One pervasive malady present in daily life is substituting credentials for competence and not understanding the consequences. Being euphemism free, I observe the pope’s speeches and activities according how he functions.
Pope Francis has either not read the New Testament or he is ignoring it. The pope is not alone. Perhaps one in one thousand rank and file Catholics has read the bible. That is not a bad number. Among Christians, especially those who flaunt their faith, only a tiny fraction are familiar with the scriptures.
Jesus was clearly non attached with respect to the secular world, which includes government and world leaders. Jesus encouraged his disciples to be non attached also. Pope Francis. It is Pope Francis’s approach that countries should disregard enforcing laws on an as you go basis instead of repealing the laws. Any wall Trump would build would be an effort to enforce a law that is already on the books. Passing laws and not enforcing them is highly destructive and results a in diminished compliance will laws in general.
Pope Francis is not a Christian but he is a Catholic and head of that church. This is a Catholic issue and if they happy with it being that way, so be it. But, now that Pope Francis is causing problems for the rest of us outside of his church, I feel just fine in reining him in as I would any world leader.
The truth is a hard sell. Fantasy Free Economics gains readers one at a time. Major search engines simply do not list blogs which disagree with their political agenda. As long as folks share the link to this blog and others speaking out against the grain, the truth will at least trickle into the public consciousness.
I am not sure if there is a difference in this case. Either Pope Francis does not know what capitalism is or he is doing the Devils work. For the Pope’s information and also anyone else who doesn’t know. the secular world operates in line with the principles of dominance and subservience. Of course, Jesus understood these things. The Pope needs to take the time to learn.
Evil as I understand it is the state of being completely shut off from the truth. Those who are evil do not know they are evil. Why? For an evil person to know he is evil is a contradiction. Being partly shut off from the truth amounts to being partly evil.
We don’t have a capitalist system. Poverty and misery as occur in economic settings are produced by the very system he most appreciates. The system we have in the United States is much closer to what Adolph Hitler put together in Germany during the 1930s. There is a huge difference between a fascist system and a capitalist economy. When Pope Francis attacks capitalism, he is helping to destroy the only hope the poor have ever had and the only hope they have today.
All economic systems are rooted in self interest. How people go about getting what they want is how an economy is defined. In a socialist system, self interest works against efficiency. With socialism, it is in ones self interest to live off the efforts of others. Little gets produced and suffering increases. As in fascism, money and wealth go to the top. In both systems political power determines economic outcomes. Whoever controls government lives off the efforts of others. The goals of socialism may sound great, but but human nature prevents any of those goals from being achieved. A fascist system works a little different. By politics, an upper class emerges. By controlling government, the rich manage to live above the law. Government is used to force people to buy products and services. The populations of fascist countries, unwittingly become like servants of the upper class. They never realize this until it is too late. Laws like Obamacare are common in fascist systems. The general population is led to believe one thing when they are getting something else. Obamacare guarantees health insurance companies a part of every dollar spent on healthcare. The costs to patients actually go up and providers have a reduced incentive to treat patients. Laws are not enforced if the result is reduced profits of politically powerful corporations.
Free market is actually a better term than capitalism. Capitalism literally means private citizens own their own tools or capital. The terms are used interchangeably. In a free market economy people have complete freedom over what they buy and sell. A few products and services are made illegal out of necessity and this is according to the will of the population. Hard drugs and dealing are a good example. Government plays a huge role because only government can guarantee a level playing field. In the United States today, government has failed in fulfilling its role. When government fails, the free market system morphs into a fascist system. This is what the Pope is seeing and he is unwittingly attacking the wrong system.
If the pope is successful, he will destroy any chance the poor and disadvantaged have of improving their circumstances. Why? In a free market economy, all transactions are voluntary and no group automatically has more power than the others. Honesty and trust are maximized. In all of history, there has never been a socialist system where the lives of the poor have improved. No Fascist country has ever survived. In these times, there are no true free market economies operating. Only a free market system is compatible with Christian philosophy and values.
Pope Francis is making an egregious error in attacking the free market concept. He could be an evil man. I hope he is just ignorant.
Most Christians have never read the new testament. One of the aspects of Jesus’ ministry is that he was non attached with respect to the politics and government of his time. He did ridicule the Pharisees and Sadducees over their personal behavior but stuck to religion and hypocritical conduct.
Pope Francis seems to be inept reaching folks spiritually. Perhaps he is trying to make up for that by trying to change the world politically.
It is good to treat a religious leader with respect providing he is acting in that capacity. Pope Francis is turning out to be just another political hack with ridiculous thoughts and ideas. Previously, I suggested that Christians pray that pope gain some insight into the subjects he feels a need to talk about.
After his speech addressing a joint session of congress, it would be good for Catholics to pray for themselves because this guy is going to get them in a lot of trouble. If anyone else starts listening to him, we are all in trouble.
One pervasive malady present in daily life is substituting credentials for competence and not understanding the consequences. Being euphemism free, I observe the pope’s speeches and activities according how he functions.
The truth is a hard sell. Fantasy Free Economics gains readers one at a time. Major search engines simply do not list blogs which disagree with their political agenda. As long as folks share the link to this blog and others speaking out against the grain, the truth will at least trickle into the public consciousness.
