Posted on 11/27/2013 7:05:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Radio giant Rush Limbaugh is scorching the leader of the Roman Catholic Church for criticizing unfettered capitalism, saying, “This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope.”
“You know the pope, Pope Francis has issued an official papal proclamation, and it’s sad,” Limbaugh said on his national broadcast Wednesday. “It’s actually unbelievable. It’s sad because this pope makes it very clear he doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to capitalism and socialism and so forth.”
“I’m not Catholic,” Limbaugh added, “but up until this I admired the man.”
In the 84-page document titled “Evangelii Gaudium,” which was released Tuesday, Pope Francis called upon politicians to provide “dignified work, education and health care” to all citizens.
“The commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life,” wrote the pope. “Today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”
Noting that he had visited the Vatican “numerous times,” Limbaugh observed wryly: “Believe me, it wouldn’t exist without tons of money. Somebody has either written this for [the pope] or gotten to him. This is pure Marxism.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Go ahead, insult the Pope, I won’t object, but in return I’ll insult the millionaire radio entertainers.
It was for two reasons. First, Rush is fairly respected on this site (I confess I have not heard him other then for a couple of minutes here and there for over seven years), and second, you didn’t just disagree with him, you violated all kid protocol and went straight to the triple dog dare.
So what else is ‘pure Marxism’? I think that the requirement to drive on the right side of the road is ‘pure Marxism’. Thanksgiving is ‘pure Marxism’. Your turn.
Please.
“Pure Marxism” is Rush taking a stand against the tidal surge from the left. It’s imprecise but at least he’s on the right side of things. Nitpicking arrogance doesn’t help the cause.
Well thanks. It just seemed obvious to me. Then again, I am only paraphrasing giants (von Mises, Hayek, etc.)
I am a big fan of Rush but he errs here in three ways:
2) The word capitalism, like most of the other "ism's", has multiple meanings. Making matters worse is that rather than being based on a person like Marxism, Mohammedism, or even Reaganism where the historic record provides a standard, the root of the word capitalism is simply the common noun capital. The use of the word capitalism could therefore mean anything from the mere use of production resources all the way over to the worship of material goods. Translation between Spanish to Italian to Latin to English only compounds this ambiguity. As such, Pope Francis and Rush could be talking about two completely different things and disagreeing about nothing.
3) Perhaps the most serious mistake Rush made is taking anything that the left-wing media says about the Catholic Church at face value. Time and time again, the initial Associated Press translation of any statement coming out of the Vatican is proven to be 180 degrees from the truth. This latest kerfuffle was most likely fabricated by the left to provide cover to the Obama State Department's vindictive closing the US embassy to the Vatican.
I don’t think people should be shackled and controlled and mandated in economics either.
Unfettered means we don’t have the government doing things like mandating we buy certain things.
leftwing media... like Breitbart??
"Capitalism" is a Marxist term, used to slander free enterprise.
The proper term for American entrepreneurialism is "Economic Freedom". Something we could use a lot more of.
In Catholic Theological circles, Charity primarily denotes the love of God—how God would order things. In English, the idea of almsgiving has been so closely attached to the word that the primary theological meaning is often lost.
What the Holy Father is saying might be thus translated: the Love of God (the Divine ordering of things) ought to guide all our actions, not just those that immediately impact people that we are directly in contact with. Political means more than re-distribution—it would include things like abortion.
“the common good of society”
No such thing, not even under Marx, Lenin, Stalin plus many of the others.
There is, *on the other hand,* a good, as in something better is possible, for the individual; and *then,* taking the sum of the individuals, there may be a “greater” (as in breadth of) good.
Unfettered can also mean that we have sweat shops. Capitalists are only men; there have been good as well as bad. Capitalism is by far the best economic system but that does not mean that all of its practitioners have been ethical or that it is not open to critique.
I think most people here including Rush tend to think that the Pope must be addressing only the Catholic faithful in the U.S. They forget that the Pope is speaking not only to our situation but to places such as China where unfettered capitalism (ironically) causes just what you point out.
You see it might not include economist and I don’t agree totally with his analysis but since the results of economies have an impact on the human condition it is certainly a concern of Catholic teaching.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here but how is calling "upon politicians to provide “dignified work, education and health care to all citizens" not calling upon the iron-fisted hand of government?.
Cordially,
For all those who say they do not believe in unfettered capitalism, are you even thinking about what you type?? (Or are you trolling here?) What exactly would "fettered" capitalism be, anyway? Capitalism in chains?!?
Real free market capitalism--"unfettered capitalism"--is about as far from lawlessness as you can get. Free market capitalism depends fundamentally upon the rule of law, laws that protect and respect the essential freedom of the individual, the right to property, the right of contract and other legal instruments, and even on the freedom of individuals in all other important realms of life--freedoms relating to speech, writing, (self-)education, assembly, all of the best stuff that we (nominally at least) inherit as US citizens.
"Unfettered" may be a poor choice of words, because so many of you seem to misunderstand or react emotionally to it. "Unfettered" means unchained. Not lawless, irresponsible, or unaccountable.
And if you really think so-called "capitalism" in China is "unfettered", you have no knowledge or experience of doing business in China.
Amendment 10: Do you really think someone should be prohibited from buying low and selling high?? Why exactly?
vladimir988: Free market capitalism does not mean theft is legal. Protection of property and transfer of property is part of unfettered capitalism. Interference with these rights, or selective protection of them, is not.
</rant>
My wife is ex-irish catholic. Her family is so devout that we were not sure all of them would make it to our protestant church. Some of these people come very close to worshiping the pope. I’ve seen quite a bit of it in my life and no small amount of it here.
With that background, that is why, as soon as I read the headline, I did two things. First, I checked to see if it was satire and when I saw it was not, I said to myself, “man, oh man, he just lost a LOT of supporters. He is no idiot. The stakes must be very high.”
The Pope would do more good focusing on the destruction of the family and efforts to encourage marriage and maintaining existing ones.
Considering the Church was basically outlawed and driven underground for years in Mexico where do you get your information?
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