Zmearing the Pope
I often get a bit a nervous when I'm criticizing Pope Francis. Needless to say, a person can't toss the words "Pope" and "heretic" together without flat-out contradicting the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church, so I'm never tempted to push it that far, but lesser criticism can be out of line as well, since we need to show loyalty. I'm glad John Zmirak apparently has no such compunctions: "Pope Francis is pushing an “anti-American” and “anti-American worldview” via “hysterical leftist agitprop,” said The Stream's Senior Editor John Zmirak on Monday's edition of SiriusXM's Breitbart News Tonight." Link.
Of course, that line above comes from a Breitbart article. Maybe they sensationalized it a bit. . . . Nope: "[Pope Francis] talks a good game about humility in discourse and openness, but that's a bit like when Venezuela speaks about people's democracy. It seems to be an empty slogan for a very angry, not exceptionally bright or subtle South American politician who happens to have found himself in a position with a huge bully pulpit which allows him to express an anti-American, anti-free market, really anti-Western worldview that seems to make a fetish out of poverty and loves the idea of global government overruling the wishes of voters. . . . He gave a talk in 2013 where he compared Europeans who didn't
want to accept Muslim migrants, he compared them to Cain who killed his brother in the Garden of Eden and Herod who slaughtered the children of Bethlehem. This is not rational discourse. This is not theology. This is hysterical leftist agitprop of the kind that you read in Venezuelan government newspapers."
This Zmirak book, incidentally, is a classic that deserves a much wider audience. I and my two oldest boys both read and loved it.
