I can't count the number of times that I saw confusion or even outright anger at the news that the Pope, during his most recent visit to the United States, met with and encouraged Kim Davis.
To be honest, I'm hardly surprised he did, nor am I surprised his message of "support" for her insistence for religious exemption.
Yes, Pope Francis believes in Climate Change. Yes, Pope Francis cares if people are starving. These concerns, I'm pretty sure, are at the heart of the Christian care for the other -- for the world as a whole, and for the creatures within that world.
Yes, Pope Francis even believes that priests should forgive women of abortions. At least for a single year of "mercy". Normally, one needs to petition the bishop for forgiveness for an abortion.
But let's be honest, all those things hardly make the Pope a good American, or more particularly a good "liberal" American.
When I look at the American political landscape, I see lots and lots of division. That division even names, I believe, the responses I saw about the Pope visiting with Kim Davis. This Pope believes in global warming, he clearly cares about the poor and disenfranchised, he seems to genuinely be committed to humility and relieving the suffering of his flock. And in America, if you believe in the science of climate change, truly care about poverty, and want amnesty for undocumented immigrants, you're a liberal.
This Pope is also someone who has lots and lots of people committed in America to pushing for a broad reading of religious exemption. Many of the non-profit organizations objecting to even signing the form to take advantage of the accommodation from the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage requirement are Catholic organizations. So why is it so surprising that the Pope would support Kim Davis and her attempt to claim a religious exemption to performing same-sex marriages -- or even appearing to validate them in her official capacity?
The problem that Americans have is that we want to believe that American politics are determinative for Christian politics. But they aren't. Americans want to believe that a concern for the disenfranchised and the marginalized to be incompatible with a deeply conservative view of religion's place in the secular world and a commitment to a paramount religious authority. But it isn't. In America, conservatives want broad religious exemptions, tax breaks and policies that clearly benefit the wealthy, and border control. But those ideas aren't necessarily related; they're just an accidental cluster created by various political dynamics that are, globally-speaking, regional.
Hear me say this again, because I've said it so many times here: Being a Christian and being an American are not synonymous. The Pope -- no matter how many Americans want to believe it -- is not a "liberal". Nor is the Pope a "conservative". The Pope isn't a friend to American politics in general, because American politics are American (read: regional) politics. The Pope's celebrity has somehow, in the American liberal imagination, separated him from the politics of his institutions to the extent that while people realize that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes any regulation of religious exemptions, they remain surprised to see the Pope take that same position.
Now, I'm all for American politics. It makes for great jokes (in the tradition of Psalm 2).
And I'm excited for the breath of fresh air that Pope Francis is breathing into how the Gospel is heard in the world.
But it's a problem for my liberal friends to gloss over the differences between being American and being Christian -- particularly when it involves a man (like the Pope) whose commitments are to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not to the party politics of the American landscape.
The Pope simply doesn't need American support, even by American liberals or by American conservatives. Because the Church isn't devoted to American concerns at all. We're worried what Jesus thinks about politics, yes, but more often than not those things about which Jesus is concerned aren't things that Americans are all that worried about.
(I won't even get started, though, on how theologically bad it is that one has to go to a bishop for forgiveness for an abortion but not for going to war. Which only goes to say: Sometimes even Christians get theology wrong.)
To be honest, I'm hardly surprised he did, nor am I surprised his message of "support" for her insistence for religious exemption.
Yes, Pope Francis believes in Climate Change. Yes, Pope Francis cares if people are starving. These concerns, I'm pretty sure, are at the heart of the Christian care for the other -- for the world as a whole, and for the creatures within that world.
Yes, Pope Francis even believes that priests should forgive women of abortions. At least for a single year of "mercy". Normally, one needs to petition the bishop for forgiveness for an abortion.
But let's be honest, all those things hardly make the Pope a good American, or more particularly a good "liberal" American.
When I look at the American political landscape, I see lots and lots of division. That division even names, I believe, the responses I saw about the Pope visiting with Kim Davis. This Pope believes in global warming, he clearly cares about the poor and disenfranchised, he seems to genuinely be committed to humility and relieving the suffering of his flock. And in America, if you believe in the science of climate change, truly care about poverty, and want amnesty for undocumented immigrants, you're a liberal.
This Pope is also someone who has lots and lots of people committed in America to pushing for a broad reading of religious exemption. Many of the non-profit organizations objecting to even signing the form to take advantage of the accommodation from the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage requirement are Catholic organizations. So why is it so surprising that the Pope would support Kim Davis and her attempt to claim a religious exemption to performing same-sex marriages -- or even appearing to validate them in her official capacity?
The problem that Americans have is that we want to believe that American politics are determinative for Christian politics. But they aren't. Americans want to believe that a concern for the disenfranchised and the marginalized to be incompatible with a deeply conservative view of religion's place in the secular world and a commitment to a paramount religious authority. But it isn't. In America, conservatives want broad religious exemptions, tax breaks and policies that clearly benefit the wealthy, and border control. But those ideas aren't necessarily related; they're just an accidental cluster created by various political dynamics that are, globally-speaking, regional.
Hear me say this again, because I've said it so many times here: Being a Christian and being an American are not synonymous. The Pope -- no matter how many Americans want to believe it -- is not a "liberal". Nor is the Pope a "conservative". The Pope isn't a friend to American politics in general, because American politics are American (read: regional) politics. The Pope's celebrity has somehow, in the American liberal imagination, separated him from the politics of his institutions to the extent that while people realize that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes any regulation of religious exemptions, they remain surprised to see the Pope take that same position.
Now, I'm all for American politics. It makes for great jokes (in the tradition of Psalm 2).
And I'm excited for the breath of fresh air that Pope Francis is breathing into how the Gospel is heard in the world.
But it's a problem for my liberal friends to gloss over the differences between being American and being Christian -- particularly when it involves a man (like the Pope) whose commitments are to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not to the party politics of the American landscape.
The Pope simply doesn't need American support, even by American liberals or by American conservatives. Because the Church isn't devoted to American concerns at all. We're worried what Jesus thinks about politics, yes, but more often than not those things about which Jesus is concerned aren't things that Americans are all that worried about.
(I won't even get started, though, on how theologically bad it is that one has to go to a bishop for forgiveness for an abortion but not for going to war. Which only goes to say: Sometimes even Christians get theology wrong.)