![\"GREENVILLE,](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitychannelseries\/files\/2016\/02\/B@.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhile Donald Trump sparks with the Vatican<\/a>\u00a0over his proposal to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, Bernie Sanders waxes eloquently on the pope\u2019s Spirit of Poverty in a culture of obscene wealth.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Canadian Catholic television network Salt + Light\u00a0<\/a>, Sanders, a self-styled\u00a0democratic socialist<\/a>, said he believes Francis shares the same ideology because the pope \u201ctalks about wealth being used to serve people, not as an end in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he has also done is raise the issue of the worship of money, the idolatry of money, and to say maybe that\u2019s not what human life should be about, and that is a very, very radical critique of the hypercapitalist system, world system, that we\u2019re living in today,\u201d <\/i>he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhat the pope is saying is that human life, our existence, should be more than just the accumulation of more wealth,\u201d he continued. \u201cI agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n And so do I \u2013 profoundly.<\/p>\n Ohiyesa, the late 19th-century Native American Indian of the Sioux (Dakota) Nation, had this to say on the subject of possessions and detachment:<\/p>\n \u201cWe original Americans have generally been despised by our white conquerors for our poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, that our religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury. To us, as to other spiritually minded people in every age and race, the love of possessions is a snare, and the burdens of a complex society a source of needless peril and temptations . . . It was clear to us that virtue and happiness are independent of these things, if not incompatible with them . . . Furthermore, it was the rule of our life to share the fruits of our skill and success with our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Thus we kept our spirits free from the clog of pride, avarice, or envy, and carried out, as we believed, the divine decree \u2014 a matter profoundly important to us.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m not trying to idolize an indigenous spirituality here or to elevate it as a saintly philosophy of life. But such elegant words of wisdom, for me, are grounding in their simplicity, and challenging in their ethical import. In a word, they speak compellingly to our cultural addictions. Namely, wealth, power, prestige, and material extravagance.<\/p>\n Sanders has twice promoted the pope\u2019s agenda on the floor of the US Senate, including last February when he said the pope \u201cshowed great courage in raising issues that we very rarely hear discussed here in the Congress,\u201d and quoted from Evangelii Gaudium<\/a><\/i>, a letter written by Francis that some consider the blueprint of his papacy.<\/p>\n Sanders regularly plugs the pope\u2019s stance on social media, including last week when he tweeted his support of Francis\u2019 call for more humane immigration policy during the pontiff\u2019s visit to the US-Mexico border.<\/p>\n We must heed Pope Francis' call to put compassion at the center of our immigration policy. https:\/\/t.co\/17jgI5cX00<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 18, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n