Pope Francis Doesn’t Understand How to Alleviate Poverty

National Review ^ | September 20, 2015 | George F. Will

[Biggirl]

Pope Francis embodies sanctity but comes trailing clouds of sanctimony. With a convert’s indiscriminate zeal, he embraces ideas impeccably fashionable, demonstrably false, and deeply reactionary. They would devastate the poor on whose behalf he purports to speak — if his policy prescriptions were not as implausible as his social diagnoses are shrill.

[Nextrush]

George Will’s intellectual arguments about capitalism and a conservative approach to government divert our attention from the dirty work politicians he supports in the Washington DC Uniparty continue to do with spending money and raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

Talk is cheap George when the Republican Establishment’s actions don’t match up to your words, yet you still support them over outsiders like Trump.

[MDLION]

I have generally agreed with George Will over the years but he makes some stupid statements in this article.

“He (Pope Francis) stands against modernity, rationality, science”

Ridiculous hyperbole. Will sounds like Bill Maher when he says the Pope stands against “science”. If Will had taken a little time to at least skim the Pope’s recent encyclical he would find plenty of statements from Francis praising man’s progress in science and technology. Francis doesn’t condemn all “ modernity”.

Jesus told us “the poor you have with you always” (Mt 26:11; Mk 14:7). They need food, water, and essentials now. What would Will send them, textbooks on capitalism? It would be nice if many of the poor countries could get their acts together but we don’t have the money to do it and we know they’re not going to do it. Who is being more irrational? Francis who knows human needs are desperate and immediate or Will who responds to them with a lecture on capitalist theory?

As someone who thinks too much is taken from his paycheck, it is a legitimate question as to when Governments are becoming Socialistic or even Communistic.

Capitalism is a system, not a sacred cow which can’t be criticized as Will seems to think.
Fact is, most Americans since the mid 70s are just treading water. Wages are stagnant. People live from paycheck to paycheck. The sending of good-paying jobs to Mexico and China, etc, along with a steady stream of foreign workers puts continual downward pressure on wages. And these things are done in the name of free market Capitalism! And we’re supposed to bow before Capitalism like a golden calf in the desert?! I know some of the lazy thinking here have been trained to call me a Communist or a Socialist because I’ve made some nuanced criticisms of Capitalism and George Will. But I’m not.

Like a liberal, Will sees masses. Capitalism is the best system for the most people to succed though he admits many won’t. Francis is trying to speak for the suffering individual person. Which is more Christian?

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” -Deuteronomy 15:11

[Tao Yin]

Marxists take money from those who earn it and give it to those who don’t. That is theft.

Before the theft, you need to have envy. Just because you covet your neighbors wealth for another, rather than yourself, doesn't eliminate the sin.

[minnesota_bound]

Sell some of that Vatican gold Francis : )