Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Many Indians look at Narendra Modi and say: sure, there’s enormous hype around the man, he gets rock star receptions every time he goes abroad, the corporate world loves him, he is a great orator and knows how to use social media extremely well, but where are the results ? That’s a fair question. Of course, the same question could be asked about the man known as the People’s Pope, the current Pope Francis. Extremely social media savvy, a man who talks frankly, sounds empathetic, and makes all the right noises about gays, abortion and the use of birth control. But as Gerald Posner wrote in God’s Bankers : “Francis’s words were carefully crafted. He never promised to make any substantive reforms or alter long-crafted doctrine.” Indeed, if you look carefully, no changes have been made to the church’s policies on any major (controversial) topic. So why are Modi and Pope Francis still so popular? Why does Modi get a rock star reception at Wembley Stadium right after the Bi...

Pope Francis is ruffling feathers within the church. For instance, can you believe he said this in an interview? “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense.” Or that politics: “ has its own field of action, which is not that of religion. Political institutions are secular by definition and operate in independent spheres.” Imagine the implication on laws on homosexuality or abortions in the West! And then the Pope criticized capitalism: “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose…(the absolute autonomy of the marketplace) reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. ” That criticism reminded me of this 1999 article by Harvey Cox , a professor of divinity at Harvard University, who compared religion (Christianity in particular) with capitalism. This line sums up his...