More on the Pope's Speech to Congress: What He Said -- and What He Meant

RUSH: Okay, we're gonna go back to the audio sound bites. Pope Francis and his speech before the joint session of Congress. Let me just ask a question. This is rooted, ladies and gentlemen, in our first caller. I've noticed that there is a process by which people go through when they support somebody, but they're not sure what the person they support is saying all the time or maybe a person they support never has addressed certain things. The people that support them will always interpret what the person they support says as being what they like.

I first saw it with Perot. I had people calling here telling me what Perot was gonna do if he was elected and what he was saying, and he hadn't said any of it, and he wasn't gonna do any of it. But people were so excited about Perot that what they wanted him to do was what they ended up hearing him say he was gonna do. There's some of that with Trump.

Now, we had our caller here, God bless him, this is not a criticism of the caller; this is an observation. He was trying to tell me, "You didn't hear right, Rush. The pope had plenty of conservative things in there." Now, I'm probably going to get in a little trouble here, I'm used to that, but I don't need anybody analyzing this for me. I know exactly what this pope is saying, and I know what he thinks. There isn't a whole lot of gray area for me here. And if you hear me asking somebody, "What did he mean by that?" I'm trying to get people to start thinking. RUSH: Okay, we're gonna go back to the audio sound bites. Pope Francis and his speech before the joint session of Congress. Let me just ask a question. This is rooted, ladies and gentlemen, in our first caller. I've noticed that there is a process by which people go through when they support somebody, but they're not sure what the person they support is saying all the time or maybe a person they support never has addressed certain things. The people that support them will always interpret what the person they support says as being what they like.

Anyway, if you didn't hear that, if you weren't able to make it through the accent, what the pope said was: "Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life. ... We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'"

Does anybody have any doubt what he said there? Do you have any doubt, Mr. Snerdley? Are you confused at all? Wendy, how about you? Are you confused at all? No. Even while she's reading Us Weekly. What about you, Brian, you confused at all? Nobody's confused what he meant by it. Just keep your borders open. Treat 'em like you'd want to be treated. Right. Like full citizens of your country, you treat 'em the way you would want to be treated. Don't treat 'em the way you will be treated if you go to their country. You will not be allowed in and you will be kicked out. (laughing) The Democrats in the audience knew what he was saying. That's when they start, "Right on!" And he stopped them, you know, he didn't want the applause.

There were some guidelines issued to members of Congress. You can't touch the pope. As he's walking down the center aisle, don't try to shake hands, don't do any of that, and they asked 'em to keep the applause way, way down. For the most part, they complied. There were just some times the left couldn't help themselves, they were so excited. Here's the next sound bite. This is where the pope got to mentioning abortion.

OPE FRANCIS: The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty.

RUSH: Does anybody have any doubt about that? Who do you think was yelling and screaming there in the background? Let me read it again in case you were unable to understand. What the pope said there was, "The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty."

Folks, you don't need me to analyze this for you. And you know full well that the only thing that's gonna happen if I do is I'm gonna get in trouble. So you know what's being said here. You don't need me to translate. And he continued on that same theme. Well, kind of moved now into a very, very Clintonesque thing. He wove a nice web from capitalism and praising business and pivoted to climate change.

POPE FRANCIS: Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good. This common good also includes the earth ... the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.

RUSH: Any doubt there about what was being said? How about "business is a noble vocation." I'm gonna get there, but first, is business a vocation? What is business? If it's not a vocation, what is it? It's a state of being. It's not a vocation. "What do you want to do when you grow up?"

"Nothing, just business. It's a great vocation. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity." There are others? (interruption) Well, inheritance is a source. (interruption) Well, no, inheritance is a transference of wealth. Inheritance is not a fruitful source of prosperity. When you bequeath something, you are giving it to them, but you're not really sourcing anything.

So business is a source of prosperity. What other sources of prosperity are there? This is a key question in the arguments between left and right, folks. Government. If you're on the left the government is the source of prosperity. Damn right. If you're on the left, you would. Government's the primary source of prosperity for you, if you're on the left. And if you believe that business exists to kill you, if you believe that business exists to poison you, then government is a source of prosperity for you. And it's especially good, business is, if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of the service to the common good. (interruption) No, it's not what jobs are for.

See, this is where all of this is really simple as pie, but it seems like it's too technical, which warns people off or scares them off. But if you say to somebody, as I have done, "No, no, no, the purpose of a business is not to create jobs and to help a community." You realize there are people, depending on how they've been educated, those are fighting words and they think you are a lunatic? They think the only reason for business is creating jobs and cohesiveness in a community, and providing health care.

Now, you go ask any founder of any company why he or she did it, you will never hear, "I wanted to create jobs for the community" as the number one, number two, number three, number four, number five, number 10 reason for doing so. That is a result of the success the business enjoys. Creating jobs is not why people start businesses. Creating jobs is not how people innovate in business. It's not how they compete. But you realize certain people listening to me, they think I am now the meanest, most unfeeling, insensitive guy they've ever heard.

They think that's exactly what business is for, is to create jobs, is to provide health care, is to keep a community organizing and functioning. I guarantee you, I've encountered it over the course of my stellar broadcast career, on previous occasions where I have said such things as I just said, you've heard the angry calls, "You just don't get it. You just do not understand. It's insensitive, it's mean-spirited." No, it is none of that. It's simply true.

RUSH: Hey, folks, I just had this pointed out to me. Somebody sent me a website called Now the End Begins. (interruption) Yes, I've got the Rich Lowry sound bite coming up. And it's all beneath the dignity of this program, but I'm gonna play it. I've got it. I got all that Trump stuff coming up. Yeah, just hang in there, be tough.

Anyway, this website, Now the End Begins. Yeah, NowtheEndBegins.com. The pope never once invoked God. Never once. Did not open or close in prayer. And the website also mentions something else that we all heard. It registered when I heard it a number of times, but I didn't think to make a note of it. The pope repeatedly said he wanted to enter into dialogue with the American people.

I'm kind of putting the brakes on here, folks, is what I'm doing. And this website also points out that about 15 minutes in when the pope began to be somewhat critical of wealth and business and so forth, the site points out that the pope neglected to mention the wealth and riches of the Vatican itself. Which is true. Which is true.

Anyway, here's Donata in Frederick, Maryland, as we get back to the phones. Great to have you. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, sir. I have to totally and emphatically disagree with your last caller about the pope. If he really wanted to, first of all, have dialogue with the American people, he wouldn't say the mass in Spanish. That's a slap in the face to every American Catholic I know. I've been a Catholic for 52 years, and as far as I'm concerned, if you won't say he's a leftist, I'm perfectly willing to do so. This is an abomination of my morality and my religion, being basically sideswiped. If he wanted to put abortion on the ticket to bring here and talk about, he could have easily done that with what's going on in this country. If he wanted to bring morality or any of the church doctrine, we would have been happy to hear it, but he wants to talk about climate change, a science which he can't even say has been proven.

RUSH: Let me ask you a question about that, though, Donata. When the pope started his comments about the family, did you think that he was, without directly saying it, criticizing gay marriage.

CALLER: No. Not at all. In fact, I don't think he criticizes gay marriage at all. Not that I'm saying he should. I'm saying I don't think he does. I'm saying that's his take on it, from what I've read. And everything that I've read, which I've tried to educate myself, I've tried to give this pope at least the benefit of the doubt, as I do any other pope that's been -- you have to admit, John Paul II has been most of my life, and I find it very difficult there would be another pope any greater than him, but, you know, I just don't see where he's putting family first when he seems to talk about the Catholics having too many children.

RUSH: Yeah, well, but I meant specifically today, with the remarks that he made today. If you can hang on through the break.

RUSH: I checked the e-mail during the break. "Rush, why are you spending so much time analyzing the pope?" You know, that's a fair question, and there's a definite reason for it, and it something that you've heard me say over and over again. It's about informing and educating and explaining.

It comes under this giant umbrella of belief I have that the more people that understand and are made able to spot liberalism, and then the more people are able to associate liberalism with the problems in their lives, the political problems, the economic problems, the more people can be conditioned and educated to understand that liberalism is the problem, coupled with the ability to spot it, would be the fastest way to eradicate it. It would be really helpful if we had a Republican Party engaged in this.

If you go back to Ronaldus Magnus, Ronaldus Magnus constantly used the word "liberal," and he constantly told people who they were, and he was constantly explaining what they did, how they thought, and what they did looked like. After we won the Congress in 1994, we stopped doing that, and we haven't done it except on talk radio since. And it's crucial. We're gonna need more than winning elections; we're gonna need to change the way people think, and they're not gonna change what they think if there's no counter to the way liberalism is presented in the pop culture.

My quest here has been to teach people what liberalism is and how to identify it and how to spot it, and, furthermore, how to understand that liberalism is probably the root of most of the problems they face in life, including raising their kids, including educating their kids, practically every walk of life, because everything today's political. Here's another reason why. We have as the president of the United States one of the most radical leftists that's even ever run for office. Certainly the most radical, extreme leftist ever to be president. But if people are not told that, they're not going to believe it.

Nobody wants to believe such things about the president. Nobody wants to believe such things about other powerful figures like popes and other revered leaders. If you look at what Obama has done, capitalizing on the squishiness of the GOP, in the last seven years Barack Obama has successfully recruited or corrupted or hijacked, however you want to describe it, John Roberts of the Supreme Court; John Boehner, Speaker of the House; Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate; and some might even say the pope.

Well, you're saying "Well so what, Rush? None of that's a surprise." Right. But for people who don't follow politics and they see people like the pope sidling up to and having fun with and supporting Obama, and see a Supreme Court justice going out of his way to be supportive of Obama and then the two Republican leaders, do you realize how impossible it will be to portray Obama as he is, an extreme radical? You realize how difficult that is to explain to people when all these other people seem to have been recruited by him and are helping him?

Now, in the case of Roberts, Boehner, and Mitchell, the explanation for it, we know that they're not simpatico on issues -- and God help us if they are -- it's more that they're afraid to oppose him. Pope's another matter. Interchangeable. But for the domestic people here, not just these three, but they're the big three, John Roberts, Boehner, and McConnell, if the Republican leadership and the so-called conservative chief justice of the Supreme Court don't appear to have any problem with Obama, do you realize how difficult it is to tell the truth about the guy?

That's one of the reasons I cringe every time I see no evidence of push-back by the Republican Party on Obama policies. Just makes it harder to accomplish one of the things I have set out to do, and that is educate people about liberalism.

Anyway, back to Donata. Donata, I know that you're reacting to what the pope has said previous, and I don't have his words right in front of me here, but he today launched into a defense of the family, how important it was, how crucial the family is. He did not mention gay marriage or any of that. But he was talking about it in the traditional sense, and so I just wanted to ask you, because you are a Catholic and you're having some difficulties with his papacy, if you thought that his comments today in that joint speech were a disguised criticism of gay marriage?

CALLER: I absolutely think it could be. That's very possible. I tend to think of him as a wolf in shepherd's clothing.

CALLER: This is just my view. And I know a lot of conservative Catholics who feel the same. I just happen to have a big enough mouth to say it. I don't know what he was talking about, to be perfectly honest with you, and I would never assume to put words in his mouth. I'm only going by the words I know have come out of his mouth and understand those.

RUSH: Okay. Well, look, I'm glad you held on. I appreciate it. I just want to run it by you and make sure you understood what the question was because we were in a hurried state at the end of your call.

These Leftists quoting this Pope today will be the very first to denounce this or any other Pope when he says something they don’t agree with.

2 posted on 09/24/2015 2:16:47 PM PDT by Haiku Guy (December 4, 2015 will be Hillary Clinton's Coming Out Day)

Pope Francis seems to suffer from Dixie Chicks syndrome for those of us who came to hear them sing only to be subjected to a leftist lecture on the world’s problems. To somewhat paraphrase the shouts from the audience at those concerts “Shut up and pray!”

Has Pope Francis been misunderstood again?

4 posted on 09/24/2015 2:22:10 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)

I have no interest in reading the article or much less interest in following anything regarding the cult of “Mary” or “Gia”.

Mary, Mary, Mary.. There are so many that are deceived.

But for now he is singing the song of South America and liberation theology so they are all comrades.

6 posted on 09/24/2015 2:27:18 PM PDT by lulu16 (May the Good Lord take a liking to you!)

WGAF what you have or not have interest in

7 posted on 09/24/2015 2:42:44 PM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)

By some of the comments, it sure seems like

8 posted on 09/24/2015 2:43:50 PM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)

>> I have no interest in reading the article or much less interest in following anything regarding the cult of “Mary” or “Gia”. <<

Fine with me. Nobody invite you to post here. You are welcome to post elsewhere and let us discuss it amongst ourselves.

9 posted on 09/24/2015 2:50:20 PM PDT by BillyBoy (Impeach Obama? Yes We Can!)

I’ll post bloody here until I’m banned.
My words stand true. The sting of rebuke is truth..

It all sounded like middle school platitudes and banalities to me.

11 posted on 09/24/2015 3:15:35 PM PDT by Psalm 144 (Behold the Yebetable. It is something like a vegetable, but with less energy.)

My prayers for you continue.

12 posted on 09/24/2015 4:26:15 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Let's put the ship of state on Cruz Control with Ted Cruz.)

And how many refugees has the vatican taken in? Two?

How dare he come here and lecture us!!!

13 posted on 09/24/2015 7:42:36 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just have a few days that don't suck.)

Francis is a Jesuit ‘nuff said...

14 posted on 09/24/2015 7:49:35 PM PDT by skinny old man (Still lurking and posting after all these years(20 yrs ?)(more ?)(seems like more...))

You know what would happen to Argentina if the Yanqui really did go home?

15 posted on 09/25/2015 9:01:06 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (December 4, 2015 will be Hillary Clinton's Coming Out Day)

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