Liberal democracy: a path to nowhere

Thus the Church has been alienated from public discourse on false pretences and we have lost the ancient traditions that were formed to tell us who we are and what life is for. We celebrate the death of God as signalling our ultimate freedom.

As Nietzsche has asked:

How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe out the whole horizon? What did we do, when we unchained this earth from its sun? Where is it moving to now? And where are we moving to now? Away from all suns? Do we not stumble all the time? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in every direction? Is there an above and below any more? Are we not wandering as through infinite nothingness? Does empty space not breathe upon us? Is it not colder now? Is not night coming, and ever more night? Must we not light lanterns at noon?

The only way that democracy can be saved is to change the argument about faith and to see that the Church is the factory of the considered, virtuous person who knows the difference between the desires promoted by Capitalism and those needful for true character. The virtuous person is not necessarily a wowser and a self-congratulatory pietist, but one who discerns between, for example, the evil of speculative capitalism, the virtues necessary to make a marriage last, the foreign policies that are neighbourly and peaceable, the care for the poor and vulnerable.

This is the way to a truly civil society in which all members are nurtured to make their contribution and all are provided a share in the nation's wealth, not just the shareholders. A critique of liberalism by governments will enable them to form policy according to the common good and not to just the big end of town in the vain hope that wealth will trickle down.

Working against this is the prevailing idea that Faith has nothing to do with politics but is a private realm that may not criticised because it has been freely chosen. This puts an end to discussion.

The idea of the separation of Church and State was not that the Church should be a private matter and that faith could not influence public policy but that the State, in its pursuit of the public good, was to be guided by a long and tested religious tradition that gave us insight into what this good may be.

With the alienation of the Church in Australia from the political, the State can become totalitarian, as we have seen in our treatment of refugees. A proper balance between Church and state prevents the establishment of either totalitarianism or theocracy neither of which has a good historical track record.

Politics has become the art of the pragmatic from which all idealism must be cleansed. It is no wonder that the electorate is disaffected. We long for a leader who can see the way to a civic society and who will act to stop the ravages of unhindered capitalism and the reduction of everything to the economy, not to mention the scandalous stigmatising of the poor and the unemployed. But we would rather this leader leave religion out of politics.

However, Christian faith is intensely political, as the passion of Christ makes abundantly clear. Catholic social teaching remains a rich source of thought that can illuminate contemporary economic and social issues. Christian theology is a universal view that takes in all things, both the visible and the invisible. Christian politicians cannot be expected to leave their faith at the door to parliament. We might as well protest that Liberals leave their faith in the market, or trickle down economics or that by letting capitalism rip we might arrive at a stable and equitable society. There has to be another way.