Catholics, and other Christians,
Of a hyper-conservative variety.
are not too fond of Pope Francis because of numerous things. He doesn’t show good judgment with being so open to media or by allowing his words to be taken, so easily, out of context.
It isn’t good judgment if you think Popes are supposed to be aloof and austere and aristocratic, no.
He offers a pop-culture Catholicism without too much substance
From what you say below, there clearly is a lot of substance–which you don’t like. I agree that his statements are not as intellectually profound as those of his predecessor. But then Benedict was frequently misunderstood precisely because he was so complex and profound that people missed the point half the time. Nobody is perfect.
He spends so much time talking about climate change, an issue that doesn’t really concern Faith or morals (the world doesn’t care about climate change in relation to these)
Actually yes, the world does. You and other right-wing folks do not. Actually you do care about it–you badly want people not to think about it, and you want to define the Faith so as to exclude it.
The Faith includes everything. Being a steward of God’s creation
does affect faith and morals.
which many scientists and conservative thinkers
A tiny minority of scientists, funded by oil companies.
consider to be nothing but a rouse to keep people, especially within third-world countries, from bettering themselves through creating companies and capitalistic endeavours.
That’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory fueled (ha!) by a pro-capitalism political agenda.
You can make the argument that allowing free economic development is the best way both to help the poor and eventually to improve the environment. But don’t make the ludicrous claim that hurting the poor is the explicit goal of mainstream science.
He constantly applauds the refugees that are destroying Europe in the name of Islam right now as we speak (hasn’t he heard of rape-gangs, sharia law enforcements, and the double standard created by “Islamophobia”?).
No doubt. But these things have been overblown by right-wing propagandists, and the requirements of charity dictate that we open our borders to refugees anyway. There were “sharia police” in one German town, and they were quite properly arrested by the real police. Rape and sexual assault have been a problem in several parts of Europe, and I agree that often political correctness has prevented authorities from taking it seriously enough.
But in fact there is such a thing as “Islamophobia” (though I dislike the term and don’t use it), that is to say, an irrational, exaggerated fear of Islam rooted itself in a double standard by which any bad thing Muslims do is blamed on Islam while any bad thing Christians do is blamed on something other than their religion.
He defends Islam as a peaceful religion when it is a mafia religion of terrorism (read the Quran and Hadiths and tell me what you think)
Both positions are mistaken generalizations, but the latter is a savage caricature while the former is a generous attempt to define Islam by its best elements, just as we Christians expect others to do for us.
You have heard of the Golden Rule, right? Your post doesn’t give that impression, but I’m sure that was an oversight on your part
(but, to be clear, many muslims don’t even know their own religion because they haven’t actually read these books, and receive only sanitized versions of their religion from imams, or just ignore and re-interpret; but some are deceptive, according to the manner the Quran tells them to be towards non-muslims, and some imams are outright hate-filled).
The suggestion that Muslims who view their religion as “peaceful” are ignorant or deceptive is just wrong. I know a lot of well-educated Muslims who make sophisticated arguments explaining the more disturbing aspects of their tradition, just as Christians do.
Francis has also equated Jesus’ Great Commission with Muhammad’s violent conquests.
No, he pointed out, rightly, that Christians have sometimes understood the Commission in an imperialistic, violent way.
He also presents a warped view of Christian charity shared with many bishops (“whatever you do to the least my brothers, you did to me” - this does not mean muslims or any other non-Christian groups, since “least,” qatan in Hebrew, is a covenantal term opposite of “great,” gadol in Hebrew; “brothers” is also obviously a covenantal term. Covenant = family liturgical kinship bond. The only non-Christian people this can be applied to is the Jewish people, since Christ was, and for certain of them, may still be, in covenant with them).
This really shows how distorted your view of the Faith is. Ironically, it’s exactly the same as the view often ascribed to Muslims by anti-Islamic folks–that commands to do good and love one’s neighbor apply only to Muslims. You would apply them only to Christians.So often I find this–that anti-Islamic Christians are actually projecting their own bigotry onto Muslims.
I will take the Pope, and the common wisdom of the Church which he expresses, over your subversion of the law of charity.
Finally, he may, in fact, be a marxist, or dangerously close.
Given the general tone of your post, probably anything short of right-wing libertarianism is “dangerously close” to Marxism for you.
But it is crystal clear that Pope Francis is not a Marxist. He was criticized as head of the Jesuits in Argentina precisely because he opposed aligning the order with the Marxist version of liberation theology.
Edwin
