Katrina and Catholic Social Teaching

This column by Fr. Richard McBrien appeared in the September 29, 2005 Catholic Herald.

As Thomas Friedman pointed out in The New York Times, "An administration whose tax policy has been dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist -- who has been quoted as saying: 'I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub' -- doesn't have the instincts for this moment....

I didn't know you could be selfish with other people's money. There also was a time when someone was considered liberal when they were generous with their own money. Back in 1776 it was thought the right of the people to abolish their government if, in their opinion, it was destructive of its proper ends; that they didn't use Mr. Norquist's metaphor doesn't change the principle. But, then, Fr. McBrien might not hold that principle.

We must leave it to the politicians, the media, and other engaged parties, including especially the thousands upon thousands of victims of Katrina, to counter, if they can, the Administration's defense strategy. The concern of this week's column is with the Administration's failures, antecedent to the hurricane, when measured against the standards of Catholic social teachings.

So if the political is irrelevant to McBrien's topic, you might assume he just had to get some irrelevant swipes at political conservatives out of the way before showing how Catholic social teaching differs from Thomas Friedman social teaching.

It is an immoral tax policy that is designed to "starve the beast" of government, as some of its advocates have put it, so that the government will be forced to cut back on programs designed to meet the economic, educational, housing, and medical needs of these very constituencies. Such a policy also violates the principle of social justice, which requires us to work for the systemic reform of societal institutions, like tax policies, so that they will work not simply for the good of the wealthy and the powerful few but for the common good.

Last I looked, taxing less has lead to borrowing more, not spending less, and Fr. McBrien is not calling the national debt immoral. But why belong to the Church if its teaching consists of putting the word "moral" into Times columns? It seems some on the left have concluded there is no reason. Fr. McBrien wraps up,

Government is not a beast that needs to be starved or drowned in some proverbial bathtub.

Which, giving credit when due, we can see is a straw man argument thanks to Fr. McBrien actually quoting Grover Norquist.

We are our brothers' and our sisters' keepers. That is the mystery we need to be contemplating as the fetid waters slowly drain from New Orleans.

Alluding to Genesis 4:1-16. Not long ago I heard it cited in a social justice homily to show that Cain's sin was not caring about his brother Abel. Call me a literalist, but Cain's sin was killing Abel, not that he didn't care if Abel was alive or dead. Rather than being consumed with envy, Cain had been told to look inside himself to see why his sacrifice wasn't pleasing to God, see Genesis 4:6-7. Cain's sin came not from failing to be his brother's keeper, but from failing to mind his own business. Whether that is a mystery the contemplation of which will provide insight into recent events in New Orleans I'll leave to others. But had I told any brother of mine that I was going to be his keeper, I would have been told to mind my own business. That, at least, would be the gist of the reply.