{"id":8336,"date":"2013-03-21T08:20:50","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T13:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=8336"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:44:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:44:52","slug":"im-warming-to-the-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2013\/03\/21\/im-warming-to-the-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Warming to the Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Pope Francis after his inauguration mass (Gregorio Borgia\/Associated Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ultimately, I am a pragmatist.<\/p>\n

People occasionally say to me, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in divorce.\u201d I respond, \u201cThen I must not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, you may not like divorce, but not believing in it is not one of the options. Divorce exists. Deal with it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a fan of the papacy. I think that bureaucracies and hierarchies are bad for the gospel. I think they\u2019re anti-gospel.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I\u2019m a realist. The Catholic Church is one-half of the world\u2019s Christians, and that church has a pope. So, whether I like it or not, that one celibate dude has a lot of cultural cachet<\/strong> \u2014 how people see him will affect how they understand the religion that I practice.<\/p>\n

Yes, I was cynical last week. Why is it huge news that a Christian leader paid his hotel bill? Shouldn\u2019t that be the standard?<\/p>\n

But as the days have progressed in Pope Francis\u2019s tenure, it seems that his humility and generosity are neither a gimmick nor a fluke. His choice of shoes show more austerity than his predecessor. He has repeatedly stopped his topless popemobile to dismount and greet and bless people (I register my discomfit with this below). And he\u2019s asked the masses to pray for him \u2014 actually stopping his sermon for an extended pause. It\u2019s as though he actually wanted them to pray for him! And his sermons and speeches are filled with beautiful rhetoric that matches the Christianity that I attempt to practice, like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us never forget that authentic power is service.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I firmly believe that all human beings are\u00a0ontologically\u00a0the same. One human being does not have the power or authority to \u201cbless\u201d another human being, unless that blessing is seen as a mutual act that could just as easily go back the other way. That\u2019s not SOP in Catholicism, where clergy are granted the ability to perform certain functions (e.g., perform sacraments) that emanate from a place of ontological priority. I unconditionally reject that notion as sinful, reprehensible, and ultimately responsible for all sorts of institutional misogyny and abuse<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That being said, I appreciate both the actions and the words of Pope Francis, for he seems to be subtly subverting the ontological priority that his system assumes he has.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ultimately, I am a pragmatist. People occasionally say to me, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in divorce.\u201d I respond, \u201cThen I must not exist.\u201d In other words, you may not like divorce, but not believing in it is not one of the options. Divorce exists. Deal with it. I\u2019m not a fan of the papacy. I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-8336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-in-america","category-church","tag-catholic-church"],"yoast_head":"\nI'm Warming to the Pope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ultimately, I am a pragmatist. People occasionally say to me, "I don't believe in divorce." I respond, "Then I must not exist." 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