Dr. Mercola and the pope

I'm not a blog follower (ironic - right?), but I do get Dr. Mercola's daily newsletter.  For the most part, I agree with his advice on food, health, vaccines, and fitness.  I'm leery on his views of yoga,  EFT, and grounding, so I usually just skip those articles.  From what I can garner, his spirituality seems to lean more towards the New Age.  That's why I was quite surprised at this week's post promoting a Papal Encyclical.  The article starts with a video that walks a fine line between being amusing and offensive.  Dr. Mercola then goes on to point out what the media missed - Laudato Si isn't just a treatise on climate change - it's about the numerous ways we are destroying our world, and ultimately ourselves.  Pope Francis leans on his predecessors throughout the document:  "Blessed Pope Paul VI referred to the ecological concern as “a tragic consequence” of unchecked human activity: “Due to an ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this degradation”. (paragraph 4)   Pesticides, GMO's, factory farming - our technology trumps humanity.  We are the frogs in the boiling water -slowly killing ourselves in the name of convenience.  

Sadly though, both Dr. Merocla and the mainstream media missed the entire point of the encyclical.  People are at the top of the spectrum.  Humans are made in the image and likeness of God.  We have been given this world by our creator and thus must care for this gift, but not at the expense of human life. For example, in paragraph 120, Pope Francis states:  "Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away”

Pope Francis also quotes from Pope Benedict XVI:  6. My predecessor Benedict XVI likewise proposed “eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment”.10 He observed that the world cannot be analyzed by isolating only one of its aspects, since “the book of nature is one and indivisible”, and includes the environment, life, sexuality, the family, social relations, and so forth. It follows that “the deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture which shapes human coexistence”.11 Pope Benedict asked us to recognize that the natural environment has been gravely damaged by our irresponsible behaviour. The social environment has also suffered damage. Both are ultimately due to the same evil: the notion that there are no indisputable truths to guide our lives, and hence human freedom is limitless. We have forgotten that “man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature”.12 With paternal concern, Benedict urged us to realize that creation is harmed “where we ourselves have the final word, where everything is simply our property and we use it for ourselves alone. The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves”.13

I hope Dr. Mercola read the entire document.  There is theological richness in the pope's explanation of the "Gospel of Creation" that can never be found in New Age practices.  One thing you can say about Pope Francis - he's definitely tapped into a brand new audience.