re: #287 stabby

I don’t see the connection to Calvinism, at least as a causal agent. That some of the libertarian Rand-ites today seem to overlap some of the Presbyterian groups in the US is more a marriage of convenience, I propose.

And, the idea of the “elect” goes way before John Calvin. Deep in the history of the western version of Christianity the struggle over “sin” and an omniscient God forced theology into a corner (theodicy) from which it never really escaped. The emphasis on election during the time of Calvin was the anti-papist emphasis that “salvation” could not be bought for given wealth to the institutional Church.