An opinion article written by Jay Parini for CNN on August 5, 2014.
Pope Francis has recently released during an interview his 10 tips for happiness and well-being. This was highly controversial because extreme Catholics believe in the 10 commandments and think the Pope is being too lenient in his policies. Jay Parini assesses each tip in a positive manner, praising the Pope for his wise words. Parini claims that the Pope’s words are wise using evidence and intertextuality. The first tip is to live and let live, and Parini quotes the bible to justify his claim, “Judge not, unless you want to be judged yourself." (Matthew 7:1) Parini often quotes the bible in order to reinforce his praise to the Pope’s words.
Parini’s claim is that the answer to good Christian faith is the 10 tips given by Pope Francis. However, he doesn’t take into account the 10 commandments and other teachings of the Bible. Good Christian faith is much more complex than following these 10 tips. For example, there is no direct tip on how to live life as a family in harmony. These tips, although valid in various circumstances, are not the answer to perfect Christian faith. Parini takes it too far by scrutinizing the pope’s tips. They are just tips for happiness.
The validity of Parini’s claim is questionable. Parini is a Christian, as he states himself by saying, “I'm a Christian myself,” and his opinion on Pope Francis’s words could be highly biased. If he were to be an extreme Christian, he would have been opposed to Pope Francis’s tips, but since he is a moderate Christian, he agrees with what the Pope says. Parini states that he is fond of Pope Francis in the first line by saying, “Just when I thought my amazement with Pope Francis had run its course, he did it again.” His adulation towards the Pope have to be taken into account when analyzing his article.
The most controversial of Pope Francis’s tip is of not practicing proselytism, or in other words, to not try to convince other people to convert to your religion. This is the opposite of what Jesus did, which was to spread the word of God. Parini makes the claim that we should teach by example and not by word, and that’s what Jesus would do as well. The claim however is falsifiable. He doesn’t have the answer to what good Catholicism is, and his interpretation of the Pope’s words could be different from what the Pope meant himself. Of course one can take Parini’s words into account and practice the teachings, but we have to analyze how that will affect our life, our family’s life, and the world around us.
You chose an interesting article to dissect. One that involves religion. Although you do makes some points on how much validity Parini's claims have, your logic and coherence to the article itself is extremely faulty at times. For example, in the beginning of your second paragraph you claim that Parini said the answer to good Christian faith are the 10 tips given by the pope, but later in your paragraph you say there is much more to living a good Christian life and that Parini himself scrutinised the Pope too much for his tips. Although what you said might not be wrong, it contradicts itself and therefore makes your whole second paragraph just completely illogical and irrelevant to your whole analysis. On then that, your assessment of the validity of the claim was good.
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