The Catholic vs. libertarian debate continues [View all]

Michael Sean Winters | Oct. 27, 2016

John Gehring recently published a nicely done article at the American Prospect on the influence of libertarians on Catholic institutions and thought. Gehring rightly notes that the Koch brothers are pouring money into Catholic University's new business school, as is their Catholic buddy Tim Busch. I would have thought the Koch brothers' embrace of abortion rights and same-sex marriage might have impaired the shotgun marriage of libertarianism and Catholicism, but apparently money really does talk.

Gehring also highlighted the role of the Acton Institute in nurturing the relationship between libertarianism and Catholicism. Unsurprisingly, Samuel Gregg, the research director at Acton and author of some dreadful books I have reviewed in these pages, has responded to Gehring at Public Discourse.

The surprise is not that Gregg replied. The surprise is that he claims there is some great misunderstanding. He announces to the world that he is no libertarian with the same sense of indignation with which Captain Louis Renault pronounced his shock that there was gambling going on at Rick's in "Casablanca."

Specifically, Gregg claims that while he can't say enough good about the economic ideas of Hayek and von Mises, that does not imply that he shares their libertarian philosophic ideas. He notes, too, that the same can be said of Adam Smith: A good Catholic can embrace Wealth of Nations and shun Theory of Moral Sentiments. You can separate the one from the other as easily as you can separate an egg white from its yoke. Of course, Hayek, von Mises and Smith did not so separate their ideas from each other. And just two years ago, Acton sponsored an event arguing that religious liberty and economic liberty are "one and indivisible," so presumably, Gregg and his ilk think there are ways in which philosophic ideas about the human person and the meaning of freedom are consonant with economic ideas, at least when it suits them.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/catholic-vs-libertarian-debate-continues

http://prospect.org/article/koch-brothers%E2%80%99-latest-target-pope-francis