Thursday, July 2, 2015

Free Enterprise

My church got caught up in supporting free enterprise, which developed into Corporate America or big business.  Two things led to this.  One was the fall of the monarchies.  My church used to support the monarchies of Europe.  The monarchy in turn protected the church.  The monarchies began to disappear, French revolution, or turn against the church, nineteenth century German Kaiser.  The second thing to come along was communism, which had no use for religion at all.  Free enterprise, capitalism, was against communism.  The twentieth century church was big on business in the non-communist world.  Be against communism and you are OK with my church.  Business was about making money, which more and more came to be about getting people to consume all that is made.  Then along comes Francis I.  He is not in love with any one economic system.  He is focused on selfishness, the secular religion of "more," and profits at any cost to the human condition.  Many people wish that he would have just stayed with sex issues, and church rules.  The corporate world has the power to do a lot of good in the environmental world.  David Brooks thinks so.  But will they?  Greed is not a good thing.

4 comments:

  1. Can't the church just stick with helping people become the best they can be. I just want to learn to accept my lot in life with a good attitude and give the best to those around me.

    Fr. Terry - shouldn't that be the mission of the church - more than golf or big business. By the way golf and big business go together. That is why your arm hurt - it was a sign - stay away from golf. If you are in the mood for being out of doors, walk or jog.

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  2. That's exactly what the Pope is trying to do: helping people be the best they can be (e.g. non judgmental with His "who am I to judge?"). The best one can be, must start from caring for others, as Jesus tried to teach us with the Great Commandment.

    Unfortunately, most people seem to think "love" means "creating laws which make it illegal to do bad things", unless that "bad thing" creates lots of money, in which case we shouldn't probably support such a law.

    I agree on the part on golf :-)

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  3. Golf has to be God's game. It requires your mind and body to be sync. Stay with it. With your mind, you need an earthly challenge.

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  4. Oh dear. I did not mean to sound what I said above. I meant a challenge that is not running your body into the ground but, something different than all the giving you do for people.

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