Saturday, July 05, 2014

Pope Francis not Marxist or Communist. Pope Francis is Catholic.

Pope Francis just expertly trolled his critics
When faced with a McCarthy-esque smear campaign, best to pull a communist switcheroo
Nothing diabolical going on here.
Nothing diabolical going on here. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
Since Pope Francis began speaking in public about the Christian view on economic matters, opponents have engaged in what often feels like a McCarthy-era smear campaign, accusing the Pope of things like Marxism, communism, and Leninism.
It was Rush Limbaugh on his radio show that first leveled charges of Marxism after the publication of Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium; he later doubled down on theaccusations:
Pope Francis called today for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the economy of exclusion that is taking hold today…That's Marxism, that's socialism. That's not charity.
Following suit, an Economist blogger diagnosed Pope Francis' recognition of a link between capitalism and violence as Leninism. "Francis may not be offering all the right answers," the piece opines, dripping with patronizing conceit, "or getting the diagnosis exactly right, but he is asking the right questions. Like a little boy who observes the emperor's nakedness."
The pattern is always the same: dismiss Pope Francis, with the greatest respect for his office or the most genteel admiration of his character, by labeling his ministry more political than theological. And the motives attributed to Pope Francis are never neutral; rather, they're mere metonymy, short for larger arguments.
Identifying Pope Francis' theological analyses with the boogeymen political ideologies of yesteryear denies, however implicitly, that what he is doing is strictly Christian. This is accomplished by conflating what is religious with what is secular, and in part through selecting ideologies that have been defamed in American culture for their anti-Christian tendencies.
It will likely never matter to these critics that Pope Francis himself has emphatically denied any association with Marxism or Marxist ideology. And so in a recent interview, he took another tack: Rather than making another attempt to roundly decry a set of ideologies no one seriously suspects him of adhering to, Pope Francis turned the criticisms around on the critics:
"I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the center of the Gospel," he said, citing Biblical passages about the need to help the poor, the sick and the needy. "Communists say that all this is communism. Sure, twenty centuries later. So when they speak, one can say to them: 'but then you are Christian'." [Pope Francis, via Reuters]
In other words, since his concern for the poor causes critics to accuse him of Marxism, Pope Francis reversed their accusations: rather than Christianity looking suspiciously communist over its concern for the poor, perhaps communism looks suspiciously Christian. After all, justice for the poor is hardly a communist invention; as Pope Francis points out, a focus on helping the poor was native to Christianity long before the 19th century.
But Pope Francis' reversal has another effect: namely, it calls into question why our political narratives immediately categorize any demand for justice for the poor as anti-Christian communism. In fact, it would seem rather impossible to practice any legitimate form of Christianitywithout seeking justice for the poor. If we immediately identify support for impoverished people as evidence of some anti-Christian impulse, then we've built up a political narrative that can't sustain the truth about Christianity.
For that reason, Pope Francis' refusal to capitulate to how political types would like to contain the radical power of Christianity is especially valuable, and especially irksome. For as long as he's unwilling to contain his Christianity to the realms it's politically welcome in — say, legislation related to sex and reproduction — it will be too vast and too revolutionary for his critics, who will fail to see it as Christian at all, and will continue bandying about accusations of communism, Marxism, and so forth.
But it's hard to imagine those kinds of attacks will ever do much to harm Pope Francis or his message, given that his refusal to pay heed to secular political categories offers a broader range of political thought than his critics' tribal views. Pope Francis puts Christian ethics first, rather than trying to see where Christian ethics will fit in a given political ideology. It's for this reason he can say that communism has stolen the flag of Christianity, and it's his fundamental grounding in faith that will ultimately make his message so powerful.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

jordan legend 11, jordan legend blue 11, 378037-117,air jordan 11s legend blue, air jordan 11 legend blue,
legend blue 11s 2014, legend blue 11s, jordan 11 legend blue, retro legend blue 11s, jordan 11s legend, pre order legend blue 11s, 378037-117, air jordan legend 11s, legend 11s, legend blue 11s, air jordan 11s legend blue, jordan legend 11s, legend 11s 2014, retro legend 11s, pre order legend 11s, 378037-117,air jordan 11s legend blue ,pre order legend blue 11s ,legend blue 11s ,jordan 11s legend blue ,retro legend blue 11s ,jordan 11s legend ,pre order legend blue 11 ,378037-117 ,air jordan 6s black infrared ,black infrared 6s ,jordan infrared 6s ,infrared 6s ,jordan 6s black infrared ,pre order black infrared 6s,384664-023

Thu Nov 20, 07:19:00 AM 2014  
Blogger chenlina said...

chenlina20151209
replica watches
air max 95
ugg boots
coach factory outlet online
coach factory outlet
louis vuitton handbags
uggs on sale
polo ralph lauren
nike huarache shoes
air max uk
michael kors outlet
michael kors handbags
tory burch sale
ugg clearance
kids uggs on sale
canada goose coats
air max 90
ray ban sunglasses outlet
ray ban sunglasses outlet
coach outlet store online
kate spade handbags
ugg slippers
cheap uggs
oakley sunglasses cheap
ray ban sunglasses outlet
louis vuitton outlet
swarovski outlet
louis vuitton purses
jordan retro
louis vuitton outlet
michael kors outlet clearance
uggs on sale
toms outlet
louboutin pas cher
abercrombie and fitch
oakley outlet
ugg boots
cheap jordans
nike roshe run women
toms wedges
as

Wed Dec 09, 12:24:00 AM 2015  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Fri Mar 02, 04:01:00 AM 2018  
Blogger raybanoutlet001 said...

true religion outlet
giants jersey
nike tn pas cher
ralph lauren polo
adidas yeezy
new orleans saints jerseys
nike tn
air jordan uk
fitflops sale clearance
mulberry handbags

Thu Apr 05, 11:38:00 PM 2018  
Blogger Unknown said...

www1129
ralph lauren polo
ralph lauren uk
ed hardy uk
true religion jeans outlet
champion clothing
michael kors outlet
jordan clothing
nike huarache
kate spade
jordan shoes

Wed Nov 28, 08:10:00 PM 2018  
Blogger Thea-Ra said...

Nice Information, thank you for sharing this knowledge

เล่นหวยหุ้น

Wed Jan 16, 03:54:00 AM 2019  
Blogger Hedwig said...

Thank you so much.
ดูหนังออนไลน์ 2021
รีวิวซีรีย์ฮิตติดกระแส

Thu Sep 23, 09:58:00 PM 2021  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home