Posted on 06/13/2015 8:50:24 AM PDT by zeestephen
I get it. Exaggeration is common on the Internet. People are expressing emotions, not making factual statements about the world. But if we're to understand the world, believable factual statements are worth more than exaggerated claims.
After thinking about this a little, I guess you were writing metaphorically, rather than literally. That wasn't clear from what you wrote. I'm not sure that the passage is as absolute in demanding a separation of the church from the world as you say, though. Surely there were times when it was important for the church to take a stand on a worldly matter. This isn't one of those occasions, but they do happen.
As mentioned in related threads, Genesis 8:22 indicates that God promised that cold and heat, summer and winter will never cease for as long as the earth endures.
I wrote metaphorically. I believe this pope has taken the materialist version of theology to heart, and believes that every social cause — even one as peripheral to the Gospel as “climate change” — is a matter in which the church must involve itself. That is why I believe the passage is too obscure, not because he doesn’t know it, because he disregards its meaning.
The Pope should understand why such a disgusting publication would -- temporarily, to be sure -- embrace him, and then step back from the abyss.
US Republicans sticking to their jobs.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... (catching breath).... BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.
The job of being Barack’s lap dog. ‘Roll over, sit up, beg, speak, play dead.’
that is not a true statement
It is from my vantage point.
Yes, his Master’s Degree in Chemistry, his degrees in philosophy and theology, his teaching of literature and psychology at the college level, and his ability to speak Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Ukranian, Piedmontese, Latin, and English show him to be one of the dimmer bulbs on the planet.
.......AND HE’S ALL ON BOARD WITH THE “CLIMATE CHANGERS” ALONG WITH OBAMA ABD HILLARY, CONTRARY TO MOST SCIENTISTS.
He doesn't have a master's in chemistry. He earned the Argentine equivalent of a community college diploma in chemistry at age 19.
More and more I’m not regretting leaving the Catholic Church.
“And he’s all on board with the ‘climate changers’”
You don’t know that. Why is it assumed that someone who expresses a point or two about the environment is totally on board with the entire environmentalist agenda?
“so just how much gold and cash do you have laying around there in the Vatican”
Not nearly as much as popular myth seems to believe. They ran deficits for years. The Sistine Chapel and The Pieta aren’t liquid. Francis has raised money for the poor with some of the gifts to the Vatican. All the charity the Church has done over the centuries and continues to do and She’s accused of being stingy.
That's part of the job. Shaking down taxpayers is not.
If the government wasn't full bore subsidizing poverty, maybe the parasites would have to go to the church and learn something.
“capitalism”
It’s tiresome how one can’t make one or two criticisms of capitalism without immediately being called a Communist or Socialist. People in the United States since the 70s feel they’re spinning their wheels or losing ground. Many capitalists at the top send our good $20/hr factory jobs to Mexico, China, and on and on and replace them with $9/hr fulfillment jobs. And we’re supposed to say this is wonderful because it’s capitalism and the free market? I won’t! It stinks!
The Church has always strongly condemned Socialism and Communism with documents galore. She and Pope Francis don’t outright condemn Capitalism but do point out that it can at times be brutal and uncaring towards the poor and the worker and wants to help it improve.
“parasites”
Many are parasites, but many aren’t.
I used to basically have an attitude towards the poor of “Get a job, you bum.” I’ve worked hard all my life, but after a job loss I had financial struggles. A little experience with financial trials softened my heart towards many ( not all) of those at the lower end of the scale.
I wasn’t for ObamaCare but if most of us have a serious enough illness we’re on the verge of bankruptcy. Am I supposed to say this is wonderful because the insurance companies are capitalists working the free markets? Why couldn’t the Republicans have put a couple of reforms in involving people with pre-existing conditions and those thrown off coverage when they get sick and spared us Big Government Medicine?
It’s just tiresome on these threads how if you voice concern for the poor or the worker or express any misgivings about the excesses of some capitalistic practices, “Cutthroat Capitalism” as John Paul called it, you’re immediately assumed to be of the Anti-God, Anti-Life, Anti-Family systems of Communism, Socialism, or liberalism. These systems aren’t not just economic systems.
It’s originally a political term, it applies to all who live of the efforts of others. That includes those with government jobs, able bodied cheaters and the truly needy.
I don’t really mean to be cruel to those actually needing the safety net. That is what it’s there for. The others only screw it up for them.
They did, it's called "High Risk Pools"
and those thrown off coverage when they get sick
That's is not supposed to happen. Insurance companies are basically offering a contract to assume your risk. As long as you pay the premiums, they should cover your losses according to the contract.
No, you're supposed to improve your skills or start your own business. No one is obligated to guarantee you a job at any rate of pay. Thinking they are is, indeed, socialism.
She and Pope Francis don’t outright condemn Capitalism
Yes, he did. Please actually take the time to READ what I wrote. You asked me to back up what I said, now I'm asking you to at least have the courtesy to READ what you asked for.
but do point out that it can at times be brutal and uncaring towards the poor and the worker
When it is, the correct remedy is reminding people of the cardinal virtues, which, IF actually practiced are as sure a route to prosperity as exists. When that fails, there is charity.Not government intervention.
Even in the [supposedly capitalist] Downfallen West the consequences of government interference by way of the welfare state has been a DISASTER.
and wants to help it improve.
The "improvements" invariably have led to torture, oppression, and murder. The Pope can't improve what he doesn't in the least understand. It gets tiring pointing out that the entire history of the church's opposition to communism arose because of the oppression of Christianity in communist states; i.e., because the church's ox was being gored, and not because there was any real opposition to the ideology per se.
You’re right. He isn’t dim. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
But has Francis?
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