David Brat: Spreading Christianity Would Improve the Economy and Other Nonsense
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There’s an old saying about “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” It seems the more we know about Kochhead David Brat the more we might be thinking of that old proverb. The hard Right Tea Party favorite who took down 14 year congressional veteran and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Brat is an academic, an extreme one, who warned of another Hitler in a 13-page essay on theology and banking.
Brat, who refuses to say if he is for or against the minimum wage, is an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College. He said “church folk” and his “liberal pals” should extend their inclusiveness to capitalists.
From RawStory:
“If we are ever going to be transformers of culture, we need to get our story straight on capitalism and faith,” Brat wrote in the essay, published in the journal Interpretation in 2011. “The two can go together and they had better go together, or we will not transform anything.”
He said capitalism was “here to stay,” and he said the church should reflect that reality.
“Read Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s diagnosis of the weak modern Christian democratic man was spot on,” Brat wrote. “Jesus was a great man. Jesus said he was the Son of God. Jesus made things happen. Jesus had faith. Jesus actually made people better. Then came the Christians. What happened? What went wrong?”
“We appear to be a bit passive,” he continued. “Hitler came along, and he did not meet with unified resistance. I have the sinking feeling that it could all happen again, quite easily. The church should rise up higher than Nietzsche could see and prove him wrong.”
Brat encouraged Christians to harshly condemn their neighbors’ sins.
“We should love our neighbor so much that we actually believe in right and wrong, and do something about it,” he wrote. “If we all did the right thing and had the guts to spread the word, we would not need the government to backstop every action we take.”
He suggested that spreading Christianity would improve the economy.
“Preach the gospel and change hearts and souls,” Brat wrote. “If we make all of the people good, markets will be good. Markets are made up of people.”
“If markets are bad, which they are, that means people are bad, which they are,” he continued. “Want good markets? Change the people. If there are not nervous twitches in the pews when we preach, then we are not doing our jobs.”
Brat also wondered whether Christians could force others to follow their ethical teachings on social issues, and he said both Democrats and Republicans hypocritically imposed their values on the political system.
“The government holds a monopoly on violence,” Brat wrote. “Any law that we vote for is ultimately backed by the full force of our government and military. Do we trust institutions of the government to ensure justice? Is that what history teaches us about the State? Or do we live in particularly lucky and fortunate times where the State can be trusted to do minimal justice?”
“Do you trust that power to the political Right? Do you trust it to the Left? If you answered ‘no’ to either question, you may have a major problem in the future. See Plato on the regime that follows democracy,” he added.
“I think the main point is that we need to synthesize Christianity and capitalism,” Brat concluded. “Augustine synthesized Plato and Christianity. Thomas Aquinas synthesized Aristotle and Christianity. Calvin synthesized all the rest, but capitalism was still coming. There is a book in here somewhere for the next Calvin. Go. God Bless.”
Watch Brat’s victory speech posted online by WTVR CBS 6:
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I looked at Atlas at around the same age and I actually couldn’t wade through it. Perhaps my ADD was worse back then, perhaps it’s just another Utopian fantasy rigged to allow the author to complain about her lot in life under the guise of philosophy. Something about her family being ruined by the Communists, I think, so she makes up a fictional world where the rich “job creators” are heroes.
It’s temping to agree with the “enlightened self-interest” until you start to examine the nebulous and subjective meaning of enlightenment and how strong the lust for power and money.
But perhaps we’re going to get a chance to see just how pitiful a guide it is for economics and Democracy, just as we were able to see with the failure of Communism – another brain child of a disgruntled philosopher dreaming of a perfect world with perfect people in it. I hope not though. I’ve been trickled down on long enough.
Good analogy Glenn, and, like you, I’m tired of being “trickled down on” as well.
Yes, capitalism, communism and even Ayn Rand’s magic kingdom would all work well if people were “good”
If anything has ever failed to make people good, it’s Christianity. Yes, there are a thousand Christian flowers blooming, with various smells, but very few, if any, have ever embraced free choice, free thought and even Democracy, and that suggests Bratwurst here has much more concern with amassing money for himself and his friends than letting freedom ring.
You know Glenn I read Ayn Rand in my early 20’s I think and I don’t get what everyone is talking about. I, quite frankly, just enjoyed the reads. I read Atlas Shrugged, and one more, the name of which escapes me. I’m assuming it has some hidden message? I know folks talk about it all the time in the context of some major political world view so what am I missing?
another one mad as a hatter. Where do you find these people America? 😉
The church has always embraced capitalism. That’s why they have so much tax-free money.
Religion loves capitalism just a little less than they love hypocrisy.
I miss Eric Cantor already. This man tells people he graduated from Princeton. He conveniently forgets to add the “theological university” part at the end. He is one crazy guy.