Dear Editor: The Sermon on the Mount from the gospel of Matthew comprises the essence of Christianity.
This ethic requires a Christian to consider the totality of the candidate’s positions on life issues such as healthcare, education, a living wage, immigration, jobs, the death penalty, war, the environment, restoration-based versus retribution-based justice, economic justice and the dignity and equality of all human beings.
Most people in the United States have been led to believe that capitalism is good and socialism is bad. The only real way of measuring or evaluating an economic system is to look at the standard of living for the majority of people living within the system. Are public roads, public services, public buildings and public schools bad?
Are healthcare, education, and training benefits for veterans bad things? Is social security — which is government-mandated old-age and disability insurance that provides benefits to 68 million Americans — a bad thing? Are Medicare, unemployment insurance or workers compensation bad things?
Are these programs applications of the consistent life ethic which is an expression of the teachings of Jesus Christ? Yes, they are. Then should Christians evaluate the presidential candidates based on their support for these programs? It does follow logically.
Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist – remember that the United States is both socialistic and capitalistic.
Is his form of socialism Christian?
Does he support more of the teachings of Jesus Christ as expressed in the consistent life ethic than every other candidate?
Dale Anthony Pivarunas
Oak Lawn, IL
Socialism is contrary to Catholic social teaching. Read the many encyclicals that address the issue, starting with Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and the many encyclicals by popes since then commenting on this foundational document. To quote a few: Pope St. John XXIII; “Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism.” And, Pope Pius XI: “We make this pronouncement: Whether considered as a doctrine, or an historical fact, or a movement, Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.”