catholicleague.org
2025-02-03
J.D. Vance makes a commonsensical comment about a Christian notion of love and immediately he is subjected to condemnation. Here is what he said that has "progressives" so upset.
"There's this old school--and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way--that you love your family and then you love your neighbor and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens and your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world."
The idea of "ordered love" is indeed a Christian conception of love. It was given to us by Saint Augustine. "Virtus est ordo amoris," he wrote, which means virtue is the order of love, or love set in proper order. Vance is also right to say that this is an "old school" observation. In the First Letter to Timothy (5:8), it is written that "whoever does not provide for relatives and especially family members has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."