A Progressive Pope is Driving the Wingnuts Batty & Mormon Bishop Posing As Homeless Man Rebuffed by Congregation 28&29NOV13

I am Christian but not Catholic, but I have to say I love this Pope! Here is a man of God not afraid to preach the Good News to everyone, and to admonish the shortcomings of all of us in a spirit of love and compassion. I really do admire him for living his faith, for being a Pope for all the people of the Church. I hope God gives Pope Francis and long and vibrant reign, I think all will benefit if He does. The second story is about the Mormon Bishop who visited his church as a homeless person, and the reaction of his parishioners. God continue to bless you Pope Francis & Bishop Musselman!
Vyan

As Pope Francis comes more and more out of the Progressive Closet he begins to gain more and more pushback from the Rightwing who have long claimed that their Unrepentant Greed was Godly.
Unfortunately it isn't, and the Pope has been most clear on this.

“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” the pope said in the 224-page document that essentially serves as his official platform.

And the response has been truly amazing.  For example Palin's overreaction to the Pope's statements on Twitter actually made her do something she seems to never done before.  (Except for one other time to John McCain for possibly, maybe, making him LOSE!) Apologize.
She didn't apologize for TrooperGate.  She didn't apologize for "Refudiate".  She didn't apologize for quitting in the middle of her Term as Governor of Alaska.  She didn't apologize for defending Dr. Laura's N-Word use with "Don't Retreat, Relaod! She didn't apologize for her BLOOD LIBEL accusations.
But she apologized to the Pope.  I think something unique and different is going on here.

The Pope's comments apparently got deeply under the skin of Fox Business Host Stuart Varney.
http://www.rawstory.com/...

“Capitalism, in my opinion, is a liberator,” he said. “The free choice of millions of people is the essence of freedom. In my opinion, society benefits most when people are free to pursue their own self-interest. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it is not. When individuals are free, we collectively are better off in every way, financially and spiritually.”

It doesn't seem to matter to Varney that the Pope didn't criticize "People's Freedom or Self-Interest" - he criticized The Markets. He criticized the manipulation of those markets using financial speculation. It's not an accident that Varney gets this wrong, because he's a knave. A lapdog of the Markets.  His job is to make sure that his True Religion - Unfeterred Greed - is never questioned, never criticized and if it is that persons veracity and character has to be Destroyed. It just becomes a little difficult when that person - Is the Holy Pontiff.
See how he tries to rewrite and redefine the Pope's words for him.

“I go to church to save my soul,” Varney said. “It’s got nothing to do with my vote. Pope Francis has linked the two. He has offered direct criticism of a specific political system. He has characterized negatively that system. I think he wants to influence my politics.”

A political system?  He criticized a Political System? No actually, he didn't.  He criticized a Financial System, by putting that system into a Moral Context.  A context in which it is sorely, severely lacking.  Politics is about how people make choices in who their Political Leaders will be.  In this case Varney is confusing Politics with Finances, and not hardly by accident. For years we've been hearing from the Right-wing how the U.S. is a "Christian Nation".  How we should and must let our Christian Value guide how we vote, and how we govern.  That such considerations are what drives the anti-Choice movement, and the Prayer-In-Schools movement and the Creationist/Anti-Science movement - yet when the Head of the Largest Christian Organization in the World says that our financial systems should have a moral component.
Heads Start to Explode.
And what better head is there to do a Scanners than the Big Fat Head of Rush Limbaugh.
http://www.rawstory.com/...

On his Wednesday radio show, Rush Limbaugh admitted being “befuddled” by the harsh words about “unfettered capitalism” released this week by Pope Francis.
...
But the new pronouncement, the pope’s latest Evangelii Gadium, or Joy of the Gospel, was a surprisingly frontal attack on capitalism, with Francis calling it a form of tyranny.
That didn’t sit well with Limbaugh. “Somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him,” Rush said. “This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope.

The Pope is speaking "Pure Marxism"?  Somebody has "gotten to him"? Written it "For Him"?  Why, because a Holy Man can't consider that Capitalism can be dangerous?  Certainly he couldn't actually Mean what he says, let alone Know what it Means.  He just has to be incompetent or lying, because if he's not -- well, that's too much even for Limbaugh to consider. All he's saying is that the Markets should be Regulated so that their tendency to cause massive financial harm is blunted, by things such as Glass-Steagal or to a lesser sense Dodd-Frank - but the bottom line is that the Pope, just as he was with his criticism of the obsession with anti-Gay and anti-Choice efforts - is SPOT ON Economically.
As described by the Guardian.

The pope’s screed on “the economy of exclusion and inequality” will disappoint those who considers themselves free-market capitalists, but they would do well to listen to the message. Francis gives form to the emotion and injustice of post-financial-crisis outrage in a way that has been rare since Occupy Wall Street disbanded. There has been a growing chorus of financial insiders – from the late Merrill Lynch executive Herb Allison to organizations like Better Markets – it’s time for a change in how we approach capitalism. It’s not about discarding capitalism, or hating money or profit; it’s about pursuing profits ethically, and rejecting the premise that exploitation is at the center of profit. When 53% of financial executives say they can’t get ahead without some cheating, even though they want to work for ethical organizations, there’s a real problem.

This Pope has begun to let the truth about the Worship of Money out of the bag.  Yes, it is Idolatry, and it does need to be reined in.  That is of course the last thing the Right-wing wants, because it would grant legitimacy of many progressive efforts to reduce income inequality and to improve the lot of the working class and the middle-class. This is not what the Conservative-Right cares about. They claim to, but they don't really, and the more Pope Francis talks about it - the more it makes them squirm.
Certainly this is someting to consider as we all prepare to sit down and break bread with our Wingnut Relatives this Thanksgiving.  Yes, Progressive Values actually are Godly Values, they are following in the footsteps of he who showed us the way, progressivism is following in the truth path of Jesus of Nazareth toward charity and forgiveness. Republicans, aren't on that path.
Pope Francis is telling the truth, and the Right just can't stop themselves from listening, even if they don't want to.
Vyan

Originally posted to Vyan on Thu Nov 28, 2013 at 02:26 PM PST.

Also republished by ClassWarfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS Working Class Global Occupy movement and Street Prophets . 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/28/1258966/-A-Progressive-Pope-is-Driving-the-Wingnuts-Batty 

Mormon Bishop Posing As Homeless Man Rebuffed by Congregation

by ProgLegs

Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
                                          Proverbs 28:27

A bishop in a Mormon church outside Salt Lake City has shined a light on the hypocrisy and selfishness of members of his church by dressing as a homeless man and gauging their reactions to him. David Musselman had a makeup artist transform his face and donned an unkempt wig, fake beard, and glasses.  He then entered the church last Sunday and approached churchgoers to see what they would do.  He found many of them did not practice what he preached:

"Many actually went out of their way to purposefully ignore me, and they wouldn't even make eye contact.  I'd approach them and say, 'Happy Thanksgiving.' Many of them I wouldn't ask for any food or any kind of money, and their inability to even acknowledge me being there was very surprising."

Most of Musselman's church members ignored him, although five of them actually asked him to leave.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/29/1259046/-Mormon-Bishop-Posing-As-Homeless-Man-Rebuffed-by-Congregation?detail=email