Speaking in Tongues

If somewhere down the line there is an effort to canonize Pope Francis as a saint, we can refer back to September 24th, 2015 as the date of one of his required miracles--as the Pope apparently "spoke in tongues" during an address to a joint session of Congress.  How else could you explain how 535 Representatives and Senators each heard only what they wanted to hear from that speech?

If you listen to the reactions of Democrats, Pope Francis whole-heartedly endorsed raising taxes on the rich, putting coal and oil production out of business, and allowing as many illegal immigrants into the country as possible.  Republicans meanwhile heard the Pope call for an end to abortion, allowing county clerks to not issue marriage license to same-sex couples and not forcing bakers to make cakes for gay weddings.

His speeches have Fox News hosts debating whether Francis is a socialist.  MSNBC guests no longer question why an unelected leader of a religion should be telling people in America how to live their lives.  He's even making Fiats and Jeep Wranglers the hottest vehicles on the planet by tooling around our major cities in them.  If you want a second miracle, making an archaic 21-hundred-year old religion seem cool to people with ten second attention spans may qualify.

Let's not forget that this is a sales trip for the Pontiff.  Catholicism is losing membership, men willing to serve as priests and money at an ever-increasing pace.  And rather than be like business of the past that refused to change what they offered to meet consumer tastes, Pope Francis is out chasing today's hottest trends.

For centuries the Church told the poor their riches await "in the next life".  But as we become a society based around instant gratification, "suffering now" doesn't seem so fun.  What better way to hang onto the underclass but to claim that you are on their side in a "battle against the rich"?  Of course, a good first step would be for the Church to sell off its vast real estate, art and investment holdings and give that money directly to its poor members. Or at the very least pay taxes on those holdings to fund the state programs that the Pope is now calling to be expanded.

For centuries the Church told people that God created and controlled all things--and that if something happened, that was His will.  But science has chipped away at that tenet--so now the message has to be Man must "save" what God has given him--and the only way to do that is to NOT use all of the resources available to us to power our factories, our homes and our transportation systems.  Of course, a good first step would be for the Pope to have flown on regularly-scheduled airline flights instead of via charter and on helicopters.  And he could have traveled by Pedal Cab or hoofed it to his various stops--instead of causing huge traffic jams that wasted more gas and carbon emissions in two major cities.

So as the Pope continues his American Sales Tour, I'd suggest paying very close attention to what he has to say.  EVERYTHING he has to say