No Other Gods

The fondness of Episcopal clergy--and leaders of other Protestant denominations--for socialism and progressivism has been commented on in this journal before. But the love is not reciprocated.

The War on Philanthropy. [bold added]

(Image from FourStarWealth)

progressive editorialists and political candidates openly call for deep cuts in the charitable deduction, an end to tax protections for churches and other charities, the taxing down of personal fortunes, and new regimes in which government becomes the sole ministrant of societal needs.

Christians who are political progressives think that socialism's battle is with capitalism. They do not see that a powerful socialist State views all groups that have influence--not only businesses, but also churches, charities, and universities--as threats to its authority.

Authoritarians have always hated independent civil society. Russian, Iranian and Chinese dictators clamped down on charities in recent years because they want the state to be the only forum for human influence. “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state” was Mussolini’s encapsulation. For people with a controlling impulse, private wielders of resources represent alternative sources of ideas and social legitimacy that must be suppressed in favor of unitary government prescriptions.

The first of the Ten Commandments was: You shall have no other gods before Me.

When the State supplants God, I suspect that it will adopt the first commandment as its own.