Madam, - Fr Tony Flannery (Rite and Reason June 26th) complains about the difficulties in preaching the Gospel of Jesus in a society that he believes has grown greedy and deaf to the needs of the disadvantaged. May I respectfully suggest that Fr Flannery's preaching difficulties can be attributed to his message being hopelessly out of touch? Fr Flannery and many religious of his generation preach a message that rightly falls on deaf ears because they present Jesus as some kind of economic Marxist intent on social equality at all costs. "Jesus advocated higher taxation," Fr Flannery writes - I'm sorry, Father, but he didn't. Jesus spoke of a spiritual kingdom. As far as he commented on taxation, he said "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's".
Fr Flannery reduces the teachings of Christ to "selfishness and greed are bad", putting Christ in the role of some kind of bearded Joe Higgins wagging his finger and proclaiming the cause of the disadvantaged. The electorate have seen through the failed rhetoric of Marxist socialism and Christians have too; they're not listening. Ordinary people who have struggled and by their hard effort have managed to build a life for themselves and their families are not listening because Fr Flannery is out of touch with reality. He never had to worry about job security, his mortgage or rising interest rates, or remember high taxation on his wage packet and soaring interest rates when Ireland was on the verge of economic collapse.
Irish people are not in the main greedy or selfish - every week the papers are full of pictures of charity runs and fundraisers. During international disasters, Ireland is among the top donors.
It's time that some religious preachers forget the rhetoric of guilt and negativity and come out of their leafy suburban houses and preach, as the Pope suggested recently, the positive message of Christian spirituality and leave the economics to the economists. - Yours, etc,
GARRY O'SULLIVAN,
Editor,
The Irish Catholic,
55 Lower Gardiner Street,
Dublin 1.
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Madam, - Fr Tony Flannery writes that "it would be fair to say that Jesus advocated higher taxation, fairer taxation and redistribution". Fascinating! To think I've been reading the Gospels all these years and never noticed those passages. - Yours, etc,
GERARD CASEY,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.