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.
