“When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.”
Robert A. Heinlein
The Pope and the President got together this week for a brief meeting. We don’t know exactly what they discussed with each other, but to some extent it would seem to be a meeting of kindred spirits. Both are the leaders of millions of people, both champions of central planning, and both seem to believe that they are God’s representative here on Earth. They seem to find some level of agreement on the issues of income inequality and universal healthcare. Maybe there were a few sticking points, but they probably avoided those… Oh, to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting! Or on the President’s face as the case may be…..
The Pope: “Welcome Mr. President, I noticed you bowed upon entering, thank-you for that sign of honor.”
The Progressive: “Oh, that’s just something I do, force of habit… didn’t mean anything, I forgot you weren’t Muslim.”
The Pope: “Well, thanks just the same, I was afraid you might stand me up like you did Netanyahu…”
The Progressive: “Nah, I can’t take Catholic voters for granted like I can the Jewish ones. Besides, I’ve got a few ideas that might help you out with your church.”
The Pope: “Mr. President, the Catholic Church has a long history, I’m not sure what your experience could add…”
The Progressive: “Yeah, well, I don’t pay much attention to history, my experience qualified me to be leader of the free world… I don’t know why they call it that… I think it’s probably good enough to tell you how to run your church! I might even run for your job when I’m done with this gig.”
The Pope: “Please then, share.”
The Progressive: “Well, the first thing is, why do you guys just pass the basket at Church? This whole idea of voluntary giving, that can’t work, you should demand that your people give at least a third of all they have..”
The Pope: “Well, we do pretty good with the present system. We spend over 150 billion annually without a deficit, we support schools and hospitals, orphanages and missions, homeless shelters, and other charities… people can be quite generous if they believe in what you’re doing.”
The Progressive: “Yeah, well that’s a big ‘if’. At least you could reward anyone who supports your agenda, what do they call it… cronyism?”
The Pope: “We tried that for awhile, we called it indulgences… people caught on.”
The Progressive: “I hate when that happens… your first mistake was letting the Bible be interpreted to a language the people could understand, my Obamacare is about as long as the Bible, but completely unintelligible. That way it means whatever I say it means, I make the rules, I don’t have to conform to any”
The Pope: “Like an edict?”
The Progressive: “Yeah, I guess, I call them ‘executive orders’, but pretty much the same idea. You can’t tolerate opposition, that’s what loses elections, if someone speaks out against you, you need to know about it and squash it… do you have an NSA or an IRS?”
The Pope: “Well, we had the Inquisition… “
The Progressive: “Yeah, yeah… I don’t know why you gave that up! You can’t let people who disagree with you have a voice… you demonize them, like we do with Fox News or talk radio, or (curse them all), the Tea Party!”
The Pope: “Like our old witch hunts?”
The Progressive: “Now you’re talking Popee! That’s what we do with political correctness. We can make a racist or a sexist out of almost anyone! Why we even kicked a kid out of school for the shape of his pop tart… good times…”
The Pope: “Well, that was when we were a little more given to superstition. We’re a little more enlightened now, knowledge and science and all…”
The Progressive: “The Science is settled! It’s whatever we say it is, like you guys did with Galileo, you have to silence anyone who says it isn’t! Use your people to make ’em tow the line, a little corruption is good for any organization; you’ve got a bunch of guys that could help you out, anyone who’d abuse a child would do pretty much anything, no conscience to worry about there!”
The Pope: “We’ve actually been trying to get rid of those guys, trying to make the Church purer and more transparent…”
The Progressive: “Stupid idea. I mean, yeah, you talk like that, but you don’t actually do it! I liked the old way you did things, never fire anyone, just move ’em around… worth more to you a little dirty. Controlling people is a dirty business, you don’t want to lose your best guys! We need people like that to fundamentally transform things. This is a new day and a new way… Hope and Change I called it, you’ll have to think of your own tag line… a meaningless expression of future glory that inspires the ignorant without committing you to anything.”
The Pope: “The Dark Ages?”
The Progressive: “You’re not very good at this are you?”
IMHO: Churches and governments should always remember that they are to be shepherds of sheep, and not herders of cattle. In a pinch people will follow good leaders of their own free will, but more often, the shepherd should follow the sheep. Too often leaders see themselves as divine royalty instead of humble servants. A corrupted leadership always envisions itself as somehow better than the unwashed masses. They are leaders without faith. They have no faith in Providence, and no faith in their fellow man. In their eyes, the future can only be good if it is forced and manipulated to be so. The people are livestock, too ignorant to go the right way without being driven and herded. How they miss the enormity of the potential of freedom. How oblivious they are to Mankind’s possibilities, and God’s infinite Providence. How small is the vision of a Universe that you can control.
