The Importance Of Human Inequality In Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium
opinionated Essay
983 words
There is a common root to most (or perhaps all) grave forms of social injustice: the rejection of human equality and the influence of this rejection on human relationships and institutions.
Human persons are fundamentally equal in their worth and dignity. A person’s worth is not dependent on their lineage, how they fit in some utopian scheme, how much they produce or consume, their autonomy or independence, or their race, intelligence, age, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. Human worth is innate and cannot be forfeited. And it is equal in each person.
This is a radical notion. It cannot be reconciled with utilitarian thinking. It conflicts with the desires of many powerful people. It seems farcical if one is a strict materialist. It is not based on a person’s capacity to feel pain or engage in critical thinking or some other capricious standard.
This belief in human
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In this essay, the author
- Opines that social injustice is rooted in the rejection of human equality and the influence of this rejection on human relationships and institutions.
- Argues that this radical notion cannot be reconciled with utilitarian thinking and conflicts with the desires of many powerful people. it seems farcical if one is a strict materialist.
- Explains that the belief in human equality is rooted in the recognition that each person is made in god's image and is called to communion with god and others.
- Explains that a belief in human equality leads one to recognize the obscenity of people starving while others live in excess. pride, lust, envy, and other sins are enabled when equality is denied.
- Explains that children are used as human shields, terminating one's own life, remaining indifferent to people sleeping on the streets, and living in abject poverty. people are enslaved, raped, murdered, persecuted
- Explains that inequality and injustice foster greater evil. high poverty rates can result in high crime rates. repression and violence can produce endless cycles of conflict.
- Opines that pope francis is always clear in his message, but there is a bit of ambiguity in the tweet. is it about economic inequality alone?
- Argues that it's a mistake to focus on the semantics rather than the core message.
- Analyzes how pope francis uses evangelii gaudium to condemn the libertarian mindset that focuses on autonomy and individualism and calls for more just social structures and policies that address the structural causes of poverty.
- Explains that pope paul vi condemned the "flagrant inequalities" in both the enjoyment of possessions and the exercise of power.
- Opines that pope francis' tweet should challenge everyone across the political and ideological spectrum to recognize the equality of all and create conditions that reflect a total commitment to human dignity.
- Opines that the pope's tweets are a wake-up call to open our eyes to the threat economic inequality and injustice poses to human dignity and the common good.
He condemns the libertarian mindset that focuses so much on autonomy and individualism and calls for the creation of more just social structures and policies that address the structural causes of poverty. He is explicit in his rejection of an approach that relies too heavily on free markets: “We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market.”
This is nothing new in Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Paul VI condemned the “flagrant inequalities” in both the enjoyment of possessions and the exercise of power. In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI writes, “The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable
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