Freedom includes your money?
I know there are two versions of the word Freedom in America. There's the Catholic version where your freedom really is your right to be able to do what is right. True Freedom is being freed of sins and the ways of death that the world seems to think disappeared. I had HBO which I had kept mainly for their NFL show which Laura and I thought was quite good. But when Bill Maher blasted Christianity back in March and HBO never said anything in response to his degradation of Christianity, we decided to drop it. But that's just a side point to this post. Mr. Maher certainly confuses Sex and it's relation to True Freedom and the American version.
The American version of freedom usually tries to focus on your ability to choose to do whatever you want. It certainly is related to the Catholic view and comes out of your gift of free will from God, but stop and think how free you really are. I was listening to a show by Fr. Benedict Groeschel and he was talking about how the drug addict has really lost his freedom. Think about it, if you physically feel like you have to have a fix, and your body physically is making it nearly impossible for you to go without it, then you're no longer free in that area of your life. Similar things happen to us in every day life though. I wonder how many people think about them, or even believe those actions are wrong anymore. Many people seem to do things, myself included, before they have a chance to decide what they want to do, or right after they decided they were not going to continue an action. As Paul said, "For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want." Gal 5:12 Still, that doesn't change the fact that we may pray for help and put our best effort into doing better.
But one place of free will which doesn't seem to be talked about, at least not much as wrong, is Taxes. I truly believe that we pay too much of our money for things which we should not. And this last 4th of July I had decided to write a post on it. More than likely people don't discuss this as we have little we can do to improve the situation, but it is one small thing to keep in mind as you go about your voting. Certainly other Moral issues like Abortion come into a much more critical play, but the right to keep the means you've worked hard for is certainly a valid one. And even if Taxes aren't directly mentioned, hand in hand with that are Government services which require money (well Government services all seem to require money) and so we should support only the ones we think we should pay taxes for. Not that some other organization can't do them.
Certainly though, by the Catholic definition of Freedom you should give something to your country. I think what politicians either knowingly through greed or coincidently through a desire to not say 'No', overly burden Americans, and that is wrong. Certainly, God is entitled to at least 10 % given back. And our government should have something for the many roads and such it provides, but Freedom by both definitions is based on our ability to exercise our free will to shape this world for God's glory. And certainly, giving 35% +/- 20% is not affording that freedom.
The American version of freedom usually tries to focus on your ability to choose to do whatever you want. It certainly is related to the Catholic view and comes out of your gift of free will from God, but stop and think how free you really are. I was listening to a show by Fr. Benedict Groeschel and he was talking about how the drug addict has really lost his freedom. Think about it, if you physically feel like you have to have a fix, and your body physically is making it nearly impossible for you to go without it, then you're no longer free in that area of your life. Similar things happen to us in every day life though. I wonder how many people think about them, or even believe those actions are wrong anymore. Many people seem to do things, myself included, before they have a chance to decide what they want to do, or right after they decided they were not going to continue an action. As Paul said, "For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want." Gal 5:12 Still, that doesn't change the fact that we may pray for help and put our best effort into doing better.
But one place of free will which doesn't seem to be talked about, at least not much as wrong, is Taxes. I truly believe that we pay too much of our money for things which we should not. And this last 4th of July I had decided to write a post on it. More than likely people don't discuss this as we have little we can do to improve the situation, but it is one small thing to keep in mind as you go about your voting. Certainly other Moral issues like Abortion come into a much more critical play, but the right to keep the means you've worked hard for is certainly a valid one. And even if Taxes aren't directly mentioned, hand in hand with that are Government services which require money (well Government services all seem to require money) and so we should support only the ones we think we should pay taxes for. Not that some other organization can't do them.
Certainly though, by the Catholic definition of Freedom you should give something to your country. I think what politicians either knowingly through greed or coincidently through a desire to not say 'No', overly burden Americans, and that is wrong. Certainly, God is entitled to at least 10 % given back. And our government should have something for the many roads and such it provides, but Freedom by both definitions is based on our ability to exercise our free will to shape this world for God's glory. And certainly, giving 35% +/- 20% is not affording that freedom.
posted by Robert Zaleski at 2:20 AM
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