Sometimes raunchy, always funny, comedien, Sarah Silverman, has made a video which contains a practical, down to earth, solution to the problem of world hunger. Sell the Vatican and Feed the World.
How simple is that? And could there be a better way to celebrate UN World Food Day? Personally, I think the boss would approve (not the Pope, the real boss, the one who founded Christianity a couple of thousand years ago) you know-- the one who threw the money changers out of the temple.
I found the video funny and to the point( the point being world hunger not the Vatican) but then I like Silverman's snarky brand of sarcasm. Bill Donahoe of the Catholic League was not amused. He called Silverman's idea " an obscene suggestion." and clearly views the video as a scandalous attack on holy mother church. I think Bill should lighten up and have a laugh. He's not hungry and lots of people are and Sarah is just pointing that out by using the Vatican as an example. Pssst. Bill, she doesn't really expect that the folks in the Vatican are going to put it up for sale-- honest. She's just pullling your leg. Get a grip.
Maybe he's sensitive because this business about wealth and power vs. holiness and humility is one that has troubled Christianity since its earliest days. Didn't Jesus say " lay not up the treasures of this world" and "it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?"
Yeah, I think he did.
hat tip to Berto: Philosophy Monkey for this one