NATIONALISM AND THE NEW PHARISEES, PART IV

       This morning the news came out that Pope Francis has sent an Epistle to Catholic Bishops urging them to take a stand against America's lurch into prehistoric Barbarism. The Pope noted that even the Old Testament emphasized kindness and compassion to the Stranger, Christ's reaching out to the despised Samaritans; in general seemed to be reminding American Catholics of their sense of Christian Duty. Some of the passages from the Epistle are mentioning here, since it shamefully appears that many American Christians need to be reminded of a few basic tenets of their own Faith.

     "An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized. The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all...This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration. However, this development cannot come about through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others. What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly."

     "Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity. Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the Good Samaritan (cf.Lk10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception. But worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth."

     "I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all."

       The Pope's words must have stung some consciences rather sharply, as the Neocons' flying monkeys in the now-nominally Catholic Media were quick to explode in a paroxysm of rage. What seems to really have set them off was Francis' reference of "a true Ordo Amoris" which they interpreted as blasphemy toward the fake Catholic and hypocrite JD Vance whom, along with other heroes of the New Right, is seen as the incarnation of other Postmodern American Churchian values like moral flexibility and the worship of power and status. Pointing out the irony of this in the comments section of one article apparently rubbed some salt into the egos wounded by the Pope.

       I highlighted that response because it's fairly typical of the mentality of the New Pharisee: the hatred and paranoia characteristic of today's Reactionary Churchian 'Conservative' is condensed in two sentences. Reading through the comments left after the articles linked above, it's clear that most of these knee-jerk, easily-offended types didn't even bother reading Pope Francis' actual words; they didn't have to. Like other Christian Nationalists, the very idea of human equality before God is abhorrent to them: in fact, as this clod states, Christian values have become the Doctrine of Devils in the New America---even if they have the authority of the Pope behind them.

      Maybe we really should start bringing back the old meme, What would Jesus do? Something tells me that Christ would not approve of things like sending Brownshirts to kick down church doors and drag women and children off in chains to Concentration Camps. I don't think that Christ would approve of taxpayer funding of murderous anti-Christian Regimes like the Zionist one---and criminalizing protests against the policy on top of it. Maybe Jesus would take exception to mass-layoffs and Corporate hijacking of Governmental functions; He might also disapprove of elevating Prosperity Gospel charlatans to regulate what is and isn't considered Politically-Correct 'Christian Values.'

     The reaction to Pope Francis' epistle is another indication of how badly the pervasive cultural rot in our society has infested the so-called Christian Right. What's worse is that the fake Conservatives have supplanted self-righteous Liberal Virtue-Signalling with self-righteous Egoism---and still worse, they add blasphemy to their other crimes by pretending that they act in accordance with the Will of God. 

    Pope Francis is right: we need to be on guard against secular and religious crackpots whose only real ethos is elevating themselves to power and lining their own pockets with plunder. The problem that Francis overlooks, and as the responses to his exhortation show, the values of power and plunder are the ethos shared by much of the general public. Until that changes, the words of Christ will fall on deaf ears.