Pope Francis
You might've
seen earlier Sen. Marco Rubio's latest nonsense:
“We are at the water’s edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech because today we’ve reached the point in our society where if you do not support same-sex marriage, you are labeled a homophobe and a hater,” Rubio said. “So what’s the next step after that? After they’re done going after individuals, the next step is to argue that the teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church, is hate speech. That’s a real and present danger.”
Holy crap, are they going to come after the Catholic church? There might be truth to that.
There's the Koch-funded global climate change-deniers at the Heartland Institute:
The Holy Father is being misled by ‘experts’ at the United Nations who have proven unworthy of his trust. Humans are not causing a climate crisis on God’s Green Earth—in fact, they are fulfilling their Biblical duty to protect and use it for the benefit of humanity.
Then there's
Rush Limbaugh:
Limbaugh, who is not Catholic, said that parts of the document were "pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope" and suggested that someone else had written the papal document for him. He also accused the pope of going "beyond Catholicism" and being "purely political".
The business community is
quite the danger ...
Ken Langone, the billionaire founder of the Home Depot and a major Republican donor, warned Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York that if the pope kept up the drumbeat [on income inequality and the defects of capitalism], some wealthy Catholics might stop giving to church causes.
And look out, Catholics!
Rubio and his
pals are themselves a clear and present danger!
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Catholic, criticized Pope Francis on Wednesday after the pontiff played a key role in helping the United States and Cuba forge an agreement that resulted in the release of American Alan Gross from Cuba.
Fellow Catholic Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said he wished Francis would stand up for the Cuban people "rather than their oppressors."
Of course, criticizing the church is not "hate speech" nor a "clear and present danger." It wasn't when we criticized the last Pope, and it isn't today. But you know what IS a clear and present danger to conservatives?
This: 94 percent of
Republican Catholics view Pope Francis favorably. NINETY-FOUR!
Turns out that fighting global climate change, fighting income inequality, standing up for the poor, and fighting for a more tolerant society—in other words, being liberal—are universally popular things indeed. Even among the Republican faithful.