Whatever truce existed between
President Trump and Pope Francis after their brief meeting in May has been
exploded by the publication of an outspoken article by two close friends of the
world’s Catholic spiritual leader.
The article in La Civilta Cattolica (read it here in English) –
which is approved by the Pope although it is not an
official publication of the Vatican – cites
Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon as a proponent of American Christian
fundamentalism, which separates everyone into good or evil depending on their
beliefs, and envisions an end of the world cataclysm.
This comes only days after
Trump met in the Oval Office with a group of Evangelical Christians who put
their hands on him to bring him closer to them and to ensure he will think like
they do.
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| Based on WHAT? |
“At heart,” says the
article, “the narrative of terror shapes the worldviews of jihadist and the new
crusader’s and is imbibed from wells that are not too far apart. We must not forget
that the geopolitics spread by ISIS are based on the same cult of an apocalypse
that needs to be brought about as soon as possible.”
Pope Francis, explains the
article, does not believe that one nation or even one religion is empowered by
God to dominate the entire population and ultimately the world. His emphasis is
on “the need to build bridges, not walls,” says the article, “and his adamant
refusal to conflate Islam and Islamic terrorism.”
The Catholic publication Crux, which also has close ties to the Vatican, has said that
when Trump only a week after his meeting with Pope Francis said the U.S. would
pull out of the Paris agreement on climate change, it was taken in the Vatican
as an insult and denial of the problems faced by people all over the globe in
favor of making more money now.
In an article published by Crux today, Argentine
Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, who is head of the Vatican’s Academy of
Sciences, says if Trump takes the
U.S. out of the Paris agreement, “it would be a disaster for everyone” and a
“slap in the face” for the Vatican.
While the long article in
La Civilta Cattolica only makes reference to Bannon, and barely mentions Trump
by name, it is seen as a clear
message that “fake religious arguments are being used to demonize segments of
the population – particularly when it comes to migrants and Muslims – and to
promote the U.S. as a nation that is blessed by God, without ever taking into
account the ‘bond between capital and profits and arms sales.'”
Those who believe that they are entitled to power, material
wealth and spiritual superiority use their theological justification –
including biblical texts taken out of context – to
justify their belief in a war between good and evil, with their side
representing good.
This is used to justify a
position on everything from immigration to economic fairness to climate change.
The article argues that a dangerous form of
“evangelical fundamentalism” has taken root in the U.S. that has joined
evangelical Christians and some conservative Catholics in what is being
called a twisted reading of scripture and the Old Testament to promote conflict
and war.
This is an effort, argues the article, to take
Christian-Evangelical fundamentalist principle that has been radicalized to
bring a strong religious moral view to democratic processes.
They are using the Bible, adds the article, to
use a perverted meaning of the Old Testament about conquering and defense of
the promised land as a guide rather than a realistic view of what is happening
guided by the love of Jesus in the Gospels.
In other words, in this worldview that they are good and
everyone who doesn’t agree with them is evil, they are ready to fight, kill,
subvert, and destroy anyone or any nation or religion that doesn’t agree with
them, and feel completely justified.
They are against
ecologists who want to use science to deal with climate change because they
believe they have dominion over everything, which makes them superior and
smarter than all those who preach protecting the environment even when it hurts
the profits of the rich and powerful.
In this kind of theological
vision, dramatic climate change, natural disasters, global ecological crisis
are not a reason to reconsider their beliefs, but are seen as signs that
confirm their understanding that there is an apocalypse coming – foreseen in
the Book of Revelation – that will bring them to a new heaven and a new earth.
So they are rushing,
pushing, and demanding that we all move toward this apocalypse from which they
will rise in control of a new, better world, while the rest of mankind is left
to suffer the consequences of not being one of them.
Whether the Pope is right
or not – and there is a lot of reason to believe he is seeing something
happening in the Trump world that is reason for alarm – it is frightening to
see how others think not about getting along, but rather how to overpower the
“evil” (everyone but them) and feel justified and moral even as they kill
innocents – directly or through a lack of action on climate change, or by a
form of racism and anti-intellectualism – to get their way.
It is a chilling thought
but what the Pope is saying seems to fit with what is happening, and the
consequences as envisioned are frighteningly chilling.
BENJAMIN
LOCKE is a retired college professor with an undergraduate degree in
industrial labor and relations from Cornell University and an MBA from the
European School of Management.