Free is Beautiful: Why Catholics should be libertarian [Paperback]

Randy England (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2012

Free is Beautiful by Randy England uses the scriptures, the writings of the Saints and the Catechism to show why Catholicism is essentially libertarian. Only through our free will can we become virtuous and share in the divine life; knowing, loving and serving God. Centuries ago, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine recognized the futility and evil in trying to force people to be virtuous. They taught that government should limit itself to keeping the peace by protecting people's lives and property. The golden rule teaches that we must not do to another what we would not want done to ourselves. Don't cheat. Don't steal. Don't hit. Don't harm others. Live and let live. Mind your own business. Libertarians call this the non-aggression principle: that no person or group may initiate force against another. The modern state knows no such limits, making everyone's business its own and leaving the individual naked before it. No matter which political party is in power, the government continues to grow unchecked, ignoring justice and fundamental rights, keeping the poor in a place of permanent dependency, while plundering the future to give favors to its friends and extending its world-wide empire through endless warfare. It is time to consider libertarianism, the most just system in a fallen world and the only political philosophy that takes human dignity and free will seriously. Liberty will not feed a man, nor will it get him into heaven, but does guarantee him the freedom to do both.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Randy England is a Catholic writer and criminal defense lawyer in central Missouri. He is a former prosecutor and the author of Unicorn in the Sanctuary (Tan Books) and the end times novel, The Last Fisherman: A novel of the last Pope, the anti-christ and the end of the age.

Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 20, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1475130961
• ISBN-13: 978-1475130966
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randy England, born in Alton, Illinois, is a Catholic writer and criminal defense lawyer in central Missouri. He is a former prosecutor and the author of Unicorn in the Sanctuary: The Impact of the New Age movement on the Catholic Church (1989); the end times thriller, The Last Fisherman: A novel of the last Pope, the anti-christ and the end of the age (1999), and Free is Beautiful: Why Catholics should be libertarian(2012).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for thinking Catholics May 2, 2012

By Geoffrey W. Preckshot

Format:Paperback

There is a widespread belief that Christians, specifically traditional Catholics, could not possibly be Libertarians. Randy England demonstrates the error of that belief in clear and concise discourse.

Beginning with the basis of Libertarianism, the non-aggression principal, Mr. England illustrates by argument and Catholic apology Libertarianism's congruence with Catholicism. Freedom, God's second great gift after life itself, is the core of both Traditional Catholicism and Libertarianism.

Mr. England's treatise explores the details of political Libertarianism and Catholic teachings in the contexts of dogma, property, the Right to Life and the criminal law in it's first part (five chapters). Citing Aquinas, St. Paul, Augustine, C.S. Lewis and even Bilbo Baggins (among others); and drawing from sources from the Old Testament to the New Catechism, Mr. England lays the basis for the inevitability of religious Catholics final embrace of the freedom of Libertarianism. While already a Libertarian, it was a comfort to be provided with the facts to support what I understood implicitly - that freely chosen religious belief spoils one for enforced constraint in areas outside the spiritual.

Part II of Mr. England's book is more practical and addresses the everyday issues of today's regulatory State. Those familiar with F. A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom understand the themes of economic control and the totalitarianism of collectivism as Mr. England discusses them. Free is Beautiful modernizes these themes for the 21st Century with its references to Homeland security, counterproductive licensing and economic strangulation by Byzantine regulatory schemes. It you have ever suspected that the "powers that be" actually are prohibiting everything free, fun and profitable (except for them), the proof of it is within the pages of this book.

Unwilling to just complain, Mr. England proposes both recognized Libertarian solutions for the "dangers" allegedly addressed by the strait jacket of Statist regulation and also his own novel transitional practices to shift from the status quo to a real Libertarian society. If there is any weakness in the book it is here where the author takes the leap from diagnosis to treatment. Regardless of any criticism of the particular tactics offered by Mr. England, it is refreshing to see an author with the courage to propose any path out of the peonage of modern American progressive Statism.

All and all, this is a fine book for freedom loving Catholics and even for those who don't think religious belief corresponds with Libertarian practices. For each group this book has value and is a fine addition to any thinking being's library.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect book for the times we live in June 11, 2012

By Alex

Format:Paperback

I am a libertarian Catholic writer, and I have to say that this book stands up with the best of them. I've read Tom Woods, I've read Napolitano, but none of those do what this book does so well: explain exactly why every Catholic not only should be libertarian, but actually HAS to be libertarian (that is, if they believe in what the Catholic church teaches). Potentially controversial, but very well researched and sourced, this book pulls from all sorts of places, including papal encyclicals and teaching of Aquinas, Augustine, and other saints.

Eventually, liberals have to accept that the welfare state is ineffective and immoral, no matter how good your intentions are. Conservatives have to accept that laws that try and enforce morality are inherently immoral as well. This book explains exactly why, and more. A must read for any politically involved Catholic.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom benefits the needy May 5, 2012

By Joseph L. Shetler

Format:Paperback

"There is no virtue in having government take one man's money by the threat of force and giving it to another. The taxpayer does nothing virtuous, except yield to overwhelming state power. As government welfare replaces charity, it becomes easy and natural to turn away from the poor and leave 'charity' to the government. Government destroys our capacity for generosity. [...] The government commands compliance, not virtue. What the government gives is not a gift; and he to whom the government gives is not grateful; he neither knows nor cares from whom the benefit was taken. The welfare system denies him the opportunity to appreciate the help or reciprocate in any way. [...] The state makes itself indispensable to the poor, subjugating them forever, with the waste from bureaucratic overhead so high as would make real charitable organizations blush with shame. Pope Benedict noted the same in Caritas in Veritate [no. 47]: 'At times ... those who receive aid become subordinate to the aid-givers, and the poor serve to perpetuate expensive bureaucracies which consume an excessively high percentage of the funds.'"

Amen.

Randy England challenges those of all faiths who have a genuine care for those in need to abandon the modern administrative state. He makes a clear and thoughtful defense of pure libertarianism, which I believe will convince both liberals and conservatives to shift their views at least in part toward freedom.