Thursday, October 15, 2009

Sell the Vatican, Feed the World

Yeah, I know, posting a video doesn't count as a real post. But this was just way too hilarious not to stick up here. Grabbed it off of PZ Myers' blog:



As an addendum, and so as to not just miss out on an opportunity to jump on a soapbox for a second, let me say this: she might be on to something. Not in a literal way, no sir. But still... think about it. Why does the Pope live in a palace? Why does the Vatican store treasure? What, does it make God happy to look down on piles of gold and whatnot? (as an aside, why gold of all things? It's not even that great an element). If the Vatican liquidated its assets, I'm sure it would find itself with all the money it needed to fill the coffers of its churches around the globe (although the thought of chucking more money to individual parishes does give me pause; abuse cover-ups, anyone?). No more pledge drives, no more tithes... well, for a while at least. But back to my main point: if so much of Christianity is about forsaking the wealth of the world, then why does the Vatican have archives full of valuable artifacts? As Indiana Jones would say, "It belongs in a museum!" Even if they didn't want to sell it, couldn't they put it out for people to see? After all, I suspect that's one of the main arguments that would be put against me were I to bring this up with a church official: "It's priceless artwork!" If that's true, why keep it hidden away underground?

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