This “Looking Back” post is about Pope Francis and how American Catholics saw him, but maybe more importantly how they might differ from the MAGA/Evangelicals who have moved to the extreme right in American culture.
Here are the words from the post five years ago with my highlights that I will talk about here:
When I wrote these words, Pope Francis had been pope for less than two years and was just getting his footing in the papacy. Five years later, it seems obvious that at least some US Catholics see him an un-Pope in the same way as I see the #CO3 (Current Oval Office Occupant) as the un-president.
Pope Francis has certainly shaken up the Catholic Church in many ways. To my mind he has bravely attempted to take it into the 21st century. Others see him as destroying the traditions of the church, and to them, traditions are probably more important than even the wordsf of Jesus. I just wonder how many of the conservative American Catholics side with him or the GOP?
To try to discover where US Catholics stand in the current US political field I found a rather enlightening article. Click here to see that source. According to the header at the top of this post it is split where about 40% will vote for him and 50% will not. (The grey bars are Catholics while the red bars are all voters including Evangelicals.) That is significantly better than the 85% of Evangelicals who totally align with his radical right stands. Since the majority of world Catholics are people of color, I wonder how the US split is among white Catholics and Catholics of color?
Personally, as an ex-Catholic (but maybe now I am really an in-my -heart Catholic) I see Pope Francis as fighting to take the church back to its roots in the words of Jesus. After having experienced the Protestant version of religion and their radical right political swing, if I do ever return to religion it will likely be the Roman Catholic version. At least Pope Francis’s version of it.
I am very serious about trying to wrestle control of our political processes from the two dominant parties. I am convinced that they are just too entwined in battling each other to be focusing on what is good for those who they represent. Adding another political party is critical to changing things. BUT, maybe not this time around.
As the new header says the GOP just loves to cut taxes but that is the easy part. They just don’t seem to be up to the more difficult part of cutting spending, or at least cutting it where a majority in Congress will agree. They most often propose to cut entitlements as they call them. Those are things that help the average citizen along in life. Things like Social Security, food for the poor, healthcare for those who can’t afford it are near the top of the chopping block list for them.
I am starting yet another series this week about the giant enigma of our times. Just so we are clear on what I mean, I will give you a definition. For you who are observant, I’m sure you have already figured it out from the new header above. The Republican party was one of Will Rogers favorite subjects. He just couldn’t figure them out a hundred years ago, and not much has changed in that respect with them since then. In this series, I will take Will’s words about the GOP and see how they fit with today’s party.
The GOP has almost always been about the most affluent among us. There are probably hundreds of reasons for that, but I kinda think that funding politician’s careers is near the top of the heap. Why grovel for ten thousand $10 contributions when you can get the same amount from just one person. All you got to do is to promise that you will look out primarily for that guy and he will open his overstuffed wallet.