Politics and the faith
This past Sunday I did something I had not done in a very, very long time. At the invitation of some close relatives, I went to church. That’s right, after five or more years away from the church, I actually attended Sunday mass.
The church, Catholic of course, was filled to capacity, with many families standing at the back. It was, interestingly enough, a bit of a culture shock at first. Then the hymns evoked a sense of community and, for one fleeting moment, one could almost understand why the church was filled: Good people wanted to join together, to congregate in a common faith. The soothing religious balm was almost palpable.
But, alas, the soothing mood was not to last. Logic and politics had to brutally interfere by shaking one back into reality. For the priest essentially said, in effect: “Blessed are those who voluntarily go into poverty in order to serve the poor.” Which immediately jolted me back into this world, into the here and now, into the realm of political discourse.
To be sure, the statement struck me as abhorrent, barbarous, monstrous even. To me, the statement was tantamount to the following solemn declaration: “Blessed are the sick for voluntarily going into sickness in order to serve the sick.” Does this not strike the rational person as somehow ludicrously perverse?
Ideally, the blessing should instead read as follows: “Blessed are the rich for pursuing wealth, expanding the economy, and helping the poor to quickly become rich themselves.” That’s what the priest and the church should have been saying all along.
It is pure madness to bless the perpetuation of poverty so that saints like Mother Theresa might still have the opportunity to do good. Ideally, we should put people like Mother Theresa out of business by obviating the need for them to care for the poor in the first place. In other words, create wealth so as to eliminate mass poverty.
After all, mass poverty is a kind of societal sickness—-a disease brought about mostly by flawed governmental policies that unfairly impede economic growth and development by destroying creative and productive incentives. Poverty should never be celebrated. We should not encourage people to voluntarily pursue poverty any more than we should celebrate poverty or sickness itself. Poverty is to be avoided and alleviated. It is to be surmounted by unleashing powerful free market forces.
Make no mistake about it: Poverty can be licked. It need not be the natural state of man. Just as we have made great strides in conquering much dreaded diseases, with the spread of global capitalism and high technologies, poverty should also eventually be largely subdued. We can and we will lick poverty, and the good church may take that as the new secular gospel.
Blessed are the free markets for creating prosperity and reducing mass poverty!
Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com
