Things I Think…
1. I’m recovering…I had two surgeries in a month and caught one of the “super bugs” during the last one…they didn’t allow me to return it…
2. So the Mad King posts a picture deifying himself and all of a sudden he’s blasphemous. Mad kings have been deifying themselves for millennia…and what is truly blasphemous is his utter disregard for human life and flourishing…other than his own…
3. For those who haven’t been following my trials and tribulations, I’ve been in and out of the hospital a lot over the last few years. The system is collapsing…and right at the heart of it is all the Covid era conflict. We have to find a place for repentance and forgiveness and a way forward…this is a place where the church could really influence the culture…
4. J.D. Vance says that the pope should be careful when discussing theology...he might want to read some of his adopted tribes scholars before he opens his mouth and talks out his backside…
5. Don’t speak to me about Christian values without telling me which Christians you’re referring to…
6. Pray that God will give you a deep curiosity about the things and nature of God…and you’ll set out on a journey you won’t regret…
7. “Trump isn’t backing down from his fight with the Pope. Eighty-one children are about to find out what that means for their housing situation.
The Trump administration has abruptly canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami amid the president’s escalating feud with Pope Leo XIV. The organization has provided shelter and care to unaccompanied migrant children for more than 60 years.
The Pope has been outspoken against the Iran war and the administration’s treatment of migrants. Trump responded by calling him weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy. The Pope wrote that bombing civilians is not a Christian act. Trump said he had nothing to apologize for.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said the charity had an unmatched track record and would be forced to shut down within three months without the funding. The shelter houses 81 children and provides foster placement, family reunification, and psychological care for kids who experienced significant trauma before arriving in the U.S.
Those children will now need to be relocated. Finding licensed placements could take months.”
This is the true blasphemy…
8. The evangelical obsession with other folks sexuality changes nothing for the better and denies the need of transformation for all of us…
9. The only culture war I’m involved in is against the culture that distorts the true heart of God for power and wealth…
10. “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” Pope Leo
there are a handful of maga-types who have come to realize the depth of DJT’s on-going depravity and have exited the cesspool and for that I am pleased. BUT for those who claim to follow Christ and are still enamored with the president, I hold little hope beyond the grace of God and the power of the Spirit. It is not my place to state they were never within the fold without considering my own wanderings.
I am glad you are on the mend and still here with us on this side of the ranch.
Thanks, fil.
I’ve had some folks say that they regret voting for him….but I also see way too many still defending him.
I won’t engage with those who still support the president because they live in an alternative universe where logic and facts do not exist. The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was more coherent than any of his apologists. It’s much more interesting to inquire about ‘what’s next’ or the sermon on the mount and the gospel. I won’t venture into end times conversations either because it is so much blather and nonsense. Our generation of pastors will truly have much to answer for in how they have represented Christ and shepherded His flocks.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Catholic Charities fund cut was orchestrated by the Orange himself. He is so petty and at the same time so vengeful. I have been praying that someone can find a legal way to remove him from office.
Man, I hate to be the conspiracy theorist in the room…
There is a pattern of spiral teaching here. This is the same scenario with different cast, played over and over, where the leaders seem given over to something demonic, and the end result is war, “requisitions and appropriations”, and exponentially increasing destructive and invasive technologies. If Trump is out Theil and Karp are riding the JD Vance wagon in.
I worked at Catholic Charities in my area for several years. A lot of kind people out to help those with various needs. I’m sure this was done on purpose. So tired of this administration acting like petulant middle schoolers.
Notably absent in the “Dr. Trump healer” representation is a halo.
As to JD Vance’s comments on Pope Leo being careful when discussing theology:
Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A.
Pope Leo XIV
Education
Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
B.S. in Mathematics, 1977.
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago
Master of Divinity, 1982.
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome
Licentiate in Canon Law (J.C.L.), 1984.
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome
Doctorate in Canon Law (J.C.D.), 1987. Dissertation on the role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.
Languages
Fluent in English; Spanish; Italian; French; Portuguese.
Reads Latin, Hebrew and German.
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Pope Leo XIV doesn’t understand “something called
the just war doctrine.”
Pope Leo is an Augustinian friar who spent twelve years leading Augustine’s religious order.
Augustine invented the doctrine.”
The hubris of some on the Right is unbelievable.
I have some of those qualifications. I have the math degree and I’m fluent in Spanish. Just three more degrees and three more languages to go!
I think Johnson meant to say, “I don’t understand the just war doctrine.”
Let me preface this by stating a couple of things. The first is my father was Roman Catholic and the second is I agree with the current Pope about wars and peace.
We have all be honest, the Roman Catholic Church has never not been political in its entire history. Consider the trials and tribulations of Martin Lurther, the formation of the Jesuits, and the “Spanish Inquisition.
From its formation to the present the RCC has substantial political influence.
In the Middle Ages, popes like Innocent III claimed supremacy over kings and emperors (e.g., the Investiture Controversy).
The Papal States were a real territorial kingdom ruled by the Pope until 1870.
The Church has supported, opposed, or cooperated with monarchies, empires, dictatorships, and democracies at different times.
Yes in our modern day the RCC has withdrawn directly with politics, however where possible they still seek to influence and direct Administrations and policies.
As a child I remember the controversy of John F. Kennedy running for President and his Catholic roots being an issue. Would the President bring Papal influence into the White House?
While I can’t hold a candle to the present Pope’s academic credentials, and never would even attempt to, for anyone to say he or the church is non-political is simple a lie or at least a white wash of its history.
Does any of this justify Trump or Vance? No it does not and I let people decide for themselves where they stand on the RCC and the current Administration.
TH
No serious student of history would claim the Roman Catholic Church has been apolitical. It has always operated within political realities. That is simply fact.
However, that does not make its voice merely political.
To say the Church has been entangled with power is not to say its mission is reducible to power. When the Pope speaks on war, peace, or human dignity, he is not acting as a partisan figure. He is exercising moral authority rooted in a long and consistent theological tradition.
That distinction matters—and it is where a stronger defense of the present Pope is needed.
To dismiss his words as “political” in the same sense as parties or administrations is to misunderstand the office. His call for peace and his critique of violence are not policy preferences. They are expressions of the Church’s enduring moral teaching.
The real issue is not whether the Church has been political. It has.
The issue is whether we can distinguish between political entanglement and moral witness.
When the Pope speaks against war and for the dignity of human life, he is not playing politics.
He is doing precisely what the Church is meant to do. He’s doing his job.
Duane
I don’t disagree with the Pope on this, however it appears he does not speak about other atrocities across the globe while being very direct about the current crisis.
He is not alone in this alone. Those who condemn the popular political crisis of the day often forget to be consistent in their condemnation of so many more around the world.
Maybe it’s because of the shortness of the news cycle; today’s news will be old in just a few days and forgotten in weeks.
Where is this Pope’s consistency in both condemnation and praise? Personally, I have difficulty with it, but maybe that’s because of the news cycle we all live in, and also maybe because I’m not RCC and don’t support substantial parts of their Doctrines, Dogmas and Church structure.
Duane
One more comment, I did not “dismiss” his statements as purely political. I did point out that his statement about “not being political” is a lie or at least an intentional misrepresentation of his Position and the actual documented history of the RCC.
While I will defend his statement about war and peace, I will also state unequivocally the RCC is political in its very nature.
Duane you should clearly know from your personal history how almost every city or town in Europe and into the east has at or near its center a Church, and most commonly it is a RCC.
Religion, is always at the center of politics. Good or bad.
TH
If anything, the Roman Catholic Church has lost much of its influence in Europe. That is a fact.
Your concern sounds reasonable, however it rests on a mistaken premise.
The Pope is not a global referee obligated to issue symmetrical statements on every atrocity. He speaks pastorally and prophetically into specific moments, not as a commentator trying to balance the news cycle.
Moreover, consistency is not measured by equal airtime. The Church’s teaching on war and human dignity is consistent. What varies is where it is applied publicly and when it can actually be heard.
The real inconsistency lies elsewhere—in the news cycle itself. It amplifies certain crises, ignores others, and then expects moral voices to follow its distortions.
So the problem is not the Pope’s lack of consistency. It is the assumption that moral authority should track media coverage.
It doesn’t—and it shouldn’t.
Thank God for Pope Leo; may he continue to speak truth to the power of the most powerful country that has ever existed in the history of the world.
I might be hearing wrong…but every time I hear American evangelicals talk about politics and religion the assumption is that we’re talking about the American left and right or American liberal or conservative platforms.
Catholicism and Anglicanism have been forming theological responses to culture and politics since long before there was an America…I literally have shelves full of scholars applying Gospel principles to politics and social structures.
Leo is using centuries of thought to bring clarity to present day situations…
Church politics are bad enough to deal with on a daily basis.
JD Vance (no relation) a Roman Catholic, telling the Pope what to do. What’s next?
Might President Trump decide to invade Vatican City? Anything could possibly happen.
He’s already posted an image of himself as the pope.
The next crazy image might be the President as Moses parting the Red Sea.
I don’t think he will attempt to pose as the Buddha but who can tell?
Certainly not as Mohammad.
JD
As a former Catholic I can tell you that Catholics have often told popes what to do, that’s not new. It’s been going on for centuries. What Vance said, the actual ridiculous and insulting content, and the strong arming rhetoric of a powerful American politician telling a pope to shut up, is what’s raising the ire of American Catholics all along the political spectrum, even though a majority of them voted for Trump and thereby Vance.
I think as an aside that it’s worth remembering when talking about the moral failure of evangelicals in repeatedly voting for Trump that the majority of Catholics also voted for him in the last elections — it was also a moral failure of American Catholics.
Nick Catoggio In Boiling Frogs had a (tongue-in-cheek, I think) suggestion for a new job for Vance: antipope. “J.D. Vance is already a sort of Vicar of Trump, the most prominent American example of reactionaries and authoritarians embracing Catholicism to signal their cultural determination to RETVRN,” Nick wrote. “Installing him as Pope James David I of the new MAGA Catholic Church would make it official.”
Here is the link to the article by Nick Catoggio in The Dispatch (hardly a liberal or woke publication):
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/boilingfrogs/donald-trump-pope-leo-xiv-catholic-church/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=weekly&utm_content=115670
“I might be hearing wrong…”
You probably are hearing it with what you want to hear, we all do it.
As far as religion and politics through history, never forget the USA was specifically set up to avoid direct church (no matter what denomination) involvement in it.
Can we say King Henry and the Church of England?
While the present political/religious rhetoric will be just a footnote in history the facts are clear of the millennia religion and politics are tied together. This one just happens to be with the current Pope and President.
There is way too much history of the Church, RCC, Anglican, Orthodox, Muslims… being involved in politics to say otherwise.
Now the question one should ask themselves is, does these religious influence make things better or worse for humankind and what is the measure by which we can determine this?
The direct history of the Anglican Church is one formed in the politics of King Henry and his opposition to the Pope (yes we all, or at least many of us, know it began with an annulment request).
As one can deduce, I don’t find the Christian church free of politics in any way. However, the RCC has survived over the millennia of governments whom have risen and fallen. That says something about the Organization and its ability to moderate and reform itself.
I also know in a very short time both the Pope and RCC will outlast the present Administration. They will also comment on the next set of wars and conflicts across the world.
The majority of large denominations, Catholic and Protestant, have erred in some way in their response to current events and war. Take the Southern Baptists and hundreds of years of slavery and segregation and their current clergy sex scandals (most denoms have that issue, too). Catholic Churches struggle with similar issues, and the Mennonites have John Yoder. I think we need more Old Testament style prophets who will call out sin in the church and bring us back to right practices regarding our testimony in the world.
All my time in Colombia I met the good/bad of both Catholics and evangelicals. The good ones were serving God, rising above the violence and chaos (sometimes paying with their lives) and giving testimony to life-changing faith in Christ. I try to find those people and work with them. Even my current church (that I love passionately) went through a period of Christian nationalism/COVID conspiracy theories, but now that has died down. Those of us who stayed and formed our own little cohort are now helping others (carefully) coexist in the cra- cra of Trump.
TH
“As far as religion and politics through history, never forget the USA was specifically set up to avoid direct church (no matter what denomination) involvement in it.”
That’s just historically wrong…
Actually, there were establish churches in America until 1833. The last one to disestablish was the Congregational Church in Massachusetts… I suggest you read Sydney Ahlstrom’s book “A Religious History of the American People.
Duane, You’re exactly right about that. The individual colonies and then states had established churches, and not infrequently officially persecuted and oppressed Christians of different communions. We won’t even talk about how they treated other religions.
“ That’s just historically wrong…”
You do not understand my statement and read what you wanted into it. And such is the internet.
I am well aware of the established churches in the USA and the History of them.
Let me clarify what I wrote and how your out right rejecting is outright wrong.
The U.S. Constitution is deliberately secular:
It contains no mention of God, Jesus, Christianity, or the Bible.
Article VI explicitly bans religious tests for federal office: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
The First Amendment (ratified 1791): “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The Founders’ intent was to prevent:
A national established church (like in England).
Government coercion in matters of conscience.
Religious tests or persecution.
Now if your point is, did religion play a huge part in the culture of the USA? The answer is certainly yes.
Morality rooted in religion is vital for self-government, however the intent was to leave religion to individuals, families, and churches and not the Federal Government.
Interestingly the Bill of Rights was not initially applicable to the States. However through the doctrine of Incorporation and the 14th Amendment, most of the BOR now applies to the states (through various SCOTUS decisions over the years).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Rights
My take is that from the get-go it was an all or nothing provision. Either all of the BOR applies to the states or NONE. But with the ratification of the 14th Amendment, the answer is now all of the BOR applies to the states.
TH
The founders were men formed at the intersection of Protestant inheritance and Enlightenment critique. They believed, in varying degrees, that religion—however defined—was indispensable to public virtue. Yet they also believed that the state was a poor guardian of the soul.
That tension, rather than any single label, is the true inheritance they left behind.