Brent Budowsky: The right vs. the pope

The Hill ^ | 09/23/2015 | Brent Budowsky

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Conservative columnist George Will earlier this week unleashed a vindictive and insulting attack against Pope Francis that embodies what has gone wrong with an American right once led by serious conservatives such as William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan.

Buckley and Reagan would be appalled by what some of their ideological heirs have done in the name of the conservative philosophy they cherished. Will, perhaps confusing the Holy Father with Donald Trump, titled his attack “Pope Francis’s fact-free flamboyance.” His rant included incoherent references to Galileo and the Peróns of Argentina in an attempt to support his opining that Francis is wrong about protecting the earth from climate change and saving the impoverished from starvation and poverty caused by economic injustice.

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Francis, who in my view should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary contributions to humanity, is the most admired public figure in America and throughout the world. Reagan and Buckley, who believed in a nobler vision of conservatism than many on the right do today and who possessed a greater understanding of political self-interest than many Republicans do today, would be outraged by denunciations of Francis from extreme and strident voices on the right.

The GOP has a pope problem because many on the right who glibly talk about a war against Christianity are waging their own rhetorical war against Francis. And leading Republicans, many of whom privately know better, are so intimidated that they allow voices of intolerance and defenders of injustice to deform the traditions of conservatism and distort the values of Republicanism.

When Francis champions economic equality and reform of the financial system, he is not advocating Marxism, as fanatics on the right claim, he is reminding us that Jesus taught us that we should sell our possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. Remember from the Gospel of Matthew: the gentle and meek — not the powerful and rich — shall inherit the earth.

When Francis condemns the idolatry of the cult of money, he is not praising Trump for bragging about his billions of dollars, endorsing a politics dominated by those with the money to buy our government or accepting a financial system that lavishly rewarded those whose greed drove the world to an economic crash.

When Francis challenges political and financial leaders to enact sweeping reforms and condemns the systematic injustice of the trickle-down economics advocated by conservatives, his teachings derive from the Sermon on the Mount, not the “Communist Manifesto.”

When Francis speaks of just and humane treatment of immigrants and refugees, he is aligned with the progressive American ideal embodied by the Statue of Liberty that welcomes the tired and the poor, not a nativist conservative vision to build a Berlin Wall on our borders.

When Francis speaks of feeding the poor and helping the needy, he preaches the values of the Golden Rule, not cutting food for the hungry children of jobless parents.

When Francis issues an encyclical about protecting the earth from the rapacious greed of polluters, he aligns himself with the policies of leaders named Clinton, Gore and Obama, and not deniers of science or profiteers who poison our water and dirty our air.

When Francis calls for ecumenical cooperation and respect among diverse peoples, he offers no praise for politicians who run campaigns of bigotry against Muslims, suggest that hordes of Hispanic immigrants are murderers and rapists or call women fat slobs and bimbos.

When Francis advocates diplomacy to protect our security, he aligns himself with John F. Kennedy, who never feared to negotiate, not Dick Cheney, who appears hungry to begin new wars.

I do not suggest the Holy Father supports any political party or ideology. But as Francis challenges the crisis of conscience of the world, those on the right who demean and condemn him have created a crisis for conservatism. On this point, at least, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley would agree with me.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sens. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Contributors blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.

[freespirit2012]

George Will— blah blah blah—— He has no intellectual curiosity or intelligence.

[robowombat]

Where is the hurl alert? This guy is just a rat party hack and operative.

[vbmoneyspender]

Brent J. Budowsky (born February 19, 1952)[1] is a liberal / progressive[2] American political opinion writer and blogger for publications including The Hill,[3] the LA Progressive,[4] and The Huffington Post.

From the mid-1970s to 1990, Budowsky served in senior congressional staff positions including legislative assistant to former Senator Lloyd Bentsen;[6] extensively involved with the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and Intelligence Officers Death Benefits Act, and legislative director to Representative Bill Alexander, then the Chief Deputy Majority Whip.

Funny how libs seem to have a pipeline to the afterlife to discern what Buckley and Reagan would have thought about a current issue of the day.

[Lazlo in PA]

So an open lifetime Communist is complaining that one of his own is being called out. The only thing interesting here is that Budowsky is forced to cite two people he has had a lifetime hatred for, Buckley and Reagan, to buttress his weak argument.

[freedumb2003]

Typical liberal claptrap and strawmen.

Anyone can invent false equivalencies, but liberals excel at it.

[West Texas Chuck]

“Will, perhaps confusing the Holy Father with Donald Trump, titled his attack “Pope Francis’s fact-free flamboyance.”
—Brent J. Budowsky

“Budowsky, perhaps confusing this unHoly Father with John Paul II, titled his attack “Brent Budowsky’s fact-free flatulence.”
—Me

[Hugin]

BS. Pope Frank attacked “capitalism”, not excessive greed by a few. He’s meeting on the White House lawn to promote Obama’s global warming agenda. He hung with Fidel for a whole day. Did he request to meet with any political prisoners? If the pinko pope want’s to promote leftie causes that’s his business, but no leftie concern troll is going to tell me Reagan and Buckley would be cheering him on.

[Falconspeed]

“Francis, who in my view should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary contributions to humanity...”

Wow. The author is a weasel who slides around in the dirt and thinks he is a lion. It’s “Pope Francis,” sir.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Not bad Chuck : )

[48th SPS Crusader]

Since he is the Pope you would think he understood that the climate is God’s work and not man’s.

[48th SPS Crusader]

When Francis champions economic equality and reform of the financial system, he is not advocating Marxism, as fanatics on the right claim, he is reminding us that Jesus taught us that we should sell our possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. Remember from the Gospel of Matthew: the gentle and meek — not the powerful and rich — shall inherit the earth.

Then should the Pope not set an example and sell of the billions that the Vatican holds? Just wondering how that works.....

[Talisker]

"When Francis issues an encyclical about protecting the earth from the rapacious greed of polluters, he aligns himself with the policies of leaders named Clinton, Gore and Obama..."

Yes, yes he does indeed.

[x]

You can't attack "trickle down economics" and wrap yourself in the mantle of Buckley and Reagan."

Especially not if you were working for the Democrats back then.

And what's with all the premature, hero-worshipping passing out of awards?

Francis, who in my view should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary contributions to humanity, is the most admired public figure in America and throughout the world.

The guy's only been in office for a year and a half and the actual consequences of what he's said since then aren't yet visible.

[Army Air Corps]

Well, one of the results of this Pope’s words and deeds is that lefties LOVE him. An old acquaintance of mine who aligns himself with very liberal elements of the Episcopal church loves this Pope; this guy cheers on Francis statements on economics, climate change, and homosexuals. The aforementioned acquaintance is convinced that Pope Francis will “drag the church into the modern world.”

[livius]

I assume you didn’t read Will’s piece about the pope. It was excellent.

[heye2monn]

I don’t agree with the “amiable atheist” George Will on many things, but his column about the batty lefty pope was excellent.

The wacky pope attacks fossil fuels and denounces the fruits of capitalism as “filth.” The socialist Argentinian pontiff would would have us back to the Stone Age. George Will ably pointed that out.

[nathanbedford]

We Christians ought not to be misled, the Christian solution to the worlds problems is not leftist or rightist, not socialist or conservative but it is a person. The solution for a Christian is Jesus Christ.

Hence, the entire argument about whether or not the nostrums of the Left comply with the snippets of the Bible misses the entire point. The authority of Christianity does not derive from its grand strategies for combating poverty but from a single strategy of granting new life to individuals who might be poor or who might be rich but are bankrupt in their souls. To argue and dispute the secular political or environmental strategies of Christianity is to cause the faith to descend into competition with sharia or with Marxism, that is, to equate Christianity with social reform rather than with salvation.

As a Protestant, I believe the purpose of the Christian church is to save souls and not to save the environment. The Pope might indeed be the Vicar of Christ but when he gets into the business of rendering unto Caesar he is no more than any leftist advancing life controls contrary to human liberty. Whether his nostrums comply with snippets from the Bible or are contrary to other provisions of the Bible, are of no theological value and of no secular value. That is not to deny, however, that Christianity offers the world the best environment for the secular prosperity of mankind and the proof is in the relative dystopia produced by other theologies such as Islam. That secular advantage is a side effect, not the raison d'être of Christianity.

The Gospel is a person not a white paper even if it's called an encyclical on the environment, the economy or poverty.

[SkyPilot]

Well stated as usual.

In the article, this man states:

Francis, who in my view should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary contributions to humanity, is the most admired public figure in America and throughout the world.

The Antichrist and the False Prophet will win some polling contests.......for awhile.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Pope pontifficates; doesn’t lead by example. Jesus led by example.