual did not force his eccentricities upon my attention–but it is the homosexualist who causes the trouble and a majority of that type are in fact heterosexual.
The First Amendment–like most of the Bill of Rights–was designed to protect the corporate rights of states and communities against the Federal Government. It certainly does not have the effect these days, and rare is the churchman or pew-sitter who would not cheerfully call in the Feds against his local community. The ridiculous Restoration of the Freedom of Religion Act, foisted off on a gullible public by the GOP, was inspired when a tasteless and autocratic Catholic bishop in Texas insisted on violating perfectly sensible zoning restrictions in an historic and charming small city.
Dr Fleming, would you say that the appearance of national flags inside churches or on poles on church grounds, are a telltale symptom of what you are discussing here, with regard to the corruption of the churches and their (in many ways voluntary) subjection to the state?
Yes, AW, exactly. Don Livingston has talked about this in several contexts.
If the Constitution protects the States from the Federal government, who protects us from the tyrannical State Governments? I live in Maryland (named after the Mother of God in better times) which is totally controlled by evil Democrats, both elected and unelected. We have some moderate Democrats, too. We call them Republicans. They go along to get along. One of them is our Governor. He is thinking about challenging President Trump for the 2020 nomination.
Today’s local paper had an article celebrating local Gay Pride activities, another about ten – year – old Xander who recently came out to “their” classmates as binary, and another short item in the entertainment section about a young actress explaining how happy she was that she could delay deciding which gender she wanted to be.
I would not want any of these deluded people holding public office, especially President. If we cannot have office holders who are guided by the true Christian Faith, why would we want those who flaunt their rebellion against it?
Off topic, but there is a query in the Forum from Scott Swoope. There are many others here better able to answer him than I am. You know who you are. Please take a look.
This duo of Rex and Tom is an excellent format for the times. Rex is spot on in asking the questions everyone wants to ask but fears asking and Tom is excellent at providing answers everyone would like to provide but is afraid to speak about. Really is the rest of the story without being haughty and condescending so quite enjoyable for me. Keep up the good work
There is no perfect remedy for tyranny, but the more power is fractioned–as Jefferson imagined–it becomes more difficult. The weak and stupid will always be ruled and probably bullied by the strong and clever, but in a village the weak and stupid have friends and relatives among the powerful. In a nation state of over 300 million, not even generals and senators can protect themselves if they are targeted.