Monday, August 13, 2012

Shalom and Ayn Rand

I was digging into the VP nomination of Paul Ryan, who fashions himself as a proponent of Ayn Rand, saying that she is one of his greatest influences; that got me curious. I have seen the Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1 movie, (which was poorly acted...and made little sense outside of the context of the rest of the story...but that would be another blog post entirely) and I have heard her proclaimed as a herald and soothsayer, making out and predicting modern times extraordinarily well; but I really did not know who she was or what she stood for! Now that I do ... I am disgusted! From the brief research that I have been able to conduct she is a "Social Darwinist" - meaning those who get rich are the only ones deserving of riches while those who are poor are a leech on the rest of society. She has stated that "Nobody has ever given a reason why a man should be his brothers' keeper." She is convinced that religion in general is a weakness...

This doesn't sound like the concept of Shalom... which is peace, wholeness, restoration, for and between individuals  While I don't believe the role of Government is to provide Shalom, it is our responsibility as Christians to follow the example set forth by Christ....and he cared very much for His neighbor...in fact He mandated it of His followers.

We are to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves... this is not weakness and it gives us the mandate to be our brothers' keeper!

I don't see how I can ascribe to or conform to some other ideology that is contrary to this!

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