Posted on 09/22/2015 6:49:31 AM PDT by shortstop
Pope Francis doesn’t hate you.
But he does hate your lifestyle, your country, and the economic principles upon which your life is built.
Today, the Holy Father will come to America, the nation which personifies all the evils he sees in the world, the country that is the obvious target of his invective and condemnation.
As he condemns capitalism and consumerism, denounces things like air conditioning and private automobiles, and condemns people who, by overconsumption, engage in what he calls social and racial oppression, he’s talking about you.
You know that, right?
Yesterday he was in Cuba, where he had no criticism for the regime that has locked up people for being Christian. Today he is in America, where he has criticized our way of life from top to bottom.
Most irksome to him is our country’s contribution to supposed manmade global warming. He accepts unquestioningly that the climate is changing and that that change is driven by man’s use of fossil fuels and that stopping that change is a major moral responsibility of the Catholic Church.
Consumption of natural resources, as demonstrated by modern society, he reasons, is destructive of the earth and morally wrong. Internal combustion and the burning of coal to generate electricity all make gases that, the pope says, destroy the earth and allow one people – you – to unrighteously oppress another people – everyone else.
The generation of those gasses is, then, a sin.
And the pope wants you and the United States to stop sinning, to stop consuming more than others and to stop having more than others. Income equality, a lot less electricity, elimination of fossil fuels, and no more air conditioning.
Apparently using air conditioning really ticks God off.
Which raises the question: Why did God make coal?
And oil?
Seriously, if the use of coal and oil is sinful, and presuming God made the earth, then why did he make so much coal and oil? Do hydrocarbons in nature exist merely to tempt man, to test his abilities of self-restraint?
Is a vein of West Virginia coal something akin to pornography, a forbidden fruit that must never be touched? The oil beneath the arctic, did God put that there to see if we would be pious enough not to use it? Do natural resources exist only to tempt us, a creation perhaps of the devil, as opposed to God?
And if it is miserably hot with intense humidity and you turn on the air conditioning to comfort a fretting child or to ease the circumstance of someone else afflicted by the heat, are you sinning?
Only in Pope Francis’ world.
And that is a world in sharp contrast with reality, to say nothing of the teachings of his two predecessors – Benedict XVI and Saint John Paul II. The Roman Catholic Church has gone from one of its most conservative pontiffs of modern time, to one of its most liberal. Imagine how Benedict XVI must be kicking himself, as the Francis papacy was created by the almost-unprecedented retirement of a sitting Benedict XVI.
I believe the pope is mistaken, both about wealth and global warming.
The resources of the earth are in the earth not to tempt us, but to bless us. God created a world replete with coal and oil because he knew of the needs of humans over time. He knew of our current population, and its need for energy and food – two things fossil fuels make possible. He also knew of the populations we shall yet produce, and of their needs.
Natural resources are a gift from God, to be used with thanksgiving, but certainly to be used. And those who argue that the blessings of God should be left in the ground, unused to better the lives of his children, are not doing the work or speaking the truth of God. And they are certainly not helping God's children -- the family of man.
And the blessing of the poor does not come about by the debasing of the rich, but by the lifting of the poor. Technology, a frequent target of the pope’s criticism, is not a curse, it is a blessing – a blessing from God. And just as the advance of technology – in every area – has blessed American life, its continued advance and application around the world will lift the lives of other peoples.
You do not enhance the lives of Third Worlders by attacking the lives of Americans. You enhance the lives of Third Worlders by applying the principles that enriched America to the situations of Third Worlders.
First among those is faith in and fidelity to God. Second is a belief in individual freedom and determination – including the freedom of the marketplace known as capitalism.
The pope is mistaken in condemning America and its lifestyle. Yes, the United States has moral woes which weigh it down, and has great need of repentance. But these are found in its morality, not its marketplace, finances and prosperity.
The pope is preaching a gospel of Marx that depicts America as the hated 1 percent, the oppressive source of the world’s woes. That is consistent with the liberation theology of his youth, but not the realities of the world.
Because the realities of the world are that in the traditional values and priorities of the United States we find not the source of mankind’s problems, but the solution to mankind’s problems.
I hope the pope is open minded enough to recognize that.
He’s wrong about a lot of stuff.
This is a good essay - a well-argued and reasoned response to the rhetoric of Francis and the leftists who support him. It should be shared widely!
That is great encouragement about not letting a man come between you and God. And good advice on how to contribute and make a statement at the same time.
Disappointed Catholics should ignore the man whose time as pope is limited, but continue believing and praying.
This Pope should stop viewing the World thru his Anus.
America’s part in WWII, because of it’s people’ Ability , resources and Manufacturing Skill is the Only Country able to supply all the Ingredients to prosecute the war with our Allies to a winning conclusion. Without America there would
be nothing left in Europe not under Hitler’s control. That includes the Roman Catholic Church. There would be no need for the Current Pope.
Right on, Marie Crane!
I read the bible sections and found them perfectly approbriate for the Pope to refresh his thinking.
I am a practicing Catholic for over 75 years and for this Pope to criticize The United States of America to be beyond
Comprehension. He has less balance in his thinking than a person devoid of a Brain. God help the Catholic Church.
Amen! That is almost my favorite chapters in the Old Testament. The awesomeness of Almighty God!
Him...
Him...
F#@k him!!
OK, the Pope has spoken.
I will inform our local big Roman Catholic Church that this must be their last Parish/Spring/Summer/Fall/Apple/Pumpkin/Pierogi/whatever Festival.
These festivals promote conspicuous consumption, auto emission pollution, alcohol consumption, gambling, and other non-green and unacceptable behaviors. They must end these NOW.
**Yesterday he was in Cuba, where he had no criticism for the regime that has locked up people for being Christian.**
The Pope is on a spiritual mission not a political one.
Your language offends me.
The truth from Catholic sources as compiled by Mrs. Don-o. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3335905/posts?page=22#22 Why do you form your beliefs about the Catholic Churchon secular sources when you don’t trust them on conservatism or Republicans?????
I believe his name is Pope Francis.
Those are gifts. They are not the Pope’s to give away.
**This hope is in vane.**
Weather vane
or
in vain?
Global warming,
Sodomy
Abortion.
Your language offends me.
Your pope offends and disgusts me.
That would be the Ayatoilet Ali Khamenei.
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