MAGA world fumes: "WOKE MARXIST POPE."
MAGA Christians fear the pope believes in and advocates unrealistic redistributionist "love your neighbor" ideas.
Such teaching is found intermittently in the New Testament, described there as the sum of all Christian doctrine.
There are indications that the new pope is concerned about "social justice," a left-coded idea regularly condemned by President Trump.
Worse, Christian instruction specifically includes feeding the hungry, curing the sick, helping the penniless, welcoming the immigrant, and other acts of compassion to friends, strangers, and known enemies. This instruction exists in holy texts. There is worrisome indication that the new pope intends to follow that instruction. Self-sacrificing behavior contradicts rational self-interest in a capitalist economy. Humans are a status-conscious social species, and advancing others at personal expense is contrary to human nature, personal survival, and reproductive success. It is a unpromising and rarely-attempted strategy. Trump's first actions as president included cutting U.S. food and medical aid to strangers.
MAGA opposition researchers learned that the new pope took the name Leo, making him the 14th Leo, in honor of Pope Leo XIII who was known to be an advocate for social justice -- a worrisome sign. The new pope had at one point tweeted, "May all hatred, violence and prejudice be eradicated." Influential Trump advisor Laura Loomer condemned this, identifying it as "marxist."
In Pope Leo XIV's first homily, he confronted the improbability and apparent unpopularity and impracticality of a Christian duty of care toward others. Yet he persisted in advocating for it:
"Today, there are many contexts in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, contexts in which other certainties are preferred, such as technology, money, success, power, pleasure, These are environments where it is not easy to witness and preach the Gospel, and where believers are ridiculed, persecuted, despised or, at best, tolerated and pitied."
Pope Leo is correct. Trump and his MAGA base identify those such people as "losers," "woke," and "social justice warriors," which is expressed as a sneer.
Pope Leo homily referenced the non-Christian behavior of people purporting to be followers of Christ:
Jesus, although valued as a person, is reduced to something like a charismatic leader or superman. And this is not only among non-believers, but also among many baptized people who ultimately live at this level, in a kind of practical atheism.The new pope's remarks over the decades include some troubling implications for Trump's coalition of populist conservatives and multi-billionaire tech moguls. The pope had warned that technology may weaken direct human relationships. He has said that "dominion" over the Earth requires balance, which may signal support for a green agenda. But the primary concern among the MAGA critics is his apparent effort to link the teaching of Jesus Christ, and the obligations of the Christian faithful, to poor, displaced, marginalized people. Trump, especially in this second term, represents an oscillation away from concern for those people and back toward validating the interests of traditional economic and cultural power.
MAGA political pundit Jack Posobiec opined that perhaps the new pope will understand that the Catholic Church owes Trump a big debt, and the pope will fall in line behind Trump:
We need to see from the jump, from the absolute jump, whether or not Pope Leo is interested in working with President Trump or — as we can see from his Twitter feed — working against him. As a representative of Catholics all around the world, perhaps he'll understand that it was Catholics who delivered the White House for President Trump. And perhaps, just perhaps, the new pope will listen.
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5 comments:
Former VP Kamala Harris received 75 million votes. If the election were held today, post first 100 days, what would be the result?
Democrats need to get it together and take control of the House of Representatives in 2026. That will be a good start.
Numerous people have been labeled the Antichrist over the years and I would add Trump to that long list. His pope image photo was a political mistake and his attempt to present himself as Godlike a reflection of how he wants to be. Happy the pope is a liberal who endorses Christian values, which is how it should be.
It’s no surprise that MAGA took it personally when the new pope spoke out against hatred, violence and prejudice. That’s their modus operandi. Trump and his followers call anyone and anything they don’t like “woke.” It means to be “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” To them, that’s a pejorative.
Jesus promoted tolerance and helping the less fortunate, and apparently so does the new pope. There have always been people who find that offensive, but now they’re running the country. If Leo XIV can make Catholics more receptive to Jesus’ message of love and service than to Trump’s fear, anger and hatred, then more power to him.
As to Marxism, or at least its cousins, we haven't yet heard the new pontiff's views on liberation theology, have we?
Nor yet as a Christian his views on abortion, trans issues, or ordination for women. Like his predecessor's?
Candidates from underrepresented classes, say African Catholics, might have been impermissibly conservative.
The new pope named himself after Leo XIII, who supported the right of workers to form unions and asserted that market forces must be tempered by moral considerations. So, of course the far right would consider him a commie.
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