WuMo by Wulff & Morgenthaler for July 05, 2021

Yeah just like they misspell prey as pray.

I always liked the ending of the movie “The Shoes of the Fisherman” in which the newly elected Pope Kyril (played by Anthony Quinn) pledged the Church’s wealth exactly the way this panel states. Would that the Church would actually follow that example …

I’m not even a Catholic, and I know this is bunk. The Catholic Church doesn’t have a Scrooge McDuck money bin tucked away in Vatican City; it has properties all over the place, many of them educational or charitable institutions. In the US, a lot of those properties are part of our health system, for example, and if the Church divested itself of all the hospitals, clinics, etc., our healthcare system would implode.

Catholic charitable organizations are doing more for the poor than the cartoonists who came up with this nonsense.

I used to be a Catholic and I might tend to agree with StephenRice except that it’s more relevant to the the tendency to make life altering decisions based on incomprehensible judgements rendered or dictated by pre-literate, nomadic sheepherders as recorded and selected by a committee of old Semitic and Greek scholars and clerks and clergy in the 2nd-3rd Centuries CE. The Sermon on the Mount is pretty direct and straight, yet the Catholic Church as well as most other Christian religions ignore most of it. Jesus said nothing about abortion, or homosexuality or marriage. The sacrament of Marriage is based on Jesus’ turning water into wine, which he did because his mother told him to fix the problem and rejected his excuse that as Messiah he had other things to do of more importance.

That said, Catholic hospitals, schools, universities, eldercare and so on are key to a lot of areas that make up the social fabric of the United States. Catholic Charities is a strong advocate and relief agency for the poor, disadvantaged and dispossessed.

That is, of course, not driven by anything except the New Testament.

There’s a good message in this – especially in terms of how we should use (not hoard) our resources. This can apply to everyone (not just the church). [This is much like the response Jesus gave to a certain ruler who asked “What must I do to inherit …”]. It also illustrates how we (people) often respond to “signs” from God.

However … Just like in politics, “throwing money at problem” won’t (in itself) solve societal problems – giving all the church’s money won’t (in itself) solve the problem(s) of poor people.

L. Ron Hubbard had it right; “You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”

How about we take half the wealth of any politician or celebrity who has a net worth of over ten million.

What about the Mega Churches!

Conversely, there are a lot of very vague messages that are interpreted in one supremely confident and self-righteous way.

If the churches, the rich, or anyone else gave all their money to the poor, a year from now the money’d be gone, and we’d still have just as many poor. I’d rather marvel at the beautiful artifacts at the Vatican.

Televangelists don’t understand this concept.

Can we still force them to bend to our will?

Catholic bashing; I’m not amused.

Oy vey…

Not really.