{"id":2859,"date":"2015-09-27T10:27:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-27T16:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2015-09-27T10:27:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-27T16:27:52","slug":"popemania-has-gone-too-far-when-with-bonus-pew-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/09\/popemania-has-gone-too-far-when-with-bonus-pew-survey.html","title":{"rendered":"Popemania has gone too far when. . . (with bonus Pew survey)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So this popped up in my facebook feed today:<\/p>\n

\"fake<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s a fake quote (here\u2019s Snopes<\/a>, though you hardly need Snopes to recognize that the Pope wouldn\u2019t have said this), and Shriver seems to have figured this out, because it\u2019s no longer on her page. \u00a0Should I just laugh it off? \u00a0\u201cWhat fools!\u201d \u00a0Only if it\u2019s funny, rather than worrisome, that people believe this \u2014 and two separate people, from two separate social circles, one Catholic and the other nonreligious, shared this photo with the earnest approval of the sentiment.<\/p>\n

And at the same time, Slate says<\/a>\u00a0that the Pope\u2019s hidden message in talking about capital punishment rather than abortion, and loss of hope among young adults rather than addressing gay marriage explicitly, is admittedly not that he has removed these from the \u201csin list\u201d but that these are not as important as the \u201cmore pressing problems\u201d of poverty alleviation and environmentalism. \u00a0And a Huffington Post article<\/a> put it this way, \u201cIn His Speech To Congress, The Pope Said 10 Times More About Poverty Than Abortion;\u00a0It\u2019s clear where his priorities lie.\u201d \u00a0Not to mention a further Huffington Post article<\/a>, \u201cWill Republicans Heed the Words of Pope Francis?\u201d which suggests that Francis\u2019s message is that Republicans should stop trying to defund Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

In other words, the message that liberal writers are taking from Francis\u2019s message, and promoting to the wider world is this: \u00a0\u201cyes, Francis technically can\u2019t change Catholic teaching, but he\u2019s teaching us<\/em> that they don\u2019t really matter all that much.\u201d \u00a0Non-marital sex and abortion may still be on the Sin List, but they\u2019re about as serious as that white lie when you tell your wife that the dress doesn\u2019t make her look fat, and as relevant to non-Catholics as whether or not you can eat that cheeseburger on a Friday in Lent.<\/p>\n

Oh, and they other thing they\u2019re getting from it is, \u201cthe Pope said all the Bad People who oppose us had better change their ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: \u00a0Jesus\u2019s message, and the Church\u2019s message,\u00a0is\u00a0not \u201cGod loves you.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s \u201cGod loves you and<\/strong>\u201d \u2014 \u201cand wants you to follow him.\u201d \u00a0Or, as the postulant Maria said<\/a>, \u201cto find out the will of God and to do it wholeheartedly.\u201d \u00a0And this doesn\u2019t just mean \u201cvoting for politicians who support social welfare spending and carbon taxes,\u201d nor does it mean \u201cbuying a hybrid car.\u201d \u00a0And it doesn\u2019t mean compartmentalizing sex into this thing you do with your body, of no moral moral significance than whether you choose to go for a run or play basketball with friends as a recreational activity, nor does it mean deciding that the Fifth Commandment has an asterisk. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

True, for those who feel dejected and hopeless, they need to hear the first message before they can hear, and act on the second half. \u00a0But there is<\/em> a second half to the message, and this is being lost.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his soul?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There has to be more than financial well-being. \u00a0This is true for individuals, but this is true for our country, our world, too, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Look at today\u2019s Gospel reading<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
\nit would be better for him if a great millstone
\nwere put around his neck
\nand he were thrown into the sea.
\nIf your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
\nIt is better for you to enter into life maimed
\nthan with two hands to go into Gehenna,
\ninto the unquenchable fire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cUnquenchable fire\u201d? \u00a0Whoops! \u00a0Where\u2019s the kum-ba-yah?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also grumpy because of a recent\u00a0Pew Survey<\/a>, which reported such statistics as:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you believe in the concept of sin, that some actions are offensive to God?\u201d<\/p>\n

11% of Catholics said no or \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, broken down into 6% of weekly mass-goers, 13% attending monthly or yearly, and 21% reporting seldom or no mass attendance.<\/p>\n

And, as far as specific actions go: \u00a0barely more than a majority, 57%, reported believing abortion is sinful (the others responded \u201cno\u201d, \u201cdon\u2019t know\u201d, or \u201cdon\u2019t believe in the idea of sin in the first place\u201d); 44% agreed that homosexual behavior is sinful; 41% believed that buying luxuries without donating to the poor is a sin, 35% believed that remarrying without an annulment is sinful, and 33% believed that cohabitating with a sexual partner is sinful. \u00a0Broken down, 73% of the regulars, 47% of the irregulars said abortion is a sin; the breakdown is 59% \/ 35% for homosexual behavior. \u00a0Interestingly, a full 31% of the weekly churchgoers agree that contraception is a sin.<\/p>\n

(Tangentially, the numbers are also relevant for the whole debate about divorce and remarriage; the percentages agreeing that remarriage without an annulment and the percentages agreeing that cohabitation is sinful are nearly identical. \u00a0For weekly attenders, 46% agree that both actions are sinful; for the monthlies, 26% believe cohabitation and 30% believe remarriage is sinful; for the seldom\/nevers, it\u2019s 18%\/21%. \u00a0What do you make of this? \u00a0It\u2019s striking, anyway.)<\/p>\n

One hopes that if, at least, Pew had asked about adultery, or murder, or first-strike nuclear warfare, or at least that guy with the price-gouging medicine in the news, some sturdier majorities would have agreed these actions were sinful!<\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0defenders of the Pope will say, have said, that he can\u2019t help it if the media distorts his words. \u00a0And I\u2019m not saying that he\u2019s directly culpable. \u00a0But if his visit ends with a greater share of Americans, or Catholics specifically, believing that this fake quote says, that it\u2019s OK to just \u201cbe a good person\u201d (as they perceive themselves) because in their mind, the Pope said so, that\u2019s a Bad Thing \u2014 and I don\u2019t care how many people, at the same time, have been inspired by Francis to buy hybrid cars.<\/p>\n

(Yes, I\u2019m grumpy. \u00a0I\u2019m not giving the Pope a fair shake. \u00a0I\u2019m told he said some Very Inspiring Things, after all. \u00a0And my mood is probably influenced by a 15 year old who spent the day yesterday complaining about his homework, and I can\u2019t quite shake the issue of How to Fix Mom and Dad after having watched Still Alice<\/a> the other day, and some other things going on. \u00a0But there is is.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this popped up in my facebook feed today: Yes, it\u2019s a fake quote (here\u2019s Snopes, though you hardly need Snopes to recognize that the Pope wouldn\u2019t have said this), and Shriver seems to have figured this out, because it\u2019s no longer on her page. \u00a0Should I just laugh it off? \u00a0\u201cWhat fools!\u201d \u00a0Only if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":2873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPopemania has gone too far when. . . 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