On three
Christian Socialists with whose lives and works the striking new pontiff
resonates.
One of the most
unexpected stories of 2013 was the series of increasingly interesting and
radical statements made by
Francis, the newly elected Pope. While his strikingly tolerant (at least by
the standards of the Vatican) attitudes towards
homosexuality and atheism
began the trend, it was his more in-depth arguments for
economic reform and equality that made the most prominent and ongoing
impacts on international conversations. I’m no theologian, but I did read and
analyze the Bible cover to cover for a college course, and it seems to me that
Francis’s economic arguments are far closer to Christ’s own attitudes than
anything we’ve heard from a religious leader in a long, long time. And they
also put him in conversation with a few unique and important American religious
figures about whom I’ve blogged previously:
1)
Francis
Bellamy, author of the
Pledge of Allegiance and a Christian Socialist
whose radical views on racial and economic equality consistently pitted him
against the more conservative churches to which he belonged;
2)
Dorothy
Day, the writer, activist,
and co-founder of the Catholic Worker
movement, whose socialism and anarchism were deeply tied to her religious
beliefs;
3)
And Martin
Luther King, Jr., who similarly linked his arguments
for racial and economic
equality to his profound knowledge of and engagement with Scripture,
Christianity, and faith.
Can’t say I ever
expected to put a Pope in the same category as those three complex and great
Americans. But so far, Francis deserves to be there.
Next 2013 event
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other 2013 events you’d remember?
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