{"id":106849,"date":"2019-01-07T17:29:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T00:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=106849"},"modified":"2019-01-07T17:50:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T00:50:54","slug":"fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html","title":{"rendered":"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist \u201cprolife\u201d movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from \u201csaving the unborn\u201d to \u201csaving the GOP and using the unborn as tools, props, and human shields while doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, millions of those Christians involved in that endeavor have fallen prey to a little trick Uncle Screwtape described:<\/p>\n

About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything\u2014even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist\u2019s shop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exhibit A: Fr. Frank Pavone, whose mission creep has led him far afield from both the gospel of which he is putatively a priest and the defense of the dignity of the human person he allegedly is committed to uphold.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Fr. Pavone committed an act of desecration of the Altar of Jesus Christ, displaying the corpse of an unborn baby on it in order to make 45 minute stump speech for Donald Trump.\u00a0 His own bishop called it desecration.\u00a0 Fr. Pavone, as far as I know, never apol0gized.\u00a0 Since then, Fr. Pavone has gone on to displace the glory of the GOP for the defense of human life and the Lord Jesus Christ with the image and likeness of Donald Trump as Savior.<\/p>\n

So, for instance, instead calling all human beings to the gospel he is busy trying to kick people out of the US for failing to worship his true god:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

\u2026 and announcing \u201cWe have no king but Caesar\u201d to the world:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

What on earth does this have to do with either the defense of the unborn or the gospel of Jesus Christ, you may ask?\u00a0 Absolutely nothing.\u00a0 Which has been my point for several years.\u00a0 The fruit of the bogus claim that Catholics have a moral obligation to Vote the Five Non-Negotiables (human cloning, ESCR, gay marriage, euthanasia, and abortion) has had the practical effect of brainwashing conservative Catholics into believing that they must Vote GOP or the Baby Gets It.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

By degrees, the 5NNs have been whittled down to one: <\/p>\n

Human cloning is not an issue.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The GOP itself, both via Bush 43 and McCain instructed the faithful that ESCR is okay when Republicans like it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The GOP has always been hinky on euthanasia too. When you call it \u201ccapital punishment\u201d they love it. And nobody loves it more than conservative Catholics, who write completely unnecessary books defending it and calling Catholics to defy the Magisterium in maximizing the death penalty instead of abolishing it. And in addition to this, the GOP is now the party of death panels they accused the Dems of being, laboring to destroy health care for the poor and forcing diabetics to ration insulin till we die<\/a>\u2013a cruelty Christianists love as much as they love the cruelty to children and refugees at the border.<\/p>\n

Gay marriage is over and Christians lost (and the GOP doesn\u2019t care about it either except for ginning up Christians).\u00a0 Indeed, one of the long string of GOP SCOTUS appointees Christianist suckers lie are going to Save Us All is Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy.\u00a0 He\u2019s also the guy who gave you the Casey <\/em>decision cementing abortion rights in the US.\u00a0 Funny thing about Casey<\/em>.\u00a0 You know how guys like Fr. Pavone are always on about Making the Courts Great Again<\/a>? Well, when Casey was decided the Court was 8-1 GOP with a prolife Dem.\u00a0 And as a reward for their prostration before the GOP, prolifers got Casey and the famous \u201cmystery clause\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the heart of liberty is the right to define one\u2019s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And so the \u201cprolife\u201d movement has come to embrace a new and entirely heretical soteriology: Opposition to abortion taketh away the sins of the Cult of Trump. The unborn have mutated into talismans for permitting any lie and any evil the Cult of Trump wants to commit, including abortion itself. If a GOP pol forces his wife or hooker to have one, or if Trump refuses to say whether he has ever forced his sexual conquest to have one\u2026 well, he\u2019s just like King David now, isn\u2019t he? A little rough around the edges but God\u2019s Anointed nonetheless. As for policy, caging children, inflicting cruelties on the poor, making Monsanto run Agriculture, Boeing run Defense, Coal run the EPA, and Oil run the Interior is all good Because Abortion. And when Trump and his Cult refund PP for the 8th time and SCOTUS Savior Kavanaugh back PP and turn down a chance to review Roe, that\u2019s not a problem. Because the purpose of the \u201cprolife\u201d movement is not to defend human life. It\u2019s to defend the Cult of Trump.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the Religious Right, who are now the people the Religious Right warned you about 20 years ago, have (in the process of twisting themselves into moral pretzels devoted to the GOP and not the unborn) emphatically adopted Kennedy\u2019s postmodern view of an infinitely malleable reality and have hived off after a massive liar whose magical outlook insists that he can create reality by the power of his word.<\/p>\n

If that sounds vaguely blasphemous, it\u2019s because it is.\u00a0 It is a diabolical parody of the Christian doctrine of Creation, whereby God creates by the power of the Word.\u00a0 The Christianist Cult has fallen in completely with Trump and is now committed body and soul to the defense of his lies and cruelty.\u00a0 And the unborn and the gospel have become for millions of them\u2013including Fr. Pavone, judging from his behavior and his words\u2013entirely secondary in the service of that supreme goal. He is now a priest of Trump, not the gospel. Mediates man to Trump and Trump to man. If the gospel is useful for accessorizing that project, he exploits it. But he does not serve it. And if the gospel gets in the way of Trump, he desecrates the gospel without apology and without submission to his bishop<\/a>. Christianist Catholics, with their impeccable track record of being so wrong about so much so many times for so long that only a fool would trust their judgment, naturally back Fr. Pavone and condemn his bishop for trying (however feebly) to rein him in.<\/p>\n

The saints have something to say about this kind of thing:<\/p>\n

You who were angels upon earth have turned to the work of devils. You would lead us away from the evil they is in you and seduce us into obedience to the Anti-Christ. ~Catherine of Siena<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So where are our bishops while this guy makes a spectacle of his vows?\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 But if they cannot get it in gear to shut down this grifting apparatchik of the GOP in a Roman collar for his desecration, the bishops should consider the reality that this shady character puts them at grave risk for not only with God, but with Caesar:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to keep their tax exempt status churches and religious organizations must abide by certain rules according to the IRS. Under IRS code, \u201call IRC section 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches and religious organizations, are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office . Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made by or on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.\u201d By breaking this rule, the IRS may deny or revoke the tax-exempt status of the church and the impose of certain excise tax.\u201d IRS Pub 1828<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist \u201cprolife\u201d movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from \u201csaving the unborn\u201d to \u201csaving the GOP and using the unborn as tools, props, and human shields while doing that.\u201d Similarly, millions of those Christians involved in that endeavor have fallen prey to a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[475,1071],"class_list":["post-106849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crooks-and-liars","tag-the-cult-of-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nFr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist "prolife" movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from "saving the unborn"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist "prolife" movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from "saving the unborn"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-08T00:29:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-08T00:50:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/49260457_2622320921141481_4249807029142552576_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=1e5325dcd3d10bf16fbee78e63ee1fd6&oe=5CD1377B\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html\",\"name\":\"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-08T00:29:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-08T00:50:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist \\\"prolife\\\" movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from \\\"saving the unborn\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump","description":"The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist \"prolife\" movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from \"saving the unborn\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump","og_description":"The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist \"prolife\" movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from \"saving the unborn\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2019-01-08T00:29:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-08T00:50:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/49260457_2622320921141481_4249807029142552576_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=1e5325dcd3d10bf16fbee78e63ee1fd6&oe=5CD1377B"}],"author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html","name":"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-08T00:29:33+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-08T00:50:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"The central flaw of the American conservative Christianist \"prolife\" movement is that it has managed to transmogrify its mission from \"saving the unborn\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/fr-frank-pavone-apostle-of-the-living-trump.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fr. Frank Pavone, Apostle of the Living Trump"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}