Ron DeSantis and other “anti-woke” leaders are in trouble. I don’t know whether DeSantis himself is or is not Catholic, but “DeSantis” sounds a lot like Spanish for “Of Saints.” I shouldn’t speculate, but he’s still in trouble because many of his constituents are Catholic, both Hispanics, Cubans, and Retirees. If the Pope doesn’t like these anti-LGBTQ laws, they might have to rethink their position. Of course, there are a TON of Conservative Catholics who think this pope is a screaming liberal and hate him. Perhaps he is… Nah, he’s just a Jesuit. The Jesuits’ entry-level requirement include two post-undergrad degrees Ph.D. in theology, and at least a masters in “Something else.” (Most have two Ph.D.s) Francis has a masters in Chemistry. We say it all the time; education leads to… a more liberal outlook.
It was just two months ago he called European leaders practically murderers for being so anti-immigrant. (His parents were immigrants to Argentina).
In the quote below, Francis mentions laws criminalizing LGBTQ measures as an injustice and a sin. However, if you look at DeSantis’s threats in “Don’t Say Gay,” and the possibility of losing your job, it creeps right up to the line of criminality. Some people would rather be fined on a misdemeanor than fired over what they teach.
From NBC News:
Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches
Probably best not to tell the evangelicals… Nah, they wouldn’t care what they think anyway.
The three Christian leaders spoke out on LGBTQ rights during an unprecedented joint airborne news conference returning home from South Sudan, where they took part in a three-day ecumenical pilgrimage to try to nudge the young country’s peace process forward.
Francis referred his Jan. 24 comments to the AP and repeated that such laws are “unjust.” He also repeated previous comments that parents should never throw their gay children out of the house. “To condemn someone like this is a sin,” he said. “Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”
That is way out on the edge for a Pope and will infuriate conservative Catholics. But I’d place Francis to the left of DeSantis on some of his punitive actions.
It is entirely fair to point out the Catholic schools that won’t hire openly gay teachers or allow health plans to cover birth control. And yet not all Catholic schools are created equal. I went to a Jesuit school for college (Gonzaga). Not only do they hire openly gay faculty, but they also have clubs for LGBTQ students, social support directed at specific LGBTQ issues, do not kick students out if in an open relationship, and their student clinic provides birth control medication for women who ask. Conservative alumni are furious. The Jesuits don’t care.
The point is that while slices of this country want to pull the nation back to the Stone Age for cultural purposes, even some of the most (normally) conservative voices are labeling such actions as morally wrong.
Obviously, the Catholic Church has decades of serious introspection, payments, apologies, and a clear, clean record ahead before they can even be seen as a moral institution. But one leader, on one issue, is cutting against the grain of the MAGA movement. I don’t print this to demonstrate how far the Pope has come but to show just how far the far right is behind.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: MUCH LEFT ADO
The Jesuits believe in scholarship in the eternal search for the truth. Anyone who doesn’t isn’t a ‘believer’, like the early followers were known by. Preyingmantis may be labeled whatever, but he fits Jesus’ reported description of the Jewish religious leaders in John 8:42-47. He called them the children of the devil. When they said you can’t talk to us this way, we’re the children of Abraham, he said you sure are. You’re the descendants of those that killed the prophets. He called the devil ,”the father of all lies”. We know which side of the line the Guns Over People party fall on, including the nazi in Florida.
By the way, I know the whole idea there is even evil powers and principalities is considered superstition, but here’s your warning…there are. I trust my own experience. Have a near death experience then we’ll talk. Someday each of us will be reminded of Hamlet’s observation, ” there are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy Horatio”. Count on it.
I have not had a near-death experience, I have had an ongoing real life experience that has proven to me that there is pure evil floating about. I assume there’s a counterbalance.
Email me if you’d like.
A few points:
1) “DeSantis” is NOWHERE close to “sounding Spanish.” The Spanish for “of saints” would be “de Santos” (as two words).
2) DeSantis claims ITALIAN heritage (which is a closer fit for the surname although it’s more likely to refer to coming from a particular town or village; the Italian plural for “saint” is “santi” and adding an “s” doesn’t do anything).
3) DeSantis does allegedly identify as Roman Catholic (but, as a GOPer, that only means he accepts the Pope’s words as relevant when they align with his own viewpoints; otherwise, Catholic dogma is whatever his local bishop dictates–I’m sure he wholeheartedly supports a bishop who refuses Communion to pro-choice politicians even when the Pope has declared that to be contrary to Church teachings).
4) All the above came from checking DeSantis’ Wiki page.
I said “I shouldn’t speculate.”
My thesis was that his laws are bordering on criminal – loss of a job, no pay – and Francis spoke out against it, which was 90% of the thing.
I have to write 11 a day on various places, so – as I said, I shouldn’t speculate.
When the facts do matter to the thesis, they are looked up as you’ve seen from links.
He can claim any label he likes. You can call a pile of dogshit ice cream but it remains what it is. The Germans in the 30s were a ‘christian’ nation, 90% if I remember correctly. We know what kind of ‘fruit’ those ‘christians’ produced…the Holocaust.
Jason would love to but my Google email isn’t working right now. My adopted 6 y/o somehow messed me up and they say I’m underage at 69. Ha. When I get it worked out will do. Sounds like we have ‘war’ stories to share. Glad whatever happened hasn’t done you in. For a while, I wasn’t too sure about myself. Happened in 1973 and every detail is still burned into my memory. Keep up the good fight!