image and likeness

The human animal is unique in all creation. As an animal, it is the only one that acts in regards to means and ends. Humans are able to choose, that is, to decide on its own power which ends it will progress towards and which means are right and proper to progress to those stated ends. A man or woman can freely form their lives within the context of their humanity, their lived human experience. The human being is thus a rational animal, and if he/she is rational, then also free. Therefore, for all Christians, human beings are the only creatures that God created for Himself.

God created man in His image, after His likeness. The likeness was lost in the Fall, but the image- though shattered- remained with man. Sure, our intellects were darkened, our wills weakened, and our sensitive appetites no longer have a clue what's good or bad, only what feels good or bad. We are in an internal state of disorder, disarray, disharmony. I agree with Chesterton's thoughts that the Fall and Original Sin is about as empirical as Catholic dogma gets. The evidence is all around us for the decay of reason, freedom and love. Hence the Incarnation, the need for a Savior who is Himself the "image of the invisible God", to restore to us the likeness that we all had lost in Adam.

Now we need to get a little metaphysical. According to Thomist doctrine, God could not create Being Itself, for that is the very essence of God: pure existence, "He Who Is." God's creative work would at the outset have to involve limiting existence into defined categories, for to define something is to give it limits, boundaries, and ends. God Himself is un-defined: in-fin-ite. He is without limits, but to create something else, there necessarily is inherent limitation, for one needs to be created by Another in order to exist. God - Being Itself- has no such need.

As we continue along our metaphysical path from God to creation, we realize that in creating, God was giving a share of His Being, His existence, to creatures. They would now have that high dignity of all existing things, whether spirit or inanimate objects, of participation in existence. God is existence, we have existence. To be is the first grace.

As God created, He limited, defined, His creation. He alone is Being Itself, so His creatures would always be less than the infinite. Instead of creating pure Being, God created angelic being, human being, plant being. The limitation allows for definition, for understanding. The essence of the creature was its defining characteristics. And it would be from whatever this limited expression of existence that all action would proceed. The Medievals had a phrase for just this concept: actio sequitur esse, action follows being.

In the form that God willed for humanity, our being would take shape in two seemingly opposed arenas, that of the spiritual realm and that of the purely natural. It would be in humanity that God would take animal and make it rational, free, spiritual. And this is the particular point that I would like to stress: no matter how you slice and dice human action or thought, you must always take into account both this spiritual and this corporeal dimensions within each human being.

When we turn to this image of God we see how the spiritual dimension of humanity is further reflective of the divine. Man is not meant to be alone, for God is a Trinity of Persons, perfect unity and community. This Divine Communion of Persons, as Pope John Paul II expressed so eloquently in his Theology of the Body homilies, is imprinted upon our being, causing us to desire the same level of unity and community in our own lives and in our world.

God is Lover, Beloved and the Love that unites them.

The human being, then, is a personal creature. Personhood falls upon such creatures that are capable of having an interior dimension, a spiritual life, that is essentially relational. Angels, men, women, and even God Himself are all caught in interpersonal relationships. Far from being a "mere individual", the human being is a person that seeks to be one with other persons, to have a real communion with others like him/her self.

If God is a Trinity, a Communion of Divine Persons, and we are made in the image and likeness of Him, then it is of no wonder why "it is not good that man should be alone." The crafting of our DNA, the form of our material bodies, the desires rooted in our souls and acted upon by our wills- all of this is taken up in the imago Dei.

So it is not just that human persons want to be free. We want to be united.

free to breathe? or bomb?

How could I, as a Christian, have so unhesitatingly supported the warfare State that we have created here in the American Empire?

We are gearing up for another war, deemed over and over again by the powers that be as "unavoidable." As our warhawks begin squawking for blood in Tehran, I guess it never mattered that they currently do not have nuclear weapons and were not working on nuclear grade Uranium. It doesn't matter, because there is no one really arguing for peace in the corridors of power. Well, besides Ron Paul (R-Tx), there is no one. There are only the Republocrats, the Establishment, the War Party. They pull the strings, and it is always in their favor.

In looking at our economic crisis, which we are still in and which will only proceed to get worse, we cannot afford another war on yet another front. There is no money. There is only a rapidly increasing national debt and deficit spending that would make Keynes roll over in his grave. It was through all of these economic issues that my political aspirations began to turn. And once I had granted access to the idea of free markets into my political reasoning, soon I was running as far and as fast as I could from the neoconservative doors of the G.O.P.

Morally, Christians are saying next to nothing about neocon warmongering. Recently, I joked with my conservative Republican dad that the RNC was spending millions to get "Blessed are the peacemakers" removed from the Bible, or at least replaced with "warmakers". A year ago I never would have said that. Heck, 9 months ago I was vigorously defending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, thanking Christ for the Surge, and gearing up for an Iran smack-down.

Now, the political upheaval that has happened to me in the past year is incredible, for my political outlook has swung to a whole new vista that I never thought possible. Like my dad, I used to be a very vocal conservative Republican; "used to be" being the operative phrase. But that all changed with the McCain-Obama election.

This past election has driven me from the conservative movement. And yet, the more I learn about politics, economics and history, the more I realize that my turning from contemporary conservativism is really a return to old school conservativism, the Old Right of men like Taft, Hayek and Kirk. It was a flight from the neocons. This past election I discovered a candidate that I was before only marginally aware, Ron Paul, who declared that his policies are the "real conservativism" and the "real Republicanism." It intrigued me, to say the least. I had never really heard of him, except during a primary debate here and there. I had no idea that he was the singly most principled congressman in U.S. history. A man of principle you would think would be lauded in a democracy. Instead, his voting record is mocked as others dismiss him with the label, "Dr. No." If it violates the Constitution, reason, or morality, Dr. Ron Paul always votes "Nay", even if he is the only one doing so.

As I was becoming more of Libertarian, I was finally feeling like I didn't have to check my Christianity at the poll booth door. I could finally be pro-life because I saw clearly how insane and horrendously counter-productive were our country's interventionist military engagements that the GOP championed (unless Clinton led them, then the GOP hated them). I had found a political theory that justified and demanded non-aggression, peace and free trade. Imagine politicians fostering peace and not war! The Jesus inside was getting happier.

And that's what I'm doing. I'm imaging a world of libertarian policies of non-aggression, of voluntary association and of a radically free market. I'm imaging such a world that coexists with my Catholic Christian moral understanding and my desire to see the Kingdom of Heaven lived out radically in every nook and cranny of this world.

These previous elections in November and the subsequent presidency of Barack Obama, has shown me the deepest reality of politics in America: it's all theatre. Before the election (Oh dear, remember how long those Democrat primaries were?), Obama's and Hilary's anti-Bush rhetoric was fierce. They decried his wars, his CIA prisons, his use of torture, and his destruction of civil liberties through Patriot Act I & II. And yet, these two clowns, these two actors, demagogues, puppets- whatever your chosen descriptive label- they have yet to reverse a single policy of Bush's.

Bush was to the liberal Democrats what Obama is to the conservative Republicans: proof that this just is not working, that what we are letting the government get away with is destroying the better part of our country. It is my sincere hope that you learn to turn away from both of them, from the pro-war, military-industrial, interventionist, regulating, super-nanny state federal theatre called the Two Party System.

It is my hope that you turn from this mess and chose your family, your community and your future. Peace and prosperity are not found in central planning. They are found in the inherent dignity of the human person.

So now, I leave behind the neocon whirlwind for scarier waters. I'm an anarchist. I'm a capitalist. I'm a personalist who is also a Catholic. I chose life, peace and freedom every day over murder, war and tyranny. And it is my hope that I'll see you striving for the Second Revolution in America.

Peace be upon you all. Peace especially be upon the Middle East.

God love you,

Michael.