St. Maximos' Hut

We commemorated him today - I couldn't find much about him on line and Fr. Michael told us about the Martyr Lucian, Presbyter of Antioch (who we also commemorated) instead.

But he had a good line in one of the chants:

"Your radiant light astonished the Angels
And openly alarmed the savage demons"

So, whatever else he did, I like him for openly alarming savage demons!

A nice statement of what libertarians think about the world by Arnold Kling on TCS.

Kling is a really interesting writer in general and this is a particularly good column.

2 really good points on his list of 10 things:

2. There are other values in addition to liberty. However, many noble causes end up infringing on liberty without achieving their desired ends. Government policies should be evaluated on the basis of their consequences, not on the basis of how they make us feel. It may feel good to set a minimum wage, to impose rent control, or to declare a war on drugs, but the evidence is that such policies tend to work to the detriment of their intended beneficiaries.

....

7. Government's unique institutional characteristic is the legal use of coercive force. This creates enormous potential for abuse, and indeed, there are many countries where government abuses its powers constantly, to the severe detriment of the population. The abuses are less evil in the United States, but where liberals look at government expansion and see opportunity, libertarians see threat.

My friend Jon Adler sent me this link to Rod Dreher's conversion to Orthodoxy. It's a long post but quite interesting. Interesting commentary collected by Stephen Bainbridge here .

I saw this on SSRN. I'm not sure whether this makes sense but it is nice to see legal scholars increasingly looking at religious topics.


"Crucifixion & Execution: The Trial of Jesus Christ as a Death Penalty Sentencing Process"

Contact: MARK WILLIAM OSLER
Baylor University - Law School
Email: m_w_osler@baylor.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=583863

Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=882811

ABSTRACT: Last year, I came to a remarkable conclusion: That the debate over the death penalty in the United States is largely among Christians, but has ignored the capital sentencing which is at the center of that faith. The result of this epiphany is Crucifixion & Execution: The Trial of Jesus Christ as a Death Penalty Sentencing Process.

In Crucifixion & Execution, I argue that the story of Christ parallels modern capital practice in many respects: Christ was turned in by a paid informant (Judas), arrested in a strategic manner, given an arraignment and stood mute, was tried, convicted and sentenced, appealed to two separate sovereigns, and finally was denied a pardon.

These similarities lead to two primary conclusions. First, the death of Jesus Christ, an innocent, indicts a modern death penalty system that continues to threaten the execution of innocent men and women. Second, the trial of Christ suggests structural reforms of capital sentencing, if we are to retain capital punishment.

California is at it again, or, perhaps, still. Fr. Sirico at the Acton Institute reports that

A fight is brewing in California over a proposed $2.60-per-pack tax hike on cigarettes on the November ballot. In addition to various health organizations and non-profits that have come out in support of Proposition 86, a number of religious leaders have added their voices to those politicking for the highest single cigarette tax increase in history.

Even the clergy have gotten involved as "progressive" evangelical celebrity Jim Wallis, author of the best-selling book, God’s Politics called the tax “a moral and religious imperative,” and said that voting for the measure is “the right thing, the moral thing, to do.”

Fr. Sirico identifies the real issue as "sin taxes", which are designed to curb behavior the government deems undesirable. He points out that these have "little to do with our rights and responsibilities so much as it has to do with the agency of enforcement." He asks the pointed question, "Who or what will be charged with the moral instruction and enforcement needed to keep sinful behavior to a minimum, or at least restrict its social consequences?"

Once again, it's St. Thomas Aquinas to the rescue. In answering the dilemma whether all immoral activity should be made illegal, Aquinas wrote that “the purpose of human law is to lead men to virtue, not suddenly, but gradually.” This is why the law

“does not lay upon the multitude of imperfect men the burdens of those who are already virtuous that they should abstain from all evil. Otherwise these imperfect ones, being unable to bear such precepts, would break out into yet greater evils.”

As Fr. Sirico notes, "This principle of prudence that Aquinas advocates calls for us to look at the likely consequences of laws to see, despite their laudable intentions, whether they will cause more harm than good."

The California tax, like all such measures, poses a complex picture. Fr. Sirico's thoughts on the topic are well-worth pondering.

Now, where did I put my lighter?