The myth of the "invisible band" that ensures that the untrammeled exercise of covetousness by each individual will produce the happiness of all is surely one of the most malignant falsehoods that has ever deceived the human race.

the quest for justice becomes self-destructive, since it is of the very essence of fallen human nature that each of us overestimates what is due to the self and underestimates what is due to the other.

Neither. freedom nor equality are words that can take us to the heart of the matter. The breakdown of relationships will destroy freedom and will destroy equality, but neither of these will be achieved by being sought for itself.

God binds himself in a covenant relationship with men and women to which he remains faithful at whatever cost and however unfaithful his covenant partner is.

For socialism it is the vision of equality: at its best this has been a vision of brotherhood, of community, but in practice it has often been reduced to the vision of a mere equality of rights for each person seen as an autonomous individual.

For capitalism it is the vision of freedom-the freedom of the individual person to develop his own powers, to achieve the greatest success he is capable of and to enjoy the fruit of his achievement.

The "Religious Right" uses the name of Jesus to cover the absolute claims of one national tradition. (See I Kings 13; and see Karl Barth'sextended commentary thereon in Church Dogmatics II / 2, 393ff.)

We are witnessing the same thing, but under Christian auspices, in the emergence of what is called "the Religious Right" in the United States. The leaders of this movement, while accepting the biblical doctrine regarding the radical corruption of human nature by sin, in effect exempt themselves as "born-again Christians" from its operation.

But Christians can never seek refuge in a ghetto where their faith is not proclaimed as public truth for all. They can never agree that there is one law for themselves and another for the world. They can never admit that there are areas of human life where the writ of Christ does not run.