Charity As A Political Virtue

 

Now one can love the good of a city in two ways: in one way to possess it, in another that it might be preserved. If someone loves the good of a city in order to have and own it, he is not a good political person, because in this way even a tyrant loves the good of a city, in order to dominate it, which is to love oneself more than the city. He wants this good for himself, not for the city. 

But to love the good of the city that it might be kept and defended, this is truly to love the city and this makes a person a good political person, so much so that some expose themselves to the danger of death and neglect their private good in order to preserve or increase the good of the city. In the same way, to love the good that is participated by the blessed, to love it so as to have or possess it, does not establish the right relation between a person and blessedness, because even evil people want this good. 

But to love that good according to itself, that it may remain and be shared out and that nothing be done against this good, this gives to a person the right relation to that society of the blessed. And this is love [caritas] which loves God for his sake and the neighbors, who are capable of blessedness, as oneself.

-St. Thomas Aquinas, De Virtutibus, 2.2 c.  

America Wakes Up Refreshed

We have come to the brink and looked over. Today, we start to pull back. We pull back from the takeover of our country by a socialist administration who devalues life. The American Revolution began in Massachusetts and now with Scott Brown’s election to the Senate, the new revolution also begins there. The People have spoken through the people of the Bay State and they have told Washington that we will not be silent any more. We fill fight for our country. We will fight for a culture of life. Sure, it is a bit odd to support a pro-choice Republican for office, but as Patrick Archbold at Creative Minority Report said, “Scott Brown is doing more for pro-lifers than ‘pro-lifers’ Ben Nelson and Bob Casey ever did.” With Brown as the 41^st vote in the Senate, Obamacare is surely sunk with its provisions for allowing government funding for abortions.

We still have much work to do America, but at least now we have that hope that was promised to us a year ago. Stay vigilant!