Many believed that the last three elections were an existential struggle for America’s soul, reflecting a struggle for the soul of Christianity in this country—not just evangelical Christianity but of the Catholic Church too. Unfortunately MAGA won and the gospels lost.
Rebecca Bratten Weiss discusses this in her latest column in NCR. She has an interesting background. She graduated from Steubenville but eventually rejected much of the right- wing Catholicism of that college. She suggests that Trump’s assault on Pope Leo is creating a split between white MAGA Catholics and white evangelicals. Agree?
“The MAGA movement has deep roots in a culture of nativism and xenophobia that was long hostile to Catholics. …
"Many are realizing that the soul of MAGA is viscerally anti-Catholic," Austen Ivereigh told NCR last month in a piece outlining a broader fracture in the Catholic-evangelical MAGA coalition over attitudes towards Israel. His sentiment is shared by others, who are positioning the Trump and Leo conflict as the latest entry in a "MAGA evangelical vs. Roman Catholic" saga….”
The growing split seems focused on views of the role Israel plays in American foreign policy. It is a growing conflict between extreme right- wing Catholic media and podcast “stars” and evangelicals. The Catholic “ influencers” also seem to include a disproportionate number of recent converts to the RCC ( one reason for concern at the recent influx of young male converts).
“ The right-wing Catholics finally detaching themselves from the MAGA movement are not waking up to justice. They were fine with the Trump administration's many assaults on the vulnerable. They just are upset that anyone, especially the leader they thought they had in their pocket, would dare to defy them. ..
…Catholics are not a persecuted minority in the United States. We are a powerful political force. This force can be wielded for justice or for injustice,…
For the Christian church as a whole, this is one of those crucible moments, where we are tested to see whether we will be true to Jesus or succumb to the lure of amoral powers. Will we be the church of the papal princes like Alexander VI, the church of bigoted influencers like Fr. Charles Coughlin? Or, conversely, will we be the church of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Oscar Romero and Servant of God Thea Bowman? That's the question we need to address. Leo is showing us the way. But let's not pretend it's the way the church has always taken.”
NCR also has the latest Pew findings. I think that one reason for the continued losses of adult Catholics in the US is the now years long swing to the right - both politically and religiously (such as the rise of Barron’s stuff in parishes, and converts from evangelical Christianity like Scott Hahn, the Alpha programs etc). Progressive Catholics have been effectively pushed out of the pews by the cohort of conservative priests (and those they attract) now running parishes. They don’t feel at home in the RCC anymore because of the bishops emphasis that abortion is the only thing that matters when voting, which is broadcast from pulpits everywhere while the bishops and priests ignore most of the church’s Social Justice teachings. Mention climate change? No way- “ too political”. Talk about Matthew 25:31-46 or the Beatitudes? Nope - too political. Talk about the sin of racism— even without specifically pointing to this administrations openly racist policies? Nope - can’t talk about those either.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncronline.org/news/pew-us-and-other-countries-catholicism-loses-more-members-it-gains
My feeling is that the church was here long before MAGA and will be here after it fades into history. Unfortunately some Catholics have gotten sucked into the Evangelical/ fundamentalist part of MAGA. End times and apocalypticism are a big part of that, and one of the reasons why they are fixated on the middle east.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to this quote from Bratten Weiss' article, "...this is one of those crucible moments, where we are tested to see whether we will be true to Jesus or succumb to the lure of amoral powers", is that it isn't the first time, and won't be the last time when we are tested.
I think the extreme politicization is to a degree dependent on region. I would say that here we are sort of center right. Both our previous archbishop and the present one have spoken out strongly for the immigrants in our communities, and have prayed for peace, and are supportive of Pope Leo's efforts. But the clergy don't say much about things like climate change. Which is fine with me.
We have spent the better part of last week being in Omaha for some milestone occasions of our granddaughters. I came away feeling optimistic about their future, and the future of the church. Wednesday we attended a "grandparents' breakfast" for graduating seniors and their grandparents, at our oldest granddaughter's school. She showed us around the classrooms, and we met some of her teachers. These kids studied things that we didn't get into until college, and sometimes not even then. Her generation are definitely not unfocused slackers!
ReplyDeleteThere were some discussion questions for the kids and grandparents, things such as "What is something you would tell your younger self?" And for the students, "What subjects are you most interested in?" And "What subjects did you not like?"
Friday evening was Confirmation for our middle granddaughter, who is 14. They confirm 8th graders here. It was a nice ceremony, and she seemed happy. The archbishop spoke about the church needing the confirmandi now, not just when they are adults.
Afterwards I told her that I had been nine when I was confirmed, and we had to memorize 90 questions. Back then part of the ceremony was a symbolic "slap" on the cheek. I was worried about that, but our bishop just tapped our cheeks lightly. She was glad they didn't do that anymore. One thing I remembered was the sweet scent of the chrism, they add balsam to the oil. She said she noticed the scent too.
Then Saturday night was Confirmation at St. Anthony's, at home. I was in the choir, and Kelly assisted at the altar. We had Emeritus Archbishop Lucas. Our granddaughter's group had Archbishop McGovern, who is the present ordinary. We like both of them.
Our senior granddaughter's high school graduation is May 17, and the middle one's 8th grade graduation is May 16. I'm glad they scheduled them both on the same weekend!
DeletePope Francis talked a lot about climate change and our moral responsibility to care for the environment. But priests don’t like to mention it. The only social justice issue they mention is immigration. I do wonder if they would even do that if the 11 million slated for deportation weren’t mostly Catholics, but Muslims or Hindus.
ReplyDeleteThese stories are lovely, but are a micro view. The article isn’t addressing lovely family events like confirmations. She’s talking about the reality that most white Catholics have turned away from Jesus’s teachings to support MAGA. Are the confirmation kids going to change that? Or will white Catholics (including bishops and priests) continue to embrace the “ amoral powers”? Did you see any evidence that the kids at these events reject MAGA views and are embracing the gospels?
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Well no, but the Confirmation kids said their Baptism promises and rejected "...Satan and all his empty promises" MAGA is pretty empty. The high school grads are more focused on what comes next in their lives. I didn't get the idea that they were thinking much about politics. I believe MAGA is already starting to burn itself out. Of course we can't take that for granted and have to do our part to make sure that happens.
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