July 21, 2008

(Rome) - If you came to this article thinking you were going to read some insults aimed at the Pope, you'll need to read something else. Frankly, he seems like a nice enough man, and he has some very good and important ideas about spiritual matters. He's also the Bishop of Rome, and thus, one of the keepers of the keys, as any bishop, by right of succession, ought to be. No, there is no doubt in any reasonable person's mind that il Papa is a good man trying to do good things in the name of a good God.

On the other hand, this particular Pope is the epitome of a European. That is to say, he believes in the European Model, which has evolved from Feudalism.

The European Model is a huge jump away from what we Americans (mostly) believe in. Our Revolution didn't just break away from a mother country or religious oppression or even despicable methods of representation. It broke us away from a very dangerous civil ideal - that we are servants to a Lord and as such the Lord must provide for us; our lives, now free from servitude, deserve to be protected by the Lord's governance.

In Europe, they don't just THINK that government can solve their problems, they insist on it. Of course, we know that government usually IS the problem, and the less there is, the more self-reliant and healthier our lives are. This innate understanding of freedom is what sets us apart from Europeans and most other cultures effected by the European Model.

Now, if you believe in the European Model, as the Pope does, then you truly believe that government should provide EVERYTHING for EVERYONE. No other possibility can exist.

But America's founding fathers, being the reform-minded Anglicans, Scottish and French Protestants, Baptists and Anabaptists, Reformers and Deists they were, recognized that the European Model was not just economic suicide, it was the self-immolation of an entire free society. They knew - and said as much - that when a society votes money from itself to give something to any particular set of people, no matter how noble it may seem, and the receivers have a voice in that vote, it is only a matter of time until that society collapses. It is unavoidable.

The past few days, the good man, who is Pope, has told us that we should not have gain as our goal. On a VOLUNTARY basis, this is the best of all possibilities. As a governmental imperative, it is a recipe for destruction.

Only a capitalism which eschews monopoly, demands personal accountability, and disallows absentee ownership on any level can make charity a virtue. Socialism, while working in the short run, will eventually stifle initiative, kill charity, destroy personal accountability, and create moral relativism.

We are practically there, already.

The Pope should become a new man. St. James said he should.

- Dick Anderson