Pope tells Davos elite: Consider your role in creating poverty

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Wed Jan 20, 2016 11:22am EST

Pope tells Davos elite: Consider your role in creating poverty

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND

Pope Francis told members of the world's wealthy political and economic elite on Wednesday that they should not be deaf to the cry of the poor and must consider their own role in creating inequality.

New technologies such as robotics must also not be allowed to replace humans with "soulless machines," he said in a message to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"To all of you I appeal once more: 'Do not forget the poor!'", he said.

The pope, who wrote a major encyclical on climate change and protection of the environment last year, also urged business leaders to see to it that the planet does not become "an empty garden."

The annual Davos meeting brings together many of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people to consider issues such as economics, climate change and war, with an eye to working on solutions to them.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-pope-idUSKCN0UY1XT

[trotsky]

1. Someone needs to tell the pope: Consider yours as well.

Want to fight poverty? Expand access to contraception.

I have a humble suggestion for an antipoverty policy that, if framed correctly, could appeal to both left and right (though probably not Francis).

That policy: better access to contraception.

In a sense it’s unfortunate that contraception – forget the more divisive issue of abortion – has been primarily framed as an issue about feminism, sexual liberation and other flashpoints in the culture wars.

Yes, it’s partly about those things. But giving low-income women more control over their own fertility also promotes economic security, educational attainment, income mobility and more stable environments for American children. Not to mention deficit reduction (two-thirds of unplanned births are paid for by public insurance programs, which is why government spending on family planning has a high return on investment ); and abortion reduction (40 percent of unplanned pregnancies end in abortion).

[skepticscott]

2. Not just American children, and their mothers

It's true all over the world, including places where poverty, overpopulation and starvation are much greater problems than they are here. It has been conclusively shown that one of the best ways to reduce poverty is to give women control over how many children they have, and when. But the RCC and its despicable apologists continue to subvert that vital principle in favor of "all sex must be breeding".

[potone]

27. It is NOT the Church's stance that "all sex must be breeding."

If it were, the rhythm method of contraception would not be permitted. I don't agree with his stance on other types of birth control, but birth control alone will do nothing to solve the rapaciousness of the wealthiest persons on the planet. These are two different issues.

I think what the Pope is doing is addressing economic injustice and he is right to do so. It is indeed a moral issue that can be addressed by fiscal policies, not just individual charity.

Just because I don't agree with his stance on everything doesn't mean that I think he is insincere in his plea to help the poor, and I think it is unfair to him to assume that he is.

[skepticscott]

29. If you want to parse words, fine

Tell us what the church's stance is on sex being open to procreation (i.e. breeding).

And, as noted, it is rank hypocrisy to rail about poverty when pushing unalterable policies that contribute massively to it, because you claim (without evidence) that it's what gawd wants.

[rug]

30. Google "unitive and procreative".

Your last sentence is simply rank bullshit.

[rug]

3. Wold you like Francis to retract his statement to Davos then?

[MellowDem]

5. Which has more impact...

Asking wealthy people to remember the poor or instructing the poor that the use of contraceptives is a sin with a risk of eternal hellfire?

Francis' statement will do jack squat, but the Church's dogma spreads more poverty very effectively. Can you imagine how much worse poverty would be in some countries if all Catholics actually followed the dogma on contraception? When not following a belief system leaves to better results, that's not a good sign for said belief system.

[rug]

11. Which is the greater cause of poverty, 1% controlling 99% of the world's wealth

or giving birth?

[MellowDem]

14. Pope asking the 1 percent...

to share the wealth will do nothing. Pope telling desperately poor women that contraception is a sin does and will continue to.

The Pope has almost no power over the wealthy, the only real power he has is over the masses of mainly poor true believers in developing countries from traditional cultures who actually still try to follow Church rules more than developed countries, and his impact is decidedly negative there.

[rug]

15. He's got the largest bully pulpit on earth.

I take it you prefer he simply shut up.

Outside of a dictatorship, even the most powerful person on earth is reduced to complaining about a republican Congress.

And Guantanamo is still open.

[MellowDem]

16. Not shut up...

Just address the incredibly destructive things he says first before asking the wealthy to be nice.

[rug]

17. Do you think his remarks to Davos were "incredibly destructive"?

[MellowDem]

18. I think they're irrelevant...

because it's quite clear his goal isn't to fight poverty, it's to follow dogma, and that dogma includes the spread of poverty. Until that changes, then his efforts will be counterproductive.

[rug]

19. "it's quite clear his goal isn't to fight poverty"?

You're blinded. You must think his words to Davos were the height of cynicism.

[MellowDem]

20. The height of sincerity actually...

He believes God wants the rich to give to the poor and the poor to not use contraception.

He also believes the devil is behind gay marriage and women have no place in the priesthood.

He spreads much more ill in the world than good, I know of many people that have better morality than him.

He can never be an effective progressive leader, because he's not, he's a religious leader.

[rug]

21. In that case, his goal is indeed to to fight poverty.

Not his only goal, as convincing the world to use contraceptives is not your only goal. I assume.

[MellowDem]

22. If his goal was to fight poverty...

He wouldn't keep telling poor people contraception is a sin. His goal is to follow dogma, and his dogma has very limited ways to fight poverty, like asking wealthy people to give money. He's following religion, he has no secular goals. If God decreed that he kill his first born and enslave nonbelievers (as his god has), he would. And if he refused, then he'd be practicing true morality. He hasn't refused.

[rug]

23. Not necessarily. There is disagreement bout the method, not the gial.

This:

If God decreed that he kill his first born and enslave nonbelievers (as his god has), he would.

is plain nonsense which is as far removed from the subject as trump is from the poverty line.

[MellowDem]

24. I wonder how it's nonsense...

When all the Pope is doing is following dogma. His religion doesn't say to fight poverty, it says the wealthy should give to the poor. And that contraception is a sin. He's consistent that what he believes God says goes. He doesn't break from dogma to do what's right, so what exactly is noble about that?

[rug]

25. For starters, he doesn't have a firstborn.

Secondly, you're prone to a literal reading of Bible stories.

Third, you're engaging in the fallacy of composition by imputing the occasional acts of extreme people (such as the teenager who cut off his hand, posted by muriel) to the entire body of Catholics, if not all religious people.

The diversion of it speaks for itself.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Discount Doublecheck!

Right on cue the deflection away from the pope's hypocrisy on the poverty issue is emitted.

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. I remember something in the Bible about taking the plank out of your own eye...

...before concerning yourself with the mote in another's. Certainly the Pope would be familiar with it.

[skepticscott]

6. As should all of his hard-core

defenders and apologists here.

[cleanhippie]

7. I think they're all "do as I say, not as I do" types.

They don't recognize hypocrisy.

[skepticscott]

9. Mirrors

Why don't people use mirrors??

[rug]

12. Here's one for you.

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. There's a saying my father-in-law deploys...

...whenever he acts like an asshole in public.

"I'm a Catholic, but not a good Catholic."

[rug]

13. What do you say?

[Mufaddal]

26. Thanks!

Nice post.

[rug]

28. To underscore this,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027554285

Please read that thread if you have not already.