Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
haha!

Politics and religion are NOT a good mix. But I respectfully disagree with ANM's POV that the Pope's agenda is more Catholics.. I really think he just wants more people to act Christlike. So oldhat is right on... the Pope didn't say "Donald Trump is a bad person because he isn't a Christian." He said "someone who believes in building walls is not exemplifying behavior consistent with Christian values of love and mercy."

I know the following is long and I know it belongs in Spirituality, and not in Public Policy, but as I've said before, I love Richard Rohr, and here's his meditation for today which kind of describes the social/political/theological murky intersection and where the Pope stands on it--and I like it because it's a simple living message:
I think you (and oldhat) are right. It goes back to “hating the sin but loving the sinner”, but our media make no such fine distinctions in their search for little dramas to purvey. I can’t help but think that if we reduce all of life and thought to mere politics we lose a great deal. Is it hypocritical to profess an ethical standard that all but the most saintly of us will fall short of? Or is it important to aim high and hope for some wiggle room for your imperfection in the form of grace? If I can never quite love my neighbor as myself, should I not even try; or perhaps demand that government do it on my behalf?

I also think it’s a mistake to condemn capitalism on moral grounds. It’s a resource allocation system, not an ethical system. Since it’s a more efficient system than feudalism or communism, it tends to produce more total wealth, which some seem to confuse with greed and selfishness. But any system can be exploited for selfish reasons. If morality is at base an individual challenge, isn’t it futile to demand that our political system force morality on us?