Shaw's view on the Pope is error-ridden

Recently, Pope Francis excoriated current world economic policies, of which the GOP’s are the stereotype (Google: “Evangelii Gaudium pdf”)

Adam Shaw, a Fox News contributor, wrote an ad hominem, error-ridden rebuttal (Google: “Pope Francis is the Catholic Church’s Obama – God help us”)

Shaw claims the Pope rejects free market capitalism, the avowed foundation of our economy. Shaw is wrong. The Pope said: “… some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth … will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness...” Clearly, the Pope is rejecting “trickle down” (supply-side) economics, noting that free market capitalism cannot compensate for damaging inequality engendered by trickle down.

Shaw says: “…free markets have consistently lifted the poor out of poverty…” The Pope observes that not only are the poor not being lifted out of poverty, even more poor are being created, indicating we are not practicing true free marketing: this needs to change.

Shaw equates the Pope’s rejection of income inequality to the desire for socialistic income equality. He’s wrong again. The Pope spoke in the context of extreme income and wealth inequality. Specifically: “While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.” In fact, income inequality has reached a level not seen since the Crash of ’29.

The Pope identifies the root cause: worship of the ancient golden calf – the idolatry of money.

John H. Terrell