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Love Thy Neighbour; Screw Everybody Else
J.D. Vance’s theology of concentric moral obligations is Orwellian
Back in January, US Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, offered his interpretation of St. Augustine’s concept of the ordo amoris (order of love) on social media. According to Vance’s new an improved theology, ordo amoris means that “you love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritise the rest of the world.”
In fact, this is a novel interpretation of St. Augustine to say the least. What Augustine was really saying was that things should be loved according to their spiritual dignity: God should be loved first, people should be loved more than things, and one’s own self should be loved, but not more than God or other people. The love of profane goods like pleasure, status and money should be last of all. Nowhere of course did he imply that people should be loved less and less the more foreign they are, effectively suggesting a divine decree to “look after one’s own.”
Vance’s “unconventional” interpretation was intended to provide a theological justification for the Trump regime’s harsh treatment of immigrants, and earned him a highly unusual direct rebuke from Pope…
