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A Challenge to the Title of Most Clueless Catholic™
Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Senator Time Kaine is mounting a serious challenge to Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for the title of America’s Most Clueless Catholic™. (There is a special category for Secretary of State John Kerry, but Ricochet’s Code of Conduct doesn’t allow one to name it).
During his keynote address at the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, an influential LGBT advocacy group, Kaine predicted that the Catholic Church will eventually drop its opposition to same-sex marriage. Channeling the gobbledygook that, at times, comes from Pope Francis, Kaine dug deep into his Jesuit training and opined:
“I think it’s going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator who, in the first chapter of Genesis, surveyed the entire world, including mankind, and said, ‘It is very good’.”
Kaine (also) cited Pope Francis’ “who am I to judge” comment, and then said: “I want to add: Who am I to challenge God for the beautiful diversity of the human family? I think we’re supposed to celebrate it, not challenge it.”
Like many of his fellow contenders for the title, Kaine cherry-picked his verses, forgetting the parts about God creating man in His own image, creating them male and female, and commanding them to be fruitful and multiply. But heck, why sweat the details for such a lofty goal?
Of course Kaine, adopts the mantra of his mentors by being “personally opposed” to abortion. This however, has not prevented him from receiving a 100 percent rating in 2016 from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of the nation’s largest abortion provider and, recently, a perfect rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America. Why let your principles inform your actions, right?
Of course, the progressive media love it when a Catholic runs as a Democrat. For instance, the New York Times gushed over Kaine’s “spiritual awakening” in Honduras. But as one writer has put it, it seems the experience brought Kaine closer to Karl Marx than Jesus Christ. Of course, with his grounding in Liberation Theology, and his upbringing under Jesuit influence — and the friendships he carried on with the liberation theology priests — has given Kaine a bond with the Pope:
“I really feel I know him,” Mr. Kaine said. “The age he was in 1980 and ’81 was about the same age as a lot of my friends were. The Jesuits.”
Sheesh.
But Kaine should not assume his title in this august contest will remain unchallenged. Not to be outdone, two members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington D.C. — signed a joint declaration last month with Iranian Religious leaders that contained this type of nonsense:
Christianity and Islam share a commitment to love and respect for the life, dignity, and welfare of all members of the human community. Both traditions reject transgressions and injustices as reprehensible, and oppose any actions that endanger the life, health, dignity, or welfare of others. We hold a common commitment to peaceful coexistence and mutual respect.
What a world we live in. The race is on for the title.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
As a Protestant, I think we have the Clueless category nailed down but I am open-minded.
Be not vexed by the ramblings of the clueless…We have more important work to do: With ourselves, and then, one person, one day at a time…One word, my friend: Leaven. :-)
I see a conspiracy theory taking shape in the darker shadows of my mind about Kaine. I met hard core marxists in Central America in the 80s, many with religious affiliations. Some, like Senator’s Dodd’s staffer, no religious affiliation, were nasty pieces of work, but most were unctuously soft spoken like Tom Daschle or Harry Reed maddeningly delivering utterly ridiculous talking points. I assumed they were Marxists because they always supported one or another of the Cuban or Sandinista or Soviet backed movements. They repeated false party generated stories and got them out to multipliers instantly and seemed to show up when least convenient. Someone who knew Kaine in Honduras please provide some real information on the man to help me quash these inchoate thoughts.
“He made them MALE and FEMALE and saw that it was good.”
As you were saying?
Was he auditioning for a spot on “The View?” There is so much nothing in there. It is scandalous.
2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. the person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.
Yet more evidence that you don’t know the first thing about Jesuit training.
Jeez, he’s not even going to wait until he’s in the White House before he gets out the scissors and starts cutting out the parts he doesn’t like? I guess Romans, First Corinthians and First Timothy are all about to get a little shorter. Leviticus probably gets tossed completely.
KC,
Isn’t that hyperbolic? How does anyone not know the first thing?
Sorry Scott, but the male and female aspect, as well as the interpretation of fruitfulness, are subject to a different interpretation.
He’s cherry picking Francis quotes. In context the “Who am I to judge?” line really meant (I’m paraphrasing) “If a homosexual wishes to find redemption who am I to question his sincerity?” Contrary to the what the hysterics on the right and the selective hearers on the left keep saying, Catholic teaching on homosexuality has not changed at all under Francis.
So much Magesterium and Tradition to edit, so little time. Since our friends on the left love to emulate China, expect to see this at a church near you soon:
Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association
Finally, Christ and Marx, hand-in-hand.
“Gobbledygook” from the Pope? I’ve seen the media misunderstand him, but I don’t recall Gobbledygook.
But hey who am I to judge?
His ex-extemporaneous speaking style gets him trouble. Reminds me of someone else…
Both Kaine’s comment and the statement by the Catholics/Iranian clerics express a desire for change, for something that is different in the future. They are not an interpretation of current theology. As such, I see nothing wrong with them. Of course this future may not materialize.
You raise a legit point.
Mr. Kaine, and the good Bishop and Cardinal should spend some time today meditating on today’s Office of Readings.
I would not blame the entire Jesuit order on Mr. Kaine’s rationalizations. Unfortunately there are Catholics, from clergy to laity that prove the old adage that heresy builds upon heresy. Schismatic and heretical Catholics receive far more attention than they deserve from a media that also thrives on rationalizations rather than reason.
Mr. Kaine’s claim that the Jesuits deserve credit for his rationalizations does not make the claim true, that is a generalization. Mr. Kaine is responsible for his own schismatic views and heretical utterances. There are many Jesuits that know Mr. Kaine is a fool.
Peter Berger said in the future the only marxists remaining will be three Brazilian nuns. And possibly Tim Kaine. And this guy:
In another short clip Professor Jameson has kinds words for Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the practice of sending members of the bourgeoisie to the countryside to learn from the peasants.
As you said, sheesh!
Yeah, despite my refusal to blame the Jesuits for Kaine’s idiocy, I don’t want to distract from the fact that Kaine is indeed a fool.
One of the skills that Jesuits teach is the ability to discern, which often means opening your mind and heart to seeing “the other side.” But that doesn’t mean you have to agree with the other side; you just have to know what they’re arguing. In that respect, they’re like defense lawyers – whether you agree with the defendant or not, you still have to make the case.
Kaine is just a run-of-the-mill moral relativist, trying to cover himself under someone else’s authority. His argument has no more depth than saying, “God is love, so spreading love, in any way, is God-like!”
God is love, and love seeks the good of the beloved, and some things are good for us and some are not; therefore, knowing how to not to love is God-like.
These people scare me.
That was so cosmically stupid he must have tenure at a prestigious university.
Make it a double for the bishop and the cardinal:
I think that Mr. Kaine may be applying to be the editor of The National Catholic Reporter.
Duke University. And, Mom and Dad – tuition is a mere $67,399 per year!
Joe Biden is still the senior Catholic dhimmi in the Democratic Party. Like fellow nominal Catholic Dick Gehardt and non-Catholic Al Gore he was not only avowedly right-to-life but promised (in writing) to the Ad Hoc Committe on Right-to-Life to push for a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. In 1988, when it became clear that no anti-abortion candidate would ever again get the Democratic presidential nomination, Gore, Gephardt and Biden all pretended they were never pro-life. Gore brazenly (and bizarrely) did ads in the primaries hitting Gephardt for flip-flopping on abortion on the theory that Catholic Democrats would resent being betrayed by one of their own more than by a Tennessee Protestant. The former pro-life guys all lost as the party nominated a guy who was never pro-life–the execrable Mike Dukakis.
The Party used to stage a number of empty eyewash votes for the traditional-values sucker Democratic voter to allow some congressional Democrats to pretend they still adhere to the Hyde Amendment or some other conservative values position but they don’t do that so much anymore. Like other supposedly centrist but vastly disappointing Virginia Democrats (Warner, Webb) Kaine obeys when the hard left cracks the whip without even a whimper of dissent. “Judas” may be too strong but he is very much in the Richard Rich category, a weasel seeking political power at the expense of his supposed principles.
Moral relativism is a theme forced upon me today, I guess.
I started by reading William Voegeli’s piece this morning on National Review Online entitled “Hillary’s Empty Moralism Is a Reflection of the Greater Progressive Movement.” (Great article, by the way.) Here’s a snippet:
Now Kaine’s foolishness. It’s like the angels are screaming at me to do something to stop the relativism. Of course, far more profound thinkers from me have beaten me to it. From Benedict XVI:
Ah yes, The National Catholic Reporter should crib their masthead from The New York Times; All the heresies fit to print, and some that are not.