Redefining conservative Christianity
By: MIKE ALIVERNIA
Staff Writer
Pope Francis brought more than a penchant for Fiats and a lovely accent with him on his first trip to the United States, where he acted as the official intermediary between Catholics and God.
He brings with him an attitude very disconcerting to many Americans who view themselves as conservative Christian Republicans. Even the most faithful of the Roman Catholic variety have chaffed under his recent comments and proclamations, which just do not jive with the political rhetoric of the last few decades in the U.S.
Calling for gay people to be accepted as God’s children, having the common sense to acknowledge human beings are affecting the earth’s atmosphere and referring to capitalism as the dung of Satan are but a few of the confounding quotes this 21st century pope has dropped like a silent bomber unloading nukes over millions of unsuspecting and confused Christian conservatives.
This Pontiff is preaching the good word, as clearly and as unfiltered as Jesus would have spoken it to the Romans.
He sees no value in excluding homosexuals, poor people or even science from the church. This inclusiveness does not fit with the post-Reagan, right wing Republican revolution that has just ousted Jim Boehner from his seat as Speaker of the House.
If Boehner is considered too middle of the political paradigm for the GOP, Pope Francis must sound like Bernie Sanders over there.
The true value of Pope Francis’ loud opinions on inclusion, capitalism and the real meaning of being a follower of Jesus is that millions of people who go to mass on Sunday and blindly vote Republican in November may be due for a little soul searching.
They will ask themselves, “What does it mean to be conservative? What does it mean to be a Christian?”
These are questions that we in this culture assume are well defined — even etched in stone somewhere. Pope Francis is forcing us to reanalyze what it means to be morally conservative. T
The big umbrella Reagan used to revolutionize the Republican Party has evolved into a mostly two-sided signpost.
There are the fiscally conservative — the wealthy and those who incorrectly think they are upper-middle class, and those who are socially conservative – and the religious, mostly Christians. If one self-identifies as both fiscally and socially conservative, there appears to be only one political option for them, in the present two-party farce.
Words like pro-life and conservative are shrouded and muddled terms, however, that have duped many an unsuspecting good-doer.
Pope Francis is an actual conservative, on both accounts — not the politically-jaded, buzz-word sort of conservative that has become the golden calf of the Republican Party.
He is concerned with every human’s plight, and sees the exorbitant amount of money, horded and spoiled by the few, as a slap in the face of conservatism. Capitalism proudly pronounces that hundreds of millions in poverty, fueling the vast wealth of a few, should be construed as conservatism. Pope Francis sees it differently.
So many American voters are sufficed with casting their votes, completely in line with one party or the other, based on a single topic that they care about the most. Abortion is the perfect example. Many Christian Republicans identify their entire political association with this one, hot-button topic.
They may feel more in tune with a particular democratic or independent candidate, but come back to their deal-breaking issue as the motivation for casting the vote.
Pope Francis is calling attention to our country’s propensity for drawing ambiguous lines around the term pro-life.
He shines a light on these conservatives that have the unmitigated gall to call themselves pro-life while supporting human beings going to war to kill other human beings and providing the final judgment to convicted criminals.
The Pope sees the cut-throat political and real-life battles that are centered around abortion alone, as caring far too much about the splinter in my neighbor’s eye, while ignoring the two-by-four in my eye.
Abortion is merely one of the many ways our culture has become pacified with the placating of the devaluing of human life. Why is it acceptable to trumpet and vote so adamantly for one and completely ignore all of the others?
The Pope is taking the plight of the planet, the poor human, and the good of all mankind right to the most powerful entities on the planet.
The real question is this: how will those who currently view themselves as “conservatives” view the Pope and his “ultra-liberal democratic socialist agenda”?
How will they view themselves, when God’s most holy messenger, won’t stop reminding them that the golden rule, has nothing to do with gold, at all?
