In a speech on Friday, from Rome to United Nations leaders, Pope Francis called for "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society." Of course, most are well aware that “redistribution of economic benefits” is a very dressed up way of saying
“government endorsed thievery.” One party wants what another party has and the only means of getting it is either to steal it themselves or have someone else steal it for them. The Pope's preferred course of thievery is a government initiated brand.
This is odd behavior for a so-called “man of the cloth” yet this type of socialistic chicanery is sadly all too common in some religious circles. The strange fact is that it flies in the face of the Biblical teaching that “if a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) Not to mention the universal command of “thou shalt not steal.” (Exodus 20:15) If the Pope would like to delve into the incredibly lucrative resources of the Catholic church to help the poor he is more than welcome to do so. Yet, this is not a suggestion he has made. Like a good liberal, he wants to slip his hand in your pocket and seize your assets against your will, in the name of “redistribution.” Economics aside, the Pope is displaying hypocrisy on a grand scale. Let him put his money where his mouth is and make his own personal contribution to the poor rather than calling for a bureaucratic takeover of others' resources.
The great irony here is his use of the word “legitimate” to describe this thievery. What, in his mind, makes it “legitimate?” In all likelihood, it's due to the fact that the stealing is conducted under the power of government. But the real question is this: How does something that is immoral for an individual suddenly become legitimate when done by a group of individuals (i.e., governments)? This question has not yet been answered by the pontiff; and it probably won't be. Because there is no good answer to such an immoral, not to mention illogical question.
If the Pope would seek to help the poor with personal contributions out of his own pocket, I would whole-heartedly commend him. Furthermore, if he called on private citizens to give of their own accord to help the poor, his efforts might be laudable. As would the efforts of those who gave. But to endorse thievery under the guise of “legitimacy” is to speak out of both sides of his mouth. It seems that some within Catholicism longed for a good, “socialist” pope who would do the liberals proud. They got their wish. He is such a good socialist that he encourages legitimate thievery.
If these are his views, then so be it. He's entitled to them. But it would be nice if he refrained from invoking the name of the Almighty; and stopped pretending to have divine endorsement to conduct the thievery that the “Word of God” so expressly condemns.
Shane Kastler is Pastor at the Heritage Baptist Church, Lake Charles, LA and Co-Host; "Church & State" KELB Radio, 100.5 FM. He blogs at The Narrow Road.
What's wrong with the State doing "God's work"?
ReplyDeleteIt just takes a weighty load off the overburdened bankers' backs!
"Thou shall not steal" ..... Unless by proxy right?
ReplyDeleteThis 1 quote and who said it prove capitalism is dying
ReplyDeleteCommentary: America has lost its moral compass, killing the economy
So go back to the quiz question: If neither Piketty nor Pope Francis, nor someone on the extreme left or hard-right said it ... then who said: “The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”
Answer: Adam Smith, the father, creator, patron saint of American capitalism. Yes, Adam Smith, in his “Treatise on Moral Sentiments.” (Yes folks, if you looked closely you noticed we really did substitute the word “morals” for “moral sentiments” in our original Adam Smith quote above. That was necessary. It might have made it a bit too easy, more obvious. But maybe not; chances are most investors haven’t read either of Adam Smith’s classic let alone Piketty’s.)
Moreover, conservatives hate having their patriot saint turn on them. While progressives lack the guts to attack.
But the answer is Adam Smith. He predicted the self-destruction coming, the worship of materialism, the neglect of the poor. Yes, over two centuries ago Adam Smith, the patriot saint of capitalism, warned Americans capitalists would eventually lose their moral compass, sabotage their American Dream and self-destruct the economy.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-1-quote-and-who-said-it-prove-capitalism-is-dying-2014-05-10?
100 years of creeping "progressivism" leading to fascism in this country and we're to believe "capitalism" is killing the economy and destroying our "moral compass" because an Adam Smith quote says so? Ha Ha!
DeleteCapitalism without morality is every bit as much of tyranny as a worldly state. This is something that so many libertarians overlook, especially those who insist morality is subjective.
DeleteThat said, what the pope is spouting here is not biblical by any means. Giving with love is charity. "Charity" by any other means is worthless. This marriage of church and state is adulterous toward the Lord.
"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3)
"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7)
AnonymousMay 10, 2014 at 11:08 AM
Deleteyou proved his point:)
Moreover, conservatives hate having their patriot saint turn on them. While progressives lack the guts to attack.
The Federal Reserve Act was a type of 'Partnership Agreement' between the wealthiest bankers & government. The deal left the American people out of the partnership. The fact that the people do not control their nation's money defies the principles of the American Revolution .. Will America's 99% ever see the prescient wisdom in Thomas Jefferson's warning? .. " to give control of the money to private bankers would pose a greater threat to America's liberty than any foreign army" .. The problem is that money & its creation are controlled, not by the people, of the people or for the people, but rather by & for those who control the Federal Reserve .. The 'Fed' was awarded a monopoly to issue money on behalf of the U.S. Government. Every $ issued for the government is a debt owed by American taxpayers. Government gets their partner (the Federal Reserve) to provide the funds for almost anything the government wants. Then government provides favors to those it favors. It does this without needing to tax the people at the time it spends their money. The public (the 99%) were left out of this partnership. Policies tend to serve the banking/government 'partnership' first. The 'common' people? .. Not so much ..
Deletehttp://www.cliffkule.com/
Anonymous @11:33 AM: Care to elaborate on which point was "proved"? You're copy and paste doesn't apply (no conservative or progressive here) but it does prove how the Anonymous comment at 10:20 was trying to be too cute by half.
DeleteI assume the Pope merely accepts The State as a given. His policy seems to be to beg for table scraps.
ReplyDeleteThe State stopped crucifying, beheading, roasting & feeding Christians to lions once they stopped becoming dangerous to it.
DeleteThis pope is such a loser. What a parasite.
ReplyDeletereally...has he been issuing debt, lately??????????????
DeleteIt is becoming apparent that now ...
that the finance class in the US has pilfered all they can,
it is time to give the public a taste of debt simply so they can inflate another bubble that will only leave them poorer once it pops. It is no accident that in the last jobs report, 800K people simply dropped out of the labor force. The unemployment rate fell because we are measuring fewer people. We still have 47 million Americans on food stamps. Wages are not going up. So when you go to the mall and see people shopping and filling up their cars with goodies, just remember that the typical American has zero dollars saved up for retirement. Keep on fiddling people. We truly are a consumption based nation. So much so that we have exported everything including our middle class.
http://www.mybudget360.com/household-debt-twice-as-high-as-household-wages-salaries-student-debt/
"really...has he been issuing debt, lately??????????????"
DeleteWhen this guy PROMOTES this socialist bullshit then yes, he's a parasite. And so is everyone else who promotes that trash.
what's more socialist than taxing away purchasing power through money printing and inflation on those that do not hold any sort of asset and yet those holding them and benefiting on the backs of the many become indignant at the very mention of a "redistribution"?
DeleteIf you define the units of account owned by labor devalued by the inflation then weren't they harmed? How re they to ever regain what they lost?
The beneficiaries should just ride into the sunset happily ever after?
Weren't things already narrowly redistributed up through the inflation? or not?
maybe you should take out the garbage?
I'll take the redistribution of one very valuable old book from Vatican library. They won't miss it and I could probably not need to work again after the sale to a wealthy collector ;)
ReplyDeleteAfter all didn't Jesus say "Go and steal, kill, maim and inprision those who won't give up their property to you"
ReplyDeleteNo wait, he didn't say that!
I guess since according to Catholic dogma the Pope is "infalliable" in his decrees on "Morals" now stealing is a-ok since its done by proxy.
Never mind that as this article quotes, this human being (the Pope) "infalliable" decrees directly contradict the Word of God.
This should be a clue to all how evil and fraudulent the claims of the Papcy are to be "infalliable" and to be the sole "interpreter" of God's Word. We can see a blatant example of how this human being is direct contradiction to God.
Anyone who place their faith in the human institution and the papacy as their source of authority over and above the authority of the Word of God are in serious error.
"This should be a clue to all how evil and fraudulent the claims of the Papacy are to be "infalliable""
DeleteOk, I'm nowhere near Catholic but a little honesty is in order.
As far as I can tell the popes only claim infallibility on faith and morals, (and even then only speaking from the chair of Peter in an ecumenical council) NOT economics. Also I think the popes has officially spoken infallibly TWICE in their entire history. They don't claim that every word that comes out of their mouth is infallible. So many Protestants are complete idiots when it comes to Catholicism. All that being said this pope is an economic ignoramus, the Catholic Church is deeply corrupt, and the Jesuits should be abolished.
--- Pope Francis called for "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society." ---
ReplyDeleteThe article above very aptly tackled the logical and moral contradiction behind the Pope's call for what is clearly the plundering of someone's property, or theft. So I will focus on the other problem with his call which is the assumption that the State possesses the moral character to make the decision for everybody else of what property is to be taken, by how much and from whom. Just why does the Pope think the State has the moral character to be excepted from self-interested decisions about other people's wealth? Why would the Pope think that the State is such a perfect agent for good? There's either naivette in his beliefs or he is himself an unrepentant ideologue, which is a real shame.
Unfortunately, Shane nailed it.
ReplyDeleteI've actually read the whole speech and find it very interesting. The Pope refers to the incident between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector for the Roman authorities. He actually made his fortune despoiling and exploiting tax payers in Jericcho. According to the Pope, "Zacchaeus made a radical decisiĆ³n of sharing and justice, because his conscience had been awaken by the gaze of Jesus. This same spirit should be at the beginning and end of all political and economic activity." Think about this spirit for a minute: A tax collector realizes the grave injustices he has caused the people he previously exploited and decides that he will resitute each person he defrauded every last penny, multiplied by a factor of four. On top of that, he decides to share half his wealth with the poor.
ReplyDeleteThe Pope is actually telling the gathering of the leadership of the most pernicious supranational political beaureaucracy to act like Zacchaeus, and that his spirit should be the guide of all political and economic activity. I think this is absolutely remarkable.
Unfotunately, the preaching on redistribution of wealth by the state has been part of the body of the Church's social teaching for many decades now. But, of course, enlightening all of society, not just the Catholic Church, is the task of all who truly understand capitalism.