Not that I need to be a Leftist to participate in this channel.

*What is it about socialism which is incompatible with Christian teachings?*

If you could tell me, I don't see how it really is in the grand scheme ot hings.

Maybe some versions there or.

*of

It's explained in here https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19370319_divini-redemptoris.html

47 says *"The right to possess private property is derived from nature, not from man; and the State has the right to control its use in the interests of the public good alone, but by no means to absorb it altogether. The State would therefore be unjust and cruel if under the name of taxation it were to deprive the private owner of more than is fair."*

Socialism wants to abolish private property.

Well, if that is the defination of socialism, then i am not a socialist.

*"8. The fact that God has given the earth for the use and enjoyment of the whole human race can in no way be a bar to the owning of private property. For God has granted the earth to mankind in general, not in the sense that all without distinction can deal with it as they like, but rather that no part of it was assigned to any one in particular, and that the limits of private possession have been left to be fixed by man's own industry, and by the laws of individual races. Moreover, the earth, even though apportioned among private owners, ceases not thereby to minister to the needs of all, inasmuch as there is not one who does not sustain life from what the land produces. Those who do not possess the soil contribute their labor; hence, it may truly be said that all human subsistence is derived either from labor on one's own land, or from some toil, some calling, which is paid for either in the produce of the land itself, or in that which is exchanged for what the land brings forth. "*

*"9. Here, again, we have further proof that private ownership is in accordance with the law of nature. Truly, that which is required for the preservation of life, and for life's well-being, is produced in great abundance from the soil, but not until man has brought it into cultivation and expended upon it his solicitude and skill. Now, when man thus turns the activity of his mind and the strength of his body toward procuring the fruits of nature, by such act he makes his own that portion of nature's field which he cultivates - that portion on which he leaves, as it were, the impress of his personality; and it cannot but be just that he should possess that portion as his very own, and have a right to hold it without any one being justified in violating that right. "*

Sorry for the wall of text. The document is well worth reading for those interested in the intersection of Christianity and Politics.

Also Chopin, if you want to learn more about Distributism you can read The Outline Of Sanity, Utopia Of Usurers, and What's Wrong With The World. Three books by G.K. Chesterton

Thanks!

I'm planning on reading those, as well as his theological works. Particularly The Everlasting Man, as that was one of the major influences that led to C.S Lewis to convert to Christianity.

*"You are aware indeed, that the goal of this most iniquitous plot is to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism, by confusing them with perverted teachings. But these enemies realize that they cannot hope for any agreement with the Catholic Church, which allows neither tampering with truths proposed by faith, nor adding any new human fictions to them. This is why they try to draw the Italian people over to Protestantism, which in their deceit they repeatedly declare to be only another form of the same true religion of Christ, thereby just as pleasing to God. Meanwhile they know full well that the chief principle of the Protestant tenets, i.e., that the holy scriptures are to be understood by the personal judgment of the individual, will greatly assist their impious cause. They are confident that they can first misuse the holy scriptures by wrong interpretation to spread their errors and claim God's authority while doing it. Then they can cause men to call into doubt the common principles of justice and honor"* Encyclical On the Church in the Pontifical States by Pope Pius IX, 1849

Protestantism is the gateway to Socialism.

Protestantism is the gateway to a lot of things

Most of them not very good

My brain is being hurt. I'm gonna go take a step away.

Ok

My brain hurt for several days on this topic.

(in short, night guys. God bless)

Have a good rest.

Goodnight

Marxism is also strictly atheist.

Opiate of the masses

Distributism is critical of both Socialism and Capitalism, which puts it on an awkward place on the political spectrum.

The political spectrum is only so versatile

I can already predict the Marxist arguments.

What are they?

"If you are not for complete public ownership, you are with the bourgeoisie"

Does that criticism hold any weight?

Only if God doesn't exist.

If God exists, it changes the whole social dynamic, as quoted in above passages.

The Church is not publicly owned. If it was it would be destroyed.

Yes, the hierarchy of the church is essential to it's survival.

This is way Aquinas is so important. He uses natural reason to prove that God exists. Basically constructing a material basis for His existence. Marxists have no counterargument, They have to dismiss it as an abstraction or a spook etc.

*"Putting it succinctly, Christ's Church has no intention of yielding ground to her avowed enemy, atheistic communism, without a struggle. This battle will be fought to the end, but with the weapons of Christ!"* Encyclical On Guiding Principles of the Lay Apostolate by Pope Pius XII to the Second World Congress of the Lay Apostolate, 1957

The tradition of scholasticism in the church is a very important one.

It's allowed the Church's theology to be built and strengthened over a period of 2,000 years