Title : Politicized Pulpits Dept.
link : Politicized Pulpits Dept.
Politicized Pulpits Dept.
I dislike to come home from Mass angry, but there are days when it seems unavoidable. Today is such a day.
My parish – St. Louis de Montfort in Sound Beach, NY – is graced by a couple of excellent priests. However, a couple of others don’t seem to grasp that the pulpit is not for politics or economics. Granted that this has been a problem for some time all around the country, every incidence of it elicits my ire, though I do my best to fight it.
Some priests don’t grasp why preaching politics or economics from the pulpit is wrong. To be fair, some lay communicants don’t grasp it either. Yet it’s so clearly wrong, both from Christian fundamentals, the individualized nature of faith, and the privileged position of the clerical pulpit, that I can’t understand why they don’t get it.
Allow me to put it simply:
Remember “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s?” What the Redeemer refused to do, His vicars on Earth should not presume to take up for themselves.
Today’s occurrence was especially enraging. The celebrant made assertions that are provably false, to advance a completely fallacious political / economic position. Those assertions were along the lines of the old canard that “If the rich would just share what they have, there would be no poverty.” He cited Mohandas Gandhi as an authority, and went on to invoke Hindu conceptions of the divine as reinforcement.
Disgraceful. But you don’t argue with a priest at the pulpit, delivering his Mass homily. Indeed, it would be inappropriate to take up cudgels with him even if he were to hang around afterward. The very most you can do is plead with him to stop.
These uses of ecclesiastical authority to promote political or economic aims would be inexcusable even if they were founded on verifiable facts. The Christian faith isn’t about what others should be doing; it’s about what you, the communicant, should be doing.
If you encounter poverty that deserves to be ameliorated, and you have the means, do so! Don’t foist off the responsibility for it onto the shoulders of some abstract, ill-defined group of others such as “the rich.” How do you know “the rich,” however defined, aren’t already doing one hell of a lot more to alleviate poverty than you could dream of doing, whether by charitable action or by creating jobs and advancing the economy? And how sure are you that the “poverty” you deplore isn’t the consequence of bad decisions or bad behavior – things that ought to be accompanied by some sort of penalty, so the “poor” person will learn to do better next time?
Tenderheartedness about “the poor” has led this nation into a very bad course of action: specifically, a national attempt to eradicate not merely sustenance-level poverty but all economic discomfort whatsoever, regardless of its genesis. The major profiteers from this misplaced “compassion” have, as usual, been politicians and government bureaucrats. A priest who leagues himself alongside them, by preaching as today’s celebrant did, is doing harm, not good.
Forgive me, Gentle Reader. I had to get it out before it blew me up from inside. It’s a cancer on Christianity that demands to be excised.
Thus Article Politicized Pulpits Dept.
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