NationStates Jolt Archive

From the Osservatore Romano:

In pulpits all over Knootoss and Colombia this Sunday, Catholic priests and bishops preached sermons denouncing “The Order of the Invisible Hand,” the pseudo-religious economic cult gaining ground rapidly among the Knootian elite and spreading through the “reconstruction” forces in Colombia.

Exerpts from some of the sermons preached in Knootoss:


Take care, dear brothers and sisters, that above all, faith in God, the first and irreplaceable foundation of all religion, be preserved in Knootoss. Whoever follows that so-called “rational” conception of substituting a dark and impersonal Market for the personal God, the loving Creator and Redeemer of all men, denies thereby the Wisdom and Providence of God who "Reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly."

None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a supernatural “Market,” of a purely economic ‘religion;’ or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a man-made discipline, within the narrow limits of a superficial philosophy, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are "as a drop of a bucket."

No faith in God can for long survive pure and unalloyed without the support of faith in Christ. "No one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father: and who the Father is, but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal Him," says holy Scripture. And also, “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent." Nobody, therefore, can say: "I believe in God, and that is enough religion for me," for the Savior's words brook no evasion: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.”


And in Colombia:


Whoever exalts economic forces, or mathematical models, or a particular form of market, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.

The peak of the revelation as reached in the Gospel of Christ is final and permanent. It knows no retouches by human hand; it admits no substitutes or arbitrary alternatives such as certain leaders pretend to draw from the so-called myth of economic destiny. Since Christ, the Lord's Anointed, finished the task of Redemption, and by breaking up the reign of sin deserved for us the grace of being the children God, since that day no other name under heaven has been given to men, whereby we must be saved.

No man, were every science, power and worldly strength incarnated in him, can lay any other foundation but that which is laid: which is Christ Jesus. Should any man dare, in sacrilegious disregard of the essential differences between God and His creature, between the God-man and the children of man, to place a mortal idea, were it the greatest of all time, by the side of, or over, or against, Christ, he would deserve to be called prophet of nothingness, to whom the terrifying words of Scripture would be applicable: "He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them."


A privately-circulated Apostolic Letter from the Pope, Leo XIV, to Bishops in Knootoss and Colombia, apparently exhorted them to:


This doctrine, that denies the worth of the very tools God created to effect salvation—faith in God, mercy, charity, love of fellow-men, self-sacrifice—represents nothing new in the sad and distorted history of man’s attempts to elevate himself in isolation from the fount and source of all life. There is no fundamental difference between a discipline that preaches the ultimate primacy of an indifferent and merciless Market, and the totalitarian distortions of Communism that preached the ultimate primacy of an indifferent and merciless State. By such tyrannies are the weak and helpless victimized. Down such roads lie labor camps, the degradation of human dignity, and the callous relegation of human souls to the ranks of the “valueless,” with bitter consequences.

We urge you, venerable Brethren, to watch that pernicious errors of this sort, and consequent practices more pernicious still, shall not gain a footing among your flock. It is part of your sacred obligations to do whatever is in your power to enforce respect for, and obedience to, the commandments of God, as these are the necessary foundation of all private life and public morality; to see that the truth of His primacy, His love, His infinite Mercy, and His word be not profaned; to put a stop to the blasphemies, which, in words and pictures, are multiplying like the sands of the desert; to encounter the obstinacy and provocations of those who deny, despise and hate God, by the never-failing reparatory prayers of the Faithful, hourly rising like incense to the All-Highest and praying the dispensations of His Providence in human affairs.

Several Bishops have also added appeals to their Protestant brethren to join in denunciation of this cult among their flocks.

OOC: Very nice! #tag# for post tomorrow. Its 1 AM now.

OOC; flocks... why oh why does that make me think the Catholic Church considers their faithful to be "sheeple"? (combo: People and Sheep)

IC: Communication: St. Mary's Church
To: the Holy See

As the head of what little makes up the flock of the faithful on the Party Islands, a place that goes beyond Soddom Gohmorra in terms of meaningless hedonism and godless sin I can faithfully report that the Invisible Hand cult has not gained any followings within the Party Islands, partly because most of the people on the islands are tourists who are not here for salvation and the island's natives practise their native religion, or follow the Roman Catholic Church, or practise a strange and complex blending of the two.

Signed,
Bishop Barthello M. Seafish

((For an earlier work of the Order regarding Christianity, see the Order response to a Tanah Burung Bishops’ call at Easter. Linky here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=104296&highlight=)

The Order was now open in its condemnations. Several opinion leaders openly sided with the Order, and the sermons fuelled outrage amongst the liberal elite. The government investigation of the practises of Christian clerics (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122562&start=248) became a sudden media hype. Most Christians had already left for the Nieuw-Nederland colony long ago, but those that remained had to deal with an outright hostile environment.

-------------------
The Hague
-------------------
The Order regularly published items now (for a fee, of course) which were read more and more. Three days after the Order was denounced, this article was printed and distributed world-wide. The conflict made the evening news as an item, right after the death of Mattew Iesus senior.


The Great Monopolist

The indestructible foundation of the whole edifice of the Market is reality. The Entrepreneur regards the world as it actually is, views it in the light of the data provided by progressive science and social experience. The Order of the Invisible hand is, itself, a Market actor on the Market of ideologies. This Market has long been monopolised by the Great Moral Monopolists of Church and State. But there is competition on this Market, and eventually the truth will prevail through natural selection. The followers of the old faiths are dieing or sinking into moral indifference, and they make way for a new generation that recognises Market principles and applies them in competition with the old. That great ancient CEO of the Church – the Pope – has now realised the danger of the Order to his comfortable Market share and is attacking the Order’s very foundation. We stand upon the edge of a great threshold that will determine who will out-compete who.

Ironically, the Church itself acts driven by the very Market forces it condemns for being worshiped as ‘idolatry’. It seeks to become a monopolist of morality. The church teaches that (non-Market) goals can be achieved only as the reward for obedience and meekness. The church threatens the wrath of God and the torment of hell for those who dare to oppose its teaching. But the Free Market liberates us, teaches us not to hope for happiness beyond the grave but to prize life on earth and strive always to improve it. The Market does not take power away, but reaffirms the will to power. The power of man! A sentient being, a Market actor, is not a worm condemned to crawl in the dust, but a being destined to master the forces of nature. It was man, not some god who created the Real Existing Market! The Order of the Invisible Hand has faith in man and his ability to transform the world by his own efforts.

Our history has been marked by a ceaseless struggle against ignorance and superstition, carefully nurtured by the Church. In ancient Greece the works of the philosopher Democritus, who first taught the atomic theory of matter, were destroyed. Anaxagoras was banished from Athens for being an Atheist. Epicurus, revered by the ancients for having liberated man from fear of gods and for asserting the validity of science, was for 2000 years falsely depicted as an enemy of morality and a disseminator of vice. The Alexandria library, housing 700,000 scientific and literary works, was burned by Christian monks in 391 AD. Pope Gregory I (590-604) destroyed many valuable works by ancient authors. In every Market there have been actors that have stood to lose by the dissemination of progressive scientific views. In the past the Church, in pursuing its monopoly, either directly persecuted progressive scientists and philosophers or sought to distort scientific discoveries so as to deprive them of their implications.

The Inquisition, a papal invention for suppressing all opposition to the Catholic Church, savagely persecuted all progressive thinkers; Giordano Bruno, Ludilio Vanini, and Galileo come readily to mind. The persecution continued. Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille, and Diderot was sent to prison. Thomas Paine, the Salem witch trials, Ingersoll, Einstein.

The Order does not direct its main assault against the Bible because it is an irrelevant book with a good marketing strategy. Whether or not the Bible is pornographic literature (as several Knootian politicians suggest) is only a side issue. Politicians, as usual, address side-issues and make them the main issue. What is important is that the church teaches a contempt for the Market because to reach some imagined "heaven" is the main goal of life. It violates the third rule that to follow the rules of the Market is "to hold no other goals!"

It is true that today our kind are no longer burned at the stake, but there are many other ways of competing on the ideological market. Reactionary religious propaganda by the Churches moral monopolists is unceasingly drummed into unthinking minds through the captive media of mass communication. Our competitors today are formidable and still dominate the Moral Market. But the strength of the Order lies in the positive approach of uncovering and publicizing the laws of the Market, and in applying these laws. We need not waste our time with endless arguments about tortuous paths in the endless labyrinths of theology.

The Market is based upon the philosophy that nothing exists but natural phenomena. There are no supernatural forces or entities, nor can there be any. Nature simply exists. Entrepreneurs have no need for intellectual deceptions designed to enslave them..

The monopolists in the Holy Vatican See see the Market and man as subordinate to religion. The ultimate objective of the monopolist is to fabricate evidence of the existence of "god" to reaffirm their own power. They preach of meek submission, of passive acceptance, and thus, of rejection of the Market. Their entire philosophy is contrived, deliberately, to bolster the status quo where the perfectly balanced Market is withheld from us. The church is an obstacle to our economic destiny. The Order pledges to compete on the market of ideologies with the same means the church uses, and it pledges to win! The balanced Market can only exist with the complete and utter destruction of the power of the Church and Christian thought.

The archbishop of cherry ridge is now condemning this cult.
Holy vatican See,we have in custody all the members of this group. what shall we do with them

((OOC: HVS - you have a telegram))

Secret IC to HVS from Grand Inquisitor of Jerusalem, Lucius I:

The Knights of Jeruselem are actively seeking to discover and destroy this cult in Jeruselem. Contact us if you need any assistance in combatting this cult.

(Tag. Not sure where my government stands on this, probably with the Vatican, in general. The OotIH isn't that prominent a power in SB yet.)

Cardinal Johannes Meisner, Acting President of the Vatican’s Office of Communications, held a press conference today to clarify the Church’s position on the cult known as “The Order of the Invisible Hand,” after the preaching of anti-cult sermons by bishops and priests in Knootoss and Colombia resulted in highly-publicized responses worldwide.

The Cardinal first read a prepared statement:


Catholics throughout the world, and especially those who hold positions of political power or influence, are reminded to heed the Church’s seminal teaching on freedom of conscience embodied in the document “Dignitatis Humanae,” declaring the Church’s profound commitment to the rights of individuals and communities to social and civil freedom in religious matters. A call to action by the Church and its ministers in matters of conscience should never be construed as an incitement to political repression or legal harassment of individuals exercising their freedom of conscience.

Rather, the Church exhorts its ministers to use its most powerful tools—moral example, education, and communication—to strengthen the convictions of individual Catholics in making their personal choices, and in expressing those convictions in public life using participatory processes that respect the human rights and dignity of all individuals.

To mobilize tools of state or legal repression against a group of individuals exercising their freedom of conscience, solely on the basis of that exercise, is contrary to Church teaching and doctrine, and should not be regarded as an appropriate response to any moral threats posed even by the most repugnant cult or philosophy. Such repression can only bring the value of the Church’s teachings into question and reflect a wholly inaccurate view of the Church at a time when clarity should rather be employed.

Catholics, and indeed, all who acknowledge and revere the existence of God, and seek to order temporal life based on Divine principles, should rather use the opportunity of this pernicious cult’s challenge to strengthen their own religious convictions and to actuate those convictions in the conduct of their daily lives. Catholics who are concerned about the influence of the cult should be forthright in addressing and confuting its bizarre perversions of philosophy, and vigilant against allowing its morally bankrupt principles to enter into public policy.

The exposure of a dangerous folly and the subjection of that folly to well-merited ridicule and exclusion from the dialogue of the wise is a more powerful tool than the creation of martyrs through political or legal repression. We urge Catholics and Christians everywhere to illumine the magnificent truth of God’s love, His care and mercy for humanity that sent His Son to redeem us, and the Christian life of charity, love, and compassion, of which He provided so clear and compelling an example.

Copies of “Dignitatis Humanae” were available in the press briefing room for all of the reporters:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html

Upon completing the statement, the Cardinal, in a rare gesture, accepted questions from the assembled press.

Nicholas MacCombe, from the Osservatore Romano, asked, “Does the Holy Father regard this cult as a danger to Christians individually?”

“The Holy Father has not expressed any concern for the physical health and security of Christians in Knootoss; however, he has expressed extreme concern over the attempts of those who, apparently under the influence of this cult, are attempting to distort and vilify the Holy Scriptures, and possibly restrict access to the Word of God.”

David Tedeschi, of the Bellarian Daily Blovia, asked, “Can you comment on the alleged arrest of cultists in Cherry Ridge and Jeruselem?”

“We would urge all nations and governments to remain within the scope of law and respect the human rights of cultists. Cultists who commit illegal acts should be treated as any other citizen who breaks the law. However, to harass cultists, manufacture charges against them, or employ other vile mechanisms of repression should be as repugnant to Christians as is this cult’s ideology. And to make belonging to this cult ‘illegal’ would be contrary to the respect for human rights and dignity that informs Church doctrine.”

“Other questions?”

OOC

We'll issue the list of banned cults one day in Jeruselem one day.
Our behaviour is liberal version of Crusader knights of Jerusalem in the middle ages... 8)

OOC: The pope asks you something and you refuse to obey! Heresy!

EDIT: Icness later

The reaction of the Church in Tanah Burung, so far, had been to ignore the Invisible Hand entirely as the ranting of foreign lunatics who were not likely to take the country by storm, given the unpopularity of their home country and of their free-market ideology and idolatry. Given the Vatican's intervention, however, the matter was made the subject of a public meeting in the city of Ukun Rasikan.

Gathered to comment on the Invisible Hand cult's rejection by the wider community were F.X. Mangunvijaya, Bishop of BYMD City whose Advent homilies had originally drawn the Invisible hand into the light of day; People's representative for foreign affairs & human rights Mari Alkatiri, a Muslim, and Katarina Lu'olu, a diviner in the Church of the Rocks and Trees.

The public meeting, patched by video feed to churches and village halls throughout the country, agreed by majority vote to the following statement:


Economies exist to serve people, not the other way around.

We concerned citizens of Tanah Burung reject the teachings of the so-called Order of the Invisible Hand. As people of faith and people who follow no faith, we are agreed on the primacy of the human spirit over the worship of money and markets. To make the market into an arbitary force is to undermine the fundamental dignity of the human person, and our duty as fully-formed human beings to care for one another.

The market is a tool created by human beings. It has no spirituality, none of the richness given by a created world and manifest in nature. The "market" which the Invisible Hand has turned into a deity is not a natural force, but a tool in the hands of humans who use it to hold other countries in colonial thrall and advance an ideology with none of the humanitarianism implicit in the writings of Adam Smith. Their neo-liberal ideology is a self-serving cant dressed up in a fancy hat, devoid of merit, useful only to plutocrats and soldiers of fortune.

We appeal to the people of Knootoss to reject this neo-liberal cult and its colonialist mindset. Do not become slaves of the "market." instead, join with other peopels around the world in re-affirming the fundamental rights and dignity of sentient peoples.

OOC: Wondering what I should do? I don't recognize HVS as the pope, but I do recognize Knootoss' actions (and hope to beat up some market-worshppiers when the DDR becomes the Batavian Empire. ;) ) On the other hand, the HVS clergy are making some good remarks, and my country would probably agree with them, so... what to do, what to do...

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

Another anonymous publication was made by the Order. This time it was sent to Catholic institutions everywhere, and to the government of Cherry Ridge. The condemnation was indiscriminate. The poststamp originated from a mailbox somewhere in western Knootoss, Holland province.


Fair competition?

Recently, the government of Cherry Ridge arrested innocent people, said to be members of the Order of the Invisible hand ‘cult’. The Order would like to plead for the immediate release of these people, in that they are not in any way affiliated with the Order because these arrests are based on a fundamental misconception.

The Order is not so much a religion or a cult. It is not a group of deluded people who perform strange and pointless rituals to appease some higher ‘spiritual’ force. The Order does not have institutions designed to repress thought and impose its beliefs. It is not how we compete on the Market of ideologies. We do not need to compete like this because our system is superior to worship. There are no ‘souls’ we need to save because there is no soul. There is only Market. The Order is committed to spreading the word of the Market.

So long as Cherry Ridge has a private sector and a Cheese Exports industry the idea of Market, however marginal, will live. Now that this Catholic agent has shown its desire to destroy the Market it may as well arrest every entrepreneur, or for that matter everyone working in their already dismal private sector.

The recent arrests are proof again of how the monopolist s of Church and State combine forces to impose their moral monopoly. It is proof that nothing has changed since ancient times. What is the value of a church that – by mouth of Cardinal Johannes Meisner - preaches religious tolerance but at the same time allows harsh political repression? How can it be that something that is claimed contrary to Church teaching and doctrine is practiced consistently, century after century?

Our competitors are clever and control the means of power, but they are growing desperate. That they still have to revert to open religious persecution in the third millennium since their existence shows how unstable their monopoly really is. It shows that their monopoly will not hold. Meanwhile, our numbers grow as former followers dedicate their Sundays to the Market and no longer accept others to think for them.

The ‘call’ by the people from Tanah Burung promoted some discussion in elite circles when the Knootian Humanist Society wrote a statement that essentially agreed with it. The mainstream media completely ignored the event, however, fixed as they were on the pictures coming in from the Allanean war.
The following text was sent out together with the other document. It appeared to be written, however, by a different person. After describing the recent condemnation, it went to a conclusion:


[…]
The condemnations sent out recently in condemnation of the Order and Market principles are made by a small group of old men wearing silly purple skirts. Some of these plutocrats may even arouse the mobs, scaremongering the people by making them afraid of competition on the Market, willing to deny them from following their own self-interest. At the same time, the church refers to its followers as if they are the shepherds of mindless cattle, the ‘flock’.

They comfort their ‘flock’ by denying the inevitable truth that the principles of competition apply to the weak, as well as the strong. Market principles apply to those rejecting the Market as well as those who embrace it. In the end, the weak will either adapt or perish. The lies coming from Tanah Burunug, lead by the Anti-Market Alkatiri, are all too obvious. His little group says it speaks for human rights, but at the same time is silent when alleged followers of the Order are arrested. Religious repression is, in that case, not a problem apparently and the repressed can freely be condemned.

The truth about the Market is: Everyone can compete. Everyone must compete. A Free Market serves the rich, as well as the poor. If anything, the investments by corporations in developing countries are a start for them to come along and share in the progress of the Market Society. The industrialisation of yesteryear is now globalising, expanding across the globe. Just as the power of the Invisible Hand brought wealth to the west a century ago, so will the sweatshops of today be the wealthy Market Societies of tomorrow. The real and existing Markets have worked hard for their wealth. Now it is the turn for the poor nations to join in the competition enthusiastically and grab what they want.


OOC: Sys, I would suggest you just recognize HVS as the pope. They are good Rpers so they definitely deserve it. Having one pope would also add a sense of realism and unity to the NS Catholic church which is at this point more schismatic then the Protestants ever were.

Oh, CR, actually back checking a bit before you randomly arrest people would help. I trust an order by the Church will also mean the release of these poor innocent people.

OOC: Sys, I would suggest you just recognize HVS as the pope. They are good Rpers so they definitely deserve it. Having one pope would also add a sense of realism and unity to the NS Catholic church which is at this point more schismatic then the Protestants ever were.

Oh, CR, actually back checking a bit before you randomly arrest people would help. I trust an order by the Church will also mean the release of these poor innocent people.

OOC: But HVS radically altered history by saying JPII died in 1988. My basic RP policy towards RL stuff is: it's OK as long as you maintain continuity with your average RL world history book. :D And killing a pope earlier than RL history would have it is radically altering history. HVS has no problem with me ignoring him, and Pantocratoria still RPs with me, so there. :P

I might write some "Sukothai in the Objectivist war" stuff some time later. But I must go to sleep now. :D

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

BUMP

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

(OOC: Actually, Syskeyia, we diverge from the RL timeline in 1998, not 1988. We wanted to pick a point close to the RL timeline but leave some ambiguity for the multiversal shift that created "Our" Vatican.

For what it's worth.

More later on this thread...)