Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Plutocratic Piety

'Tis the season for plutocrats to feel put upon by statements made by Pope Francis to the effect that they need to worship the dollar a little less.  The latest billionaire whiner is the founder of Home Depot and greed head extraordinaire Ken "The Profit" Langone, who feels that the Pope's criticism of trickle down capitalism is misguided.  Sadly for the Catholic Church, The Profit's in charge of raising private funds to restore New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral, so he has some extortion power leverage with the Church hierarchy. Enter New York's pedophile priest protector Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who was on the receiving end of The Profit and his friends' criticism of the Pope.  Now, one would think that trying to strong arm the Pope would draw an angry rebuke from the good Cardinal, but after all, he needs his cathedral "restored."  So he soothingly assured The Profit that the Pope's message was taken the wrong way.

The Profit and his friends may not only be in the wrong pew, they may be in the wrong church.  After all, there are plenty of megachurch "gospel of prosperity" outfits that will soothe their feelings and make them feel like the chosen ones.  Hopefully, the church that they land with can, in exchange for some cash, expunge this statement in the Gospels by some liberal Marxist:
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  -- Matthew 19: 23-24