Rush and the Pope!
Everybody seems to be writing a piece about the dispute between Rush Limbaugh and Pope Francis over their feelings about how the poor should be treated in our society. So, we thought that we would give it a go!
We received a letter in the mail--they still do that--from that venerable seniors organization called the American Association of Retired People (AARP) concerning social security and Medicare asking us for a petition signature to our federal legislators trying to stave off changes to those programs. The letter stated that if changes to the consumer price index were done it would cost seniors thousands of dollars over the next ten years. Later in the letter it was pointed out that ten million seniors in this nation are living on less than ten thousand dollars a year and count their minimal social security deposit as the only income that they have.
We suppose that everything is relative to where you live and what others have.
Ten thousand dollars in many parts of the third world would make you the equivalent of a millionaire because there are still so many billions who live on two dollars or less per day. But, they do not live in the United States of America, the richest country in the world. Pope Francis heads a church that counts many in the third world among its flock and we are sure that some of his message was directed at the wealthy in those countries as well.
We suppose that the basic question revolves around the concept of just how much we are responsible for each others welfare. We drive down a particular street in a neighboring town and approach a stop sign that is covered constantly by one person or another with cardboard signs describing their plight. One in particular caught our attention that stated simply: “Broke, tired, hungry, traveling!” Others have said similar things but we wonder how often they have used these cardboard signs and just how much truth there is included in what they say. The window in our car allows us to both see their message but, unless we roll it down, also prevents us from responding to them in any meaningful way. We were at a truck stop recently and met a man with a sign and a dog who quietly sat there with his hat out, We seemed to be more concerned with the dog and its plight as we forked over some bread to ease their situation a bit.
We suppose that we have become a bit callous to the plight of the poor but we also realize that we cannot respond to every plea because there seem to be so many. We also remember the verses which will appear as a reference on our gravestone fro the twenty fifth book of Matthew: 31 through 46, about the sheep and the goats. The basic gist of this message is that as we treat the least of these, we treat our Lord and Savior. And in Acts, chapter four, verse thirty two it states: “No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” And we remember the encounter that Jesus had with the rich young man in which he told him that to follow the Christ he must give away everything that he had. And we recall the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, who Jesus called out of a tree to visit his home which caused the man to proclaim that if he had cheated anyone that he would pay them back four times what he had taken from them. This caused Jesus to say that salvation had come to his house that day.
So, we have this long running issue about the distribution of wealth in the Christian Bible that plagues us to this very day. People like Rush Limbaugh may think that people like Pope Francis are Marxists but the greatest Marxist of all may have been Jesus Christ the lord. It must be tough for a person who makes the kind of money that Rush Limbaugh makes to even consider giving it all away but that may be his and so many others only ticket into heaven. The billionaire Warren Buffet has spent the last few years of his life going around the country trying to convince his fellow billionaires to give at least half and preferably all of their fortunes away during their lifetimes or at their deaths. And many have signed on to do so. But, then again, so many others have not and it may be the fact that Buffet has confronted them with his idea that will ultimately seal their fate. It has been said that unless you are aware of what the options are, you are not really affected by them.
Although it states that we are not to judge, people like me make judgments every day about who and what we will give our resources to. And there is a case to be made for the idea that if we keep ourselves out of poverty we have aided the cause along somewhat. But, still, there is so much need and so many sweet people who are in need of help. It is convenient to say that they got that way out of their own devices and that we should be tough and exhibit tough love to force them to do better all on their own. But we spend too much of our time around the less fortunate to ever believe that.
The radical right conservatives constantly harp about standing on your own two feet. But how do you say that to a person who has no legs?
There are so many--and its growing every day--who simply cannot cope with this world and all of its great complications. And so many of those complications are brought on by the greed that drives it all. We eat breakfast sometimes at the local McDonald’s and we see how difficult it is for some to even try to learn to operate the computerized cash register. We know it is all for efficiency and we know what a dirty world “efficiency” really is. It is to do more with less in a world of ever expanding populations who simply just want a job. And it is so ironic that the latest cause is to try to get McDonalds to pay their employees a living wage.
And then there is Walmart and their employee food drive to be given to their employees who comprise so many of the poor.
And we wonder why there is so much confusion and doubt about who will get to enter the eternal kingdom. The requirements might be quite high after all!
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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