John Boehner explains what the Pope meant

[Enrique]

http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/901294316.html

WASHINGTON, July 10 /Standard Newswire/ -- House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) today issued the following joint statement regarding Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate:

"Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, is neither an indictment of capitalism nor an endorsement of any political or economic agenda, and ideologues and politicos hoping to spin it as either are destined to be unsuccessful.

"The Holy Father's central point in Caritas in Veritate is that at times of economic challenge, the inherent dignity of the individual must be preserved and sustained through genuine charity and compassion. This message is clearly distinct from efforts to 'remake' government into a soul-crushing centralized welfare state in which independent citizens are remade into dependent servants. In the encyclical, the Pope stresses that the human being must remain as the center of our free-market system. He warns that individuals, families, churches, communities, and businesses must never become subservient to the state. He emphasizes that the sanctity of all human life must always be protected. And he advocates conservation, not radical environmentalism.

"Caritas in Veritate is not a political document, but rather a complex work that warrants careful and thoughtful contemplation by American Catholics and non-Catholics alike at this time of economic anxiety."

[NJmaverick]

1. Since when did these to knuckle heads become Papal scholars?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. They have always been...they loved the Pope and his anti choice, anti equality rantings

But now that he talks about poverty...you know the stuff Christians are actually supposed to care about...PAY NO ATTENTION!

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. I wouldn't be surprised if Boehner is part of a church that thinks the Pope is the anti-christ

they'll parade his views on abortion, but otherwise they will completely dismiss the Catholic Church's long teaching against economic disparity, poverty, and social injustice because they think he's the anti-Christ and the Catholic Church is a false church.

[zbdent]

14. It's amazing how wrong they often are, when they are mindreaders ...

did he have Dr. Frist watch a video of the Pope?

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Boehner: "Jesus didn't mean 'give money to the poor'; what he meant was, be an example of richness

so that the poor will be motivated to work harder, unless the government wants to get into the act of giving money to the poor, and then we'll say that Jesus meant for us as individuals to give money to the poor, not for the government to do it, and then we'll hold all these thoughts simultaneously because our brains are wired such that we never believe what we say anyway."

:eyes:

[lpbk2713]

4. So Boner is a spokesman for the Vatican now?

Boner has enough trouble just explaining what Boner says.

[bobburgster]

6. John Boehner needs to educate himself first...

before he goes interpreting the pope's writings.

[RandomThoughts]

7. Did he really say that? LOL

Look at how the first sentence says nobody should spin it, and would be unsuccessful if they did. Then the next paragraph spins it.

(Note: after reading the first part of the pope's message, I also reflected on its meaning in my own life and ways that I act in life.)

However I do want to comment on Boehner's comment.

...is clearly distinct from efforts to 'remake' government into a soul-crushing centralized welfare state in which independent citizens are remade into dependent servants.

Wouldn't you consider a ruling situation, something like corporate rule, that advocates for hunger and lack of health care to motivate workers, or one that rewards selfish profit and trains for thinking of oneself first, to be soul crushing?

If I can not leave a job by worrying of getting sick without health care, or if I fear starvation or no education for children, wouldn't that be like a servant to the corporate system? Honestly I don't think people should worry, but many of the corporate forces want to shape opinion and promote based on corporate ideologies.

Unless you believe a few people beholden to money should rule the world.

Many people think my advocacy for public programs is just being against corporate systems. I think it is trying to point out the hypocrisy of the corporate system as some just social system. It is a good delivery system for products, but it has areas of moral obscurity that seems to require oversight and transparency. I do agree however that many people in the corporate system are mostly good people.

[TomCADem]

8. So, Boehner Claims That The Pope Meant The Opposite Of What He Said

I can hardly wait for the Republican re-write of the Bible, which currently has very few passages addressing the unborn despite Evangelical's obsession with abortion.

[C_U_L8R]

9. They just can't help themselves, can they?

I mean literally... they cannot help themselves

[progdonkey]

10. "ideologues and politicos hoping to spin it"

Yeah, Boner, you don't say....

"The Holy Father... is endorsing everything I ever say."

[The Magistrate]

11. Another 'Cafeteria Catholic', Sir, and An Unusually Dim One

All encyclicals are political documents....

[Caliman73]

12. Bull shit

The free market system has never had the human being as its center otherwise corporations would never have been allowed to exist. How can a conglomerate of people have the same rights and liabilities as one human being? The accumulation of wealth and power has always been antithesis to the teachings of Christ and most other spiritual leaders. I am a Catholic, but I know that the Church, since it began playing politics and accumulating worldly power, has gone horribly off the message that it's main founder Christ was teaching. Politics seems always to come into play when encyclicals are released as the Pope is commenting on social and political issues.

[rateyes]

13. Boner, one doesn't get to be a pope if one is stupid.

If that's what he meant, that's what he would have said, dumbass.