Press Release: Institute for Progressive Christianity Issues Ground-Breaking White Paper on Distributive Justice

Submitted by Stephen Rockwell on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 19:16

Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Progressive Faith Newswire:

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	Press Release	.....

Institute for Progressive Christianity Issues Ground-Breaking White Paper on Distributive Justice

Washington DC

February 2, 2009

The Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC), a
Progressive Christian think tank, today issued a "white
paper" that outlines a progressive Christian approach to
economics.

Reclaiming Capitalism Through Principles of
Distributive Justice, authored by IPC Associate
Director Frank L Cocozzelli, details how the great
social justice traditions of Catholicism and mainline
Protestantism have informed the development of
liberal economics; how the dismantling of the key
elements of New Deal era financial regulation has
contributed to the current economic crisis; and how
liberal Christian ideas distributive justice economics
can help to solve our contemporary economic crises.

"The Davos World Economic Forum currently in the
news, underscores just how deeply our economic
crises require a moral basis for both short and long
range solutions," said IPC co-founder, Steve Rockwell.
"Frank Cocozzelli's paper points the way to
establishing a fresh framework for Christian
approaches to economic justice."

Cocozzelli calls on religious progressives, to
"reconnect" with historic Christian ideas and
accomplishments in the arena of economic justice in
order to solve our current economic crisis. He calls for
a moral approach to economics consistent with this
tradition, in contrast to the neoconservative view that
economics is "inherently amoral."

"Our liberalism, "Cocozzelli writes, "is based on a
profound moral vision, and rooted in the best of the
Protestant and Catholic traditions that have stood the
test of time as moral philosophies underpinning
economics that works."

"The dismantling of New Deal legislation designed to
forever curb the excesses of reckless profit-driven
business and banking practices played a significant
role in the creation of the current economic crisis,"
Cocozzelli said. "Now, thanks to the short sightedness
of both parties, as Yogi Berra once said, 'Its déjà vu all
over again."

"The passage of The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999
was passed by the Republican Congress and signed
into law by then-President Bill Clinton," Cocozzelli
continued", repealed a cornerstone New Deal
economic firewall, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933,
which prohibited banks from engaging in both less
managed deposit-based investing and riskier
securities-based investing."

The paper also:

Highlights the role of American economist and
Catholic priest, Monsignor John A. Ryan on the
development of American Catholic views of
economics, and as an advisor to President Franklin
Roosevelt.
Suggests that Ryan's "Six Canons of
Distributive Justice" as principles for development of a
contemporary Christian approach to economics.
Discusses how neoconservative Catholic
intellectuals such as Michael Novak, have abandoned
and distorted Catholic teaching on economic justice
and relied instead, advocated what Cocozzelli calls
the "buccaneer economics" of Austrian school
economists, Ludwig Von Mises and F.A Hayek.

Reclaiming Capitalism Through Principles of
Distributive Justice may be viewed in its entirety at
the web site of the Institute for Progressive Christianity:
http://www.instituteforprogressivechristianity.org/

The Institute for Progressive Christianity is an
online think tank, that seeks to further awareness and
understanding that the progressive tradition is rooted
in core Christian gospel values, and to relate that
tradition to personal faith, public policy, family, and the
common good. To that end, conducts research, seeks
to affect and advance policy, educate the public, and
influence every sphere of American public life,
including politics, academia, arts, and the church.