Be careful what you ask for

Over at First Things, George Weigel asks "What Kind of Country Do You Want?"  A "fair question," as they say.  Weigel's answer, however, strikes me as a series of false dilemmas.  We would do better, I think, to "dream up" or, mirabile dictu, even reappropriate some basic Catholic principles that are not so cramped as the ones to which American Catholics, both "liberal" and "conservative," too often confine themselves.  We needn't blunder on preferring our political system and its possible permutations to Christ and his beautiful demands.  Is there going to be any true peace before the reign of Christ?  The separation-of-powers and all the rest of the modern "solution" just aren't up to the stated task of neutralizing the public effects of original and personal sin. The only true solution is a complete embrace of all the ways by which government is legitimated and vindicated through its *serving* all.  Christ is the servant of all, and service is the mark of good government.  That's the sort of "country" I "want" -- one that serves all!  It's the one I believe the Gospel demands. Weigel and I agree about many of the results to be desired and sought in the political realm, but I resist the claim, whether by Weigel or others, that we can realize the promises of the Gospel without tethering politics to the same Gospel.