On Jesus and Redistribution
The following meme was posted on a Bernie Sanders Facebook site:
As a Libertarian and a church-going Catholic I see zero contradiction in this. I personally believe the best way to "justly distribute the fruits of the Earth and human labor" is via the free market or what I prefer to call "market tested innovation and supply” in deference to Dierdre McCloskey.
The Church is a private institution. As long as government is not involved, members of a private institution can work toward whatever goal they wish, so long as they do not impose this belief on others.
In the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-14) Jesus says:
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
This is a pretty specific rejection of the notion that Jesus (or the Gospel writer) calls for "just redistribution” via coerce force.
Do we as a society have a moral obligation to help our fellow humans? Yes, we do. Furthermore, we get to decide what the best way to do that is for each of us.
Should government be the mechanism to insist upon this obligation? Hell, no!