Pope Francis has accused communism of stealing its ideas from Christianity, and said its founding thinker Karl Marx “did not invent anything.”
Commenting on suggestions in the media that his world view is not dissimilar to communist ideology, the pope responded that it was the church that got there first.
“The communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. The poor are at the heart of the Gospel,” he said in an interview published on Sunday.
He cited the Beatitudes, the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount, as an example of where Christianity had influenced communism.
“The communists say that all this is communism. Yeah, right, twenty centuries later. So one can say to them: ‘but then you are Christian,’” the pope said while laughing, according to the interview in Rome daily Il Messaggero.The Raw Story
Pope Francis: Marx ‘did not invent anything,’ stole his best ideas from Christianity
Agence France-Presse
Yea, well, the churches dropped the ball. If you read the literature of the 18th and 19th century you'll find that the bourgeois were having some interesting conversations with the embattled aristocrats (among whom quite a few meant well) about the future of society, especially in the wake of the French Revolution. The strange thing is that none of these elites had any idea about anything to do with the emerging industrial laboring classes. So they, along with the churches seem to have been completely blindsided by communism. A purely materialistic conception of life is indeed inadequate for the full development of humanity. Those who condemn a one sided conception that at least takes the working man into account, then as now, have themselves to blame for having ignored the people upon which their material/cultural/spiritual affluence is based.
ReplyDelete"The poor are at the heart of the Gospel,” he said in an interview published on Sunday."
ReplyDeleteWell they may be at the heart of the "gospel" (which btw is a non-scriptural term...) but Paul never talks about them at all being in Greece and/or Rome.... hmmm.
"Go to this people and say, "In hearing, you will be hearing, and may by no means be understanding, And observing, you will be observing, and may by no means be perceiving,"
I'd put both Marx and the Pope in the hearing but not understanding and observing but not perceiving cohort...
"Pope Francis says world economic system inevitably leads to war"
ReplyDeleteDuh!
""We are in a world economic system that is not good," Pope Francis said."
ReplyDeleteDuh!
"NVA": No Value Added
ReplyDelete"that we may by no means still be minors, surging hither and thither and being carried about by every wind of teaching" Eph 4:14
ReplyDeleteHe's still a minor... at best.