In writings for the Catholic Church, the far-left radical leftist Pope Francis took an opportunity to use his trusted platform and authority to push for what sounds a lot like Global Communism, to anyone but his most dedicated supporters.
Christians who don’t appreciate the Pope’s radical activism had to question whether or not this Pope had actually read the Bible, which is full of stories of the way God uses the private property for His purposes.
Jay Greenberg, for Neonnettle.com, wrote “The head of the Catholic Church is advocating for the redistribution of wealth and an end to the public’s “natural right” to own private property.
Francis denounced trickle-down economics, private property, and demanded that the wealthy “administer [their wealth] for the good of all” to bring “greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.”
The pope ironed out his demands in an 86-page papal encyclical — which is “the most authoritative form of papal writing,” according to Reuters.”
According to Reuters, ” Pope Francis said on Sunday that the COVID-19 pandemic was the latest crisis to prove that market forces alone and “trickle-down” economic policies had failed to produce the social benefits their proponents claim.In an encyclical on the theme of human fraternity, Francis also said private property cannot be considered an absolute right in all cases where some lived extravagantly while others had nothing.
The pope took direct aim at trickle-down economics, the theory favored by conservatives that tax breaks and other incentives for big business and the wealthy eventually will benefit the rest of society through investment and job creation.”
“There were those who would have had us believe that freedom of the market was sufficient to keep everything secure (after the pandemic hit),” he wrote.
The Bible considered the Word of God, has a much different feel than the Pope’s personal feelings about private property, in fact, there is a long tradition in understanding about how often God uses the idea of personal property, even as seemingly unimportant as a borrowed axe, to communicate lessons to his faithful.
Consider the story of 2Kings 6:6, the lost Axe Head, where the Lord made a lost Axe head float so that it could be redeemed back to the original owner.
According to Elliott’s commentary on 2Kings 6:6, “The properties of material substances depend on His will for their fixity, and may be suspended or modified at His pleasure. The moral of this little story is that God helps in small personal troubles as well as in great ones of larger scope. His providence cares for the individual as well as the race.”
In fact the Bible is full of stories of the divine purpose of private, persoanl property.
According to Jay W. Richards who writes about the Biblical roots of Private property, he reports:
Nowhere does Scripture explicitly say that property is a right, but a right to acquire property is present in Scripture.
- Two of the Ten Commandments assume the right. Exodus 20: 15 exhorts, “You shall not steal,” while Deuteronomy 5:21 commands, “You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land…or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Neither of these commandments makes sense unless there are some things that rightly belong to other people.
- Speaking of Exodus 20:15, Kaiser writes, “With this command, not only was the principle of individual ownership recognized, but it also thereby regarded as criminal all attempts to take that property from a person in a fraudulent way and to then regard it as one’s own.”
- One of the fifty chapters of the book of Genesis, chapter twenty-three, is devoted to describing in detail Abraham’s purchase of a plot of land to bury his wife Sarah. This suggests that standards for buying and selling property were already well developed in 2000 B.C. in the ancient Near East.
Kaiser further explains what the Old Testament says about the acquisition of property:
- We can be rewarded for our work. Kaiser cites 1 Corinthians 9:9-11 as evidence that human beings are “…entitled to appropriate rewards for their labors.” This is what makes withholding wages so grievous in the Bible. Doing so is condemned in Leviticus 19:13 because, as Kaiser explains, “Fairness and justice demands the proper pay for honest labor.”
- Property can be acquired via inheritance (see Deuteronomy 21:16 and Proverbs 19:14).
- Virtues such as “industriousness, wisdom, and the development of insight” are also means by which possessions and property may be acquired (Proverbs 10:4, 13:4, and 14:23; Proverbs 3:16, and Proverbs 14:15, respectively).
As Westerners, we benefit from four thousand years of laws, customs, and thinking about the concept of property. Drawing on ideas derived in part from Christian theology, the Western world slowly developed a highly sophisticated system of property law and titling that, without intention, resulted in a system that protects property rights. These rights are a gift Christians can use to live out whole-life stewardship. As Kaiser writes,
Private property is both a gift and a certain type of power God has entrusted to humanity as stewards. It was God’s intention that mortals should be equipped with this gift and power and that under God they should exercise dominion over the earth.
These are just a few of the passages in which the Bible addresses private property. Where else do you see the Bible talking about the issue?
Reaction online about the Pope’s push for ending personal property:
This Pope is very dissimilar to the former Pope’s, and very similar to Community Organizers in his push for Marxism, Communism, and generally more control over free people.
It appears that some of the top leadership of the Catholic Church are experiencing a crisis of trust, that has manifest itself in a lack of faith in the Lord to provide what they need because some of the top laity are accused of stealing and abusing their power.
The Pope has not responded about the corruption at the top, he seems to be worried about taking away the potential prosperity at the bottom.
Blaming free markets for the sick and poor, while the top leaders of the Catholic Church swim in so much money it is meaningless to them, is exactly what Communism is all about.
Kari is an ex-Community Organizer who writes about Cultural Marxism, grassroots activism, music, IndyCar racing and political campaigns. @Saorsa1776
![CNN’s Jake Tapper Takes Cheap Shot At Trump: ‘You have become a symbol of your own failures’ [VIDEO]](https://djhjmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/very-jake-tapper-75x75.png)
