The Republicans' Papal Problem

Pope Francis

I am kind of a Catholic-in-name-only, but not in the way most lapsed Catholics usually refer to themselves.  While many Catholics, particularly Millennial Catholics, end up being parishioners when they need to be (right before key weddings and baptisms) and otherwise take Sunday as being a literal day of rest (and somehow Saturday becomes a day to get your pre-rest), I am actually a Catholic who goes to church, but was raised Lutheran.  Something about the religion has always spoken to me, which usually elicits raised eyebrows from my friends, as they just see me as a gay liberal who is randomly doing something to attract attention.  They've moved on from it, though (or at least know enough not to ask for my opinion), but as a result the teachings of the Pope matter to me.  I don't always follow what he says (the gay thing, as well as occasionally some other opinions on women's health are not really my cup of tea), but I do listen, and am very excited when he focuses on issues that aren't just social issues, but moral issues.  So I have been very pumped to see his new ministry surrounding helping the poor and am ecstatic about his push to address climate change.

It should be noted, however, that I'm in the minority here, and truly in the minority if you don't count a bunch of agnostics who are wondering how Christian conservatives are going to handle the Pope countering their beliefs on economics and science.  The media has made a lot of comments about how Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and others in the Republican Primary will handle this sort of ministry.  For years now, they've been shielded by a series of more conservative papacies, ones that focused more on gays and abortion than on the impoverished and genuine ways to help them (hint: this is more about expanding healthcare and unemployment benefits and less about eliminating the estate tax).  Now we're hearing people like Jeb Bush talking about how he doesn't get his economic or scientific advice from the Pope, and I'm just going to call it: bull crap (it was originally another word, but then I realized I'm writing an article about the Holy Father and I thought the better of it).

The reality is that the Republican Party, including Jeb Bush, have been trumpeting God with aplomb for decades now to prove their direction.  We frequently hear on FOX News about Christians being persecuted and the war on Christmas.  We constantly hear about gay marriage being an abomination to God by everyone from Kirk Cameron to Mike Huckabee to the Duggar Family.  The reality is that the church's teachings on this, especially the Catholic Church's teachings, have been a way to prove this point.  Your abortion or gay marriage may soon be legal by the Supreme Court, but we answer to a higher Court, God's Court.  We have the lord on our side.

But like proponents of gay marriage have been saying for years, you can't just pick-and-choose your arguments from the Bible without being a gigantic hypocrite, and this is also true of the Pope.  You can't use the Pope when its expedient to your argument and not when it isn't (for those who think I might be doing that, note that I've never pointed out that it's the right thing to take care of people or the environment because the Lord said it is, but because it's the moral thing to do in general).  The reality is that helping the poor and preventing climate change is very much in line with the teachings of the church, and it is the Church's right to push for action to these issues (if not its moral obligation).  The Republicans may quibble and pass over these teachings and movements, but know that they are doing the exact same thing that pro-choice Catholics like Joe Biden and Mary Landrieu have been lambasted for for years-they're defying the Church and not going with the tenets of the Holy Father.  Does that stop them from being Catholics?  Of course not, but then they should have cut Biden and Landrieu some slack.  And they need to stop using religion only when it's self-serving, because then you have pushed yourself into the line of being a hypocrite.  Which, if you're a good Catholic and have read your Dante, doesn't turn out so well.