Pope Francis - Getting Limbaughed Shows You're on the Right Track

Pope Francis

As a non-Christian you would think my opinions on the Pope, any pope for that matter, would be pretty universally negative.  I have to confess that I did have an overwhelmingly negative opinion given the Catholic Church's handling of their issues with pedophile priests, stances on women's rights issues, birth control, etc.  

Celebrity Pope John Paul II was revered around the world, I think, mainly because he got out there and put himself in the spotlight.  I didn't see any greatness like most of the world did.  Then came Benedict XVI (that's 16 if you don't know Roman numerals).  His tenure was short lived and he apparently just bailed because he couldn't handle the pressures of being head of a Church in crisis.  

On March 13, 2013 the world was introduced to its new pope, the 266th in the line, the former cardinal from Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio; the first pope to take the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.  The gesture of the name was a shot across the bow of the Catholicism of the past centuries.  This pope had long been known for helping the poor, reaching out to other religions, personal austerity.  He had always lived a sort of monastic life; quite unlike many predecessors and many bishops and cardinals around the world these days.  

So why do I care?  First I will say that the Church yesterday announced it had begun putting together a body to work on handling all of the cases of abuse by pedophile priests out there.  Nothing concrete has happened but it's a start.  At least it seems this pope is willing to address the issue.  But that's not what's making me a huge fan of Francis.  

America in the past few decades has steadily turned to the teachings of Prosperity Christianity.  It's a religion tweaked to defend the basics of capitalism.  It's an entirely new religion but still goes under the names of Anglican, Baptist, etc.  The teachings of this new religion focus on material reward in return for faith.  They are close to being the exact opposite of what is actually taught by Jesus in the Bible.

Let me say here that whether or not you are religious, believe in the Bible, believe Jesus Christ was a real man, none of that matters.  What does matter is that there is a document, based in reality or not, that many people in our world use as a point of reference for their stances on a wide range of issues that have a definite power in the politics of our country.  It's important that everyone knows how the document is misused.  When someone makes a claim based on a religious belief coming from the Bible we need to know whether or not it's an accurate claim.  Especially when being used to give blessing to something that seems decidedly unchristian.  

If you honestly think the Jesus Christ of the Bible would be a proponent in any

way of our capitalist system, then you are sorely deluded, or ignorant, or both.  Typically you'll find with those who follow a doctrine of Prosperity Christianity it's a willful ignorance.  Those people know what Jesus said but they twist it and flip it and distort it to meet their desires.  This new pope is calling those people out.  

This week Pope Francis put out what's called an apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, an 84 page document putting the capitalist world on notice that the way it is heading is wrong and contrary to the teachings of the Jesus in whom most profess to believe.  Especially in the U.S. where the conservative right bases many of its political stances in a belief that our country is a country of Christians from its founding to the present day, there will be considerable friction with Pope Francis.  

Rush Limbaugh came out this week and said the document was "just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the Pope".  So a little sidebar here.  Let's just look at what the Bible purports Jesus to have said on the matter of materialism.  

Rush Limbaugh - The Mouth of Hell Opens

It should be made clear that Jesus's teachings were a little different from the Old Testament.  For example, despite the thou shalt not kill exhortation of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 22:2 states "If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow the defender is not guilty of bloodshed."  Stand your ground right?  And given the okay in the Bible.  You'll find much of prosperity teaching focuses on the Old Testament.  In the sixth chapter of the Book of Matthew the entire prosperity teaching is shattered, and it's these few words on which this new pope is basing his world view.  I will post here from the New International Version of the Bible so that the word mammon doesn't throw anybody off.  

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

And again in the sixth chapter of the Book of Luke:

If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.

Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

It's worth noting here that Prosperity Christianity isn't all to blame here.  The Catholic Church certainly has a hand.  In the middle ages, when mercantilism and trade were expanding rapidly, what had been a commonly held notion that usury, the lending of money with interest expected along with return payment, was wrong and unchristian, the Church began to turn its head.  Once upon a time those who engaged in the practice were not supposed to be able to receive the sacrament or have a Christian burial.  Of course this is where the Jews came in during that period.  Not bound by the dictates of the popes they could lend and collect money as they saw fit.  

Further on the concept of wealth Jesus told a man who was wealthy but felt disconnected from God:

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Michele Bachmann (R) Minnesota
Exposing Her Mammon

So, according to Jesus upon whose teachings the entire Christian faith is based, if you're rich you can't go to heaven.  You should not have savings.  You should not be concerned with material wealth.  The actual teachings are literally diametrically opposed to the current Prosperity teachings.  Certainly, though he was an atheist, the teachings of Karl Marx more closely resemble the teachings of Jesus than does the rhetoric that comes out of the Republican party and people like Michele Bachmann or Rush Limbaugh.  

So while I'm not a Christian I do find the new pope to be a refreshing change in refocusing on the actual teachings of Jesus and reminding the world that there are many fake Christians out there who are abusing the teachings and using them to line their pockets.  Whether or not you're Christian I think most good people out there can understand that the teachings of the Jesus of the Bible are worthy of respect.  He felt he had a mission to help the poor and infirm.  He denounced those who profitted off others.  If he were alive today he would be utterly shocked by what passes itself off as Christianity in the U.S. and most certainly what comes out of the Republicans.  

This pope is 76 years old so who knows how long he will be around.  We can expect to see much more backlash from conservative pundits as long as Francis continues to shove the truth in their faces.  It's extremely unwelcome.  As a new wave of populism emerges in this country and around the world, as the status quo of big corporations making record profits and wages remaining stagnant there has never been a time in the last century when those in power in the capitalist system have begun to feel so vulnerable.  There are cracks in the armor and Francis is poking them in all the wrong places.  

I'm just going to post an excerpt of the Pope's exhortation taken from Slate.com.  Regardless of your views or your religion, the message is clear and it's a good one.  This is what you would expect to hear from a man in the position of pope.  It's a long time coming but I am glad it's here.  It seriously makes me feel that there is a chance for some real change, some real reform, and some real justice in a world that has become increasingly unjust.  Just read the following and ask yourself if it sounds like Jesus, Marx, Limbaugh; I think the answer is pretty clear.  Not that I'm going to be turning Catholic anytime soon but I'm thankful this man is in the world.

From Evangelii Gaudium:

How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.