SHORTER FORM:
The state cannot experience faith; and it cannot express charity. Only individuals can. One by one.
- Andrew Sullivan in his blog, The Daily Dish
LONGER FORM:
Now, saints are very rare.
And the kind of voluntary communism of which Merton speaks likely only in monasteries and religious orders. In the world as it is, there should be some mandatory public provision for the poor, the sick and the indigent. But it should be a safety-net to avoid specific social evils, not a system of redistribution to construct some notion of "social justice" (see Chapter 6 in "The Conservative Soul"). In the end, the social Gospel can make Christianity less, rather than more, likely. The state cannot experience faith; and it cannot express charity. Only individuals can. One by one.
- Andrew Sullivan in his blog, The Daily Dish
My name is Dan Porter. I have always believed in God. And I have always been a Christian, which means I have always believed, at some level of understanding, Christian assertions about Christ. But during all of my adult life—I am now 65—I have struggled with many seeds of doubt brought on by modern science, objective history, the question of why a loving God would allow so much suffering in the world and difficulties with seemingly conflicting moral precepts. 
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