Pope Francis is doing three things I’ve never seen in religion before (in my lifetime): \u00a0 1) Being extremely relevant to our daily lives, 2) Potentially offending powerful people\u00a0, and 3)\u00a0Leading. \u00a0I’m going to focus on his comments on Capitalism because that is my area of interest.<\/p>\n\t
1) Being extremely relevant to our daily lives..<\/p>\n\t
The Pope isn’t just generally commenting on how “love of mammon” is bad. \u00a0He is getting specific…arguing against “trickle-down” economics as an “opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, and expresses a crude and na\u00efve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.” \u00a0He has said, “We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market.” \u00a0BOOM.<\/p>\n\t
Also, note his reference to “confirmed by facts”. \u00a0This is also new for modern religion…the appeal to reason as opposed to faith.<\/p>\n\t
In my life, religion\/church is often a limited set of fairly sterile stories that you have to stretch to apply to day-to-day life. \u00a0Jesus may turn water into wine, but I don’t. \u00a0Judas may have been a betrayer; I am generally too boring to do anything like that. \u00a0I’m not saying there is no connection between Bible stories and our lives; I am saying though that you have to draw the connections. \u00a0They are not spelled out, and so are indirectly relevant most of the time.<\/p>\n\t
The Pope is starting to spell some things out…lest the rich start to think Jesus would approve of their CDOs and bank bailouts<\/em>.<\/p>\n\t 2) Potentially offending powerful people..<\/p>\n\t The Church relies on powerful people to give it money. \u00a0The general messages of love, compassion, and morality are compatible with that.<\/p>\n\t But you start condemning the lifestyles of your patrons? \u00a0That is dicey game. No one likes to be reminded they are a hypocrite.<\/p>\n\t Also, one of our political parties is much more highly aligned with religion and usually favors the rich. \u00a0The rich don’t like to be told they are not completely awesome.<\/p>\n\t I think though the Bible is quite plain here: “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”<\/em> \u00a0Matthew 19:24.<\/p>\n\t Uh…I don’t know how literal this is supposed to be or the definition of “rich” (since even the poor in the US are rich by global standards, and anyone reading this on the Internet would be rich by most any standards…that means me and you<\/em>)….however, these are Jesus’s words…not some obscure verse from the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\t The treatment of the poor is very, very central to the Bible and Jesus’s teaching. \u00a0If the Pope starts calling out the rich, saying that their lifestyle is immoral, that it is sinful to make that much more than others, etc….that can change the world.<\/p>\n\t 3)\u00a0Leading..<\/p>\n\t Catholicism is huge; over a billion people align themselves with the Catholic Church. \u00a0The Pope is one of the single largest voices in the world. \u00a0When people say the U.S. President is the \u00a0most powerful man in the world, I have to agree in practice. \u00a0However, if the Pope chooses to lead, I would argue he has more influence. \u00a0The Pope usually isn’t considered in that light because the church rarely leads; it sticks to well worn, non-polemic topics. \u00a0Maybe we are seeing a change?<\/p>\n\t \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pope Francis is doing three things I’ve never seen in religion before (in my lifetime): \u00a0 1) Being extremely relevant to our daily lives, 2) Potentially offending powerful people\u00a0, and 3)\u00a0Leading. \u00a0I’m going to focus on his comments on Capitalism because that is my area of interest. 1) Being extremely relevant to our daily lives.. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,72,80],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3IMYj-bs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":187,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=187","url_meta":{"origin":710,"position":0},"title":"The Invisible Hand:","author":"kellio","date":"July 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The most intelligent thing I've read about economics in a long time. It also implicitly speaks to what role government can play to help alleviate the natural conflicts of the \"free market\".","rel":"","context":"In "Asides"","block_context":{"text":"Asides","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":230,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=230","url_meta":{"origin":710,"position":1},"title":"Incentives: The key to understanding everything","author":"kellio","date":"September 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have some things to share with the 7 or so people who might read my website: Why I am apolitical: I've always stated that I am apolitical, neither democrat, nor republican, nor centrist, nor libertarian.\u00a0 But I have strong ideas about politics and the role government can have in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"economics\"","block_context":{"text":"economics","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?tag=economics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=728","url_meta":{"origin":710,"position":2},"title":"Why Ayn Rand was wrong","author":"kellio","date":"May 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I've read a lot of her books: Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, We The Living, and also a few of the non-fiction works. \u00a0I found them inspiring and they've had an influence on my life. \u00a0And...I think she is mostly wrong regarding what our relationship should be with other people (which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories\/Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Stories\/Observations","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":110,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=110","url_meta":{"origin":710,"position":3},"title":"Economics…the dismal science","author":"kellio","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Banks are not using the Fed bailout money to ease the tight credit market.\u00a0 They are using it to shore up their balance sheets and consider acquisitions of weaker banks who were perhaps not able to get as much bailout money.\u00a0 It is simply making the concept of \"too big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories\/Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Stories\/Observations","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":386,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=386","url_meta":{"origin":710,"position":4},"title":"What is the “Free Market”?","author":"kellio","date":"December 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't believe I haven't written about this before, but here goes: Free Market: When we think of the free market, it conjures up the classic example of an open air market where there are a near infinite number of sellers all right next to each other with similar items.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"economics\"","block_context":{"text":"economics","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?tag=economics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":663,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=663","url_meta":{"origin":710,"position":5},"title":"The free market doesn’t exist except as a rhetorical device.","author":"kellio","date":"September 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I've talked about this before, and it is also discussed very well here. The line of thought goes like this:\u00a0 \"Producers competing against each other benefits us all.\u00a0 Free of government intervention, supply and demand sets the optimal market price.\u00a0 Through open and free competition, the invisible hand of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Inside My Head"","block_context":{"text":"Inside My Head","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}