On February 2, Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and Jennifer Morse of the Acton Institute will meet at Stanford University to debate the question: "Is Christianity Compatible With Capitalism? Egoism Vs. Altruism."
Yaron Brook (Ayn Rand
Center)
Libertarians reject what they call corporatism because it's a state-created legalism that grants private business organizations certain political privileges and protections, but embrace laissez-faire capitalism because it embodies the natural process of free people freely trading in a free society.
And while Christian libertarians embrace free market capitalism many non-libertarian Christians do not.
The debate is certainly not new. A quick search on Amazon.com brings up screen after screen of books with titles like Is Capitalism Christian?; Capitalism and Christianity; Capitalism and Christianity, American Style; Toward a Christian Capitalism; The Market Economy and Christian Ethics; Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism to name just a few.
Jennifer Roback Morse on
the Glen Beck show
(YouTube)
Dr. Yaron Brook is president of the Ayn Rand Institute, an Irvine, California, based educational organization that advocates for novelist Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Brook explains the moral foundations of capitalism from the Objectivist perspective and champions the right of businessmen "to act in a free market unfettered by government regulation."
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse is a Senior Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute and is a regular contributor to National Review Online and The National Catholic Register. Morse is also the founder and President of the Ruth Institute, a non-profit educational institute that promotes "lifelong married love at home, at work and in the public square."
The event is jointly sponsored by the Objectivists of Stanford and the Stanford Catholic Community.
"Is Christianity Compatible With Capitalism? Egoism Vs. Altruism."
Stanford University (details and map)
Full disclosure: In a 2001 serio-satirical article, "Book Review Review: Libertarian Bashing?" (a review of a book review) the current Libertarian News Examiner, then writing as The Loose Cannon Libertarian, took Morse and her book Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work to task for building and demolishing libertarian "straw men" by defining libertarians as divorcing freedom from responsibility and otherwise "misapplying libertarian principles."
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Comments
The real difference is whether or not people want to make this decision only for themselves, or force their answer on everyone.
Regardless of all the labels and babble, the only thing that really counts is if your actions cause direct harm to those who have not harmed you. The non-aggression principle must be used as a measure for all "libertarian" positions - or they are not libertarian at all.
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