Nathan Piers

@MetzUAC1530 Where do you think Luther's salary came from? Rome had a bread dole. Chemnitz and Andreae set up a poor box in Brunswick-Lüneburg. This is quite the claim. It needs argued, in detail, as out of accord with the tradition, and though possibly correct, unlikely.

@GTreow Supporting anyone out of government largesse is always unjust, no matter the excuse. Charity is the church’s, not the government’s, job.

Societal resources exist because money has already been taken from the productive. “Society” has zero claim on what it’s already dipped into.

@MetzUAC1530 Discerning between these often requires discernment of the heart--which it is not ours to judge. We should ask whether the specific policy in fact renders to each their due.

@MetzUAC1530 But if he is elected because a large segment of the population is not flourishing, and the per se goal is to benefit the part of a body politic that is not receiving their just due, and that voted because they are not receiving their just due; then not supporting them is unjust.

@MetzUAC1530 On the other hand, specific taxes could be rejected. But these questions should be debated at the level of specific policies and particular taxes, in their details: How do they serve and harm the common good. We should not seek to short-circuit this by claiming taxes unjust.

@MetzUAC1530 It could still be just even if, per accidens, it also pays benefits to people who do not work. (Eg, the magistrate may decide that, for the sake of the common good, some people need aid after losing a job, and that testing whether they are still seeking work is too burdensome).

@MetzUAC1530 And suspicion is a grave sin. Don't motive snipe at people who think the magistrate should aim toward the common life of the republic.

@MetzUAC1530 Don't talk down to me like this. "Now do they."

@MetzUAC1530 and churches, so that all may worship. Indeed, Ulpian (quoted by Chytraus) says that "Lawful taxes, are the sinews of the Republic, and without which almost nothing in the helming of Polities is able to be done rightly." finis

@MetzUAC1530 But the common end of a polity is the life and virtue of its members. And therefore, it is necessary that we contribute to the life of the whole. We contribute, ideally, to establish schools--as Melanchthon said is the Magistrate's duty--where Christ is taught...