Wednesday, September 30, 2015

The Pope Meets With The Pentacostalist

So, I've got a message saying, in effect, "Na, na, na, na, nah, the pope met with Kim Davis".  As if that's going to upset me.  I read the report that he met with her, in secret, that her lawyer leaked the story and that he gave her some rosaries and told her to keep praying.   I don't see anywhere that her marriage status was mentioned, nor her apostasy from the Catholic church, under whose rules, as they stand now, she couldn't receive communion.

I was curious to see what her new, Pentecostal, church thought of Catholicism and the Pope, suspecting it could have, not long ago, called it  "the whore of Babylon" or some such thing.   What I found was a bit more interesting.

According to what I read online, she belongs to "Oneness Pentacostalism" which, I have to admit, I didn't know from Muggletonianism.   Reading about it I wondered how much the Pope understood, since he gave her rosaries.  The "Oneness" church is anti-trinitarian and, I read, rejects the Nicean Creed.  Which would make the rosary a non-starter as it begins with the trinitarian formula of the sign of the cross and, immediately, goes into the Apostles Creed which, I doubt, the Oneness theology would countenance anymore than the Nicene Creed.  Not to mention the Hail Marys before another trinitarian prayer, Glory be to the Father, and a lot more Hail Marys.    Needless to say the differences between Roman Catholicism and the Oneness church are somewhat bigger than those questions of the "filioque" clause of the creed which the Catholic and Orthodox churches split over and have kept them apart for a real long time.   I'd really like to know what they make of Catholic Marian theology.

As to "keep praying" I'd say the same thing to her, praying for a better grasp of the responsibility to practice equal justice and the difference between her personal belief and her official duties.

I said the other day that I doubted Pope Francis understood the issues involved, I suspect, even more so, that some right-wing member of the hierarchy arranged the meeting to cause mischief during the Pope's visit, trying to spin it to the right of where it was likely to settle.

Jesus, specifically, criticized Kim Davis's marriage and divorce choices, he was silent on a single, monogamous gay marriage.   Overlooking that makes it legitimate to ask what else could be overlooked.   I knew there were things I didn't agree with Pope Francis about, but there are a lot more things, some of which, like climate change and economic justice are more important.  Even with gay marriage the law of the land, those issues still endanger LGBT folk as much as they do everyone else. He's still to the left of Barack Obama or any of the other secular leaders of the world.

Update:  Well, yes, actually, Jesus did criticize Kim Davis's marriage and divorce choices,  Luke 16:18.   I know it's kind of, you know, old fashioned but, reading, it works.

11 comments:

  1. According to the NYT, her parents are Catholic, and she gave the rosaries to them.

    But, yeah, being anti-Trinitarian makes me wonder what "blessing" from the Pope she could accept, and just how devoted to her denomination's teachings she really is. OTOH, as Fr. Martin said of the visit, the Pope met with Mark Wahlberg, too, and that doesn't imply the Pope liked "Ted."

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    1. I had to look up Mark Wahlberg and Ted. I think I saw him on a drama show once and seem to remember he was a good actor, but it was a long time ago and I'm kind of fuzzy on that. I seem to recall he played a wrongly convicted person. Ted, I know I know the name of every movie I've watched in the past thirty years, there being so few of them. The description makes me think I'd remember one that bad.

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  2. "Jesus, specifically, criticized Kim Davis's marriage and divorce choices, "

    That was in the New Testament book entitled ASSHOLES, apparently.
    :-)

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    1. There you go again, thinking it's all about you.

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    2. Oh, and it's pointed out to me, now, that your fellow Eschatots are reliably illiterate.

      I also see Atrios wrote a major post today about the pressing issue of ear worms. When's the last time he wrote something that long? Let me guess, it was about parking in Philly

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  3. Man, you're the best film critic since Rex Reed, Sparky.
    :-)

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  4. Replies
    1. So it was even stupider than the description I read of it. Glad I missed it.

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  5. Remember when people used to mock the trolls for trolling because it meant they had no lives?

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    1. I'd settle for getting trolled by someone who had a life of the mind. I think if I'd gone with Daily Kos when I was choosing a regular blog in the early days I might have a better troll. I don't think Sims could have mustered the attention to navigate Kos.

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