Democracy and liberty are entirely different things.* America’s organizing principle was Ordered Liberty not democracy. And as we noted yesterday, it is not democracy that dies in the darkness. It is liberty. Democracy is simply an incidental causality.
Liberty is born of the unalienable freedom endowed to us by our Creator. It is founded on moral precepts and maintained through truth and vigilance. Liberty allows the fruits of freedom to flourish. Freedom in all aspects of life, including speech, worship, education, medicine, the arts, and economics.
Ordered Liberty is the ideal Christian economic creed. It acknowledges the risks of consumerism and competition and mitigates them with a moral culture rather than state regulation.**
Ordered Liberty, and its companion, free market capitalism, are certainly not perfect. They are, however, the best system compared to all the others. It’s not even close. They have brought the greatest good to the greatest number of people in the history of mankind.
Freedom. Liberty. Whether Christian or otherwise, how can we not stand in defense?
*Nor can democracy be defined as democratic socialism. This is simply a Neo-Marxist shell game.
**Adapted, Michael Novak (1933 – 2017)