Brad Hachten: Keep an open heart to Pope Francis’ message
While I’m not Catholic, I nevertheless urge my fellow Mercedians to keep an open heart to Pope Francis’ encyclical call for a “bold cultural revolution” that transcends our current consumer culture. To avoid deepening levels of conflict, environmental degradation and the erosion of freedom, it may be that our society has to undergo some kind of revolution of the spirit. We may need to transform more of the source of our motivations from the passions of consumption to the inspiration of contribution.
Hypothetically, the moral culture can be revitalized in such a way as to better enable the individual to see his or herself as part of something greater than the self. In essence, we’d be attempting to induce a kind of spiritual movement that also addresses the inherent demoralization within our consumer culture from our attraction to an ideal that leaves us dissatisfied in the real. We are California and waves of the future are often initiated here. Viva la revolución!
Brad Hachten, Merced
This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Brad Hachten: Keep an open heart to Pope Francis’ message."