{"id":978,"date":"2013-12-12T12:50:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T17:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=978"},"modified":"2013-12-12T12:50:15","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T17:50:15","slug":"pope-francis-jesus-and-the-real-meaning-of-christian-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/pope-francis-jesus-and-the-real-meaning-of-christian-charity.html","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis, Jesus, and the Real Meaning of Christian Charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his speech for the Catholic Church\u2019s World Day of Peace, marked for New Year\u2019s Day, Time\u2019s <\/i>most recently elected \u201cPerson of the Year\u201d decried the \u201cwidening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs.\u201d Pope Francis, it is obvious, is hammering the same theme that he sounded a few weeks ago when he called upon the world to reject \u201ctrickle-down economics,\u201d \u201can economy of exclusion and inequality,\u201d for \u201csuch an economy,\u201d he informed us, \u201ckills.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The left is thrilled by this Pope\u2019s remarks.\u00a0 As a traditional, practicing Roman Catholic Christian and lover of liberty, I decidedly am not.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While Pope Francis is correct to admonish us to condemn murderous economies, what he is describing doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 Furthermore, we must grasp that he articulates not the cardinal tenet of Christian charity, but an ideology of welfare-state socialism.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Contrary to what many a contemporary cleric would have us think, Jesus never once\u2014never ever\u2014spoke about the need for His disciples to \u201cnarrow the gap\u201d in \u201cincome\u201d and \u201cwealth\u201d between \u201cthe rich\u201d and \u201cthe poor.\u201d He never once deplored \u201cinequality,\u201d for He came not in the service of an ideology of Equality, but in the service of saving humanity from its sins.\u00a0 The only \u201ceconomy\u201d in which Jesus ever expressed an interest is the economy of salvation.\u00a0 <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this does not <\/i>mean that Christians should be indifferent to the world\u2019s affairs generally, and \u201ceconomies\u201d that \u201ckill\u201d in particular. What it most certainly does <\/i>mean is that if it is the latter that our discipleship calls upon us to resist, then it is on just those <\/i>economies, those \u201csystems,\u201d that we must set our sights.<\/span><\/p>\n

And \u201cthe free market\u201d ain\u2019t one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a minimum, within \u201ccapitalist\u201d orders, standards of living for all <\/i>have risen to an extent that even the nobility of earlier times never could have imagined.\u00a0 The poor has nowhere been better served than in such societies. At the same time, it is economies of the kind on behalf of which the Pope advocates\u2014particularly those within which there exists an obsession with promoting greater material \u201cequality\u201d\u2014that have eventuated in greater rates of suffering and death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCapitalism\u201d is indeed deserving of its share of criticism.\u00a0 But socialism is deserving of a significantly larger share.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Christian charity is doubtless among the noblest, most beautiful things to have ever graced this fallen world of ours.\u00a0 As much as its critics hate to admit it, the fact is that the vast majority of the planet\u2019s charitable organizations, and all of the most influential of such organizations, are inspired by the person of Christ: charity\u2014love\u2014is the greatest of commandments for the disciples of Jesus.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, Jesus was clear that charity is not defined by material conditions. <\/i>Those \u201cin need\u201d can and not infrequently are <\/i>from all walks of life. <\/i>\u00a0If being alive for more than a handful of years isn\u2019t enough to convince people of this, then maybe some reminders of the fact that Jesus befriended, and served, the wealthy, as well as the poor, the powerful, as well as the powerless, might do the trick.\u00a0 Christ, let us not forget, not only healed the servant of a Roman centurion; He commended the soldier\u2014an agent of the Roman Empire, <\/i>mind you\u2014for having more faith than that of anyone <\/i>that He had encountered up to that point in Israel.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is crucial to grasp that this incident with the (relatively wealthy) Roman soldier was no fluke: in spite of the sense of His fellow Jews that they were living under oppressive foreign rule, and in spite of the fact that Christ Himself was eventually executed by Rome, He never once so much as critiqued the Roman government\u2014while He tirelessly critiqued the children of Israel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus never condemned human slavery, and even told parables featuring slaves and slave masters, parables suggesting that slave masters had authority (even if qualified by God\u2019s authority) over their slaves.\u00a0 He as well told a parable of an employer in which he clearly affirmed the employer\u2019s right to pay his laborers just the wage that they agreed to be paid\u2014regardless of whether he chose to pay other laborers differently, or unequally<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The point here isn\u2019t that Jesus was an advocate for slavery, \u201ccapitalism,\u201d or any other \u201cism.\u201d\u00a0 The point is that He was not<\/i> an advocate of any. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus was concerned not with changing \u201csuper structures,\u201d \u201csystems,\u201d \u201cstates,\u201d and\/or \u201ceconomies.\u201d He was concerned with changing people\u2019s hearts.\u00a0 Perhaps He realized that focus on the former detracts from focus on the latter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis and people everywhere would be well served to realize this as well.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his speech for the Catholic Church\u2019s World Day of Peace, marked for New Year\u2019s Day, Time\u2019s most recently elected \u201cPerson of the Year\u201d decried the \u201cwidening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs.\u201d Pope Francis, it is obvious, is hammering the same theme that he sounded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Francis, Jesus, and the Real Meaning of Christian Charity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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