Pope Francis

It is refreshing to have a Catholic Pope decrying the greed and destructive impact of capitalism. It is good to have a Pope who has an advanced degree in chemistry talking about the damage of man-made global warming. The current Pope is in harmony with Christian teaching about helping the poor. Love the Earth and love thy neighbor; isn't that a worthy message we must applaud this Pope for preaching? 

How can we praise his educated, even enlightened, stand on the climate and on capitalist greed and damage when underlying his stand is the hypocrisy of the church on the same issues? One of the major causes of environmental problems in the world is over-population. Similarly, over-population is a chief cause of world poverty, of starvation, of the suffering of millions for whom there are insufficient natural resources. 

How can an educated and humanitarian Pope not see that the demand of the church to eliminate birth control is endangering the lives of millions?  The Pope should reverse this medieval call to have more babies in an over-populated world. It is the church that contributes to starvation and poverty by discouraging family planning and simple birth control. Given his promoting of this mandate, the Pope undermines his own claim to care about climate change and poverty.

The Pope also spreads hate. Oh, it is a subtle thing, the way the Pope encourages prejudice against gay people. In some ways the "God hates Fags" religious fanatics are more honest. Pretending to love the sinners and hate the sin, the Pope fights for inequality in a more insidious way. In a sort of Ozzie and Herriot fantasy, the Pope preaches about heterosexual couples as if abusive fathers, divorces, and the reality of single moms or orphans don't exist. Study after study confirms that gay parents are as loving and beneficial to the lives of children as straight couples. Yet the Pope says gay parents are unfit and he wants to contribute to their being unfit by denying gays the right to marry. That this is church doctrine is no excuse for his promoting inequality and misunderstanding. That he knows better in his heart makes his preaching all that more hateful and immoral. Here he should at least remain silent.

There are far better progressive leaders in the world for us to hear. In the world of the spirit and religion, turn instead to the Dalai Lama or Bishop Desmond Tutu, neither of whom spreads bigotry of any kind. Follow reason, not superstition. 

I've included  articles below for consideration.

Jack Miller

1) On the Pope: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/pope-francis-heterosexual-parents_n_7597040.html

2)  Desmond Tutu: http://www.theguardian.com/profile/desmondtutu

3) The Dalai Lama: http://www.dalailama.com/