Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Don't sweat it Pope Francis, Jesus pissed off the rich and powerful too...

Pope Francis has recently been harshly criticized for bemoaning the imbalance that exists in our world, an imbalance between the rich and the poor.  Some, like Rush Limbaugh, have accused the Pope of being a Marxist, while demonstrating a total lack of understanding of what Marxism even is.

Good for the Pope.  I'm not a Roman Catholic, and some would say I'm not even a Christian because I don't swallow hook line and sinker every word printed in the Bible.  But I do consider myself a Christian, and I do believe there was a guy named Jesus walking around present day Palestine a couple thousand of years back who stirred things up.  Jesus rattled the apple cart, and undermined his society's power structure.  He spoke of the kingdom of God, he said there was a better way of doing things.  Things like us being our brother's keeper, loving others as ourselves.

We all know what happened to Jesus.  I would argue his message was warped and perverted to entrench the inequality he preached against.  We were told to worship Him, and to obey the dictates of those who wrapped themselves in his mantle.  

Nice to see a Pope returning to the message instead of just glorifying the messenger.