Comments on: Why Christians Should Welcome Factions

By: Ray Ingles

Ray Ingles — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:32:34 +0000

Yes, if little Jimmy only has eleven classmates in third grade, Iran will give up its nuclear ambitions!

It's just a glib quip, I know, but - oh, come on. You don't have to like the President or agree with his policies... but pretending he has only one policy is just silly. (And given how studies seem to indicate that smaller class sizes help kids benefit more from education, and that education helps prevent all kinds of legal and social trouble later on... making that kind of thing a priority would seem to have dramatic long-term benefits.)

By: Michael PS

Michael PS — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:33:12 +0000

In every mature democracy there are two main parties or coalitions: the friends of corruption and the sowers of sedition: those who profit from existing abuses and those who profit from the disaffection abuses naturally excite.

By: John Willems

John Willems — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:28:57 +0000

I believe what Madison said about factions was that they could not be suppressed without suppressing liberty, which would be a cure worse than the disease. Regardless of whatever human goods come from liberty, I think experience has proven Madison correct. We Catholics like unity, but no one of any background, ours included, is willing to sacrifice truth to get to unity. And of course the reason we do not have unity is because we cannot agree on what is the truth. It seems that humans are oriented toward disagreement and not consensus, and thus faction becomes inevitable. Previously, societies punished heretics and dissenters because it was felt that unity was so important to the maintenance of society that liberty ought to be sacrificed to create unity. The Founding Fathers departed from that traditional view, and I think that we are all glad they did. There is a lot of complaining about partisanship these days, but we forget that partisanship is the natural result of a society that takes free debate seriously. People will disagree vociferously when they are allowed too. The Founding Fathers did not like political parties, but then they turned around and started founding them. The election 1800 is far nastier than anything we can imagine. I would not say that Madison was a bad Christian. Maybe he was just a realistic one.