Blog #13

I agreed with many of the churches teachings to improve the standards of living in the world and decrease poverty. I think that the church is on the right path by declaring the specific needs that need to be addressed in order to achieve these goals. One thing that I think that the Church needs to do a better job of is implementing its ideas on a smaller scale. The ideas need to be implemented on a local scale. It would be much easier for poverty to drop if the Church was able to get the small communities more engaged in its ideas. I know that this is not as easy as it seems but if everybody was to get on board I believe that we could see an immediate impact. I like how the Church has built upon its goals over the years. The Church started off with broader ideas but has now narrowed them down.
One thing that I did not appreciate in the text was when the text talked about the history of the church and colonization. The text said that many natives were enslaved and often forced into baptism at gun point. The text also stated that the priests were complicit with these activities along with many of the other activities that were done during the colonial area. I believe that the text is trying to soften and sugar coat how the church and its priests actually treated the natives. This is so that the church can protect its image as a caring and loving organization, when in reality not to long ago it was responsible for the enslaving of millions and the deaths of thousands more.