Pope Francis has delivered his much awaited "Laudato Si" on the environment. This is the National Catholic Register's [US] article entitled Luadato Si: The Cheers and Challenges. I included this article, because of its American Catholic perspective. [Full disclosure: I am a Protestant Christian, not Catholic. However, this is one pope I have come to respect.] I have long held the view that the Holy Bible commands us to take care of God's creation, especially, the planet we call home. I welcome comments, additions and debate over Pope Francis' release. Of note to me is the welcome involvement of Orthodox Greek, Anglican and even atheist participants in his letter.
Except when he's being a collosal homo/trans-phobic moron. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/06/1...B&utm_medium=socialFB&utm_campaign=PNFacebook And really, his followers should not need him to order them to be more environmental, if they already respected "gods creation".
Pope Francis has still gone further than previous popes by saying that gay people should be more accepted by the church. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” As a gay Christian, I find his attitude refreshing and full of hope. I still struggle with the issue of changing the sex God gave you. To me, it flies in the face of the LGBT call to "accept me as I am" if you don't like who or what you are in the beginning. I am gay, but I still don't "get it". Just being honest. Hell, it took me decades to accept that I am gay... it may take a while, if ever, to accept it all.
If I have a growth imbalance that wants to make me a giant or 2 foot tall should I accept that too? But forget about that. Sector 7 in my opinion and experience ultimately we need to listen to voices of the people who live an experience every single day. I can't go talking about trans because that is not my experience and if I apply my experience as someone utterly settled and invested in my biological gender to other people's stories I do them a disservice. The same way a disservice has been done for centuries and is still done today to gay people by folk who don't "get" same sex attraction because they don't experience it. We all need to stop a moment when people are telling their stories and we don't relate. If we don't relate in our own lives that is more reason to pay attention and try and understand and educate ourselves. We all fall into the trap of applying our own experience of life to all life.
I'm an Atheist, so it doesn't mean anything to me personally except that it may convince others to take action, which is good. What's to get? There's no harm in it, so it's okay.
It is your belief that your sex was given to you by god that prevents you from getting it. It is not that binary/clearcut, 100% male or 100% female. Just because someone has specific genitalia, a Y chromosome or not, does not mean your entire body has developed in that specific way. Some males develop breasts on their own because of hormones and some females grow beards. And then their is the issue of male and female brain chemistry, which I cannot even beginn to understand how it works, where you can be male but still have a female mind and vice versa. If you can accept that your brain can direct you elsewhere from what your genitals should dictate, with being gay and all, this is just one step further. If you can't stop believing that all this came from a god, at least stop thinking in binary.
He's not ordering anything. He's encouraging, guiding, and educating. All of which the world still needs, or we wouldn't have massive environmental problems. Sector, I haven't read the encyclical itself yet, but based on what I've been reading about it, I agree with everything you said. And another little plus: it's apparently the first time a papal document has used gender-inclusive language.
This is Good News. If air conditioners were shown to exaggerate the effects of Global Warming, somehow, let's say -- and the public was asked to voluntarily do without -- who would? Next to no one, I'd expect. At least The Church might be helpful in reaching some reluctant people in a way that maybe the government, or scientific community could not. Even without a situation like that example, exactly, the course The Holy See has put us on is good. It's about making The World a better place. I'm hopeful that many more Catholics will make a note of it.
^ Actually, I chose not to have air conditioning in my house. I have ceiling fans in every room. I keep the blinds closed during the day and open some windows in the evening. About one week, or some years only a couple days, a summer I'm miserable. Other than that, I do just fine. (On the other hand, I hate an un-airconditioned workplace or car.)
^Due to my COPD etc. I MUST have air conditioning at home. Where I live, we have a program for giving out fans to the poor. We have already hit 100 twice. Tomorrow it will be at least 100 again. Not only heat, but humidity is our problem. Like the old saying goes, it's not the heat it's the humidity. In other related news from Associated Press: " Vatican document on family tackles gays, divorcees ahead of synod but breaks no major ground"
You know, it's an encyclical from a Catholic religious leader. No, it's not going to tick off every Progressive Check-Box of Approval and steer clear of every shoal, particularly when there are large swathes of the left that are still coming to grips (not always smoothly) with trans activism. Yes, obviously it's a good thing that the Pope has come out unequivocally swinging on environmental issues. And yes, it will matter to his billion or so followers, whether or not it "should"(?). It's also going to lead to a serious fight with the wingnut branch of his Church.
Just amused by people calling such a laughably anachronistic persona "progressive" when he's anything but. It's nice after over a decade of environmentalism being such a hot topic for him to...write a letter that people can...acknowledge he wrote? Okay then. Those who were devoted to combating climate change would already be doing so, those who believe Earth shoudl be looked after because "god made it" would already be doing so. I just find this sort of sad and more than a little disturbing.
I'm finding your affected cynicism a tad ridiculous. Yes it's fairly obvious that by the standards of the institution he's inhabiting, Francis is surprisingly progressive in welcome ways. No this does not make him John Lennon, his being still a Catholic priest and all. Yes his taking stands on things matters to a large percentage of the world's population and will likely influence real-life politics and decisions. Yes his taking up the environment as a key issue is therefore hugely significant. No it is not very interesting that you imagine everyone should have lined up in immutable for-or-against camps already anyway for some bizarre reason, and no the fact that he isn't media-ready as the next face of transgenderism is not the real story here. If you find it depressing that Catholicism exists and matters in the world, you must not get out much.
Big Jake said most of what I wanted as a response. Except that whether you like it or not, Pope Francis leads a group of over 1 billion people. His opinion and writing does influence Catholics across many borders. If you had actually read the article in my original post, you may have noticed that he is calling out members of his own flock/group for hypocritically making profit by destroying the environment. It really IS a big deal.
The English text of the encyclical letter is here: http://w2.vatican.va/content/france...-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html The letter addresses "every person living on this planet."
You said that you chose this, but you didn't mention why, though. So, what brought you to this decision? I just take the edge off the heat when I turn on the air. I don't mind the heat, myself. Heat's just an annoyance, but the cold of Winter actually hurts!
We're talking about a Church where prior to Francis' arrival making apologies for 400-year old atrocities committed by the Church was their typical timetable for getting around to things. He's advanced their positions in a positive and progressive direction by leaps and bounds in no time and all you can do is focus on the negative. Yeah, the top Catholic priest is a little behind the times on transgendered issues: STOP THE PRESSES! Your claim that that makes him "laughably anachronistic" is misguided, to say the least, if you had seen many of the reactions to the Caitlyn Jenner announcement. He's not the only one who's a little behind the times on the issue, and the fact that he's not saying trans people are living in sin or some shit like that instead is actually a pretty big step forward for the Catholic Church in and of itself. And Francis wasn't the Pope ten years ago, so I'm not sure why you're using that as a criticism for his environmental positions today. He's the Pope now, and he's using the HUGE influence of that position in a positive way that I haven't seen from the Church in well, forever. It's going to play big in the Latin and South American and Central African countries that have the bulk of our remaining rainforests, so that's a good thing if he can inspire people to take up activism on the cause of environmental protection. I'm a former Catholic turned atheist but I admire the Pope a great deal, and it's been a long time since I could say that about the Pope or any of the leadership of the Church in general.