If G-d's on Our Side. . .

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If G-d’s on Our Side. . .

            In “Pope Francis Enters 2016 Election With DIRECT Verbal Attack On Donald Trump (DETAILS),” by Carissa House-Dunphy, on November 6, 2016, Ms. House-Dunphy reported that Pope Frances spoke out against the Trump campaign. He said: 

No tyranny can be sustained without exploiting our fears. This is clear. All tyranny is terrorist. And when that terror ignited in the peripheries with massacres, looting, oppression, and injustice explodes in the centers in the form of violence, including with hateful and cowardly intent, the citizens who still have some rights are tempted by the false security of walls, physical or social—walls that close some in and banish others. Is that the life our father God wants for us?

            To read this article, visit: http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/11/06/pope-francis-enters-2016-election-with-direct-verbal-attack-on-donald-trump-details/

            This Pope is old enough to remember World War II and Hitler’s tyranny.

             His comments also echo and explain why a Sister, who is part of the Nuns on the Bus’ get-out-the-vote campaign, felt free enough to say that, while the Church is antiabortion, there is a lot more to the choices that Catholic American voters face. During a CNN interview over this past weekend, she said that supporting life meant not only being against abortion but also creating the kind of society in which an unwed pregnant woman would not feel compelled to have an abortion. Moreover, she added that, during President Obama’s time in office, the rate of abortions had gone down.

             All of this is part of the Pope’s shift away from concentrating solely on divisive issues and seeking to shed light on the context in which these issues emerge. If we truly want to end abortion for good, going back to coat-hanger deaths is not the way. A strong social safety net is. When any pregnant woman can feel that her unborn child will not be born into a world that rejects her need for help for her and for that child, that is when she will have a true choice. When we end the shame surrounding unwed pregnancy and offer mercy instead, again, that will give her a true choice.

             O.K. This is all good. Yet, there are still problems. Our Pope still calls G-d a Father. And our Pope still maintains that there will never be female priests. This is because, back in Jesus’ time, the disciples were males. Excuse me, but what about cultural context? Back in that time, it was an extremely misogynist society that was totally based on patriarchy. Haven’t we progressed at all since then? How do we know that G-d has a gender? Last time G-d showed up it was through a fire in a burning bush.

             In the Pope’s worldview, it seems we can elect a female president to lead the free world, but no woman is suited to represent G-d in the highest Catholic Church offices. We can be ruled by a woman, but we cannot be given G-d’s Word from a woman. This is a contradiction.

             Here’s another thing. Abortions are not permitted in the Pope’s worldview. Neither is contraception, which would prevent a heck of a lot of abortions. Again, we have a contradiction.

             Push–pull, push–pull. The Pope got me to admit that I am at least some kind of a Catholic. Maybe a cafeteria sort. I prefer to call myself a dissident Catholic. That means I believe in the miracles of Jesus Christ and many Catholic values, especially those that are antiwar and antipoverty. It also means that, when it comes to women, or homosexuals, I don’t subscribe at all to the Catholic doctrine. I’m into contraception, choice, and gay marriage. I’m into living together. None of these views prevent me from praying to G-d, especially through St. Jude (Patron of Impossible Causes). None of these views stop me from seeing Jesus Christ as a Jew who was sent by G-d to deliver a new Covenant. And none of these views stop me from appreciating the Pope’s ecumenical message that does not harp on only one way to salvation. None of these views prevent me from recognizing, in the words of Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, that “there are many roads to G-d, and they are all valid.”

            So what do G-d and the Pope have to do with the choice Americans face tomorrow? Our Pope pushes the envelope and then retreats. He is stuck between an essentially kind and merciful heart and his strict Jesuit training. This has characterized the Pope’s reign since he started. And with Hillary Clinton, it’s kind of the same thing in the political arena. She is caught between what is desired and what can be done. Yet even that conflict is better than Holocaust II, which is what Trump would usher in.

            To bastardize a Bob Dylan song, “if G-d’s on our side, She’ll choose Hillary Clinton and give the Senate to the Democrats.” Why? Because, I believe that G-d wants us to progress—not to go backward.

Black-and-Blue Nation

Black-and-Blue Nation

HELTER SKELTER burning up hot July /Manson sits in his cell laughing cause he knows why/He gets his 3 squares and shelter/doesn't have to lead Helter Skelter/People are doing it for him/Killing each other on a whim/The man was crazy like a fox/He had visions of this pox/Look into his crazy eyes/All the hate there was no disguise/The Hounds of Hell come a-pelter/Straight Satans ready for Helter Skelter/All the girls shake their bootys/Charlie scratches his cooties/Got a swastika on his head/Showing everybody has to be dead/Black-and-blue nation/Killing all  creation/Abomination/Assassination/Helter Skelter in the smelter/Apocalyptical/Typical. . . .

The Socialist Pope: What’s Not to Like?

The Socialist Pope: What’s Not to Like?

My Parents

      I was what they call a “red diaper baby.” That’s the kind of child who was brought up in a home with socialist or communist ideas. My parents looked like ordinary working class folk. They didn’t go to jam sessions or take drugs. My father didn’t sport a beard—not even a mustache. They didn’t go to political meetings or attend demonstrations.

      But their ideas and tastes in music were much more to the left than I realized. How many children’s parents sang songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger while riding in their cars? Later on, the songs would also include Peter, Paul, and Mary and Bob Dylan. And they also listened to what we would call today World Music.

      Our home was full of books. Books galore. And I was allowed to read anything I happened to pick up. Those books included Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and The Communist Manifesto, both of which I read as a preteen. I also read Pregnancy and Birth at age 11 when my mom was pregnant with my youngest sister. Many years later when I asked my mother why these particular books were around, she said “oh a neighbor left them in the hall, so we picked them up.” Ha, some excuse! Why pick them up? “Ma, you were a communist,” I teased her.

      Well, not really a communist. More like an American socialist, much like Bernie Sanders, what one would call a Democratic Socialist. My mom and dad were both union. When transit workers threatened to strike the Long Island Railroad, higher-ups where I worked complained. Hey, it was going to really inconvenience me, but I piped up: “My mommy was union. My daddy was union. And if those people need to go on strike, it’s going to really mess up my commute, but I support them just the same.” And my husband is union too. I would be except my field is not unionized. They all looked at me like I had two heads.

      My father was a regular Archie Bunker type—he even looked like him. He’d say things and my mother would get furious at him for that. But when push came to shove, he would help anybody in distress no matter what that person’s race was. I was taught to despise racism and that started when I was very young. I remember visiting a friend and saying to my mother that my friend was nice but “she is so dirty.” My mom explained that my friend wasn’t dirty at all. She was just Hispanic. I saw the first black person in our area while I was on a bus. I asked my mother, “why is that lady so black?” My mother was horrified but the lady rose magnificently to the occasion by saying “I was born that way.” Our neighborhood was becoming more and more diverse and my parents didn’t care. I went to school with and played with all sorts of people, and they were always welcome in my home—race, religion, and economic class did not matter.

Jesus

      In Catechism, we were taught about how Jesus Christ fed the poor and healed the sick. He did not ask for means testing. He would just as soon run to heal a Roman soldier’s child as he would any fellow Jews—any day of the week. Nobody in the crowds were asked for proof that they were poor. They got their loaves and fishes no matter what. Jesus was always telling people to ditch their riches and give to needy people. Jesus was one heck of a socialist, if you ask me.

      Jesus accepted people who were different, such as the Good Samaritan. He ate with sinners and allowed a tax collector to be a disciple. He also accepted a prostitute to be one of his followers and appeared first to her after he died. When Saul became converted, he had a vision of allowing Gentiles to be part of Christianity. That was all part of the plan.

      Jesus believed in redemption. One could atone for past sins. No person’s fate was set in stone. There was no predestination in his worldview. When he said to be “born again,” he did not mean to become part of an elite group of people who looked down on everybody else. He believed in spreading the Word, but not in torturing or discriminating against people who did not listen.

      And let us remember one very salient fact: Jesus was born as a Jew. He lived as a Jew. And he died as a Jew. So, there was absolutely NO room for any kind of antisemitism in what he preached. He never preached hate against any group of people. He only preached about what he thought was best to do. He talked about behaviors and did not marginalize people. My parents pretty much believed this way.

Differences

      Yet, there were differences too. My parents were not churchgoers. They used birth control. They did not spurn unwed mothers. They did not disapprove of my going to my best friend’s apartment, where a drag queen watched the younger children. My parents were years ahead of their time in accepting that people had different lifestyles.

      With a background like that, I wasn’t exactly going to turn into a conservative Republican.

      What about Protestant? There are all sorts of Protestants. Some are very liberal and others are very backward. I could see myself with the liberal Protestants, but never with those crazy evangelicals who claim that there is no salvation except in their own particular sects. There are evangelicals with great hearts who mean no harm, but the other kind are really poisonous. In fact, they are the exact opposite of all the things that Jesus preached with their homophobia, racism, and lack of compassion for poor and disabled people.

      Pope Francis fired the ambassador who set up a meeting that included the homophobic Kim Davis. That meeting made a horrid, hateful blot on the Pope’s glowing visit.

Pope Replaces Ambassador to U.S. Who Set Up Kim Davis Meeting

By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor

Visit: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/12/europe/pope-vigano-resign/index.html

      I can’t say whether or not Jesus would approve of gay marriages but I can say that he would never had denied a gay person therapy for any problem. I can say that Jesus would never have tried to keep people out of the country simply because they had different backgrounds and beliefs. I can say that he never, ever, ever would have denied poor people help. He would never, ever, ever have blamed them for their economic problems.

      I can’t say whether or not Jesus would approve of contraception, but I can say I think he would have preferred it to abortions. And I believe he would have been very compassionate toward women who felt that they needed abortions. He would not have made up laws about these things. He also would have favored the kind of safety net that would provide a much better alternative to abortions.

      Yes, indeed there are differences between what I believe in and what is current Catholic doctrine. Yet, the socialist strain that runs through true Catholicism and the antiwar stance of the Church has its appeal. When the Pope meets with Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist, and then goes to Greece and picks up a little refugee girl crying at his feet and lifts her up to stand and pats her head, and then takes 14 refugees on his plane back to the Vatican, what’s not to like?

      Jesus was the original socialist and Pope Francis is following the Way of Jesus.

Pope Pushing Papal Envelope

Pope Pushing Papal Envelope

Pope Francis continues to push that papal envelope as hard as he can. It’s a tough sell to both conservatives and liberals, because he is walking a tightrope between both factions. As a Jesuit, duty-bound to remain within canonical law, he still does what is possible without changing the law.

       On April 11, 2016, Kaitlin Menza reported “5 Things the Pope Said Today That Have Shocked the World” for Yahoo News.

       Visit: https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.lang=en-US&.done=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2F5-things-pope-said-today-140155414.html%23comments

       The Pope discussed, among other things, in his Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), which was released today, (1) divorced and remarried Catholics, (2) equality between the sexes, (3) unmarried couples, (4) the role of sex in life, (5) the definition of “marriage,” and (6) same-sex romantic relationships. Only one of these six was not shocking.

       Visit: https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf

       So what was so shocking? I can tell you that #1 was for me. I remember when one of my sisters sought a divorce and had to go through a very rigorous annulment process because her husband demanded it. (Yet, he ended up marrying a Jewish woman later on. . . .so much for his devoutness). So, now we have the Pope saying that divorced and remarried Catholics are part of the Church and should not be excluded from Communion. Hallelujah! I wish Pope Francis had been making the rules when my sister got her annulment. Conservatives will want the old rules, and liberals will smile.

       # 2 had me scratching my head. What exactly is meant by his call for “more equality” between the sexes? Is he prepared to have women priests? A female Pope? Or is he only talking about the lay world, while keeping the ecclesiastical world the same as it has been for centuries? Conservatives will hate it, and liberals will ask how far Pope Francis is willing to go on this issue.

       Unmarried couples “not living in sin” (#3) almost knocked me off my chair! Why? When I was getting married, one friend whom I wanted to include in my bridal party refused to be in it, because she said I was living in sin with my fiancée. However, when I told this to my husband’s Aunt Paula, a Catholic nun, her response was pretty much like the Pope’s: “I’m sure you are doing it for good reasons.” So much for my ex-friend’s idea of sin. Conservatives will hate this one.

       I like #4 a lot. Pope Francis says that sex is meant to be enjoyed, because it was created by G-d. Nice going, dear Pope. I only wish you had been the first Pope and spread this message around, because there has been an awful lot of misery around the issue of sex and sexuality. I’ve always found the Catholic view of sex-for-procreation-only positively medieval. This one, I’m sure will be a big shock for a heck of a lot of Catholics. A good shock in my humble opinion. It almost makes me laugh.

       The definition of marriage (#5) will make the conservatives happy, and the liberals will be displeased. It’s still that old man-and-woman thing. I disagree. I was ecstatic when same-sex marriage became legal in the State of New York. On TV, I watched our Mayor marry two Jewish men and I was moved to tears. I rejoiced when Ireland, that oh-so-Catholic country, legalized same-sex marriage for the Free State. I wasn’t shocked because, when my husband and I were in Limerick, those rainbow flags were flying, and we witnessed an openly gay march that included drag queens and teachers and socialists. Ireland did it the right way—by popular vote. Seems that the Irish feel secure in their separation of church and state, while the United States is paranoid to the hilt on that subject. Yet, the United States followed suit in a different way. The Supreme Court made it legal throughout the land. That surprised me because that Court is made up of a bunch of old folks and is tipped toward the conservatives. I guess the swing vote worked here. Why was I so concerned? Because, although I am a happily married heterosexual (30+ years), I have people whom I love who are gay. I want them to be able to have what I have. Conservatives will like #5. It’s not shocking to anybody because the liberals know darn well where the Jesuits stand on this issue.

       And that leads me right over to #6. This one is a shocker all right. It’s a half-a-loaf, push-the-envelope kind of thing. Pope Francis recommends more tolerance for gay romantic relationships. O.K., so living together is not a sin, so gay people can do that. And sex is for enjoyment, so gay people can do that too. But they can’t marry in the Church. This one will have everybody wondering: if Pope Francis had his druthers, would gay marriage actually be OK? Here he is attempting to keep the Jesuit line on marriage while opening up the discussion regarding homosexuality. It’s like he is saying, “it’s technically wrong, but it doesn’t hurt anybody, so let them be.” It’s a sort-of progress. Conservatives will scream: “NO WAY!” as they are around the Southern United States with a spate of antigay laws. Liberals will say: “That’s all fine and dandy, but you are still shutting gays out when it comes to marrying.” Half-a-loaf hardly ever pleases anybody.

       Keep pushing that envelope Pope Francis! Maybe someday there will be a revolution in the world, and we will make even more progress. I, for one, would hate the clock to be turned backward.