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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
How much money does the Catholic Church have and who/where did *they* get it from?
we won't be seeing a lot of ad time dedicated to Papal use of the word "redistribution" coming from the RNC. At least they've still got abortion clips to run!
The whole idea of altruism is inherently communistic. Our problem is identifying communistic ideas as automatically bad because the attempts at implementing them as pure systems failed horribly.
For my part, I think universal health care is communistic. And I support it, whilst doing my very best to make as much money as I can, and pay as little taxes as I can, and have the best quality private healthcare I can. There is no hypocrisy or shame in advocating a public policy of help and mercy while looking after yourself as a way of life.
Full disclosure: Not a Christian or an Athiest. :]
There is an entire series of papal encyclicals on this topic starting in the 30's with one entitled "Rerum Novarum". It critiques BOTH communism, for taking away private property, AND "unfettered" capitalism, for its potential to disrespect the dignity of work and the worker (and isn't that what has happened?). The rest of the series proceeds from there to talking about sharing the wealth of our country with the impoverished of other nations when the needs of our communities are met.
This just isn't anything new in Catholocism.
Plus, after having learned their lesson long ago after imprisoning Galileo about that Earth revolving around the sun thing, they are not anti-evolution.
There isn't only one group of Christians out there.
re: a fascinating tension between Christian values and a free market that holds profit-making as the highest goal
A distinction must be made between Catholic Christian values and those of the Protestants who preached to our forefathers the very "free market" profit-making goals criticized by the Pope.
An excerpt from Farewell America, by James Hepburn (a pseudonym):
-Americans are the sons of Calvin. John Calvin preached that the pursuit of wealth and the preservation of property is a Christian duty. He taught that the temptations of the flesh demand a discipline as strict as that of the military profession. "He created an ideal type of man theretofore unknown to both religion and society, who was neither a humanist nor an ascetic, but a businessman living in the fear of God."
Two centuries later, this new type of man came under the influence of John Wesley. "We exhort all Christians to amass as much wealth as they can, and to preserve as much as they can; in other words, to enrich themselves." For President Madison, "The American political system was founded on the natural inequality of men." Correlatively, the moral philosophy of the United States is based on success.
At the end of the Eighteenth Century a Frenchman, the Chevalier de Beaujour, wrote on his return from North America, "The American loses no opportunity to acquire wealth. Gain is the subject of all his conversations, and the motive for all his actions. Thus, there is perhaps no civilized nation in the world where there is less generosity in the sentiments, less elevation of soul and of mind, less of those pleasant and glittering illusions that constitute the charm or the consolation of life. Here, everything is weighed, calculated and sacrificed to self-interest."
Another Frenchman, the Baron de Montlezun, added, "In this country, more than any other, esteem is based on wealth. Talent is trampled underfoot. How much is this man worth? they ask. Not much? He is despised. One hundred thousand crowns? The knees flex, the incense burns, and the once-bankrupt merchant is revered like a god."
http://www.jfk-online.com/farewell00.html
Remember, this is the Rat we're talking about. The Church's enforcer sent to Latin American during the previous out-of-touch-old-guy's tenure to knock some heads together amongst all those commie-pinko liberation theologists.
These stances are consistent with the Church's historic stances (Jesuits and Dorothy Day, anybody?). There are odious things about Catholicism (I'm a practicing R.C. and don't like the "hate the sin, love the sinner" approach to homosexuality or the anti-abortion emphasis), but there are lots of wonderful things about it, too. For whatever reason, life has been in the spotlight to the exclusion of these social justice initiatives for about 25 years now.
GOD Bless the Pope--he's doing what Jesus Christ would do. You can't worship at the altar of GREED while claiming to be a Christian. When Pope Benedict came to America a while ago, he chastised Catholics who support capital punishment as being hypocritical--life is either sacred or it isn't; you can't have it both ways if you are a true Christian. The Pope had the courage to say what is political incorrect in this country, and I admire and respect him for that even though I'm not a Catholic or even very religious. GOD Bless Pope Benedict. (Jesus was the 1st bleeding heart liberal.).
Christianity is inherently communistic.-- pragma
But this is Catholicism we're talking about, which is inherently authoritarian and kleptocratic.
From the rich, to the poor. He lambastes income inequality both within and between nations, and criticizes a profit-seeking mentality devoid of concern for social welfare, "The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner, and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone."
I'll buy that he means it when he shares more of the Vatican's vast wealth with the poor of the world, speaks out against growing anti-Roma bigotry in Italy and addresses some of his economic criticism specifically to Fininvest and Berlusconi. The guy wearing the Cartier watch and Stefanelli red slippers doesn't carry much water for me as far as rousing anti-capitalist rhetoric goes, especially when the history of the Church has always been anti-union at the expense of individual priests, throughout history, who have bravely supported workers' rights.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
