Tea Party Catholic: Connecting Religious Liberty and Economic Freedom [View all]

[trotsky]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tea-party-catholic-connecting-religious-liberty-and-economic-freedom-2013-09-09

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Sept. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In his new book, Tea Party Catholic: The Catholic Case for Limited Government, a Free Economy, and Human Flourishing (The Crossroad Publishing Co., 2013), Samuel Gregg, director of research for the Acton Institute, draws on Catholic social teaching and the thought of Charles Carroll of colonial Maryland - the only Catholic Signer of America's Declaration of Independence - to make a powerful case for the enduring value of economic freedom and the role it plays in sustaining America's unique experiment in political and religious liberty.

In Tea Party Catholic, Gregg poses important questions about America's founding principles that are increasingly under threat. Can a believing Catholic support free markets? Does the Catholic social justice commitment translate directly into support for big government? And perhaps most importantly: Do Catholics understand how the loss of economic freedom in America is undermining the United States' robust commitment to religious liberty?

This First Amendment right - not simply to worship privately but to express one's faith in the fullness of civic life - is a principle integral not only to the American Founding but also to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

"Unfortunately for the Church in America, it is now apparent that the effects of excessive government economic intervention go beyond Americans' ability to engage their economic liberty in the pursuit of human flourishing," Gregg writes in Tea Party Catholic. "It is now directly impacting a freedom that has always been central to the achievements of the American Revolution and to which the American republic has always accorded a high priority: the right of religious liberty."

Religion and politics. Always a great mix!