• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • More
    • Nevada
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Travel
    • News
    • Sports
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

Clark: The Pope and Tom Sowell

Clark: The Pope and Tom Sowell
N&V Staff
October 6, 2015
Pope Francis gives his endearing smile and approach during to the American people during his visit in America.

Pope Francis gives his endearing smile and approach to the American people during his visit in America.

Jim Clark(Jim Clark) – During his recent historic US visit, Pope Francis told a joint session of Congress that everyone has a Christian duty to care for the poor, the homeless, the elderly, refugees and to protect the environment against pollution. One of the liberal media then posted a headline reading: “The GOP versus the Pope.” Some Democrat pundits even dubbed the Pope’s message: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Not so fast, liberals, you got this wrong.

The Pope did not advocate the government taxing the rich and giving to the poor. For that matter, neither did Jesus. Both implored individuals to subscribe to a high code of personal ethics, to esteem others, to be generous with the poor and be faithful stewards of God’s gifts. While some have misinterpreted the Pope’s remarks as being critical of capitalism and greed, he was actually talking about individual conduct, not economic or political systems.

Stanford Economist Thomas Sowell provided a background against which to consider the Pope’s comments. He wrote: If Catholic doctrine is to “blithely throw around the phrase ‘the poor’ and blame poverty on what other people are doing or not doing for ‘the poor’” then it is in error. He points out that the natural state of our species is poverty. That is what the Biblical first man and woman experienced when they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

“Poverty is automatic” Sowell writes, “but prosperity requires many things – none of which is equally distributed around the world or even within a given society.” Which economic system has a better record of helping the less fortunate? A Robin Hood redistribution of the wealth or free markets? Giving the poor a bigger slice of the pie or creating a bigger pie?

Our own history illustrates the point. The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in December 1620. To finance provisions and the Mayflower’s voyage, they made a deal with the Virginia Company of London that they would deposit everything they produced into a “common stock” drawing only what food they needed. At the end of seven years, whatever remained in the “common stock” as well as houses, land and chattels would be divided between the colonists and the Virginia Company.

So the colonists started out in poverty. Indians showed them how to plant corn, but the harvests of 1621 and 1622 were miniscule. Colony Governor William Bradford wrote that the socialist philosophy hindered growth. Men resented working for “the benefit of other men’s wives and children without compensation. Wives resented doing household chores for other men deeming it a form of slavery.”

Governor Bradford then changed the rules so everyone planted their own crops; he assigned every family its own plot of land. By 1624, they had a surplus they were able to export and sell. By 1627, the Pilgrims had paid off the Virginia Company and owned their own colony.

The federal government arrogantly defines “poverty” in terms of annual family income . . . a one-size-fits-all definition applied equally in New York City and Meridian, Mississippi. The “poor” have central air conditioning, cars, cable TV, and food stamps; their standard of living would be the upper middle class in Mexico. Are these government-defined “poor” better off as addicts of the welfare system or would they be happier producing goods and services rewarded by a free market system? The freedom to choose still exists . . . let’s keep it that way.

Pope Francis spoke also of religious liberty, traditional marriage, respect for life and human dignity. He introduced Congress to a new term . . . simplistic reductionism . . . a fundamentalist bias by individuals who only see saints or sinners . . . a tendentious refusal to approach thorny issues with balance and compromise. Hmmm. Was he talking about Obama?

Perhaps the headline should be: “Democrats versus the Pope.”

 

Jim Clark is President of Republican Advocates. He has served on the Washoe County and Nevada GOP Central Committees. He can be reached at tahoesbjc@aol.com.

Prev postNext post

Related ItemsPopePope Francis
Opinion
October 6, 2015
N&V Staff

Related ItemsPopePope Francis

More in Opinion

Question 1 on Nevada Ballot is Not What It Seems

N&V StaffNovember 1, 2022
Read More

Roadmap To Saving Nevada

Troy La ManaOctober 21, 2022
Read More

The Lil Governor That Couldn’t

Troy La ManaOctober 10, 2022
Read More

Nevada Continues To Fail Our Students

Troy La ManaOctober 9, 2022
Read More

This Failed Policy Needs To End

Troy La ManaOctober 8, 2022
Read More

Viguerie: If We Stand Up for Parents’ Rights Now, We Will Win!

N&V StaffOctober 7, 2022
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Nevada Politics business Muth's Truths government Opinion Government Muth’s Truths Obama Ron Knecht News Donald Trump GOP Republicans

Copyright © 2022 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

Mitchell: Not everyone should be President
Increasing Cost of Prescription Drugs: Capitalism should’t be blamed, it must be the government