A Busy Week

It’s been a busy first week for The Collegiate Commons.

First we found that the acceptance rate for the IU-Indianapolis Honors College was over 89%.

Then we sent out a questionnaire to governor candidates.

Then we covered the state of abortion in Indiana, which seems to change every week.

Finally, we covered the Drum Corps International World Championship, which took place in Indianapolis last weekend.

Luckily, we left ourselves with just enough time to write down our opinions.

First we took a look at lessons for social-justice minded Christians to learn from the famous Scopes “Monkey” Trial.

Then we reviewed the movie The Sound of Freedom and talked how regular people unwittingly contribute to human trafficking.

Finally, we took a look at the forgotten philosophy of Christian Democracy.

Christian Democracy

Americans often wear their ideological badges with an excessive amount of pride. Whether that be Left or Right, Conservative or Liberal, Democratic Socialist or MAGA, these words tend to lose meaning as each political cycle goes by. 

It can be exhausting. 

At their best, political labels tell you what someone stands for, including their principles and goals. Too often though, they become a means to name-call and dismiss the ideas of others. 

Growing up in such a tribalistic environment has taken its toll on many of our peers, so it is easy to see why most have no idea what a Christian Democrat is or what they believe. 

No, a Christian Democrat is not a member of the Democratic Party who goes to church. Nor is it someone who supports some sort of theocratic democracy just for Christians. The Christian Democratic tradition, which has its roots in European and Latin American politics, is distinct altogether from the paradigm of American Conservatism and Liberalism. 

Whereas the former rests on free-market economics and social traditionalism, and the latter rests on economic interventionism and social progressivism, Christian Democracy rests on human dignity, community, and pragmatic policymaking. 

Christian Democracy grew out of the ancient Christian belief in the inherent and equal worth of every human being, and fully believes that  caring for the weakest members of society is the duty of every one of us. For a Christian Democrat, this solidarity is not just the duty of the individual to act charitably, but of society as a whole to reshape itself to care for the poor, the oppressed, and the vulnerable 

A Christian Democrat believes in social and legal protections for the unborn, the impoverished, and the persecuted who flee to our lands for help.

A Christian Democrat also believes in the centrality of community and relationships to human flourishing. Society is not a collection of isolated individuals, but a web of people who enrich each other’s lives. Christian Democrats believe that the building block of society is not the individual, but the original community, the family. Strong, healthy, and functional families are the single greatest resource people can have. From this inherited community, individuals build ties with their neighbors, then their schools and churches, then their whole towns, and up and up. 

The institutions of society ought to be built not just to encourage but enable people to participate in community.

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Marcus Bridgeman is the Opinion Editor at The Collegiate Commons. In his own columns, he focuses on issues of public policy and political philosophy. Bridgeman is a native Hoosier and a law student.