Two close confidants of Pope Francis have written an article in a Jesuit journal that strongly criticizes some American religious supporters of President Donald Trump for their fundamentalist views, which the authors say demonize others and create fear and hatred.
The
article, in the Vatican-reviewed journal La Civiltà Cattolica, says
some American evangelicals and Catholics have become a "community of
combatants" who seek to impose a "xenophobic and Islamophobic vision
that wants walls and purifying deportations."
Father Antonio Spadaro, editor
of La Civiltà Cattolica, and pastor Marcelo Figueroa, editor-in-chief
of the Argentinian edition of L'Osservatore Romano, in an article
titled, "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA:
A surprising ecumenism," take "value voters" to task for wanting
religion to influence politics in what the authors call a "nostalgic
dream of a theocratic type of state."
The
authors claim that conservative Catholics and evangelicals come
together over "shared objectives," such as combating abortion and
same-sex marriage or promoting religious education in schools, fostering
an "ecumenism of conflict" that demonizes others.
"The
panorama of threats to their understanding of the American way of life
have included modernist spirits, the black civil rights movement, the
hippy movement, communism, feminist movements and so on," the authors
write. "And now in our day there are the migrants and the Muslims."
The
authors accuse chief White House strategist Steve Bannon of supporting
"an apocalyptic geopolitics" based on misguided theopolitical thinking
that centers on state submission to the Bible, an idea "that is no
different from the one that inspires Islamic fundamentalism."
The White House did not immediately return a request from CNN for comment on the article Friday.
The
article laments the religious viewpoint that considers "the United
States to be a nation blessed by God" and doesn't "hesitate to base the
economic growth of the country on a literal adherence to the Bible." The
authors also note how some electoral campaign messages "are full of
references to evangelical fundamentalism. For example, we see political
leaders appearing triumphant with a Bible in their hands."
The
authors claim that the beliefs of these religious groups "do not take
into account the bond between capital and profits and arms sales," and
suffer from "a sort of anaesthetic with regard to ecological disasters
and problems generated by climate change."
Spadaro
and Figueroa say that fundamentalist evangelical and Catholic views are
radically opposed to those of Pope Francis, who urges, "inclusion,
peace, encounter and bridges."
"Francis is carrying forward a systematic counter-narration with respect to the narrative of fear," they say.
"Francis
is courageous here and gives no theological-political legitimacy to
terrorists, avoiding any reduction of Islam to Islamic terrorism," the
authors write. "Nor does he give it to those who postulate and want a
'holy war' or to build barrier-fences crowned with barbed wire."
Read their entire original article Father Antonio Spadaro and pastor Marcelo Figueroaby at https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/07/for-record-anti-american-pope-two-of.html
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