Church of England calls for end of free markets

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The Church of England calls for end of free markets. “Thatcherism should be consigned to history because it no longer has the answers to Britain’s problems,” adds the church’s new political manifesto. Good grief, no wonder the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is confused—the mother church back in Canterbury has completely lost its way.

This post was last modified on January 26, 2021

J.P. Travis: Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976 graduate of University of Michigan, father, grandfather, husband, founder and CEO of Travelyn Publishing (http://www.travelynpublishing.com/), and passionate anti-government believer in individual liberty.

View Comments (19)

  • Very disturbing. This is what appens when the Church becomes a attachment to the government, rather than standing fast in God's word. There was a recent change in the Archbishop of Canterbury. This must be the new guy's stand.

    • Actually, I think this is what happens when a church stops being a church and starts dabbling in politics. Rather than focus on how they can feed the poor, they start cooking up schemes on how to compel someone else to do their work. The biggest problem with this (beyond the fact that it simply won't work), is that the act of feeding the poor is the true focus of Christianity.

      Nowhere in the Bible does it say "Verily I say unto you; fill out thine welfare application and thou shalt havest money from thine Man.", nor does it say "Thou shalt convert thine own government into a way to shirk thy duty, and the means which thou choosest to do this is of no consequence to Me." anywhere.

      • That is exactly the problem. As a state church, the C of E sort of hs to work handin hand with the government. Look at what happened to Thomas a Becket when HE disagreed with the king! Thechurch used to be the greatest charitable organization in the world. And theypushed the very wealthy to do their part. Now no one is picking up the slack, so it left an opening for the government to step inand screw things up. Even if done with the best of intentions, many of thegovernment assistance programs are doing as much or more harm than poverty does.

        • In other words, "I gave at the office."

          Over taxation and government control hurts other charities also.

      • I completely agree with you, but there is one problem with this approach.
        When the government decided to take over the welfare of others, it also started taking taxes from everyone that works, in order to distribute the welfare. Somewhere along the line, someone had to suffer, and it was the churches. The people had less money to live in, and tithing suffered. If government had left caring for the poor to the churches, and didn't take that money from the workers, caring for the poor would have continued to be accomplished with great efficiency, instead of creating a leviathan to handle the tax money, which continually ends up being spent on administrative costs instead of helping the poor. Churches depended on volunteers, not hourly employees with huge medical and retirement plans, to help the poor.
        Leave anything in the hands of government, and find out just how costly it can become.

    • So this isn't a ruling or whatever the Church of England calls its theological decisions -- they call this a "political manifesto" -- but when the Church of England does make a ruling, is the Episcopal Church of the U.S. bound by that ruling? I guess what I'm asking is: do you have to listen to these nutjobs?

      • No. We aren't like the Romans. We are not obligated to.follow the Archbishop of Canterbury. In fact, in colonial times, Scots priests ordained our priests and bishops because The Church of England, as a state church, denanded a vow of obedience to the King. We are in a loose confederation with Anglicans around the planet, but we don't all agree. We started ordaining women some 40 years ago, and our current Presiding Bishop is female. CofE is justvstarting to have women bishops. In some other countries, they aren't even ordaining women as priests.

  • C of E authorities are much the same as their spiritual partners in the US, the Church of Settled Science, Rev. Al Gore presiding.

    • i reckon we can all use a separation

      For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.