The Chris Hedges Report Show with Roy Bourgeois, the priest who took his vows to stand with the crucified so seriously the Catholic Church expelled him.
The Chris Hedges Report Show with Roy Bourgeois, the priest who took his vows to stand with the crucified so seriously the Catholic Church expelled him.
Watch now (48 min) | All institutions are demonic, including the church. To stand with the oppressed often means to stand against the institutions that claim to speak for the oppressed. That is the cost of discipleship.
Roy Bourgeois exemplifies Christianity in action. Not the stupid American Christianity which is the property gospel but REAL Christianity that cares about the downtrodden in the world. If only a few American Christians could follow Roy's example...would we have a better country? Thank you Chris Hedges for reporting this. Merry Christmas!
Even having not watched or read this, I don't think you need to be a christian to understand who are the majority and why they should be advocated for and protected. This neocon world we are all experiencing has nothing to do with our world, our soils, that give us all life, our oceans that give us 70% of our atmospheric oxygen. We have unseen entities that support all life in our soils and oceans but we cannot see them except under microscopes. They are the true gods; the no see ums of this earth that support all life from bottom up or from no see um up. These are the true gods and protectors, so unseen yet so trying to keep our planet in balance and we keep on killing them. Look at the new ocean science and find new gems in the world. If there is anything I can say positive about christianity, is it asked us to believe in something we cannot see. I think they did not know how close to truth they were.
Easy — just expose this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of duopoly faux-democracy.
BTW, "The Danger Within" is just "The Quiet American Empire" [apologies to Graham Greene regarding what that insane Empire did to Vietnam between September of 1945 and 1975].
Just apologize by changing the focus on this error of 'Empire-Thinking' with a simple message:
LOVE
OVER
VIOLENT
EMPIRE
and on the other side of my double-sided signs for ad-hoc focus-group 95% favorable testing in Portland ME. and Portsmouth NH. weekly — simply say:
This interview gave me faith not in organized religion (I'm agnostic) but in the goodness of mankind. What I saw here was a man that used his spirituality to grow with the learning acquired during his experiences in Vietnam, the slums of Bolivia and El Salvador and courageously fought his new understandings against the government and the church. Instinctively I recoil in panic when I hear or see any preacher or leader of organized religion because I know what they mean, but learning about the life of Mr. Bourgeois , in the future, I will be more patient and before fleeing I'll wait to evaluate the supposed messenger of heavens. I don't know if Mr. Bourgeois got any medals of courage but I believe his defrocking as a priest should be considered his best condecoration.
Thank you Mr. Hedges for sharing this interview with us.
I am a Jew. My Jesus was a man not a God. Thomas Jefferson wrote his biography. Jefferson was scientist not a theologian. His biography is that of Jesus the Jew not Romulus and Remus
On my holiest day of the year whether I join congregations or stay home with my wife, we read The Book of Jonah after a day of reflection and self denial.
The Book of Jonah tells us even God doesn't know the future.
I don't understand American self styled Christianity. It is not God who decides the future it is the King of Nineveh. It is never too late to try and change the future.
I'm having the familiar problem of video starts and stops, again.
Father Bourgeois is not much of a talker (unlike some Marynoll Nuns I heard in speak Mobile, Al in the 1970s) he is a doer.
The Christian way as described by Simone Weil is the divine decsends to the crucifixion and humanity ascends to to it: that is the meeting.
Simone after graduating from the French Ecole normal superirieure in philosophy, took jobs in working class factories, and living on the wages she earned to the distress of her Jewish family. Wrote Gravity and Grace, and always tried to raise the level of awareness trough lectures and classes.
I read Haaretz every day. Solomon's Throne was a real throne like from Home Hardware. I heard the experts on the Dead Scrolls they sell myth not science. Pornography sells truth not so much. Propaganda is not science. The digging only confirms the literature just like all great literature. There is sign of miracles because there were no miracles.
The Priests and Kings always want you to believe they are chosen by the gods. Whether they be Maccabees, Greeks, Romans, Russians, Persians , Babylonians, Egyptians or Americans.
Might I suggest reading peer reviewed archaeology not American Snake Oil Salesmen.
America has some real honest to goodness archaeologists.
Thank you, Roy for being you and having done the work you've done with your heart full of love and your wisdom that just kept growing and growing. I already knew a bit about you, because you've been an activist for so many years, but hearing you talk gave me some much needed hope. You are the polar opposite of self serving. You're a real person telling the truth and working hard to help all of us grow wiser, kinder and more loving.
Something about the 70s. RB reminds us of the violence and everything else since then through the eyes of the Catholic Church and women (and Trappist monks)... Brilliant interview!
Brought up Catholic but left the Church in my early teens but majored in philosophy, because I wanted to understand ethics and morality outside of the narrow constraints of religion.
Mostly agnostic now, but on my good days try to believe there is a God despite all of the suffering his believers cause. Thanks Chris and Roy for helping me not to judge religious people based on the actions of others.
Also, trying not to relish the recent death of the former Pope Benedict for all of his silence and acceptance of so much injustice, especially after hearing he was the one who expelled Roy.
It is so good to hear of a mission predicated on compassion, that emphasis of the Christian teaching.
And good to hear of active questioning, yet rooted in faith, in those within the Catholic Church. In my limited knowledge, I know that there is a history of those orders, and they have a varying relationships to recognition of legitimacy from the institutional authority of the Church.
It gives one hope that similar orders might arise from those within the Church, a process of realization and change paralleling those of Mr. Bourgeois in a more widespread way.
(Perhaps arising from Latin America?)
There certainly seems the need, hopefully there will be a realization of this.
Faith, particularly in institututions can be a difficult thing for some, others accept without question. Maybe this is something that we are born with, a greater tendency toward one or the other of these, and it is certainly something inculcated by the environment into which we are born.
I believe that there is a sacred, sometimes touched upon by experience. And from this we form institutions. Unfortunately, the institutions that we build, in all traditions, are fraught with the design flaws that inform our own nature. It is a matter of continual work, of weighing that truth that we experience against these institutions , and working toward making these institutions reflect that truth.
Mr. Bougeois' story is one that reflects this in a very inspiring way.
Must be interesting to discover that the Catholic Church wants no truck with Christians who take the tenants of their faith seriously...but not surprising surely??? We watched Even the Rain again last night....a movie not as great as the first time we saw it.....but the role of the Catholic Church....as the Spiritual Arm of Imperial Conquest, was apparant. And its been apparant for hundreds of years.
That institution is extremely wealthy. And they didn't get that way by standing with the exploited, the enslaved or for that matter, the poor of the imperial countries. It's a patriarchal institution, where men in skirts disavow human sexuality, have no qualms in legislating it for others.........and too often, get their jollies by further exploiting the most vulnerable.
What we've learned about residential schools in Canada is enough to empty all those places of 'worship'.....that it won't is a testament to the church that never failed to do the bidding of its secular masters.
If we think it will ever stand with the people we're seriously deluded, and quite possibly unread.
Bourgeois->Romero->Merton->Jägerstätter - moral exemplars! Thank-you, Chris! In Australia, Paul GLYNN SM a remarkable reconciliationist priest. He writes much about his brother Tony Glynn - also SM and 40 years post-WWII in Japan.
Roy Bourgeois exemplifies Christianity in action. Not the stupid American Christianity which is the property gospel but REAL Christianity that cares about the downtrodden in the world. If only a few American Christians could follow Roy's example...would we have a better country? Thank you Chris Hedges for reporting this. Merry Christmas!
Even having not watched or read this, I don't think you need to be a christian to understand who are the majority and why they should be advocated for and protected. This neocon world we are all experiencing has nothing to do with our world, our soils, that give us all life, our oceans that give us 70% of our atmospheric oxygen. We have unseen entities that support all life in our soils and oceans but we cannot see them except under microscopes. They are the true gods; the no see ums of this earth that support all life from bottom up or from no see um up. These are the true gods and protectors, so unseen yet so trying to keep our planet in balance and we keep on killing them. Look at the new ocean science and find new gems in the world. If there is anything I can say positive about christianity, is it asked us to believe in something we cannot see. I think they did not know how close to truth they were.
Easy — just expose this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of duopoly faux-democracy.
BTW, "The Danger Within" is just "The Quiet American Empire" [apologies to Graham Greene regarding what that insane Empire did to Vietnam between September of 1945 and 1975].
Just apologize by changing the focus on this error of 'Empire-Thinking' with a simple message:
LOVE
OVER
VIOLENT
EMPIRE
and on the other side of my double-sided signs for ad-hoc focus-group 95% favorable testing in Portland ME. and Portsmouth NH. weekly — simply say:
LOVE
Democratic
Socialism
America
Peace, justice, equality
Perfect ending to your talk with Roy.
Hope hope hope -this word dominated this interview. Good word to contemplate this approaching New Year.
*Peace*
listening to this podcast was for me the perfect Christmas Eve celebration. thank u both for the gift.
This interview gave me faith not in organized religion (I'm agnostic) but in the goodness of mankind. What I saw here was a man that used his spirituality to grow with the learning acquired during his experiences in Vietnam, the slums of Bolivia and El Salvador and courageously fought his new understandings against the government and the church. Instinctively I recoil in panic when I hear or see any preacher or leader of organized religion because I know what they mean, but learning about the life of Mr. Bourgeois , in the future, I will be more patient and before fleeing I'll wait to evaluate the supposed messenger of heavens. I don't know if Mr. Bourgeois got any medals of courage but I believe his defrocking as a priest should be considered his best condecoration.
Thank you Mr. Hedges for sharing this interview with us.
Thank you Chris and Roy!
I am a Jew. My Jesus was a man not a God. Thomas Jefferson wrote his biography. Jefferson was scientist not a theologian. His biography is that of Jesus the Jew not Romulus and Remus
On my holiest day of the year whether I join congregations or stay home with my wife, we read The Book of Jonah after a day of reflection and self denial.
The Book of Jonah tells us even God doesn't know the future.
I don't understand American self styled Christianity. It is not God who decides the future it is the King of Nineveh. It is never too late to try and change the future.
America is Nineveh and its people are King.
Armageddon is simply non biblical and non human.
The future is not written in stone.
I know why Jesus wept. I weep with my brother.
I'm having the familiar problem of video starts and stops, again.
Father Bourgeois is not much of a talker (unlike some Marynoll Nuns I heard in speak Mobile, Al in the 1970s) he is a doer.
The Christian way as described by Simone Weil is the divine decsends to the crucifixion and humanity ascends to to it: that is the meeting.
Simone after graduating from the French Ecole normal superirieure in philosophy, took jobs in working class factories, and living on the wages she earned to the distress of her Jewish family. Wrote Gravity and Grace, and always tried to raise the level of awareness trough lectures and classes.
She was also a "doer".
I read Haaretz every day. Solomon's Throne was a real throne like from Home Hardware. I heard the experts on the Dead Scrolls they sell myth not science. Pornography sells truth not so much. Propaganda is not science. The digging only confirms the literature just like all great literature. There is sign of miracles because there were no miracles.
The Priests and Kings always want you to believe they are chosen by the gods. Whether they be Maccabees, Greeks, Romans, Russians, Persians , Babylonians, Egyptians or Americans.
Might I suggest reading peer reviewed archaeology not American Snake Oil Salesmen.
America has some real honest to goodness archaeologists.
https://www.omicsonline.org/archaeology/archaeology-peer-reviewed-journals.php
No miracles, no magic, no Jews ever in The Pharoah's Egypt just Empirical evidence of the city states, towns and villages of Arabia.
Why do you avoid the evidence and keep lying to yourself . Is that what you call faith?
It is only the avoidance of truth.
Faith is understanding the literature and knowing right from wrong and doing what your heart tells you is correct.
Thank you, Roy for being you and having done the work you've done with your heart full of love and your wisdom that just kept growing and growing. I already knew a bit about you, because you've been an activist for so many years, but hearing you talk gave me some much needed hope. You are the polar opposite of self serving. You're a real person telling the truth and working hard to help all of us grow wiser, kinder and more loving.
Something about the 70s. RB reminds us of the violence and everything else since then through the eyes of the Catholic Church and women (and Trappist monks)... Brilliant interview!
Brought up Catholic but left the Church in my early teens but majored in philosophy, because I wanted to understand ethics and morality outside of the narrow constraints of religion.
Mostly agnostic now, but on my good days try to believe there is a God despite all of the suffering his believers cause. Thanks Chris and Roy for helping me not to judge religious people based on the actions of others.
Also, trying not to relish the recent death of the former Pope Benedict for all of his silence and acceptance of so much injustice, especially after hearing he was the one who expelled Roy.
A wonderful story, that told by Mr. Bourgeois.
It is so good to hear of a mission predicated on compassion, that emphasis of the Christian teaching.
And good to hear of active questioning, yet rooted in faith, in those within the Catholic Church. In my limited knowledge, I know that there is a history of those orders, and they have a varying relationships to recognition of legitimacy from the institutional authority of the Church.
It gives one hope that similar orders might arise from those within the Church, a process of realization and change paralleling those of Mr. Bourgeois in a more widespread way.
(Perhaps arising from Latin America?)
There certainly seems the need, hopefully there will be a realization of this.
Faith, particularly in institututions can be a difficult thing for some, others accept without question. Maybe this is something that we are born with, a greater tendency toward one or the other of these, and it is certainly something inculcated by the environment into which we are born.
I believe that there is a sacred, sometimes touched upon by experience. And from this we form institutions. Unfortunately, the institutions that we build, in all traditions, are fraught with the design flaws that inform our own nature. It is a matter of continual work, of weighing that truth that we experience against these institutions , and working toward making these institutions reflect that truth.
Mr. Bougeois' story is one that reflects this in a very inspiring way.
Thank you for this interview.
Must be interesting to discover that the Catholic Church wants no truck with Christians who take the tenants of their faith seriously...but not surprising surely??? We watched Even the Rain again last night....a movie not as great as the first time we saw it.....but the role of the Catholic Church....as the Spiritual Arm of Imperial Conquest, was apparant. And its been apparant for hundreds of years.
That institution is extremely wealthy. And they didn't get that way by standing with the exploited, the enslaved or for that matter, the poor of the imperial countries. It's a patriarchal institution, where men in skirts disavow human sexuality, have no qualms in legislating it for others.........and too often, get their jollies by further exploiting the most vulnerable.
What we've learned about residential schools in Canada is enough to empty all those places of 'worship'.....that it won't is a testament to the church that never failed to do the bidding of its secular masters.
If we think it will ever stand with the people we're seriously deluded, and quite possibly unread.
Bourgeois->Romero->Merton->Jägerstätter - moral exemplars! Thank-you, Chris! In Australia, Paul GLYNN SM a remarkable reconciliationist priest. He writes much about his brother Tony Glynn - also SM and 40 years post-WWII in Japan.