Dr. Forbush Thinks

Pope Benedict XVI is currently preaching the power of love to bring men together. When did I first hear about this? Was it 1967, The Summer of Love? Was it the song, “All You Need Is Love?” This is quite an interesting turn for the conservative Pope who was once the “Defender of the Faith.” He also appointed a less conservative Bishop to the Washington DC diocese, that has some conservative Catholics upset with him.

But, maybe this is just a sign that the Pope actually gets it. He understands that politics has a tendency to tear people apart. It tears people apart unless these people keep in mind the point of the mission. In the Christian religion the point is the worship of God and informing people of His love for us all.

The Pope points out that politics is an organization of man and has potential for evil as well as good. He tells us that priests should not be preaching politics from the pulpit. He tells us that priests should be preaching God’s love and not politics. Does this mean that we won’t have fundraisers to raise money to fight abortion any more? I don’t know. This is because the focus of Pope Benedict is more along the lines of social justice. The teaching of “liberation theology” was something that Pope Benedict never liked.

Liberation Theology tells us that all people have dignity, and therefore the church should use its power to encourage the poor to rise up against their oppressors. This sounds just a little bit to Marxist for the conservative Pope.

However, there may be hope in this action. Maybe the Pope has realized that there are good and bad politics on both sides of the political spectrum. There is hatred and love greed and charity in all of these political efforts. Maybe the Pope has realized that man uses politics to make the world a better place. The problem is that it isn’t always clear whose world is made better and whose world is made worse. The effort to make the poor’s world better could certainly be misguided if Robin Hood were leading the charge. The Poor might be happy for a short period while they spend the money of the wealthy, but unless they invest it and make it grow the money would soon be gone. The wealthy also would have a worse time, as they become the “new poor.” Robin Hood certainly would have his work cut out for him as he goes around determining who is rich and who is poor.

Obviously the way to short circuit the inherent problem in politics is to realize that God’s Love is the guidance that the politicians need to make the right laws and make the world a better place. And that is what the Pope has been preaching over the last few weeks.

I don’t think that the Pope will be wearing love beads and tie-dye tee-shirts anytime soon. Maybe he won’t be listening to John Lennon singing “Imagine.” But if the Pope is true to his word we may not have any more sermons on the politically sensitive issues of abortion, birth control, social justice, liberation theology and instead we will be instructed to follow God’s Love and come up with unifying solutions to these issues outside the doors of the church. Of course it means that they won’t preach against the evil of war and the need to protect the environment either. Then again we may be told of some exceptions to the rules.



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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


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Politics, Religion