Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Vatican Swings (to the Left)

For those of you not on the Vatican's mailing list, I thought I'd mention that Pope Benedict must have been reading his Marx, because he came out with seven new "social sins," four of which are sound socialist policy, and three of which are extremely silly.

Without further ado, the new seven social sins are:

1. "Bioethical' violations ala birth control

2. "Morally dubious'' experiments ala stem cell research

3. Drug abuse

4. Polluting the environment

5. Contributing to the increasing disparity between rich and poor

6. Excessive wealth

7. Creating poverty

Sounds pretty good to me, except for the part about for the first three. And frankly, I think from a statutory interpretational position, the structure of #2 is troubling; that "morally dubious" bit seems to give us an unconstitutionally vague sin. You have committed a sin if you behave in a way that poses what may be an unrealized risk of sinful behavior. But full points on those last four.



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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 13, 2008 at 1:37 PM

    The one about not polluting is interesting.

    I guess that would mean that God now believes the scientists that claim humans have a tangible and dangerous impact on the Earth's climate.

    This debate certainly makes for strange bedfellows.

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  2. Ryan F.March 13, 2008 at 2:34 PM

    This is an interesting development especially since Benedict is supposed to be pretty conservative. He is notorious for having rebuked the "Liberation Theology" people in Latin America.

    But then again Catholicism always had an uneasy relationship with capitalism. I guess in the great scheme of world relgions, Catholicism may have a leg up.

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