SUMMER 2019 | VOL.29 | N0.3

ACTON INSTITUTE'S INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RELIGION, ECONOMICS AND CULTURE

How socialism causes atheism

The Burning Bush in Single-payer healthcare: Should we deep-six the Communist Desert A Christian view the Jones Act? Cover Photo: Minnesota Atheists protest in the Twin Cities. (Photo credit: FibonacciBlue. CC BY 2.0)

The Burning Bush in the The twin pillars of totalitarianism of pillars twin The Solzhenitsyn’s advice to the free world Acton Briefs The critique BBC’s of ‘I, Pencil’ misses the point Antonio Gramsci’s long march history through Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky The Israeli kibbutz: a victory socialism? for

Communist desert ESSAY 09 Neamtu Mihail 08 14 17 22 02 05 07

(1865-1944)

The hard fall the of Light-Horse Single-payer healthcare: How socialism causes socialism atheismHow

A ChristianA view Ray NothstineRay ESSAY 20 ESSAY 03 BoothPhilip COVER STORY 11 Rev. Ben Johnson

ACTON.ORG

MANAGING EDITOR

SUMMER 2019 SUMMER focuses focuses Liberty & This issue of Religion Marxist Mihail Neamtu recounts the socialist Klaves writes Stephanie We also reflecton besieged Iraqi this to returns Sirico Robert Fr. as we probe the depths of this Even

01 “When anyone hears the word of the the word of the hears anyone “When it, understand does not and kingdom, the wicked one comes and snatches then his heart” (St. in away what was sown as nation has been Matthew 13:19). No the Scriptures in marinated uniquely peril is represented as the U.S., yet our charts. Millennials by two crisscrossing disdain to likely more times four are Greatest the of members than religion likely to times more and nine Generation, favorably. view Communism the two between the interrelationship on both are when our title, especially words in Our cover threatened by totalitarianism. utopianism how socialist story recounts its to religion true from believers lures is precisely secular faith. “Socialism own overwhelm must that religion the as Gramsci, Antonio wrote Christianity,” us. Roger Kiska reminds his native in of Christians oppression “stories the noting before Romania to be need heroism of resistance and stories Additional acknowledged.” fittingly humanthe of heroes such recognize and Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr as spirit Sheptytsky. Andrey Metropolitan celebrated often kibbutz system, Israeli as a successful example of socialism, failed because it stood at odds with human desires.” “innate Judaism and struggling farmers American Christians, system that enshrines a against cronyism, Brits victims ill-served by hurricane NHS, and sufferingunder legislation. protectionist the calling his column, issue’s theme in pillars twin the socialism and atheism perfectly is article His totalitarianism. of Director Institute by Acton complemented of Research Samuel Gregg, whose new book (Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for and reason presents Civilization) Western of liberty. faith as the foundations Institute the Acton darkness, present the qualities necessary a light on shines for freedom and virtue to thrive in the worldwide. States and United EDITOR’S NOTE EDITOR’S Ben Johnson Rev. Protecting farmers, Christians in Iraq: Should we deep-six or crony capitalism? The brutal truth the Jones Act? Michael Matheson Miller Samuel Gregg Jordan Jorritsma ACTON INSTITUTE ACTON INSTITUTE ACTON INSTITUTE

Reuters has reported that a large portion When it comes to understanding the In the past three years New Jersey, New of U.S. farm aid went to the wealthiest present plight of Middle-Eastern Christi- York, and Massachusetts have announced farmers and advocacy groups: anity, one author to whom I usually turn plans to build offshore wind farms that is Father Benedict Kiely. He’s the founder would generate hundreds of megawatts of More than half of the Trump of Nasarean.org, which tries to help per- power. But they face a major hurdle: the administration’s $8.4 billion secuted Christians in the Middle East. Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly in trade aid payments to U.S. Sometimes Kiely’s observations are referred to as “the Jones Act.” The Jones farmers through April was re- difficult to read, not least because they Act is what is known as a cabotage law, ceived by the top 10% of re- force Western Christians to face up to which protects a shipping industry from cipients, the country’s biggest the full nature of the plight confront- foreign competition. and most successful farmers, ing their confreres, which no amount of There are four main requirements a study by an advocacy group happy-talk can quite disguise. In a recent to be registered as a Jones Act-compli- showed on Tuesday. Catholic Herald article titled “The Harsh ant ship. It must be built in the United Truth about Christianity in Iraq,” for in- States. It must be controlled by a com- Highlighting an uneven distri- stance, Kiely marshals a formidable array pany that is 75 percent U.S.-owned. It bution of the bailout, which was of facts that underscore the bleak future must be flagged (or registered) in the designed to help offset effects facing Iraqi Christians. U.S., and 75 percent of the sailors must of the U.S.-China trade war, the Leaving aside the ongoing harass- be American. Environmental Working Group ment, Iraqi Christians face major eco- U.S. food aid data show that carrying said the top 1% of aid recipients nomic challenges. Once upon a time, goods on U.S.-flagged ships increases received an average of more Christians in Iraq and many other Middle costs by as much as $50 to $60 a ton. than $180,000 while the bot- Eastern nations were disproportionately The Maritime Administration (MARAD), tom 80% were paid less than represented among the commercial and an agency within the U.S. Department of $5,000 in aid. business classes, partly because they Transportation dealing with waterborne were often legally restricted from en- transportation, reported in 2011 that it The EWG, a Washington-based tering other professions. That overrep- costs almost three times more to trans- non-profit, said it obtained resentation of Christians in commerce port cargo on U.S.-flagged ships as op- data from the U.S. Department is still true in countries like Jordan and posed to foreign ships. Puerto Rican vic- of Agriculture through Freedom Lebanon. tims of Hurricane Maria may have lost 10 of Information Act requests for However, in today’s Iraq, the situ- to 20 percent of their aid by being forced its research, the results of which ation is very different. As Kiely states, to use Jones Act-compliant vessels. Gov- could not be independently “The steady dwindling of the Christian ernment reports have also found that it verified by Reuters. population of Iraq continues because of costs more than twice as much to pro- As we discussed in the documentary, Pov- the lack of security and employment. duce a U.S.-flagged vessel than the same erty, Inc. and the PovertyCure DVD series, Without jobs, families have no incentive type of vessel in another country. farming subsidies can have a negative to stay, and without security they will As long as wind farms are placed on impact on both small- and medium-sized not stay.” the Outer Continental Shelf, the sites American farmers, as well as farmers in Kiely also underlines another di- are bound by Jones Act restrictions. This the developing world. mension of the problem: the awkward means that ships from Europe, which is Smaller farmers in the U.S. have to silence from so many Western Chris- where the vast majority of offshore wind compete with subsidized big agricultural tian leaders about the plight of their ships and expertise come from, cannot firms, and they must navigate complex Iraqi Christian brothers and sisters. He transport any equipment from the main- regulations that make their farming more notes how Chaldean Catholic Archbishop land to the worksite. If a company wants difficult and expensive. Joel Salatin high- Bashar Warda of Erbil in Iraq views such to use European installation vessels, they lights this problem in his book Everything Western Christians as being, as they are must transfer all of the equipment and I Want to Do is Illegal. Agricultural subsi- on so many other subjects, paralyzed by components to a Jones Act-compliant dies in the U.S. and Europe also distort political correctness and fear of being vessel before transferring it to the Eu- world markets and can have negative ef- labeled “phobic.” ropean installation vessel. This only adds fects on farmers in the developing world, “A phobia,” Kiely writes, “is an irratio- extra steps, and cost, to the process. who cannot compete with the free or nal fear: There is nothing irrational about Americans deserve the benefits of artificially cheap food that arrives on an the fears of Iraqi Christians.” competition in the shipping and wind irregular schedule. sector. It is imperative that we realize that goal by repealing the Jones Act.

02 planned system is not one of them. care of the sick. Of course, this work in the ESSAY The Roman Catholic Church opposed first 1,500 years of the Church’s existence the creation of the NHS. Cardinal Bernard was a response to Jesus’ instruction. As Je- Griffin managed to negotiate an opt-out sus said in Matthew 25: “For I was hungry Single-payer from nationalisation of the tiny number of and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me Catholic hospitals arguing, “It will be a sad drink. I was a stranger and you received day for England when charity becomes the me in your homes. Naked and you clothed healthcare: affair of the state.” me. I was sick and you took care of me, in The most appropriate role for Christians prison and you visited me. ... [W]hatever A Christian is not campaigning for the state to be a mo- you did for one of these least brothers of nopoly provider of healthcare but to be ac- mine, you did for me.” tive in the provision of healthcare services. After the Reformation, there was a view Indeed, before the Reformation, the Church disintegration of this system. However, was the major provider of healthcare. the one thing that united Protestant and Philip Booth In England, there were 500 hospi- Catholic denominations was the Christian tals by 1500. St. Bartholomew’s, a major vocation to care for the sick. As such, pro- hospital in London today, was founded by vision for healthcare grew in all European n the UK, our National Health Ser- Augustinian Friars and somehow survived countries, whether dominated by Protes- Photo: Surgeons perform an operation. (Petty Officer 2nd Class St ephane Belcher. Public domain.) vice was once described by a former the Reformation. Another great London tantism or Catholicism. I Chancellor of the Exchequer as being hospital that is still in existence today, St. Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur, Joseph the nearest thing we have to a national Thomas, was the first teaching hospital Lister, and many other pioneers of mod- religion. It certainly gets a lot of support before the Reformation. ern medicine were devout Christians. John from religious leaders. Indeed, many seem And this involvement in caring for the Wesley took a course in medicine so that to deify the NHS. sick and providing hospitality for those in as a minister he could be of help to those The Anglican Archbishop of Canter- need was replicated right across Europe who had no regular physician. And eigh- bury, Justin Welby, said at his enthrone- until the Reformation. Small hospitals teenth-century Presbyterian Edinburgh ment: “Slaves were freed, Factory Acts for pilgrims sprung up in the West during was a great centre of medical progress. passed, and the NHS and social care estab- the early Middle Ages. Hospitals and alms Christian foundations established a huge lished through Christ-liberated courage.” houses developed for lepers, pilgrims, the number of hospitals across Europe and the This was not just an off-the-cuff remark; sick, the aged, and the poor. Milan, Siena, United States. it was one of the most important homi- Paris, and Florence had a number of large As might be expected, just as Chris- lies of his vocation. It is certainly true that hospitals, and their Christian ethos was ev- tian organisations were the most import- Christians have a great deal to be proud of ident. The Santa Maria Nuova in Florence ant providers of healthcare in now-rich when it comes to the provision of health- still exists today and, by 1500, had medical countries when they were less well de- care. However, celebrating the creation of staff, doctors, pharmacists, and surgeons. veloped, Christian organisations today a single-payer, nationalised, and centrally Offerings at Mass were used for the are the major providers of healthcare in

03 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG the world’s poorer countries. Indeed, the simply not provided. Catholic Church is still the largest provider The study measures equity of access and of healthcare services in the world. It has ranks a health service where everybody gets around 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for equally poor access above a system where the elderly and those with special needs, everybody gets better access (including the and 5,500 hospitals, with 65 percent of poor) but where access is uneven. In other them located in developing countries. words, it accepts equality of misery. In most Western countries, to a great- When it comes to health outcomes, per- er or lesser extent, the state has become haps the most meaningful indicator of the much more involved with healthcare. In few effectiveness of a system, the UK system countries is that involvement as compre- does not do well. In healthcare outcomes, hensive as it is in the UK, where the state the Commonwealth Fund ranks the UK one owns, controls, and finances the system of from the bottom. The U.S. ranks at the health provision from top to bottom. bottom, but the systems that rate better In the U.S., of course, there is pressure are not NHS-style socialised medicine sys- for a movement towards a UK-style, sin- tems; they are European insurance-based, gle-payer system. Much of that support co-payment-based, or mixed systems. comes from left-leaning politicians, but This result led the UK’s left-leaning some comes from prominent Christian newspaper The Guardian to write an article commentators. For example, columnist in which it said without any sense of irony, Jessi Bohon has said: “Christians shouldn’t “The only serious black mark against the be satisfied with healthcare policy that NHS was its poor record on keeping peo- leaves anyone out, especially those who ple alive.” In international comparisons of need care most but can afford it least. health system performance, the NHS al- Christians should support a universal, most always ranks in the bottom third. If, single-payer system.” for example, the UK’s breast cancer, pros- And Elizabeth Breunig of The Washing- tate cancer, lung cancer, and bowel cancer ton Post has said: “I was on NHS [when in patients were treated in Belgium rather England, and], it ruled. My epilepsy medi- than in the NHS, more than 14,000 lives cine was free. In the USA, there’s an entire would be saved every year. network of charities devoted to nothing Socialised medicine does not even lead but helping poor people try to buy their to equality of outcomes. Infant mortality life-saving seizure medicines month-to- in Glasgow is nearly three-times the level month.” She compares that favourably to of the City of London. Life expectancy at the U.S., where she cites a children’s hospi- birth varies by 10 years between the poor- tal in Philadelphia that takes into account est and richest areas of the UK. And these the cost of medicines before deciding what differences are widening. to prescribe. Her husband, Matt Breunig, is While the Catholic Church has stated likewise a huge proponent of the NHS. that basic healthcare is a human right, it So, what are the results of the sin- does not follow that the state should be gle-payer NHS system in the UK as com- the provider – just as the state is not gen- pared with other healthcare systems? erally the provider of food, clothing, and There is an annual study undertaken many other basic goods (even if the state by a U.S. organisation called the Com- supports the poor in buying such things). monwealth Fund. It regularly ranks the UK The principle of subsidiarity demands health system number one. This is widely that the state should not do those things reported in the UK press and also regularly that can be done by other organisations quoted by U.S. advocates of the UK system. within society. Traditionally, Christian in- However, the survey is designed so stitutions have provided healthcare them- that single-payer systems are strongly selves. Numerous proofs indicate that we favoured. One question asks whether pa- should return to that norm. tients have ever had disputes with their insurers. If the system is nationalised with Philip Booth is professor of finance, public no insurers, this simply will not happen. policy and ethics at St. Mary’s University, Another question asks whether patients Twickenham, which is the UK’s largest make co-payments. You cannot make Catholic university. He is also a senior co-payments in the NHS. However, if the academic fellow at the Institute of Economic state thinks a drug is too expensive, it is Affairs (IEA).

04 TRANSATLANTIC ESSAY Solzhenitsyn’s advice to the free world

David P. Deavel

leksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918- short-lived. After he was expelled from Solzhenitsyn, the problem with the Cold 2008) was one of the great the USSR in 1974, he settled in the United War was not that it was happening at all, souls of the twentieth centu- States in Cavendish, Vermont, and con- but that the U.S. and its allies did not pros- ry. The survivor of World War tinued to write and speak about truth, ecute it firmly enough. At Harvard, Solz- AII, cancer, and 11 years in captivity in the lies, and political matters both in person henitsyn chastised the American govern- Soviet Gulag not only survived but went and in print. For many Western intellec- ment for its weakness in leaving southeast on to expose for the free Western coun- tuals, even those who were not Soviet Asia to the Communists. In other speeches tries the true nature of the Soviet regime fellow travelers, the problem was that he observed that Western businesses, by with his breakout work One Day in the Life he spoke not just about problems in his doing business with the Soviet govern- of Ivan Denisovich (1962), as well as In the native Russia but also those in the free ment, were propping up an unfree regime First Circle (1968), Cancer Ward (1968), and West. In a 1975 address to American trade that would not have lasted long since it the monumental Gulag Archipelago (three unionists, Solzhenitsyn prefaced his com- had killed the productivity of its own volumes, 1973-78). As the historian and ments with a warning that he would not people. Lenin was right, he sardonically political journalist Richard Brookhiser offer them “sugary words,” explaining noted: Capitalists would sell the rope to observed, what Solzhenitsyn taught the with a fitting Russian proverb: “The yes- the Communists to hang themselves. West was the word “gulag” and its mean- man is your enemy, but your friend will What the West needed was a lesson in ing: that Communism was not the path to argue with you.” what to do with freedom when you ac- freedom but the way of ideological lies, He continued to argue with Americans tually have it. And to that end, the ar- slavery, and violence. and the West more broadly over the 20 guing friend persistently spoke about the

This lesson was important for West- years he lived in the U.S., offering some- enemies of true freedom and the habits Photo: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the Netherlands, 1974. (Public domain.) erners to hear. After decades of lies from times “bitter” words in his 1978 Harvard needed to live and sustain it. Western journalists and intellectuals commencement address, his 1983 Tem- Solzhenitsyn immensely admired the about what life in Communist regimes pleton address, and a number of oth- American founding and considered the entailed, this was a man who lived and er speeches and writings. A close look Founders’ “original intent,” with its defense documented the Communist reality. “One at them reveals not a Russian chauvin- of the rights of the individual “under God” word of truth outweighs the whole world,” ist or anti-Western bigot but a man who and “the assumption of his constant reli- Solzhenitsyn declared in his 1970 Nobel had “worshipped the West” as “the sun gious responsibility,” a blueprint for a good Prize lecture. It seemed in the early 1970s of freedom, a fortress of the spirit, our society. However, he believed too many that his many words of truth had caused hope, our ally,” but who had gradually Americans had fallen victim to an ersatz a miracle even greater than Archimedes’ seen chinks in the fortress. notion of happiness pursued apart from lever: He had changed the minds of some Those chinks had included a lack of the “concepts of good and evil.” intellectuals and journalists. “firmness” in seeking the freedom of This happiness consisted solely in a But his celebrity and reputation were people under totalitarian domination. For negative freedom combined with a mate-

05 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG rialism that paralleled that of the Marx- law but, when applied to economic and What then ought we to do with our ists. Are plentiful and affordable goods societal outcomes, saps the dynamic of freedom? The answer is to reject these and services a blessing? Yes, but they action and responsibility that comprise enemies, first and foremost by seeking are not the only blessing to be pursued, our liberty. “Liberty, by its very nature, out the truth about happiness, liberty, and not at any cost. The notion of seeing undermines social equality, and equality equality, law, and rights – all of which happiness merely in the availability and suppresses liberty – for how else could are gifts of God. “Truth eludes us if we possession of goods, which we now call it be attained?” Solzhenitsyn observed. do not concentrate our attention totally consumerism, creates a malaise that “im- Asked by British journalist Bernard Levin on its pursuit,” said Solzhenitsyn. But we print[s] many Western faces with worry whether it is true that free people could then need to speak the truth courageous- and even depression.” One is reminded of desire to be slaves, he replied, “Yes, to- ly, refusing to be intimidated into lying Mother Teresa’s similar diagnosis of West- day’s Western Europe is full of such peo- or agreeing with lies. Third, we need to erners as suffering from a spiritual poverty ple.” Today’s America is similarly stocked. freely act on the truth, doing our duties much greater than that found among the The third enemy is “legalism.” Like and going beyond them in charity. When poorest of the poor in Calcutta. goods and services, a properly functioning we do that, we will see why God gave us But the problem with false notions legal system is a necessity for a good so- liberty in the first place: to make us ex- of happiness does not limit itself to ciety. But people whose only boundary is traordinary. Solzhenitsyn said that liber- Westerners’ feelings. It paralyzes them an action’s legal status will not “take ad- ty’s “function was to render possible the by making them risk averse. Western vantage of the full range of human pos- emergence of values. Liberty pointed the “well-being” had the effect of making sibilities” and will instead produce more way to virtue and heroism. That is what fighting for freedom at home and abroad of the “spiritual mediocrity that paralyz- you have forgotten.” seem not worth the effort. “And for what es man’s noblest impulses.” Westerners Let us who have freedom remember should one risk one’s precious life, in de- who only rise to the legal minimums and and act. Let us be heroes. fense of common values and particularly only stop at the legal maximums are not in such nebulous cases when the securi- worthy of freedom, the telos of which is David P. Deavel is editor of Logos: A Journal ty of one’s nation must be defended in a moral excellence. of Catholic Thought and Culture and a vis- distant country?” he asked in the Harvard The final enemy is an attitude that iting professor at the University of St. Thom- address. “Even biology knows that habit- only considers human rights and not hu- as (MN). He is the 2013 winner of the Novak ual, extreme safety and well-being are man obligations. Solzhenitsyn agreed Prize. His book Beyond the Soul and Barbed not advantageous for a living organism.” with Lord Acton, who considered liberty Wire: The Continuing Legacy of Aleksandr The second enemy of liberty is a mis- had more to do with what we “ought” Solzhenitsyn and Russian Voices in Amer- understanding of equality, which is to be than what we “like.” Paying attention ican Culture, co-edited and introduced with applauded when it means equal dignity as only to our rights is the broad way that Jessica Hooten Wilson, is forthcoming from persons and equal treatment under the leads to social Hell. Notre Dame Press. R & L

06 COLUMN Antonio Gramsci’s long march through history

Roger Kiska

he emergence of identity politics in Western Europe has would cost taxpayers an estimated £46 billion. In America, the come swiftly and aggressively. One key figure in the main- Brookings Institution’s Isabel Sawhill calculated that the break- T streaming of Marxism in Europe, who enjoys little popular down of the family extracted $229 billion from U.S. taxpayers recognition for his success, is Antonio Francesco Gramsci. Gramsci, between 1970 and 1996. This figure includes the toll caused by an Italian philosopher and politician who was imprisoned during teen pregnancy, crime, poverty, drug abuse, and health problems Mussolini’s reign, wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3,000 pag- that have resulted from divorces or broken families. Benjamin es of history and analysis during his imprisonment. Many of his Scafidi’s 2008 study for the Institute for American Values found writings can be found in his three-volume Prison Notebooks. that divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth cost the American Gramsci sought to break with Karl Marx’s economic deter- people $112 billion each year. Pope Saint John Paul II could not minism and base his theory on wielding and maintaining pow- have been more correct when he called the natural family the er by the ruling class, which has commonly become known as building block of society. his theory of cultural hegemony. Gramsci believed that the rul- This phenomenon, underpinned in part by the Gramscian ing class, the bourgeoisie, used cultural institutions to maintain Marxist rejection of institutions like Christianity and family, has power. They use ideology, rather than violence or economic force, also been premised on greater interference by national author- to propagate their own values by creating the capitalist zeitgeist. ities into family privacy, whereby governments feel empowered Cultural hegemony is maintained by the capitalist ruling class to usurp the parental mantle from families themselves. The UK’s through the institutions that make up society’s superstructure. Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, for ex- Gramscian Marxists define the superstructure as everything not ample, has reported a nearly 150 percent increase in the number directly having to do with production such as family, culture, of new child care cases since 2005-2006. To put that into per- religion, education, media, and law. spective, the number of cases in a little more than a decade’s Gramsci’s counter-hegemony is also deeply rooted in today’s time increased from 6,613 new cases a year to 15,485 new cases. theory of intersectionality. It seeks to dismantle the existing cul- The figures from the first five months of this reporting year have tural hegemony by ideological subversion and opposition, chal- shown an increase of 23 percent since the corresponding period lenging the legitimacy of existing super-structural institutions last year. The situation has led experts such as Dave Hill, presi- like family, religion, and political power. Saul Alinsky describes dent of the Association of Director’s Children’s Services (ADCS), the modus operandi for such an enterprise in the introduction to to call the situation a “national disgrace.” his book Rules for Radicals: “What follows is for those who want A similar phenomenon is happening in Scandinavia. In 2015, to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should 53,440 children received care from the Norwegian Child Wel- be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how fare Services, the Barnevernet. This is a one-percent increase to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on from the previous year and represents nearly three percent of how to take it away.” all children in Norway. A disproportionate number of these chil- A counter-hegemony, in essence, is an alternative ethical dren were taken from families where at least one of the parents view of society that seeks to challenge, undermine, and replace is an immigrant. the existing bourgeoisie power structure. It has been described Christianity and the concept of the natural family have been by Neo-Gramscian theorist Nicola Pratt as the creation of a ri- the twin anchors on which European culture has relied over val hegemony on the terrain of civil society in preparation for the centuries for stability. Gramscian Marxism offers, at best, political change. a self-inflicted wound to culture. At worst, it represents a path In Gramsci’s own words, he viewed the task thus: “Socialism is to totalitarianism which breeds anarchy and tribalism along the precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the way. In the end, Alexis de Tocqueville’s words ring as true today new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture as they did in the nineteenth century: “Democracy and socialism via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the by transforming the consciousness of society.” difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty; socialism One of the underlying problems with this type of Marxism is seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” that an attack on the family and the Judeo-Christian values that sustain it leads to catastrophic economic and social effects. For Roger Kiska is a solicitor for England and Wales and a member of the example, in 2014 former British Welfare Minister Lord David Freud Michigan State Bar. He is legal counsel for the Christian Legal Centre suggested that the breakdown of the family in the United Kingdom in London. R & L

07 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG butz provided a structure for the defense quite the opposite phenomenon – a rise ESSAY of Jewish settlers and was the backbone in industrialization and an opportuni- of the rural economy. After Israel’s inde- ty for a higher standard of living – dealt pendence, the kibbutz supplied around 20 additional blows to the sustainability of The Israeli percent of the country’s top military offi- the kibbutz. In their book The Renewal of cers. Five prime ministers of Israel – David the Kibbutz: From Reform to Transformation, kibbutz: a Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Shi- Raymond Russell and his co-authors write mon Peres, and Ehud Barak – were all at that “[i]n the first years of the kibbutzim, some point members of a kibbutz. In terms kibbutz members had little to share with victory for of members’ satisfaction, life expectancy, each other but their poverty. The kib- economic performance, and demographic butzniks’ self-denying, ascetic values were socialism? growth, the kibbutz society was “relative well suited to the economic condition of to the rest of society in Israel – very suc- the kibbutzim.” While communal owner- Stephanie Klaves cessful” until the 1990s. These observa- ship of housing, means of production, and tions have led academics to ask whether cafeterias was feasible – even attractive – the Israeli kibbutz sets itself apart from when members were themselves impov- hile eating lunch at an Israe- the myriad of failed socialist societies as a erished, the pull to community weakened li kibbutz last winter, I learned proven paragon of success. as their potential standard of living rose. W firsthand about what used to Democratic socialists today like Sand- The challenge of prosperity to commu- be a self-contained, socialist community. I ers and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believe nal life is illustrated by the fact that more was struck by the local guide’s positive view that socialism is the key to alleviating children moved to live with their parents that socialism produces strong communal poverty, and a rising number of young as standard house sizes grew. Kibbutzim life and economic prosperity. The guide’s Americans are attracted to socialism as a traditionally decried “the close-knit fami- praise only echoes A.I. Rabin and Benjamin moral economic system. A YouGov survey ly” as “a creation of capitalism,” but even- Beit-Hallahmi from Michigan State Univer- revealed that 43 percent of respondents tually the communities had to bow to the sity. They wrote that “[t]he most successful under the age of 30 had a favorable view demands of children and parents. The new attempt at building a Utopian commune of socialism. When asked what socialism living situation led to increased privatiza- has been the Israeli kibbutz.” The opti- is, millennials use phrases such as “nice,” tion and individualization, as communal mism expressed by these observations is “being together,” or “the government pays cafeterias fell out of use and home-cooked not without cause: The kibbutz movement for our needs.” Perhaps the success of the meals became an accepted norm. was foundational to the establishment and Israeli kibbutz is finally a victory for - so The popularity of the kibbutz in Israel success of the Israeli state. cialism. Whereas communal ideology pro- seems peculiar, given that Judaism empha- The “kibbutz” system refers to collective pelled widespread killing and poverty in sizes the importance of the nuclear family. communities in Israel that were historically the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, North Parents have a sacred obligation to care characterized by collective ownership of Korea, and Cambodia, the socialist values for and raise their children in the Jewish property, an emphasis on the dignity of of the kibbutz seemed to engender secu- tradition; children are commanded to re- manual labor, a system of direct democracy, rity, harmony, even prosperity. spect their parents. Kibbutzim challenged and communal child care. In other words, But eventually the kibbutz would join the nuclear household, separating children no member exercised personal property the list of socialist models that were ulti- from their parents. But families eventual- rights but instead received toiletries, mately unsustainable. Debt and econom- ly united under one roof. Kibbutzim tra- food, and other necessities according ic crisis were in part responsible for the ditionally distributed goods to members to a distribution system. All members abandonment of strict communalism. Is- according to their needs, regardless of earned the same allowance for their work rael experienced a dire economic crisis in their skill, but individuals eventually re- – regardless of whether their occupation the mid-1980s, with a 400 percent infla- quested market-based wages. Members consisted of milking cows, preparing meals, tion rate and high levels of unemployment. of kibbutzim were willing to share poverty or managing a large production facility. Although the government and banks later equally, but when individuals experienced Children did not live in their family homes agreed to bailouts, the economic situation prosperity from industrializing, inequal- but instead grew up in communal child- still disheartened many members of the ity ensued. Ultimately, the story of the rearing facilities. Marx would have smiled in kibbutz. In particular, the elderly worried kibbutz highlights the crucial problem his grave if he knew that communal goods if the kibbutz failed to provide for them of socialism: Its core tenants are at odds, and services were provided “from each again in the future, their lack of person- not only with Judeo-Christian principles, according to his ability, to each according to al pensions would be problematic. The but with innate human desires to raise a his needs.” Although most of the kibbutzim uncertainty and feelings of vulnerability family, compete in the workplace, and act privatized in recent years, the appeal of its sewn by the financial crisis incentivized in their own self-interest. socialist ideology lives on; in fact, Senator individuals to build personal savings Bernie Sanders lived and volunteered on a accounts rather than deposit all their Stefanie Klaves served as an intern with the kibbutz in 1963 and is now a self-described revenue into communal funds. Executive Department at the Acton Institute. democratic socialist. An economic crisis was not the only She is a junior at Grove City College (PA), Before Israel’s independence, the kib- culprit for diminishing communal values; studying political science and Chinese. R & L

08 TRANSATLANTIC ESSAY The Burning Bush in the Communist desert Mihail Neamtu

liturgical ghettoes. For at least two de- rom Eastern Europe to China, persecution of Christians in the cades, the Church was deprived of any and from Laos to Venezuela, the Soviet Union could aim at the ex- means of organizing social work, mis- followers of Marx and Engels termination of the Church, and sionary activities, or cultural events. The used the most extreme forms of very nearly succeeded. Fviolence to annihilate religion. In many space for personal belief shrank dramati- This is why, during the twentieth century, ways, the Bolsheviks only continued the cally. Pilgrimages were restricted. Priests the best works of Russian theology were Jacobite hostility towards “the throne performed infant baptisms only in secret. written abroad. Nikolai Berdyaev, for in- and the altar.” Vladimir Lenin said in Old books were taken out of circulation. stance, articulated a powerful defense of 1905, “Our propaganda, necessarily in- Other faith-based sects, ranging from individual freedom and Christian person- cludes the propaganda of atheism.” Leon evangelical Christians to Jehovah’s Wit- alism, in stark opposition to the horrors Trotsky said, “The highest expression of nesses, as well as small communities such of censorship and collectivism. serfdom’s ideology is religion.” Pravda as the Old Believers or Jews who believed It was not just the USSR that attacked never ceased to call priests the “enemies in Zionism, suffered political persecution. religion. The repression of religious sen- of the people.” During the Russian fam- A particularly striking episode in the timents was global. In post-1948 China, ine of 1922, Lenin claimed the Orthodox history of Romanian Communism was the Communist Party destroyed Tibetan Church was hoarding gold and food as a the birth and decline of a unique spiri- monasteries. Mongolian Marxists im- pretext to confiscate its wealth. Leading tual movement called the Burning Bush posed strict limitations on traditional Christian intellectuals such as Nikolai Group (Rugul Aprins), which was founded Lamaism. Communist activists distrib- Berdyaev (1874-1948), Sergei Bulgakov by the summer of 1943. Under the inspi- uted a sarcastic commentary on the (1871-1944), and Nikolai Lossky (1870- ration of a Russian monk, Ivan Kulîghin Holy Scripture (called The Jolly Bible) in 1965) were put on “the philosophers’ (“John the Stranger”), this association of Eastern Europe to discourage ordinary ship” and forced into exile. Trotsky, who laymen and clergymen located primar- people from taking Church teachings organized this trip, believed that all re- ily at Bucharest’s Antim Monastery en- and the sacraments seriously. Teenag- ligions expressed an “illogical primitive gaged in prayer, scriptural meditation, ers were taught the basics of “scientif- ignorance.” This explains how even a and philosophical reflection. From 1943 ic atheism” in public schools instead of scientific giant like the polymath math- to 1947, after barely escaping the Bol- religious education, and winter festivals ematician and theologian Pavel Floren- shevik persecution in his homeland, Fr. replaced Christmas. Youth organizations sky was regarded as backward. By the John of Optina Pustyn near Moscow de- such as the Young Pioneers taught chil- late 1930s, Fr. Pavel ended up martyred cided to teach his Romanian disciples the dren to disrespect family norms and cus- by the NKVD in the Gulag Archipelago. art of incessant prayer known as the “Je- toms of the past. Dictator Enver Hoxha, The eminent British scholar Andrew sus Prayer,” described in The Pilgrim’s Tale. who ruled Albania from 1944 until 1985, Louth described the spiritual devastation After he managed to impart the wisdom wanted his nation to be the first officially that followed the October Revolution: of the Hesychast tradition to his new atheistic state on the planet. Orthodox friends, the fugitive monk was The state of the Church in the After the Second World War, the Ro- again arrested and deported to Siberia, Soviet Union made it impossible manian Communist Party (which was un- where he died. for any theology to flourish; it der the direct control of Moscow) cut off Romania was a cultural crossroads, was hard enough for the Church all its relations with the Vatican and abol- where East and West met naturally.

to survive. According to Marxist ished the local Greek-Catholic Church. Communism, however, hated both the Photo: Orthodox nun. (Photo credit: Dmitry Boyarin. CC BY 2.0.) theory, after the Revolution the Hundreds of Catholic bishops and priests Oriental origins of Christianity and the Church, as a manifestation of re- ended up in labor camps, suffering in the Western foundations of liberal democ- ligion, was meant to fade away. harsh wilderness of the Danube Delta, racy. For the highly educated friends As it didn’t, its disappearance had and many Orthodox monasteries and lay of the Burning Bush Group, freedom of to be encouraged, and the Church associations were dismantled. In Novem- thought was an essential component of experienced persecution far more ber 1959, a State decree (no. 410) ordered life, especially religious life. The person- severe than ever before. The great that only elderly people living in Romania al encounter with the Jesus Prayer had persecutions of the early Church could take monastic vows. About 5,000 a transformative effect, by liberating under the Roman empire were monks and nuns were forcefully removed the prayerful believer from the bond- haphazard and episodic; with the from their ancient monasteries. Religious age of sin. Crass materialism could nev- structures of a modern state, the services were tolerated only as part of er explain how thieves, tax-collectors,

09 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG and harlots could be turned into saints. physical power of the Logos. for decades while trying to annihilate Academics (such as Alexandru Elian, an On June 13, 1958, most of the group’s anti-Communist networks and cells. In expert in Byzantine history), poets and members were arrested by the secret the late 1970s, the secret police crushed artists (Vasile Voiculescu and Paul Steri- police, the Securitate, and jailed on the the open dissidence of Fr. Gheorghe an, respectively), young novices (such as charge of “religious obscurantism” and Calciu-Dumitreasa (defrocked in 1979, Sandu Tudor, Andrei Scrima, and Roman “counter-revolutionary activity.” On twice imprisoned, and expelled from Braga), and even a towering theologian September 3, the Communist regime Romania in 1985). Similar forms of in- like Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae (a well-re- sentenced Fr. Stăniloae to five years of timidation were leveled against Doina spected university professor and doctor solitary confinement. Behind bars, these Cornea, a Transylvanian Christian who philocalicus) attempted to preserve the Christian believers became either victims was surveilled and tortured. values of Western civilization and redis- or eyewitnesses of sadistic acts of barba- There were, of course, countless ex- cover ancient texts like The Philokalia. rism. Sandu Tudor (or monk Daniil) was amples of personal shortcomings and The disciples of Fr. Ivan met regularly sentenced to 25 years of hard labor and institutional compromises between the in the library of a monastery where they tortured to death. Roman Braga (who, Church and the totalitarian State. How- could talk freely about literature, philos- after 1972, served as a priest in Ohio and ever, the true stories of resistance and ophy, and Christian spirituality. Trotsky Michigan) was sentenced to 18 years in heroism need to be fittingly acknowl- believed that a “complete abolition of prison. Many were physically abused. Fr. edged. Though there were bishops who religion will be attained only when there Stăniloae spent most of his time in the tolerated the “imperial cult” of shameless is a fully developed socialistic structure dreadful prison of Aiud, where he used dictators, credit is due to those Christians … free from mystery.” The members of prayer (“Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, (such as the Russian philosophers or the the Burning Bush Group dedicated their have mercy upon me”) to combat neg- members of the Burning Bush Group) lives to an ongoing exploration of the ative thoughts. On January 15, 1963, who were punished, marginalized, and mystery of existence, of the mystery of he was released and a year later, under killed because of their unwavering cry human consciousness, and of “the mys- increasing pressure exerted by inter- for freedom and justice. tery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4), which national bodies, the political prisoners “has been kept secret for long ages past” – most of whom were old and crippled Mihail Neamtu, Ph.D., is an Eastern European (Romans 16:25). – left the jails. conservative author and public intellectual. Despite their insistence on non-vio- In brief, the Communist take on re- He has written 10 books on American politics, lent and non-political means of expres- ligion was ruthless. Very few public Christianity, and Islam, as well as new sion, state propaganda branded Burning advocates of Christianity escaped per- trends in Marxist culture. His forthcoming Bush members “socially deviant people, secution in countries ruled by socialist publication is The Trump Arena: How did with mystical tendencies.” Marxist ide- hardliners. Just like the KGB, Stasi, or a Businessman Conquer the World of ology persecuted free speech, especially the Albanian Sigurimi, the Romanian Politics? R & L because Christians believed in the meta- secret police violated personal privacy

10 ESSAY How socialism causes atheism

Rev. Ben Johnson Photo: Minnesota Atheists protest in the Twin Cities. (Photo credit: FibonacciBlue. CC BY 2.0).

11 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG eorge Orwell’s 1984 defines the gle lay in the soul. “You have to change God).” Another study found that increased booming genre of dystopian litera- the conscience of people,” Dotson Rader, welfare spending “in a specific year pre- G ture, but Aldous Huxley’s Brave New a onetime revolutionary who went on to dicted lower religiosity one to two years World provided a more accurate prophecy write celebrity profiles for Parade maga- later.” It concluded, “The power and order of the future. In another of his works, Ends zine, told Buckley during a 1972 episode emanating from God can be outsourced to and Means, Huxley offered deep insights of Firing Line. “You’ve got to change peo- the government.” into why people choose to become athe- ple’s sexual attitudes, people’s attitude There is an undeniable correlation be- ists. In a time when 26 percent of Ameri- towards the church, people’s attitude tween socialism and secularism, but does cans are unaffiliated with any religion, and towards education, towards business.” it prove causation? A strong case is made the number of atheists and agnostics in He admitted that drug use, “sexual pro- by analyzing the “Nones” at different stag- the U.S. has doubled in the last 10 years, miscuity and sexual deviancy is a device,” es of their flight from faith. Pew Research people of faith must pay heed to his obser- because they create “natural allies to a asked “Nones” in late 2017 the reason vations. Huxley wrote that he and “most of revolutionary movement.” they no longer affiliate with a religion. The [his] contemporaries” saw atheism’s moral Another generation later, America’s overwhelming majority of atheist “Nones” vacuum as their “instrument of liberation,” faithful and faithless voters cast mirror im- (75 percent) said they do not believe in because it allowed them to embrace sexual ages politically. The Pew Research Forum’s God, while a plurality of agnostic “Nones” hedonism and socialism: Religious Landscape found that 47 percent (38 percent) said they “question a lot of re- of those who say religion is “very import- ligious teachings.” Those “Nones” who still The liberation we desired was simul- ant” to them call themselves conservative, believe in God are equally motivated by taneously liberation from a certain while 47 percent of those who find religion two factors: They question religious doc- political and economic system and “not at all important” identify as liberal/ trines (25 percent), and they “don’t like the liberation from a certain system of progressive. Moreover, this pattern exists positions churches take on social/political morality. We objected to the morality on both sides of the Atlantic. “The most issues” (21 percent). because it interfered with our sexual left-wing locality” in Great Britain “is the Further, the data show that “Nones” are freedom; we objected to the political north end of Havelock Road in Brighton,” becoming increasingly secular as time goes and economic system because it was according to political and financial analyst on. The percentage of “Nones” who do unjust. The supporters of these sys- Martin Baxter. Census data also rank it as not believe in God increased by half from tems claimed that in some way they the UK’s least religious city. 2007 to 2014. This leads to an inescapable embodied the meaning (a Christian Huxley explained that atheists may be conclusion: The social and political issues meaning, they insisted) of the world. more inclined to accept comprehensive that drive a wedge between young peo- There was one admirably simple socioeconomic ideologies as a substitute ple and traditional Christianity – including method of confuting these peo- for faith. Secularists embrace “absurd” the envy that drives socialism – eventually ple and at the same time justifying doctrines like Communism or fascism, he blossom into full atheism. ourselves in our political and erotic wrote, “to satisfy their hunger for mean- For most, the transference of faith is not revolt: we could deny that the world ing.” Atheist literature lends credence to so coldly transactional as it was for Hux- had any meaning whatsoever. Simi- this notion. The Humanist Manifesto III states ley. Instead, faith in the transcendent gets lar tactics had been adopted during that an atheist’s “life’s fulfillment emerg- crowded out by faith in socialism’s utopian the eighteenth century and for the es” from building a “global community” of promise of equality-of-outcome on earth. same reasons. This path trans- “Serious writers as- formed Michael sociated political Harrington from a with sexual preju- “As socialism makes inroads among America’s daily communicant dice” and recom- volunteering in the mended atheism young people, it replaces Christian eschatology Catholic Worker as “a preparation movement to the for social reform with a secular narrative. Left unchecked, it erodes atheistic founder of or revolution,” he both the adherent’s religion and society’s liberty.” the Democratic So- wrote. The idea that cialists of America. atheism foments After seeing India’s the revolutionary spirit was not lost on “progressive cultures” that “support a just ghettoes, he wrote in The Vast Majority that the revolutionaries. In 1905, Vladimir Le- distribution of nature’s resources.” “if he were half the God he claims to be, he nin encouraged the Bolsheviks to “follow However, a growing body of research would leave his heaven and come here to the advice Engels once gave to the German reveals that as the welfare state grows, the do penance in the presence of a suffering Socialists: to translate and widely dissemi- church shrinks. Adam Kay of Duke Univer- that he as God obscenely permits.” A less- nate the literature of the eighteenth-cen- sity discovered that church and state have er-known case can be seen in Guy Aldred, tury French Enlighteners and atheists.” a “hydraulic relationship”: Events “that a London “boy preacher” at the turn of the More than a generation later, a young lower faith in one of these external sys- twentieth century who became an out- American radical reiterated to William F. tems (e.g., the government) lead to subse- spoken socialist and atheist. He belittled Buckley Jr. that the locus of the strug- quent increases in faith in the other (e.g., Christians who “never realized that charity,

12 even continuous and genuine charity, is not Decades after Huxley, another collec- enough. It can never compensate for social tivist combined personal and economic injustice and inequality.” rationales for secularism. Thomas Nagel The socialist path to atheism begins by studied under John Rawls and wrote that substituting a temporal, class-based mo- the common good “requires the abolition rality for divine revelation. Collectivists of private property in the means of pro- reject the notion that God’s acts of mer- duction.” Nagel forthrightly discussed his cy and providence give us our daily bread, will-to-doubt (call it der Wille zum Zweifel) that differing talents result in different in The Last Word. He admits his opposi- economic results, and that wealth acquisi- tion to religion grew out of its purportedly tion funds charity so that “your abundance “objectionable moral doctrines, social pol- at the present time should supply their icies, and political influence,” but it did not need” (II Corinthians 8:14). Instead, Har- end there: rington blamed God for an inequality that I am talking about something much he believed should never exist, and Aldred deeper—namely, the fear of religion believed the only remedy lay outside the itself. I speak from experience, be- means sanctioned by Christianity. ing strongly subject to this fear my- The cultural revolution has succeed- self: I want atheism to be true and ed in changing Millennials’ conscience. am made uneasy by the fact that Nearly four-in-10 Millennials believe some of the most intelligent and it’s “immoral” for society to allow peo- well-informed people I know are ple to become billionaires, however they religious believers. It isn’t just that earned their money. People under the I don’t believe in God and, naturally, age of 30 are 30 percent more likely to hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s resent wealthy Americans than those that I hope there is no God! I don’t over age 65, although Christianity teach- want there to be a God; I don’t want es that envy is one of the seven deadly the universe to be like that. sins. They are more likely to agree that “very successful people sometimes need Religion posits another Being as the source to be brought down a peg or two even and summit of existence. For this reason, if they’ve done nothing wrong.” And the Chambers called Communism the “sec- Cato Institute study found that “resent- ond oldest faith,” the promise “whispered ment against successful people is more in the first days of the Creation under the influential than compassion in predicting Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: ‘Ye a person’s support for … redistributing shall be as gods.’” Marxism promotes “the wealth from the rich to the poor.” vision of man as the central figure of the Martin Luther would recognize their re- Creation, not because God made man in verse evangelization. In his Large Catechism His image, but because man’s mind makes he wrote, “A god means that from which him the most intelligent of the animals. we are to expect all good and to which we Communism restores man to his sover- are to take refuge in all distress.” Socialism eignty by denying God.” looks to the state to establish “equality” “The Communist revolution,” Chambers instead of looking forward to an everlasting wrote, “like all great revolutions, occurs in kingdom. “The Revolution did not adopt a man’s mind before it takes form in man’s Church. Why?” asked nineteenth-century acts.” As socialism makes inroads among French historian Jules Michelet. “Because it America’s young people, it replaces Chris- was a Church itself.” tian eschatology with a secular narrative. Young people make particularly fit It supplants traditional morality with al- activists for utopian Marxism. Whittaker ternative ends and means for this life. Left Photo: Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. (Public domain.) Chambers wrote in Witness that social- unchecked, it erodes both the adherent’s ism “summons men to struggle against religion and society’s liberty. the inertia of the past which Communism Upholding the morality of a free and vir- claims is blocking the will of mankind tuous society could be the key to preserving to make its next great forward stride.” freedom and preventing an entire gener- Soon, they come to revile Western, Ju- ation from sliding into spiritual darkness. deo-Christian civilization for blocking the road to earthly paradise, as did Huxley Rev. Benjamin Johnson is managing editor of and his friends. There is nothing new in Religion & Liberty and an Eastern Orthodox the Brave New World. priest. R & L

13 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG IN THE LIBERAL TRADITION

VENERABLE METROPOLITAN ANDREY SHEPTYTSKY (1865-1944) Rev. Ben Johnson

he Venerable Metropolitan guidance for every action: “Grant me Andrey Sheptytsky dedicated the wisdom of work and the wisdom T his life to spreading the Gos- of rest; may work for You be luxury for pel of Christ in the shadow of the two me, and rest without You – fatigue.” greatest totalitarian ideologies of the Soviet-inflicted mass starvation twentieth century. He promoted peace caused him to welcome the Nazis whom, and upheld public morality, leading to his defenders say, he believed would be his arrest or persecution by occupying less repressive. After confronting their Poles, Tsarist Russians, Soviet Commu- brutality, he wrote pleas to Adolf Hit- nists, and German Nazis. ler and Heinrich Himmler to stop killing Sheptytsky was born into a no- Jews, and he privately informed Pope ble Polish family on July 29, 1865, as Pius XII of their murderous actions. Count Roman Alexander Maria Shep- Publicly, he denounced “political kill- tytsky. Although his parents baptized ing” and said the state “must exercise him into the Latin Rite of the Roman civil toleration of all faiths.” Catholic Church, Sheptytsky peti- Most importantly, he hid Jews from tioned to transfer to the Ukrainian the Nazis and instructed his church to Greek Catholic Church at the age of do likewise. Some lived in attics or in 23. When he became its leader in 1901, hidden rooms; Jewish children posed native Ukrainians believed he would as Ukrainian Catholics living in mon- further Latinize the church and bring asteries. One of them, Rabbi David it under Polish domination. Instead, he He encouraged his priests to speak Kehane, went on to be chief rabbi of defended its Byzantine Catholic theol- out on the “social question” but limit- the Israeli Air Force, then chief rab- ogy, supported Ukraine’s struggle for ed them to a handful of ethical posi- bi of Argentina. The metropolitan independence, and spent his fami- tions, including the defense of private personally saved more than 150 Jews ly’s wealth building educational and property. “The first principle of Chris- during the Holocaust. charitable institutions. tian social action is the inalienability Met. Sheptytsky died on November Encounters with socialists in Rus- of private property,” an “essential in- 1, 1944, in Lviv. In 2015, Pope Francis sia inspired him to write well-devel- stitution” which is “protected by divine declared Sheptytsky “venerable,” the oped social theology. He believed the law.” He also defended democracy, first of three steps to canonization as Marxist doctrine of class warfare vio- writing that citizens have “the right a saint. Israel’s Yad Vashem has also lates the Christian spirit of peace. The to participate in the political process reconsidered naming him one of the spread of Communism represented through election.” Righteous Among the Nations (an the “advance of the kingdom of Sa- Although he opposed “hyperpro- honor already bestowed upon his tan” on earth. “The enemies of God duction,” he believed socialism creates brother, St. Klymentiy Sheptytsky). and humanity have rejected religion – strife, empowers an oppressive state, As a former inmate in the Soviet the basis of social order,” he wrote in a disincentivizes work, and vitiates eco- gulags said, “The spiritual inheritance 1933 plea for the world to expose the nomic growth. “Whoever helps the of the Sheptytsky brothers … is suf- Holodomor, the forced starvation of Communists … betrays the cause of ficient to reveal to the contemporary at least six million Ukrainians by the the poor,” he wrote. He counseled peo- person all the beauty of the love of Soviets. ple of all social classes to “turn work humanity.” into wealth.” He also prayed for divine

14 COLUMN ‘The Great Awokening’: The threat of America’s new political religions

Joseph Sunde

urveys prove the decline of religion in America is real – our previous monotheism. … Our ability to extend this depending on how you define “religion.” material bonanza to more and more people is how we S Weekly church attendance is falling, as is self-identi- define progress; and progress is what we call meaning. fication with a formal denomination, religion, or belief system. But none of this material progress beckons humans to a way of life Meanwhile, the rise of the “Nones” seems to be steadily replacing beyond the mere satisfaction of our wants and needs. the religious-cultural standards and norms of old with a modern And this matters. We are a meaning-seeking species. milieu of “personal spiritualties” based on any number of hu- All of this is more than a bit peculiar coming from Sullivan manistic priorities – from humanitarianism and political activ- who, as Samuel James aptly summarizes, “spent the better part ism to the exultation of garden-variety hedonism, materialism, of his public life rigorously advocating for a Christianity that re- and egotism. All these replacement faiths claim they promote the invents itself in the image of modern gods.” Whether this essay lofty goal of “progress.” is a sign of inconsistency or intellectual sea change, it seems as Yet in a striking essay in New York Magazine on this phenomenon though Sullivan understands the value of Christianity to the and its deleterious effects, Andrew Sullivan writes, “We’re mistak- culture and what we will lose in its absence. He writes: en if we believe that the collapse of Christianity in America has led to a decline in religion.” Rather, the vacuum of a robust religious It is Christianity that came to champion the individual and moral imagination in the culture has led to an over-spiritual- conscience against the collective, which paved the way ization of other aspects of life, especially politics – on the Left, the for individual rights. It is in Christianity that the seeds of Right, and the center. “Like almost all new cultish impulses, they Western religious toleration were first sown. Christianity see no boundary between politics and their religion,” he writes. is the only monotheism that seeks no sway over Caesar, “And both cults really do minimize the importance of the individ- that is content with the ultimate truth over the immedi- ual in favor of either the oppressed group or the leader.” ate satisfaction of power. It was Christianity that gave us As a result, Sullivan argues, the Great Awakening has been successive social movements, which enabled more peo- replaced by a “Great Awokening” of sorts, populated by compet- ple to be included in the liberal project, thus renewing ing visions of collective identity and an aggressive political exu- it. It was on these foundations that liberalism was built, berance. On the Left, we see the growth of an identitarian culture and it is by these foundations it has endured. The ques- Photo: Young Democratic Socialists of America protesting Brett Kavanaugh. (credit: Charles E. Miller. CC BY-SA 2.0). rooted in self-loathing that pursues “social justice” and “fair- tion we face in contemporary times is whether a political ness” as its supposed ends. Those who violate its dogmas are system built upon such a religion can endure when belief deemed heretics, to be dealt with only by coercions into “public in that religion has become a shadow of its future self. demonstrations of shame” or outright cultural banishment. Sul- Will the house still stand when its ramparts are taken livan holds that, likewise, the Right elevates a narrow nation- away? I’m beginning to suspect it can’t. And won’t. alism and isolationism to religious heights, conflating Christian Sullivan concludes by lamenting the lack of leadership in each po- witness with political control – and purging those who disagree. litical party, asking, “Where is our Churchill?” But as important In each case, political orthodoxies assert themselves much like as strong and virtuous leadership may be, Sullivan’s longing for they always have. However, since there is a religious vacuum to be a Churchillian national deliverer strikes me as another political filled, they now masquerade as causes “bigger than ourselves.” Iron- non-solution to a non-political problem. ically, these movements still place ourselves firmly in the forefront. Fortunately, we need not wait for political persons or powers Prosperity and modernity have amplified the struggle. Though to begin repairing what has been broken, holding the light amidst they are not primary drivers, they have introduced new tempta- the darkness and confusion. The Great Awakening of old was not tions which, in a culture without the proper spiritual foundations the cause of a particular leader’s charisma or cunning, but of a or moral constraints, hold significant sway: profound and organic ground swell of authentic, culture-level Seduced by scientism, distracted by materialism, insu- witness to the truth and goodness of God. It was a popular part- lated, like no humans before us, from the vicissitudes of nership with the divine that led to restoration and redemption in sickness and the ubiquity of early death, the post-Chris- every arena of life, both individually and collectively. tian West believes instead in something we have called If we are to overcome our political tribalism and its corre- progress – a gradual ascent of mankind toward reason, sponding swells of politico-religious fanaticism, it must begin the peace, and prosperity – as a substitute in many ways for same way. R & L

15 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG not without some truth, depending on the market. As I wrote in my book Foundations of a Free & Virtuous Society, “Even in some of the freest economies there is inequal- ity generated not through the creation of wealth [which I think is fine] but through restricting markets to favor parties with political connections.” Unfortunately, Sanders’ and other so- cialists’ proposed solutions, when they are concrete at all, tend to boil down to more market restrictions. These restrictions will ESSAY socialism with ‘equality’ than with ‘gov- just end up favoring those with the re- ernment ownership or control,’ according sources to navigate the Kafkaesque legal to polling by Gallup.” and bureaucratic web that such restrictions Thus, while public opinion has softened typically require – you know, like me- Don’t write toward socialism, the public’s perception ga-corporations, millionaires, and billion- of what socialism is has shifted. Socialism aires. They may be different figures than off young is no longer a specific economic system: It those who currently benefit from the way has been reduced to an aspiration for cer- cronyism and overregulation have rigged tain economic (and other) outcomes, at certain markets today, but they will not ‘socialists’ least for some. be small businesses, not the middle class While Sanders seems to be an old- or the poor. That you can count on. They Dylan Pahman school socialist himself, we can see this often cannot afford the legal teams and more aspirational socialism in the Green compliance costs new taxes and regula- New Deal. It is more an ideological lit- tions require. And new barriers to market n his State of the Union address this mus test of commitment to certain eco- entry would likely mean greater economic year, President Donald Trump warned nomic and environmental outcomes than inequality, not less. It would certainly mean I of the dangers of socialism. But is there anything one could call a policy – not to less fairness. It jeopardizes the rule of law. any substance to that worry? mention concrete legislation – that would In effect, I think today’s social- Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cor- realistically achieve those outcomes. ism-as-aspiration won’t be satisfied, in tez (D-NY), a self-declared socialist, has Now, one could rightly point out that in the long run, with yesterday’s social- made headlines with her Green New Deal order to achieve those outcomes, a socialist ism-as-system – or various watered-down proposal. And more recently, Senator Ber- system may be necessary, even presumed. versions of that system. But unless one can nie Sanders (I-VT), who also identifies as On the other hand, we can also see this as- get beyond writing people off for the labels a democratic socialist, has been considered pirational socialism in popular admiration they pin on their aspirations, I don’t see one of the frontrunners for the Democratic of the Nordic states, which, whatever one how one can ever hope to gain a hearing nomination for president. thinks of them, are not very socialist today among them. Perhaps we should not write off the – not in any technical sense anyway. The Similarly, calls for “free” healthcare, president’s rhetoric as just a call back to a shift in focus is notable, and it leads to po- child care, or higher education may be Cold War trope. Real socialists are growing tential miscommunications. As Alejandro impractical, but critiquing the mechanics in popularity in the United States and even Chafuen put it in Forbes, “Advocates from of such proposals is not enough. There is winning elections. Sanders placed second both sides speak past each other.” nothing wrong with aspirations for more in the early polls, behind only former Vice This terminological shift moves the affordable healthcare, child care, or higher President Joseph Biden, who had yet to of- discussion from the mechanics of economic education in themselves, is there? Those ficially declare his candidacy. policy to the moral motives used to justify aspirations and others need to be met with But what is socialism? them. Thus, for many to say that they positive, workable alternatives, rather than I know the technical answer to that support socialism may mean less that they being simply dismissed. question. I could even comment on vary- want the U.S. to be the next Venezuela and A free and virtuous economy may best ing historical and present-day expressions more that they simply want more fairness serve the moral aspirations of the young of it and different degrees of commitment and equality. They perceive our current “socialists” of today. But writing off such to an interventionist, command-econo- market economy, to put it in Sanders’ socialists without substantial engagement my system, labor unions, the dialectic of a terms, as “rigged” in favor of mega- with what socialism actually means to class war, and so on. However, that may not corporations, “millionaires and billionaires,” them is only an invitation to be ignored. match well with what most supporters of at the expense of small businesses, the Dylan Pahman is a research fellow at the socialism in the U.S. think it is today. poor, and the middle class. Acton Institute, where he serves as managing As Geoffrey Skelley wrote recently The senator’s talk about our economy editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality. for FiveThirtyEight, “Unlike in the 1940s, being “rigged” resonates with the more as- He earned his MTS in Historical Theology from Americans today are more likely to identify pirational conception of socialism, and it is Calvin Theological Seminary. R & L

16 point. Read notes the paradox that no one need not perform this function, building person in the supply chain knows every- roads is one of the enumerated powers thing that goes into creating a pencil, yet granted to the federal government by the each person’s contribution results in an U.S. Constitution. act of creativity. Harford instead spends Substantively, the BBC article echoes most of the essay critiquing a phrase ut- Barack Obama’s famous “you didn’t build tered by Milton Friedman in his television that” speech. And it suffers from the series Free to Choose, which introduced a same fallacies. new generation to Read’s essay. Friedman This argument confuses neces- notes that the pencil was created by “the sary and sufficient causes. The ability magic of the price system.” to transport a product from factory to The BBC’s rejoinder amounts to three store shelf is a necessary condition for objections, all falling prey to similar errors. its sale – and thus, its mass produc- Harford’s weakest argument as- tion – but not a sufficient one. If roads serts that the existence of corporations created businesses, then there should somehow invalidates the concept of be no stretch of asphalt in the country supply-and-demand. “Leonard Read’s not festooned with stores, shops, or of- loquacious instrument was made by the fices. Roads facilitate commerce; they ESSAY Eberhard Faber company, now part of do not necessarily cause it. If the gov- Newell Rubbermaid” whose “employees ernment bears responsibility for all the respond to instructions from the boss, commerce that flows over its roads, then The BBC’s not to prices in the market,” he writes. the federal government smuggled all but This confuses proximate and ultimate the 370,000 pounds of drugs stopped causes. The workers do, indeed, respond at legal ports of entry last year – and critique of their bosses, who report to a CEO, who the U.S. Post Office trafficked all but the reports to a corporate board. However, if 40,000 pounds of drugs seized in the ‘I, Pencil’ those layers of management and admin- mails in 2017. Clearly, this is a reductio ad istration do not ultimately respond to absurdum whether applied to narcotics or prices in the market, they will all report number two pencils. misses the to a different line of work. The creative process begins when an Price signals direct workers how best entrepreneur senses the underlying need point to create, manage, and market their for a product or service, which is con- products. True, someone has to read the firmed by someone’s willingness to pay for data and decide how to respond to them. it. This is the “magic of the price system” Rev. Ben Johnson Harford’s response could serve as an ar- that turns creative potential into a reality. gument for raising CEOs’ salaries. But Furthermore, just as no Pencil Czar Friedman properly identifies the magic directs the construction of pencils, no eonard Read’s immortal essay “I, in the machine. Transportation Czar tells the company Pencil” has persuaded more people Harford’s second argument notes whether to transport its cargo by truck, L of the wonders of the free market that Read’s pencil “underlines its history rail, ship, drone, or private courier. The than possibly any other comparable work of forests and railway carts,” but “both firm chooses the method of shipment that – so many that the BBC recently posted forests and railways are often owned and best fits its needs based on price signals. an article attacking it. However, anyone managed by governments.” True, and Finally, the BBC article raises the issue reading both articles will conclude that more’s the pity. Government policies, of intellectual property. When war inter- Read’s pencil comes out looking sharper. influenced by environmentalist activists, rupted France’s ability to import British The mere fact that Read’s article can have fueled annual forest fires, and gov- graphite, Nicolas-Jacques Conté came still elicit rebuttals 60 years after it ap- ernment regulation of the rails was one up with a new composition for pencil peared in the December 1958 issue of of the more egregious forms of cronyism lead, for which he obtained a patent. FEE’s The Freeman is testimony to its sig- in the Gilded Age. This, Harford argues, should cause us “to nificance. The BBC article by Tim Har- This argument is also something of a question whether Read’s pencil is right ford – titled “Have we all underrated the sleight-of-hand. Harford ignores Read’s to be so fiercely proud of its free-market humble pencil?” – appears at first blush argument that private businesses deliv- ancestry. Would Monsieur Conté have put to be a Reader’s Digest-style information er “oil from the Persian Gulf to our East- such effort into his experiments without piece about pencils until 14 paragraphs ern Seaboard – halfway around the world the prospect of a state-backed patent?” in, when it pivots to Read’s essay. – for less money than the government Libertarians have disagreed over intel- After calling Read’s eponymous writing charges for delivering a one-ounce letter lectual property for more than a century. implement “loud and a touch melodra- across the street!” For our purposes we will Murray Rothbard opposed patents (defined matic,” Harford largely ignores the pencil’s acknowledge that, though the government as a lifelong government monopoly) but

17 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG supported copyrights (which he believed BOOK could be written into contract law). But Lysander Spooner wrote that “the right of property in intellectual wealth” is an Renewing the West, outgrowth of property rights, and deny- ing it amounted to a form of Communism. through the renewal of Scholars associated with the Acton Insti- tute have reached disparate conclusions. The BBC’s objections can be resolved our minds by dealing with two erroneous argu- Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization ments embedded in Harford’s article. Samuel Gregg | Regnery Gateway | 2019 | 192 pgs The first is that the government’s sec- ondary role of providing roads or patents Reviewed by Rev. Ben Johnson is a primary driver of creativity. Necessity, not infrastructure, is the mother of inven- tion. Ingenious people will always invent ext to his ubiquitous quotation about the corrupting nature of and build devices to improve their own power, Lord Acton’s best-known aphorism may be that “liberty lives. The government’s respect for prop- Nis the delicate fruit of a mature civilization.” In his newest book, erty rights merely determines whether Samuel Gregg plunges deep into the roots that nourish the ecosystem they will mass produce and sell them, so of human freedom. Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization that others benefit from their discoveries. explores how ratio et fides – reason and faith – have been integrally The second fallacious assumption conjoined as the foundations of liberty and human dignity. is that everyone who supports the free Western civilization blossomed as three tectonic intellectual foun- market is an anarchist. The Lockean dations converged. The Jewish diaspora familiarized the Roman Empire conception of ordered liberty tasks with monotheism and the ethics embodied in the Decalogue. Greek philosophy, which had government with defending the right to life, reasoned its way to an embryonic and incomplete monotheism of its own, taught that an liberty, and property – a position that Read unseen wisdom, or logos, ordered all of creation and allowed the human mind to participate and Friedman shared. Read wrote in his in the transcendent. Philo of Alexandria harmonized these two systems of thought as com- lesser-known work Government – An Ideal pletely as Scripture and conscience allowed. Finally, Christian universalism taught that all Concept that the State should be confined people are children of one God and subject to one standard of truth. Thus, the rational order to “protecting the life and property of all embedded in natural law revealed, in a rudimentary sense, the character of the Almighty. citizens equally, and invoking a common The notion of a rational God animated theologians, from the Christian Platonists and justice under law.” Friedman believed the Augustine to Maimonides. In due time, when the civilization matured, it would have pro- government had three primary functions: to found meaning for human rights and limited government. The rejection of a God Who is “provide for military defense of the nation,” pure will leads to constitutional limits that constrict the arbitrary exercise of power. “Arbi- “enforce contracts between individuals,” trary government, [even European monarchs] understood, was widely regarded as infring- and “protect citizens from crimes against ing the demands of justice and reason and thus risked resistance, as Charles I of England themselves or their property.” discovered,” Gregg writes. It is “much harder to imagine the delegitimizing of slavery, the The point of “I, Pencil” is best cap- affirmation of the essential equality of men and women, or the de-deification of the state tured by Read’s successor at the helm and the natural world without the vision of God articulated first by Judaism and then infused of FEE, Lawrence W. Reed. “None of the into the West’s marrow by Christianity.” Robespierres of the world knew how to Having enjoyed the fruits that the two historic faiths of the West brought to maturity, make a pencil, yet they wanted to re- humanity seems determined to decouple reason and faith, from one another and from make entire societies,” he wrote. Ambi- everyday life. With a philosopher’s insight, Gregg pinpoints the consequence of this great tious bureaucrats, eager to impose their divorce. “Do you understand,” he asks, “that unless the West gets the relation between ignorance on economics or politics, lack reason and faith right, it will be unable to overcome its inner traumas or defend itself from the information and creativity generat- those who wage war against it in the name of particular ideologies?” ed spontaneously by free people. “Leave The heart of our cultural confusion beats in nearly every undergraduate survey class. In all creative energies uninhibited,” wrote academia’s telling, faith – which is contrasted with reason – ruled during the “Dark Ages,” Leonard Read. “Permit these creative when regal churchmen persecuted the development of science and free inquiry. The Ref- know-hows freely to flow.” ormation legitimized theological speculation, while the Enlightenment gradually removed Read’s essay is no brief for anarchy. the blinders of faith altogether, allowing Westerners to think rationally and empirically. This “I, Pencil” is a plea for humility among history – which conflates all of Christendom with the condemnation of Galileo and all of economic central planners which is des- the Enlightenment with the skepticism of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Hume – has become the perately needed by the utopian tinkerers modern secularists’ founding mythos. of our day, and every era. All of which The book proceeds to prove its thesis about the proper alignment of faith and reason, as leaves Harford without a point to make. Gregg demonstrates the philosophical trends that created what he calls “faiths of destruc- Thankfully, pencils have erasers. tion.” He is at his most provocative, and relevant, when discussing “authoritarian relativism.”

18 Appropriate tolerance, which is rooted in the Judeo-Christian respect for humanity’s freedom to search for truth, devolves into tyranny by first leveling, then proscribing, all truth claims. This “dictatorship of relativism” as Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI called it, promotes poly- logism every time its foot soldiers beg people to speak “my truth,” especially if their “lived experience” never intersects with ontologi- cal reality. It is this milieu which must be redeemed. In this volume, Gregg accomplishes two breakthroughs. The first is that he covers the birth of Western order until the twenty-first century, and takes the reader from despair to hope, in the space of 166 pages (and 15 pages of footnotes). The second is that he leaves the reader hoping for more. One would have been fascinated to read his thoughts on transhumanism, the offspring of Prometheanism and scientism, for example. However, delving into contemporary issues may have unnecessarily dated this volume. Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization is a compact and accessible intro- duction to the history of Western thought that any undergraduate could digest in an afternoon – and profit from for a lifetime. People of faith may be challenged by a book that calls on them to broaden their mind, no less than to deepen their faith. Yet repair- ing this breach in popular imagination is the point of Gregg’s book. It would be incorrect “to say that devout Christians were universally opposed” to philosophy or even “to various Enlightenments,” Gregg notes. He shows how Catholics and Protestants, both French Jesu- its and Scottish Presbyterians, cultivated critical engagement with Enlightenment thought. Just as materialists cannot experience life to its fullest by re- ducing all human thought to flashing neurological impulses, neither can Christians reach their potential apart from the renewal of their minds. This Pauline phrase implies that, for God to put their full talents to use, their sanctification demands that they develop their mind to its highest extent. In so doing, they will follow the footsteps of the greatest thinkers, writers, and saints of their tradition. St. Clement of Alexandria – in ways, an intellectual heir to Philo Judaeus – wrote in his Stromata that he would “not shrink from mak- ing use of what is best in philosophy” in service of the faith once de- livered unto the saints. He ascribed to philosophy among the Greeks an analogous role to that which he assigned to the Hebrew Bible among the Israelites: to prepare them to accept the Gospel. He sug- gested philosophy had been revealed directly by God to the Greeks. (He also believed, erroneously, that Plato had read the Septuagint.) This late-second/early-third-century authority shows that the tension between faith and reason within faith communities is hardly new. He rebuffed those who said Christians should have no recourse to philosophical concepts and categories. “I am not oblivious of what is babbled by some, who in their ignorance are frightened at every noise, and say that we ought to occupy ourselves with what is most necessary, and which contains the faith,” he wrote. “Others think that philosophy was introduced into life by an evil Photo: Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. (Public domain.) influence.” Instead, he held that, by facilitating contemplation and self-control, “philosophy is in a sense a work of Divine Providence” that is “conducive to piety.” Conversely, it was Tertullian – who asked rhetorically, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” – who ended his life in heresy, a critic of the civilization constructed by the fruitful dialogue between those two citadels. People of faith recognize that the West is crying for rejuvenation. Thankfully, those who follow this program of reintegrating piety and reason will find that the Western mind has within itself the seeds of its own renewal.

19 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG cavalry exploits during the American Rev- olutionary War, and Washington became a frequent visitor in the Lee family home. However, like other Founding Fathers, Lee’s life and legacy would prove to be much more tragic and complicated than the virtuous model that Washington made of his life. Cole is adept at capturing Lee’s brava- do on the battlefield as a cavalry officer continually seeking honor and prestige, beginning with the outbreak of the war. Lee harassed and created havoc for British patrols, an especially important mission in opening supply lines for Washington’s beleaguered army at Valley Forge in 1777. At one point the British, growing frazzled by Lee, sent out a convoy of 130 men to capture him, and the young officer found himself walled off and surrounded by the enemy in a house with just eight others. Miraculously, they fought back and forced a retreat against overwhelming odds. Washington, impressed with Lee’s skills and bravado, offered him a coveted position as an aide-de-camp in his inner circle. “It represented a major promo- tion and a chance to join a family that included [Alexander] Hamilton and other young warriors,” writes Cole. Lee, seek- BOOK ing greater heroics and glory, declined the plum offer and announced himself “wedded to his sword.” He believed that glory on the battle- The hard fall of the field was his true destiny, and a medal was commissioned in his name for a dar- ing nighttime raid that captured the fort Light-Horse at Paulus Hook in New Jersey in 1779. Lee continued his success on the south- Light-Horse Harry Lee: The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero - The Tragic Life of ern front and helped Nathaniel Greene Robert E. Lee’s Father | Ryan Cole | Regnery History | 2019 | 426 pgs pin down General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, essentially ending the war on Reviewed by Ray Nothstine American terms. Complaining that he was not getting the proper praise and acclaim, Lee sulked enry Lee III, besides being the father of Confederate General about and soon left the Continental Army. Robert E. Lee, may be best known for his masterful eulogy His desire for more recognition, riches, of George Washington: “To the memory of the Man, first in and prestige would ultimately result in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” a tragic fate. Lee began to aggressively HIn Light-Horse Harry Lee, historian Ryan Cole offers a comprehensive chase wild land speculation schemes that portrait of the oft-forgotten Lee whose rapid rise as a brilliant military eventually buried him in mountains of leader was overshadowed by his descent into scandal and poverty. debt he was unable to escape. Lee grew up in one of Virginia’s most prominent families. He was ambitious, In the short term, Lee settled down, studious, and attracted to the warrior spirit and ethos. Lee was a student at the College married, and was a proponent of the new of New Jersey (now Princeton) in the early 1770s, at a time when colonial furor at the Constitution. He became a congressman Crown was already in full force. John Witherspoon, the school’s president, would sign and governor of Virginia. He was known the Declaration of Independence a few years later. John Adams bragged about Lee’s as an ardent Federalist but was not afraid graduating class, calling them “all Sons of Liberty.” to buck that agenda when he felt it violat- The moniker “Light-Horse” came out of recognition of his horsemanship and heroic ed the law and spirit of the Constitution.

20 Tragedy entered his life when he defended of life. While Washington had a fondness while his father’s pride caused him to the spirit of the Constitution by sticking for Lee, he later kept his distance when chase schemes in search of more wealth, up for a newspaper editor’s right to free he saw the path of financial destruction power, and fame. But for all his faults, speech against Anti-Federalist mobs. That that was awaiting his former officer. Light-Horse always remained loyal to the earned him a bloody beating in Baltimore Lee fled to the Caribbean to recover idea of the Union. “In all local matters I in 1812, which nearly left him dead. Lee, from his physical wounds after the Balti- shall be Virginian: in those of a general left disfigured and permanently ailing af- more mob attack and to escape the nev- matter, I shall not forget I am an Ameri- ter the mob attack, would never recover. er-ending line of creditors hunting him can,” declared Lee. Ultimately, his son did He had already spent time in debtors’ down. “The American hero, crowned with not share that oath. prison before his final downfall at Bal- a ‘halo of fame,’ who had entered his life Cole notes that at every point when timore. Lee became more desperate as with prospects so fair, had ended it by there was a chance that could promote his financial situation deteriorated. He swindling a kind old widow,” notes Cole civil unrest or even war in America, Lee traded and sold land he had already sold of Lee’s last days. Lee swindled his way remained loyal to the idea of a united and embarrassed himself by doing this to back to America and died in 1818 at the nation and a strong Constitutional gov- prominent figures, including Washington. estate of Gen. Nathaniel Green’s daugh- ernment. When Virginia reclaimed his And while it’s not certain he was always ter in southern Georgia. He ended his life body in 1913 and Light-Horse was laid acting maliciously, he earned a reputation as a beggar and incorrigible con artist, to rest at Washington & Lee University, as reckless and a swindler. He could no living off the charity of others. He never the American flag draped his coffin as he longer make sense of his own land spec- made it back to his family. was interred next to his son, the former ulation schemes and was rebuffed by Hamilton and others for seeking inside informa- tion from govern- ment leaders on land contracts and monetary policy. It would get worse for Lee. “The root of Lee’s downfall had been reckless opti- mism,” wrote Cole. “But when his fi- nancial dreams collapsed and he was backed into a corner, his scru- ples were gradu- ally discarded in the desperate at- tempt to preserve his freedom and protect his family. Now, in this last act of his life’s story, he was lit- tle more than a scoundrel attempting to Lee never really knew his youngest commander of the Confederate Army. Photo: Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. (Public domain.) survive to see another day.” son, Robert Edward Lee, born in 1807. One area where Cole excels in his re- While they shared the gift of military Ray Nothstine is editor at the Civitas Institute view is in the illuminating assessments prowess, they had enormous differences. in Raleigh, North Carolina. Previously, he of leaders like Washington. He notes Lee abhorred debt and was more reli- was managing editor of the Acton Institute’s that Washington, while less educated gious than his Deist-minded father. “The Religion & Liberty quarterly. In 2005 Ray and scholarly than many Founders, had son was a devout Episcopalian, praying graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div) a level of deep emotional steadiness and and poring over the Bible daily,” writes degree from Asbury Theological Seminary virtue unmatched by his peers. Lee him- Cole. The son’s piety has a profound im- in Wilmore, Kentucky. He also holds a B.A. self noted that nobody was more virtu- pact on shaping his humility and his vow in Political Science from The University of ous than Washington in the private arena to spend more time with his children, Mississippi in Oxford.

21 SUMMER 2019 ACTON.ORG COLUMN Editorial Board THE TWIN PILLARS OF TOTALITARIANISM Rev. Robert A. Sirico Publisher: Rev. Robert A. Sirico Executive Editor: John Couretas Managing Editor: Rev. Ben Johnson Graphics Editor: Peter Ho

The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty promotes a free society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles. Letters and requests should be directed to: Pope Leo XIII’s prescient 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum delineated the perils of Marxist Religion & Liberty, Acton Institute. collectivism, especially the horrors that would follow in its wake. Drawing both from 98 E. Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, historical observations and his own projections, Pope Leo wrote: MI 49503. Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to The Acton Institute was founded on the benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce basis of ten core principles, integrating confusion and disorder into the commonweal. The first and most fundamental Judeo-Christian truths with free market principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the principles. masses, must be the inviolability of private property. Mind you, that was not Friedrich Hayek writing during World War II but Pope Leo writing at • Dignity of the Person the end of the nineteenth century. • Social Nature of the Person It wasn’t as though there hadn’t already been enough history for Pope Leo to recite prior • Importance of Social Institutions to its writing. The collectivist anarchy of the Jacobin Reign of Terror and Paris Commune • Human Action preceding the writing of Rerum Novarum were a windup for the large-scale events • Sin inaugurated in Russia less than 50 years after he penned his encyclical. • Rule of Law and the Subsidiary During roughly the same period bookended by the bloody French and Russian Role of Government revolutions, another pernicious ideology began winding its wormlike way toward • Creation of Wealth undermining the zeitgeist of Western civilization. In time, atheism became the symbiotic • Economic Liberty leech on collectivism’s emaciated underbelly. • Economic Value In addition to Karl Marx declaring religion “the opiate of the masses,” there existed • Priority of Culture a phalanx of writers, scientists, and philosophers eager to place a headstone on God’s final resting place. They reasoned that if doubt in the existence of God could metastasize The notion of shared values on both into full-blown atheism, their ideology would occupy the subsequent vacuum. Religious sides of the Atlantic has received fervor was redirected to a presumed worship of nature on one hand and the adoration of new attention. Leaders like French government on the other: Talk about worshipping the creature more than the Creator. socialist president François Hollande Unfortunately for these enthusiastic unbelievers (but to the great benefit of the rest cite “democracy, freedoms and the of humanity), reports of God’s death were premature. Oppressive regimes attempted to respect of every individual" as key replace the voluntary worship of the Eternal with involuntary thrall to the state. Yet God values. But what about religious could not be euthanized. liberty, the breakdown of the welfare However, the pause in the slide toward radical secularism and central planning was state, advancing secularism and short-lived. Neither atheism nor collectivist schemes were held in abeyance upon the end the health of civil society? R&L of the Cold War in the latter decade of the last century. Similar to the strategies deployed by Transatlantic will cover these issues nineteenth-century intellectuals, a new generation of anti-religious belligerents assaulted here with new articles. the public consciousness anew. Once this movement gained traction, the resulting vacuum was vulnerable to a resurgence of the mischief that wrought so much human misery over For archived issues or to subscribe, the last century throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America. Even the United please visit www.acton.org. The views States, once a bulwark of freedom, has been beset upon by statist officeholders of every of the authors expressed in Religion & Liberty are not necessarily those of the stripe, aided and abetted by a media and those who would replace spiritual faith with envy- Acton Institute. based socialist enterprises. Acton’s efforts to promote and protect religious and economic liberties are needed now © 2019 Acton Institute for the Study of more than ever. Religion and Liberty. Fr. Robert A. Sirico is the co-founder of the Acton Institute. Photo: Moments before the destruction of Berlin Wall in 1989. (Photo credit: U.S. Dept. Defense. Public domain.) Photo: Moments

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