Strangely, as I listen to the Popes words, I don't hear any mention of re-distributive wealth or "social justice". What I hear is a call for business leaders to CHOOSE to structure their businesses not only around profit but around profit and people, too. To CHOOSE to incorporate Christian practices in their business practices. What I hear is that it is vital that business leaders CHOOSE to use their skills to not only profit but to better the world they live in.
While the Pope recognizes our inherent right to make a choice based on our God given free will, here in America the current administration would rather take the profit from the business and make their choices for them. They believe that the state has the "right" to choose, not the people; unless of course that choice is to kill a baby, but that's for another time.
I wonder if the boys at the USCCB have noticed this difference in approach?
“The Pope denounces the ecological crisis but does not belong to the church of Al Gore," wrote Giuliano Ferrara, director of Italian daily Il Foglio, in his editorial column after reading Benedict XVI's message for the World Day of Peace. Ferrara described the papal message as being "of great culture" in its reminder that man must be valued above all other living things.
The Pontiff's message underscores the threats to the environment and the necessity of taking decisive action to find long-term, inter-generational solutions to the crises of today. It also provides parameters for the role of the Church and individual Christians in combating the environmental and economic crises, pointing to a renewal of values and morality without losing sight of the "distinctiveness and superior role" of human beings over nature.
"Benedict XVI," wrote Ferrara in his analysis, "in no way denies human abuse of nature,” but in affirming the ecological crisis, neither does he share "the environmentalist religion or environmentalism as a religion."
The Pope doesn't subscribe to the religion of environmentalist earth worship. I never thought he did. And, his statements have been rather clear about his position on the current global environmental crisis. Great.
WHAT FREAKIN' CRISIS??!!!!!
This is the part that I can't get my hands around. He keeps referring to this so called "crisis". Last time I looked around the air seemed pretty clean, the water from my well tastes pretty good and there isn't a whole bunch of trash laying on the ground. There are more critters running around here in Missouri than we know what to do with. I mean, things look pretty peachy here.
The Pope writes about the inequality of wealth in relation to this "crisis", as if cleaning up the air will make the kids with the bloated bellies in Africa full. Sorry to break it to him but the environment isn't the problem. Leftist political ideology that destroys any incentive people may have to better themselves is the problem. Oppressive government controlling all aspects of life in the name of "social justice" is the problem. Focusing on a redistribution of wealth at the expense of creation of real, productive wealth is the problem.
America consumes an awful lot of resources to maintain our standard of living. We create some pollution but considering how much energy we consume we keep it pretty clean. It's a whole lot better than it used to be.
The reason for this is that the energy we consume creates wealth and the wealth allows us to innovate. We aren't consumed by the need to keep from starving so we have time to worry about other, less immediate problems; like the environment. If it wasn't for our wealth created with the use of energy we would have a bunch of kids with bloated bellies, too.
It seems like the people that promote the redistribution of wealth would be happier if we had a few more bloated kids around here. It seems like here in America, where admittedly some do much better than others, in some cases obscenely better, that this system of ours has raised almost all the ships. Even the leaky, poorly maintained ones do OK. It may not provide equality of outcome for all, but it has provided an acceptable quality of life for most.
"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth."
1st John 2:18-21
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”
Dante Alighieri
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
John Quincy Adams
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
George Washington
“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.”
Thomas Jefferson
" I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."
Willard Duncan Vandiver
"The issue is, to use a sporting metaphor, whether in the game of life the government shall captain the national team or shall act as referee."
S. Harcourt-Rivington
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
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