If a Communist wants to help the poor--

[eridani]

[msongs]

1. so did he sell all the vatican treasures and use the $$ to help "the poor"?? nt

[longship]

3. Yup! A lot of opportunities with that one.

Still, other than the fact that it is still the Vatican church, ol' Pope Frank at least is a refreshing change, in some respects, from his predecessor.

I like the decades old Renault, for instance.

But as an atheist, and a thinking person, I still cannot love the church very much. Their position on women and LGBT is positively medieval. Their lack of response to rampant priest sexual perversion is totally hypocritical and unacceptable. Due to these alone, how can they even dare call themselves a moral center?

[okasha]

4. By all means,

let's get all those art treasures into corporate boardrooms and gazillionaires' palaces where the Great Unwashed can't just walk in and look at them.

This canard isn't just stupid, it's classist.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Looking at priceless works of art sure does feed the hungry I guess.

[okasha]

20. Art for the 1%?

How Randian of you.

Those art treasures, like all great public collections, belong to humanity and are held in trust for the future. Privatizing them, or breaking up the collection, would be a crime.

You can start helping the poor yourself. Tell your congresscritters to stop throwing 57% of the US budget down the military black hole.

[AtheistCrusader]

33. I like that you pretend the only alternative is privately sequestering them away

in the bedrooms of the rich.
All day access to the Louvre is about 11 bucks US. About the price of lunch in such a city. Access to the Vatican Museums costs more, though I suppose it is free on the last sunday of the month. Whoopee.

"held in trust for the future"
*snort* Some of it stolen, 'to hold in trust for the future', one presumes. The Chiaramonti Museum paid Mithradates' estate for the Heracles with infant Telephos sculpture right? No? Just put stolen art on display? Okie-doke. Belongs to all humanity? Sure, that explains why pagan art, stolen at swordpoint, is housed there, like the Venus Felix.


As has been said before, see that list of issues/folders on the left? I'm a progressive. I'm down with slashing the military by more than half. Been advocating it for more than a decade. Thanks for asking.

[Act_of_Reparation]

40. Oh, yes. Come see humanity's art on display at the Vatican Museums.

That'll be $21.78 a head.

Thank you, drive through.

[merrily]

2. Christian Exceptionalism?

Communists preached atheism originally, not Christianity. And members of other religions help the poor, too.

Most of the services I've attended have been Christian, mostly Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and evangelical. When I attend Jewish services, though, I am usually impressed by how they are looking around their immediate geographic community and the world for those in need of help and putting forward a specific plan to provide some help. Muslims also have a duty to help those in need. I imagine most religions do.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Uh, no, he is a communist. He does not become christian by helping the poor.

[rug]

10. Communism empowers exploited workers; it does not "help the poor".

[Lordquinton]

6. If the pope wants to help the poor I'll call him what he is: an atheist.

See how stupid that sounds?

[rug]

9. There is nothing about atheism that includes an impulse to help the poor.

So, that does indeed sound stupid.

[Lordquinton]

15. Today on Poe or not...

[rug]

18. Feel free to contradict that statement.

Stupid remarks don't really do it.

[okasha]

7. Lots of Christian Marxists

and near-Marxists out there.

[mr blur]

8. Right, because only Christians want to help the poor.

An insult to good communists everywhere.

[eomer]

11. If the Pope wants to help the poor, call him what he is:

a humanist.

[MisterP]

12. che brasilenho!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helder_Camara

[rug]

13. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.

When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist."

He would have had a good conversation with Che.

[MisterP]

14. IIRC he had several dozen assassination attempts

[cbayer]

17. Just for the record, I think this is a total fabrication.

The only place it appears is on a twitter feed for a guy named Friedman. Although he attributes this quote to the pope's twitter feed, it appears nowhere there that I can find.

Not sure what the point is, except to incite non-christians by implying that only christians want to help the poor.

[hrmjustin]

19. I can't find the quote either.

[okasha]

21. It certainly raised several people's blood pressure here.

[cbayer]

22. I guess that's the nature of effective flame bait.

[trotsky]

23. I don't think that accusation is fair.

I don't believe the OP or the person who (apparently) fabricated the quote intended it to be flamebait.

I think both simply believe in the harmful meme that "good person" = "Christian."

[Act_of_Reparation]

30. I'd be reticent to call it "flame bait"

Even if the quote is a fabrication there's no reason to suspect deliberate malice. There are people who really do think along those lines - that anyone who does good deeds can be considered "Christian" in an extremely loose sense of the word. This was an especially popular trope among the younger element of the teaching staff during my Catholic school days a brazillion years ago.

[Goblinmonger]

24. Do you really not realize why that quotation might upset people?

OK. Maybe it's not the pope saying it, but on face value, you don't get it?

How about this:
If a Native American wants to get a job, call him what he is: white.

Does that help a little?

[trotsky]

25. ZOMG, I can't believe you used that comparison!!

Are you some kind of racist?!?!11!

Just taking care of that knee-jerk distortion faux outrage response right away.

[Warren Stupidity]

29. it is the new insult here from our lovely theists

we are being dismissed as overly emotional. Gee, what other people are routinely dismissed as being over emotional and what privileged group is doing that?

Let me think....

[cleanhippie]

31. Including yours.

Pot, meet kettle.

[okasha]

32. Wrong, as usual.

It was the idiotic, elitist canard of selling off the Vatican art that irritated me.

[trotsky]

34. *SNORT*

I love how you can say, apparently with a straight face, that it's "elitist" to criticize one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet for not putting more of its vast amounts of treasure where its mouth is.

[okasha]

35. Wrong again, but keep trying.

[trotsky]

36. Naw, I'm not up for a game of "Guess what okasha is trying to say."

If you were interested in discussion you could clarify your remarks since evidently there is some confusion.

[cleanhippie]

38. Lol

You certainly are the expert on the subject.



Pay no attention to the actual point being made. Your posts are much more entertaining that way.

[Goblinmonger]

28. Not a direct quotation, but he did say this:

"I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the center of the Gospel," he said, citing Biblical passages about the need to help the poor, the sick and the needy.

"Communists say that all this is communism. Sure, twenty centuries later. So when they speak, one can say to them: 'but then you are Christian'," he said, laughing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/29/us-pope-communism-idUSKBN0F40L020140629

[rug]

37. That sure looks like where he got the paraphrase.

Thanks for finding it.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. If a Christian wants to help the poor, call him what he is:

A communist.

[JNelson6563]

27. I am a humanist and all about helping the poor.

I am glad about all who share the effort.

We should focus on our commonalities. Statements like this one from the Pope are not helpful. I am disappointed in this.

Julie

[EvolveOrConvolve]

39. As an atheist, if I want to help the poor, does it make me a Christian?

What about Jon Stewart? If he wants to help the poor, then do we call him a Christian?

[larryes]

41. Christian

What is a Christian?

[hrmjustin]

42. A follower of Jesus Christ.

Wecome to DU and the religion room.

[ZombieHorde]

43. I wonder how Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.,

who help the poor feel about this comment.

[cbayer]

44. It is my opinion that this is totally fabricated and submitted as flamebait

to elicit exactly the reaction that you have offered.

[ZombieHorde]

45. Oh poop! You may be right.

I googled the quote, but I'm not seeing anything. There is a good chance it's fake.

[Iggo]

46. They're christians, dammit.

The pope said so, so that's it.