I'm not Roman Catholic, but I confess to a certain admiration for Pope Francis. He's taken some cautious steps toward reform in the Catholic Church. Not enough to satisfy the church's critics, but enough that the more traditional factions in the church are uncomfortable with him. It's a delicate balancing act for him and I think he deserves credit. What I particularly appreciate about him is that he seems quite willing to put people above pomp, above tradition, above ecclesiastical rules and regulations. He sees people as people and he wants the church to be about people. I can appreciate that.
I'm aware that he's been criticized by some for his remarks to the United States Congress yesterday, particularly as his remarks touched upon issues of economics. He was dismissed by one Roman Catholic commentator, who said that since he's not an economist he shouldn't be talking about economics. As if all our world leaders who talk about economics are economists. The point isn't that some think he shouldn't talk about economics because he's not an economist; it's that some think he shouldn't talk about economists because they don't agree with him. That reminded me of a comment by former US Senator Rick Santorum, a Catholic who said that the Pope shouldn't talk about climate change because he's not a scientist, when what he really meant was that the Pope shouldn't talk about climate change because he disagrees with Rick Santorum. And, if you're Roman Catholic, then obviously disagreeing with the Pope creates an understandable tension in your life - throwing wide for all to see the disparity that often exists between faith and politics, when in fact if you're a person of faith, your faith should inform your politics (whether on the issues of economics or the environment or anything else) and not be put aside in a separate compartment to be taken out only on Sunday mornings so that you can look pious but otherwise be unmoved.
It's not only a problem for those on the right wing, and the problem isn't really political; it's spiritual. It has to do with the principalities and powers. The principalities and powers aren't little demons floating around us. They're all the various systems and structures in the world around us that seek to make us serve them rather than God; that seek our worship, in a sense. Two very powerful ones are capitalism and socialism. We can easily start to equate those economic systems with faith - so that a good Christian has to be a capitalist, or a good Christian has to be a socialist. We miss the point. We may choose to be either a capitalist or a socialist. If we live in a democracy, we have to make a choice between competing ideological systems (or we have to decide, as some Christians do, that democracy itself is simply incompatible with living as a Christian and so we drop out and disengage. That's a position I don't advocate.) Assuming we participate, we ultimately have to make a choice between ideological systems. That's what voting is about. But we should never mistake the system we choose to support for our faith; and we should never start to think that our faith forces us to choose a particular ideological system.
Jesus was not about systems or ideologies. Jesus was about people. Let's not forget that. I think the Pope is reminding us of that. Jesus was about people, therefore Christians should be about people; therefore the church should be about people. If there's an ethical and faithful way to approach questions of politics and economics, it should surely be based on the example of Jesus. As I read the story of his life and ministry, what I see is Jesus choosing to offer the most help to the most people, and especially to those with the most needs. That should be our guiding principle in all things - including our political choices. I don't think any ideological system can do that perfectly, and many ideological systems can do that partially, so from the perspective of politics, Christians can fall on a wide range of the spectrum. But, ultimately, we cannot devote ourselves to serve an ideological system. Ideological systems are simply among the principalities and powers that seek to draw us away from God. We need to turn toward God. We need to cling to God. We serve God. And that means we serve people. We shouldn't forget that.
Again - I think that Pope Francis is reminding us of that. Even as Protestants - it wouldn't hurt us to listen to the Pope every now and then.
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