Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Bad pope?

Republicans Are Going Crazy After Pope Francis Suggests Redistributing Wealth

peter animated GIFUh-oh, the Marxist is back! And he’s preaching what Jesus did thousand of years ago: take care of our poor

Tapping again on the “economy of exclusion,” Pope Francis, who has showed the world what a true Christian leader is, and has called on the world’s governments to redistribute their masses of wealth to those who need it the most — the poor and vulnerable. My God, how very un-Christian of him. He actually cares for the poor?

Pope Francis met with the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other heads of major U.N. agencies who were converging in Rome this week. Pope Francis made his appeal to the Secretary-General to usher in a “worldwide ethical mobilization of solidarity with the poor in a new spirit of generosity.”

More specifically, the Pope said that a more equal form of economic progress can be achieved through “the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society.” Some will call is socialism, some will call it Marxism, and others will call it what it truly is: humanity.

Well, isn’t this awkward. “Christian” Republicans are really going to hate this, as they have hated him since he took the papacy last year. Being told what the gospel is actually about does not go down well with Republicans, because when someone wants to help the underprivileged in this country, or in the rest of the world, they brand them as Marxists or socialists, words they don’t seem to fully understand.

It appears that Catholic Republicans are in quite a pickle. Do they follow the lead of the Pope, God’s representation on Earth, or do they follow Paul Ryan?

I find it very odd that Catholic Republicans pick and choose their ideological standpoints when it comes to abortion, contraception and gay marriage. There are currently sixty-eight Republican members of the Catholic Caucus in the United States Congress. They identify themselves with the church, and its beliefs. Certainly the Church differs from progressives on issues likes abortion and gay marriage, but I want to know how many Republicans backed:

§     Pope John Paul II’s, and the Church’s opposition to the Iraq War and Afghanistan War
§     The U.S. Conference of Bishops support for gun-control
§     The U.S. Conference of Bishops opposition to Paul Ryan’s budgets (awkward for Ryan, who is a member of the Catholic Caucus)
§     The Churches opposition to the death penalty
§     The Conference of Bishops’s support for universal healthcare
§     The Church’s support of fair pay, unions, and worker’s rights
§     The U.S. Conference of Bishops’s support for raising the minimum wage
§     And the Church’s opposition to trickle-down economics overall

These Republicans are a member of quite a Marxist church, if you ask me. This a classic example of how Republicans ignore and cherry pick. The Catholic Church has preached all of these things, and Republicans have ignored it on every level. But oh no, when the Pope calls on people to give more to the poor, and calls it ‘redistribution,’ Republicans freak.

Last December, Fox News even dedicated an entire negative article geared at Pope Francis, just nine months into his tenure. The title – ‘Pope Francis is the Catholic Church’s Obama – God help us.’ I can only imagine what is going through their heads now.

Oh wait, yes I can! “Catholic” Sean Hannity’s head exploded over the Pope’s call to redistribute the wealth. According to Hannity, he is “not happy about this.” Hannity called the Pope a “to each according to his own need, from each according to his ability redistributionist.” Hannity decided to lecture the Pope on how to live the teachings of Jesus Christ. What a concept. A TV talking head, lecturing the successor of Saint Peter how to interpret biblical teachings.


Republicans fear the Pope. That shows, without a doubt, he’s doing his job.