This is the problem when the one spec on your must-be list is “nut job”. There’s so much variety, despising different things. There’s bound to be some awkwardness.
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Thy Will Be Done al Dente.
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This unnamed-staffer-inadvertently-hitting-the-like-button thing is just epidemic, isn’t it?
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He is a cafeteria something or other.
When he has to be anything other than Trump.
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It has taken over the tried and true “My teenage son got hold of my laptop.” explanation for anything internet related.
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We’re going to have to figure out a way to talk about the influence of reactionary Catholicism on contemporary politics without getting into a poisonous attack on Catholicism itself. This is a battle that is raging within the Vatican right now, and beyond the Vatican, in every country where the Church is represented.
Reactionary Catholics–the ones who so feverishly hate His Holiness Pope Francis–are politically incredibly well organized and well connected. Throughout the West, there are close ties between the most reactionary elements of the Church, and ultra-rightist, authoritarian, and fascist secular parties.
This relationship goes back generations: but it grew particularly corrosive during the rise of European fascism a century ago, intensifying throughout the Cold War era, and culminating in the papacy of the brilliant, charismatic authoritarian John Paul II.
It has spiraled out of control in recent years, particularly in the US, where four of the most ultra-rightist members of the Supreme Court majority are Catholics (again, this isn’t about the Church–one of the most principled members of the Court’s minority is Catholic as well–but about the disproportionate influence of reactionary factions within the Church).
The influence of Church Militant and other reactionary Catholics within this administration is well-documented, but terribly difficult to talk about. We all fear falling back into the kind of anti-Catholic bigotry that once plagued the Kennedys and other prominent Democrats.
But in an era when critical–potentially radically regressive-- decisions are being made about LGBTQ rights, about contraception and abortion rights, about free speech rights, and about the rights of women, it seems to me we have a moral obligation to be very open about the different influences at play in our national politics.
One of the most pernicious of these influences comes from the radical right wing of a Church that opposes all those things fiercely and unapologetically and dogmatically. We need to be able to find a way to talk about this openly, forcefully, without deteriorating into anti-Catholic bigotry.
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Thank you for that background. Reminds me of how difficult it used to be to be anti-Zionist (which I’ve been since the 70’s).
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Trainor is a version of bin Laden in drag.
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We already had a time where Religion and Government were one- Historians refer to it as the Dark Ages.
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Wow. That will set well with the Teavengelicals.
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oops…another one bites the dust.
Deus Vult.
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Just as a reminder to Grand Inquisitor Trainor, ‘Kill them all and let God sort them out’ was first attributed to a French Christian knight before leading an attack on a Christian town and murdering every man, woman and child who resided there. ‘Kill them all, for God will surely know his own’.
This event is referred to as the Massacre at Béziers, and it occurred on July 22, 1209.
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If there was any doubt that the religious right wing fringe is control of the nominating process…
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I heard that sort of thing at my Catholic school in the late 50s. By 1964 or so, even they had knocked it off. I’ll bet the sisters still believed it. Actually, we had a parish priest from Ireland in the 70s who used to preach about his sister who was born “with no bones” (even my 7 yr old’s jaw dropped: “but without bones her head would cave in!?”). He certainly believed only Catholics would go to heaven.
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Mandatory requirements; bigoted, unqualified and pisses off progressives. Check, check, double-check. What a disaster this “administration” is.
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I am obviously concerned when candidates to high ranking political offices express open disdain for large segments of society. I am infinitely more concerned that this white house seems devoted to the idea that this administration should have, at its core, christian ideology.
Its not so much that the administration is trying to inject christianity into our every day lives. I am more concerned with our collective courage/interest to stop it.
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It is Francis’ burden to promote the faith while reining in these rogue elements; and only he has the tools the hammer these individuals into submission. He can remove church leaders that give these people shelter. He can force them into contrition on pain of excommunication, Malleus Haereticorum.
The resulting Church would be stronger for it in my view.
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Trump knows all the best people.
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The only “true” religion is Episcopalianism
And the Lord hath spake: “Whenever ye find four gathered, ye shall find a fifth.”
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