What Pope Francis Can Teach The GOP

[DonViejo]

What Pope Francis Can Teach The GOP

With his softer message on gay and divorced families, the Pope has figured out what the Republicans haven’t grasped—you’ve got to tone it down if you want to keep a modern flock.

When the Catholic Church eclipses the Republican Party on social policy, it’s time to start looking skyward for frogs. Yesterday, when the Vatican released the pope's latest statement offering a softer tone toward the gay community than pontiffs in the past, it suggested that the Catholic Church may have figured out what the Republican Party hasn’t yet grasped—that the fading of the institution’s flock can only truly be addressed by reversing some of the fading norms driving the flock from the fold.

And so you have, just to pick one example, failed Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli saying about gay rights, “I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul." Versus Pope Francis saying, “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?"

Now Pope Francis has gone a step further, expressing compassion for gay families as well as families of divorce, both of which are perennial Republican targets in their puritanical and antiquated push for conservative morality. “How can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing?” the pope reportedly said. “We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them.” Or voting! Step aside, Reince Priebus. The pope’s words offer some wisdom for the sagging and outdated GOP.

It’s not as if I’m comparing the rhetoric of Republican Party to a liberal, feminist knitting circle. This is the Catholic Church, which still expressly believes that having gay sex is as sinful as contraception and abortion. And yet in recent years, the Catholic Church has been more forward-thinking than the Republican Party (and at times, even the Democratic Party) on issues of economic justice, immigration and the death penalty. Plus, while it wasn’t until losing the 2012 elections that the Republican Party proclaimed it was time for an “autopsy” to improve the party’s appeal to women, young people and voters of color, the Catholic Church has been actively outreaching to Latino communities since the Spanish colonization of the Americas!

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/06/what-pope-francis-can-teach-the-gop.html

[rock]

1. The correct answer is of course "nothing"

as the GOP can't be taught. Come on, get real! (Although I'm not arguing that the Pope is wrong.

[Gothmog]

2. Here is a good cartoon on this issue

[Bluenorthwest]

3. I see no words of compassion for gay families in his rhetoric.

Certainly nothing as bold as his attacks on gay families as products of a Satanic plan, an attack on the will of God, a destructive force in society, and not as aggressive as his statements that opposing family rights for gay people is 'God's war which we must fight'. He is not nearly as clear about this alleged 'compassion' as he was when he called adoption by gay people child abuse and 'a form of discrimination against the child in advance'.
These articles that claim he has said that which he has not said, and keep taking that 'who am I to judge' excerpt out of context are extremely dishonest. He judges us and does so harshly, totally and without any apparent reservations. Understand me, it is not possible to oppose a person having the same rights as you because you see them as inferior without judging them. Who is Francis to judge? That's a fuck of a good question because he does judge.
Francis needs to stop judging other people or stop claiming he does not. Pick one, Francis you mendacious old bigot.