Posted on 02/10/2015 10:46:54 AM PST by BlatherNaut
There is no “right to food”. Food never was any sort of fundamental “right”. Saint Paul already warned us that to those who do not want to work, we shall give no food. You can’t find any clearer evidence that food is not a fundamental right of the person.
Of course, charity demands that we feed the hungry. But this is not a subjective right of the hungry, merely the result of the charitable help of those who feed them because – let us say this once again – consider them, in their charity, worthy of being fed.
Charity is the love of neighbour coming from the love of God. It is a Christian duty, but it is a voluntary act as to the when and how much and to whom. I decide whether the hungry person is worthy of my charitable help, but the hungry person can claim no specific right to my help. “I am hungry” is neither here nor there. If he does not want to work, I will not feed him, and if I think he will get his calories in the form of alcohol, I will not give him ways to do so. You get the drift.
This is basic Christian thinking. Francis does not think like a Christian. He thinks like a Socialist. To him, food is a fundamental right. The fact that food is something that must be earned – at least at the level of good intention, of willingness To earn it if one were able to – utterly and completely escapes him. The whole concept of charity is unknown to him. To him charity is a non-issue, entitlement is the key. But where there is entitlement, there can be no charity. Charity is, by definition, the giving of something to which the recipient is not entitled. If the food is mine by right I am no recipient of charity, merely of what is due to me. You don’t consider your employer charitable for paying your wage, either.
This isn’t Christianity, but Socialism; and this is the way Francis thinks.
Then there is the other huge issue, which Francis regularly downplays or outright ignores: the root causes of collective poverty.
To Francis, the poverty of the ones is due to the wealth of the others. As if the wealthy were, by the mere fact of being wealthy, be robbing the poor of something that is theirs by right. This is, already, Communism and class struggle. I can’t imagine that Francis is so stupid that he doesn’t get it. He gets it, and he approves of it.
The main cause of mass poverty is corruption. Corruption makes of Countries that are otherwise wealthy in natural and human resources pits of poverty and desperation. In an ordered society, the natural inventiveness and industriousness of the people abundantly provides not only for the general population but also for those worthy poor whom the population wants to charitably assist. In an ordered society, risk-taking is encouraged and hard work is rewarded, because the fundamental basis of every creation of wealth is assured: the ability to create it and to peacefully keep and enjoy it. Some will risk more, some less. Some will want to be employers, others employees. As a result, some will be very rich, and a few will be astonishingly rich end employ thousand in the process, and more power to them. But as a sum total, an ordered society will provide for more than enough, and to spare.
Corrupt countries stifle private initiative with abuse, robbery, conflict (easily: armed conflict, as often in Africa), and uncertainty. This corruption creates more poverty, which in turn creates more abuse and makes it more difficult for orderly economic activity to develop. We see this mechanism at work in very many African Countries, many of them very rich in natural and all of them very rich in human resources.
Populism is, after corruption, the biggest enemy in any halfway democratic society. The encouragement of social envy, the lie of the entitlement to the riches of the wealthy and the false promise of getting them a big slice of a cake that is not theirs is the cause of the financial troubles of many a half-developed Country. Allende’s Chile and Chavez’ Venezuela are two very notable examples, but from Argentina to Brazil to Mexico pretty much every South-American Country has paid the price of this folly, as the decades of economic stagnation after the easy populism of the Eighties abundantly shows. When you think you can pump foreign creditors for huge amounts of debt and for many years and, when the chips are down, have the right not to pay your debts, disaster cannot be far away.
Populism and corruption easily create poverty even in the richest Countries. Venezuelans have a shortage of toilet paper, but no shortage of populism and corruption, and this is a Country very rich in resources. It is never the government’s faults, of course, nor of the idiots who continue to vote their populist rulers. The culprit is always the rich, big country up there. Francis-thinking at its worst.
Francis talks like a Socialist, and clearly thinks like a Communist. There is nothing Christian in what he says. He talks like just another stupid politician bamboozling the idiots with easy rhetoric of envy for the sake of his own self-aggrandisement. He hasn’t the faintest about Christian charity.
Like the other Argentinian, “Che” Guevara, Francis completely fails to understand the Christian message. Still, “Che” chose to fight and die for his wrong beliefs.
Francis lives in the company of perverts, and gets fat on delicacies.
....Then there is the other huge issue, which Francis regularly downplays or outright ignores: the root causes of collective poverty. To Francis, the poverty of the ones is due to the wealth of the others. As if the wealthy were, by the mere fact of being wealthy, be robbing the poor of something that is theirs by right....In an ordered society, the natural inventiveness and industriousness of the people abundantly provides not only for the general population but also for those worthy poor whom the population wants to charitably assist. In an ordered society, risk-taking is encouraged and hard work is rewarded, because the fundamental basis of every creation of wealth is assured: the ability to create it and to peacefully keep and enjoy it. Some will risk more, some less. Some will want to be employers, others employees. As a result, some will be very rich, and a few will be astonishingly rich end employ thousand in the process, and more power to them. But as a sum total, an ordered society will provide for more than enough, and to spare....The encouragement of social envy, the lie of the entitlement to the riches of the wealthy and the false promise of getting them a big slice of a cake that is not theirs is the cause of the financial troubles of many a half-developed Country....
....Francis talks like a Socialist, and clearly thinks like a Communist. There is nothing Christian in what he says. He talks like just another stupid politician bamboozling the idiots with easy rhetoric of envy for the sake of his own self-aggrandisement. He hasn’t the faintest about Christian charity.
PFL
Matthew 25:35
We live in a world where food is plentiful, but isn’t available to many, mainly because of wicked regimes.
If we look at places where food is most scarce, there is no work to do to buy food.
Secondarily, many people who are hungry, in the US, suffer mental illness, and can’t work steady jobs to feed themselves.
Before we go around chest thumping and proof texting, perhaps we should first consider the words of our savior, Jesus Christ.
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
As much as I dislike Pope Francis, human beings were created to live, and a system that stops them from getting food violates this basic part of their creation.
What is not mentioned is that the places where most people are or have been either starving or suffering from deprivation are socialist countries such as Venezuela, favored by Pope Francis, or places like his very own Argentina, run by his populist favorite, the widow Kirchner, with whom he has very close ties, although he’s hiding them now. Argentina has a huge poverty problem, not only because of the chabolas (shanty towns) around BA, but because of its massive rural poverty.
And Pope Francis’ favorite, considered to be his puppet master, Maradiaga of Honduras, is from the country that has a huge poverty rate, thanks to the reimplementation of socialism - and the highest murder rate in the Western Hemisphere. So look to your own house before you start criticizing everywhere else.
Whether or not a person has a “right to food,” he doesn’t have a right to force me to grow the crops to feed him. “Right to food” or “right to shelter” and all these other “rights” that Liberals, including liberal clergymen, dream up are simply justifications for slavery. When some Marxist bishop talks about a right to food, what is his answer as to how the food is produced? Does God make it grow without human involvement? Or is he implying that someone has to grow it and then everyone gets to eat it?
People don’t like to hear this, but in a truly just and righteous society, people starve. Those who are slothful and not seen as deserving of charity have no right to food — or shelter, or money. They die because of it. The wages of sin is DEATH.
If food is a “human right,” then what incentive is there to work at all?
#1 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me
#2 Saint Paul already warned us that to those who do not want to work, we shall give no food. .
If some one steals from you and gives it to some one else does that earn you a reward? no.
Does it earn the thieves a reward? no, because you shalt not steal.
Jesus was talking to each one of us personally , it is for our salvation and has nothing to do with Government.
Argument #2
is used for anti socialism which I go along with but it also has nothing to do with Government nor for that matter individuals.
Paul is teaching what the Church should do in these matters.
Just because socialists use the Bible doesn’t make it less true. Jesus COMMANDS us, under the penalty of eternal punishment, to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to the shelter-less, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned. Matthew 25:31-46
Nobody, but you, is talking about stealing.
The only thing about govts. is their corruption and role in the continued starvation of the poor.
Regarding Paul, would St. Paul turn away a quadriplegic? How about a schizophrenic, how about suffering from PTSD? Blindness? Children?
In each of the above cases, the Church should seek to feed all of those.
Do you think any person in their right mind says “I am not going to work, or seek work, so that I may go hungry.” ? I doubt it. However, there are plenty NOT in their right minds who need food, clothing, shelter, and protection. Additionally, there are the elderly. Do we look at them and say, “Well, you didn’t save enough for your retirement, so go starve. That’s what St. Paul says.”
If you had a drug-addled adult child, would you let them freeze to death in the street, or give them a blanket? Would you let them starve, or bring them something to eat? Sure, they got there of their own doing, but we don’t leave them to die.
bkmk
Do you think any person in their right mind says “I am not going to work, or seek work, so that I may go hungry.”
Paul was giving Church doctrine to the members of the Church, but it is plain that the meaning of Church member has been forgotten.
We can not in all honesty use either scripture for pro or anti socialism or Government regulation.
Maybe not but in the declaration of Independence it clearly states:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these to eat, drink and be merry.”
Maybe not but in the declaration of Independence it clearly states:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these to eat, drink and be merry.”
I agree with your statement about personal responsibility, and not being compelled by force or govt.
I don’t think the statement by the Pope was meant to demand govts force citizens to do anything, rather, in a general sense, we should be always helping the poor, hungry, etc.
The last century and a half of Papal teaching has been about the general need to serve the poor, as individuals, and NOT government coercion.
I don’t think the statement by the Pope was meant to demand govts force citizens to do anything, rather, in a general sense, we should be always helping the poor, hungry, etc.
We never hear anyone talking about this-the real reasons for poverty. It's sad. It's why nothing ever changes. No one wants to see the truth, not even the Pope.
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