In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) Pope Francis speaks of wealth as a thing to be shared while he ignores, rather assumes and takes for granted its having been created by the minds and labor of men. In the world he seems to imagine and advocate, there will be nothing to share but misery, equally distributed. Accumulating wealth is deemed immoral, and the highest calling is self-sacrifice with the aim of eliminating economic inequality. But, Your Excellency, if man is merely a syphon, where is the fount, what is the source of the bountiful cornucopia to be spread evenly among the masses?
Why does the Church preach destructiveness? Why do its congregants choose to ignore the evidence, dismiss all the lessons of history and blindly accept a worldview that a momentary peek at the rest of their lives would disprove? If you think your God wants you to be miserable and poor as you sacrifice for others, you’re reading your Bible upside down.
“Be fruitful and multiply.”
“The truth shall set you FREE.”
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Those are not commands to the lowly and meek. Those are words to LIVE by, whether you think Christ walked on water or not. Look carefully – unto YOU, as THYSELF. A man’s love for himself is offered as the highest standard; loving others as thyself is the measure of a man. To fritter away a life because the Pope decrees that “materialism” is sinful will feed no one and starve that life. We’re told to frown at lavish displays of wealth, to be shocked and shamed that some men have yachts while others starve. We’re meant to infer that sailing is to deprive someone of the food the boat’s price could have purchased, because they (intentionally?) forget that the boat was not delivered by unicorns. It was built, and is crewed, by men who buy their family’s food with their wages. (See also, Romney, Mitt – car elevators.)
The call of the Catholic God is for men to be extraordinary, each in his way and of his own free will. The win-win mutual benefit of voluntary trade motivated by each trader’s self-interest is the moral and just basis of capitalism. Absent force, men will not strive or yearn for an unknowable, ephemeral common good as defined by either Barack Obama or Ronald Reagan. How unfortunate that Pope Francis, speaking we’re told for God, calls for an end to, or at least curbs and limits on, an economic system based entirely on pursuit of mutual benefit via volitional interactions among men made, the Pope would tell us, in God’s image. Instead, he writes in favor of another, unnamed system that will only exist as a consequence of the forcible coercion of men to act against their will. That’s why we’re here – so that other guy can eat?
“Do unto others . . .” If you’re having money troubles, do you want your family, friends and neighbors to give unto you the URL or phone number for the welfare office. Or would you prefer they do unto you a personal gesture of goodwill and, when called for, a kick in the behind and a chance to feed yourself?
America's CURE - by Jeff Neal 