Believe It to Create It

What Would Jesus Do?

The religious wars seem to be heating up. What would Jesus do? The Catholic Church has for centuries courted the holders of the gold and the holders of the gold have rewarded the church with the support needed to support the lifestyle to which the church royalty has become accustomed. Now the head of the Catholic Church which is the unofficial head of Christianity is turning his face from the obscenity of capitalism. What WILL this do to the future of both capitalism and the church as we have come to know it?

Until now the Catholic Church, Mother Church of Christianity, has been the undisputed leader in funneling money out of the pockets of the poor up unto the bastions of ritual that is the Vatican, leaving solid gold icons scattered along the way in even the poorest churches. I have often wondered what must go through the mind of a devout Catholic mother unable to buy an apple for her hungry children to share, as she drops her tithe into the 14k gold collection plate so she can then be told she will be damned to hell if she uses contraception when her forceful husband demands sex.

A change is coming. Led by the new Pope Francis, the Catholic Church is toning down the opulence of the Vatican and trickling it down. He is speaking out against the ineffectiveness of economies that seem to penalize the poor in order to pander to the rich. Sound familiar? Isn’t that something Jesus would do? Did do?

Now it is the protestant conservatives clothed as Tea Partiers who are outraged at the lazy poor who reach out with their dirty hands for a morsel here and there, when we all know it is the hard working rich who deserve the tax breaks and government subsidies. “Not out of my taxes,” they shout from the private resort in the Cayman Islands where they go to visit their undeclared money.

“Not out of my taxes,” they shout as they give thanks each Sunday for the comfortable retirement they have earned.  “Let them earn their own.”

 “Not out of my taxes,” they shout as they struggle to make their own mortgage payment while they look for someone with even less, to blame for their not being wealthy enough.

“Not out of my taxes.”  In a rush of heartlessness unrivaled since the days of Marie Antoinette, conservatives are scouring the Bible for passages that will offer them forgiveness when they kick the poor to the curb to starve in the increasingly brutal winters.

The very same people who elevate Phil Robertson for anti-gay and openly racist remarks are now condemning the Pope for his wishes to help the poor. Oh Dear God! What would Jesus do?