On the Papal Address to Congress and the Kingdom of God

David Russell Mosley

Ordinary Time
25 September 2015
The Edge of Elfland
Hudson, New Hampshire

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday Pope Francis became the first pope to address the United State’s Congress. His address, despite the feelings of some, was rather warm and welcoming. Pope Francis, it seems, desired not to alienate his audience by simply telling them that they are doing the wrong things as regards the common good, human dignity, the importance of the family, or the importance of caring for our common home. Instead, the Pope used the United States against itself. Instead, particularly by highlighting four outstanding citizens of this country––Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton––the Pope showed us where we have done well in spirit or in desire and called us to live out those desires. There is much I wish the Pope would have elaborated on, but his message was clear: America, in fact the world, needs to move forward in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity. These principles, along with an emphasis on the family, are the keys to Catholic Social Teaching in general and one of its many expressions, distributism. So, for the rest of this letter, I want to highlight some key passages from the Pope’s address, providing a little commentary and attempting to draw out the binding thread which is the Kingdom of God.

The Pope began his address by speaking first to the members of Congress directly. He reminds them that “the chief aim of all politics” is “to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good.” According to the Pope, “a political society” can only “[endure]  when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk.” In essence, the Pope reminds the members of Congress of what their job is meant to be. Their job is not to get reelected. It is not to obey the demands of money: “If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance.” This can only be achieved, however, by “love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.”

The Pope goes on to remind us that many of us are the ancestors of those who immigrated here. And that our ancestors did not always treat well those who were here before us: “Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected.” He reminds us that we too were once strangers, aliens in a foreign land, and that we ought to welcome the alien who desires to come here: “Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past. We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our “neighbors” and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this.” By these early comments we ought to be made to think of much of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah and God’s commandments to his people to care for those on the margins, the poor and the oppressed, the widows and orphans, and the aliens among us.

This leads the Pope to discuss human dignity in general (after also dealing with the present refugee crisis). While perhaps some on the pro-life side might be dissatisfied that abortion only gets a vague reference from the Pope––”The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development”––we should keep in mind that this aspect of Christian faith is one that has been at the fore for many years. I think it likely that Pope shifts the conversation to the abolition of the death penalty, “This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty,” because until we understand that the lives of those, even those who hate us, are also to be protected as much as possible we cannot come to an understanding that the unborn are also in need of our protection. In other words, until we can understand that even the worst possible humans still have dignity (read made in the image and likeness of God) we cannot understand that unborn humans also share in that dignity.

The Pope then moves from human dignity to care for our common home, the earth. He connects, as he does in Laudato Si‘, care for our planet with care for the poor and oppressed. The Pope understands that much effort is needed to raise humans out of poverty and “that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable.” Here it would have been nice to see the Pope elaborate some on the means by which this might be done, for instance turning from industrialized farming of one or two crops to a return to small family owned farms, or turning from large, monopolizing corporations to small, family owned businesses, and other aspects traditionally associated with distributism. Nevertheless, the Pope reminds us that the common good, as well as the Good News, is not only for humans but for the whole planet:

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8.19-23).

The Pope concluded by turning to the family, that supra-political society at the heart of political society. The Pope recognized the importance of the family to the foundation and “building of this country! … Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.” The Pope reminds us that we need to look in particular the problems facing the young (like my family) in this country. “Their problems are our problems,” he says. “We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.” In other words some families, like my own, are bogged down by bad financial circumstances, that discourages them from having children at all or having more (in California, it can cost anywhere from $3,296 to $71,000 depending on the kind of birth and the hospital). Others in more affluent circumstances, however, are discouraged from beginning families due to a surfeit of options. Women are encouraged to freeze their eggs so they can have careers first, and some women and men work so many hours, pursuing often some other dream (promotion, a new house or car, etc.), that little or no time is left to consider having children. The family is central and its centrality is being lost.

Pope Francis concludes by reminding us of those four great American individuals: Lincoln, King, Day, and Merton and how their spirits are the keys to a great nation: “A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.”

In the end, the Pope’s address was a call to join ourselves to the Kingdom of God, to work alongside God to bring about his kingdom and will “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” For those who feel the centrality of Christ was missing from this address, it needs to be understood that the whole of the Pope’s address was about living out the life of discipleship. Christ is at the center of the kind of society the Pope described. He must be, even if all members of that society don’t recognize it. The Pope understood his audience, and did what Jesus and Paul did, he incarnated himself, to the citizens of the United States, he spoke as a citizen of the United States, reminding us of what is good about us to call us to be better, to be aligned with the will of Christ.

Sincerely,
David

On The Economics of Elfland: In Honour of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Birthday

David Russell Mosley

Tenth Day of Christmas
3 January 2014
On the Edge of Elfland
Beeston, Nottinghamshire

Dear Friends and Family,

There are a few topics that up until now I have refrained from mentioning in these letters: specifically, homosexuality, abortion, and politics. The first two topics, while often linked quite closely to the third, are frankly too emotional and complicated for me to feel they can be appropriately dealt with in a blog post. The third I avoid often due to ignorance on my part as well as a lack of certainty about where I stand in the midst of the various debates. That being said, since today is J. R. R. Tolkien’s one hundred and twenty-second birthday, I thought I would post some musings on politics/economics garnered from the works primarily of Tolkien, Chesterton, Alison Milbank, and Catholic Social Doctrine.

Pope Francis has recently been under fire from certain Republicans, particularly Rush Limbaugh but comments have been made by John McCain and Sarah Palin as well as many others. The reason the Pope has caused such an uproar is for his indictment of trickle down economics and the mistreatment/oppression of the poor. Francis’s ideas are not new, the Old Testament Prophets are particularly interested in the care for the poor and oppressed. However, it is not just the Bible but the Catholic Tradition that finds these topics important. Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, wrote about the conditions for the working class and the need for the wealthy and the state not to oppress, but to protect our working classes. Pope Leo XIII writing in the nineteenth century penned these words which are equally true today: ‘Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition.’ Pope John Paul II in his Centesimus Annus, written for the hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, writes: ‘”If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accepts harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.” Would that these words (from Pope Leo XIII), written at a time when what has been called “unbridled capitalism” was pressing forward, should not have to be repeated today with the same severity.’

I bring up these notions of Catholic Social Doctrine because this seems to have been the driving force behind Tolkien’s work (as well as G. K. Chesterton’s). For Tolkien and Chesterton, indeed for most fairy-stories, the economics of Elfland, a play on Chesterton’s ethics of Elfland, is based in gift giving. Gawain and the lord he later learns is the Green Knight he has been sent to seek, share a game in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During his stay at the Green Knight’s castle, each day the knight will hunt and give as a gift whatever he catches. In return, Gawain will give the lord whatever he wins during the day (in the poem he wins kisses from the lord’s wife).

In Tolkien this gift economy sets the rules for birthdays in the Shire. Bilbo is a bit extravagant in giving a gift to every party-goer, but nevertheless, birthdays in the shire centre around gift exchange. What’s more, Shire economy seems to have little to do with money. Some is spent, particularly for Bilbo’s birthday, but it doesn’t seem to be the driving force of the economy or society in the shire; that place seems to be occupied by the consumption of food, alcohol, and pipe tobacco. Alison Milbank writes in her Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians, ‘The Shire in particular, while having employees, seems to allow its people some land for the odd cow or pig and the appearance of Hobbiton bears some resemblance to the interwoven village, field and homestead pattern that can still be seen today at Laxton in Nottinghamshire, where the old fieldstrip system that allowed country people to be partially independent of a cash economy still survives in a modified form’ (128).

Hobbiton is not a socialist society, there are some people, like Bilbo, who have more than others, like the Gamgees. Yet, there still seems an implicit notion that one can own too much. Farmer Cotton in explaining to the world travelers how things got as bad as they did in the penultimate chapter of The Lord of the Rings notes that Lotho Sackville-Baggins owend, ‘a sight more than was good for him.’ Ted Sandyman in the same chapter is berated for allowing his father’s mill to be sold and torn down in order to make one too large for the needs of the society and becoming a workman in it rather than its owner and master. It seems the Shire is meant to be both a unit, a society that is in some way governed, but governed in such a way that families can remain relatively independent. In this way they can help each other as Farmer Cotton does with Sam Gamgee’s father Ham is thrown out of his home.

Alison Milbank writes concerning Tolkien’s politics, ‘While Tolkien’s political views do not easily correspond to any political party of his day, as a devout Catholic with his own ethnological interests Tolkien in his fiction can be seen as seeking a more humane, less alienated form of sociality in the manner of Catholic social teaching of the early twentieth century, and its emphasis on a middle way between capitalism and communism.’ This is what I’m looking for. My life’s ambition, in many ways, is to be a small holder with my family. To have chickens and pigs and maybe a cow or two and to grow my own fruit vegetables is what I desire. Yet I don’t simply desire this for myself. I would see a society built on living locally, on taking care of each other. I believe this is part, though not the whole, of the vision of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the Gospel, or at least part of it. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer for God’s Kingdom to come and his will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. A middle road between capitalism and socialism, one built on justice and virtue, one built on making virtuous citizens, which is to say citizens who desire to be happy, which is to say citizens who desire the Good, which is to say citizens who desire union with God through Christ in deification, this is the economics of Elfland.

Sincerely yours,
David Russell Mosley

The New Pope and Why Protestants Should Care

Dear Friends and Family,

The other day, when I posted on evolution and Christianity, I mentioned that I would be doing a post on the selection of a new pope. I also recommend reading my good friend, Peter Stevens’s post: Thoughts on the new Pope and Christian Leadership.

I am not a Roman Catholic. Neither am I Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, or a member of a high (that is liturgical) Protestant church. I am, as I’ve said before, part of tradition called the Restoration Movement. Technically we describe ourselves as neither Protestant nor Catholic, but practically we are low-church Protestants. You may wonder, then why I care at all about the papacy. Allow me, briefly, to try and describe why I think all Christians should be concerned about the papacy.

Whether we like it or not, the papacy exists. Every so often, the Roman Catholic church selects a new man to help lead them. It is his job to promote orthodoxy, to be the voice of the people of God, and to tell political leaders when what they do is not consonant with the position they hold. While we in the lower churches may not subscribe to the same understandings of leadership that Roman Catholics do, we must remember that the pope in Rome is there and that he stands for many of the same things we stand for. Pope Francis stands against abortion, against homosexuality as a practice (both things most evangelical Protestants stand against), and he stands for the spreading of the good news of Jesus Christ and caring for the poor and the oppressed. How can we rail against a man who seeks to be the kingdom of God in the world?

Finally, while there are various issues that keep me from becoming Catholic, John 17 is ever in my mind, that we may be one as the Father and Son are one. If we wish to be one then we must work with one another and not against one another. Unity is a big deal to the movement to which I belong. It is one of our two core pillars. If that is the case, then we must seek union with Rome as well as with Constantinope, Canterbury, Wittenburg, Geneva, etc.

I want to leave you with four things, two videos, an article, and a Scripture:
Simon Oliver on issues surrounding there being two living popes:

Thomas O’Loughlin on the proper understanding of papal power:

An article from Simon Oliver and Sam Kimbriel: Analysis: What is the role of a modern pope?

And John 17:

17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

I pray that you, as I will, will pray for Pope Francis and that his time of service may see a deeper union between all Christians. As the Western World continues to reject Christianity, we must band together under the reign of Jesus Christ.

Yours,

David