One of my early posts was about the fallacy of "trickle down economics." I wrote then and believe as strongly now that it opposes what Jesus taught in the Bible. I feel rather vindicated that Pope Francis 1 believes the same as I. This has not washed down well with many of the conservative Catholics in our nation, including Cardinals Dolan, Chaput and many others. It has certainly not been accepted by many politically conservative Catholic commentators in the social media, nor the wealthiest of Catholics in our nation. What Pope Francis has done is to elevate Catholic Social Justice teaching to the same level as abortion and other such issues. Pope Francis in doing so has, in turn, affirmed the teaching of Cardinal Bernadin's "seamless garment of life", wherein, all life issues, including the social nets of unemployment, foodstamps, headstart, medicare, medicaid, are on the same level as life issues around abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment. You can't call yourself "Pro-life" if you are only anti-abortion, To be Pro-life you must embrace all life issues.
Recently, I shared a short article from Catholics United for the Common Good, about the need to continue unemployment benefits. The article only spoke about the need to continue these very needed benefits to families and individuals who have not been able to find work in this economy. I was immediately challenged by a conservative friend to state whether these benefits be extended permanently or just for the short-term. He felt that the balancing of the budget was far more important than continuing the support to keep families in their homes, and fed while they continue to search for employment.
I responded that the "trickle down" economic politices that President Reagan and the Republican Party has embraced since the 1980's has been an utter failure. As the Pope said about this policy, the rich never allow anything to trickle down, but only continue to hoard what they have. In spite of the economic recovery that has occurred, and the wealth that it has generated for the 1%, very few jobs have been created from the vast wealth the 1% continues to amass. In short, it is an immoral economic policy.
Needless to say, this only escalated the conversation further to the point that I was accused of disdaining a church community I served for a number of years in a very affluent suburb of the Twin Cities (sigh).
What this conversation illustrated for me is the need for an increased diversity. The one advantage of being ordained clergy is that the Bishop will move you where he believes you are needed the most. I have had the great honor of serving in affluent suburbia, inner city poverty, and rural communities in the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis. Being assigned to these different communities has not been an economic boon to me, in fact, every time I am reassigned I take a cut in salary. That being said, I am not "in it" for the money, never have been. However, the greatest blessing in having served in all these communities is that it has opened by eyes and my heart, it has expanded my world view, and most importantly, expanded my understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
It is so easy to be limited by the particular "niche" in which we live, to limit our understanding of people and the world around it from the narrow viewpoint of our immediate vicinity. While some cannot escape financially the ghetto in which they live, many of us live in a self-imposed ghetto. This is not always done maliciously or selfishly. However, by not allowing ourselves to expand our knowledge of people, culture, and society, and experience the wonder of the diversity of God's children, we allow fear to fester within resulting in opposing that which we refuse to understand. Like the three monkies, hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, we close our eyes, our ears and our hearts to the needs of those around us. This is not the Gospel that Jesus preached. Jesus reached out beyond the comfort zone of the normal Jew of his time to live with, listen to, and to bring hope to those his own society disdained and despised.
The whole message of the Advent/Christmas season of the Church year is about Emmanuel, God with us. The Incarnation of Jesus is about God becoming one with us, so that all of us might become one with God. Exclusiveness, exceptionalism, separation are all constructs born out of the Sin of Adam and Eve. These are evils that we, has humans, have given birth into our world. The message of Jesus in the Incarnation is that the only way we are exceptional is that we all share our humanity with him, we are one, by God becoming one with us.
If we truly believe the Gospel message of Jesus, why would anyone be opposed to providing continued unemployment benefits to those in need? To oppose these benefits would make one anti-Christian, would it not?
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