Pope Francis Shows How Rigid & Ugly Amy Coney Barrett's Brand of Christianity Is

This week Pope Francis revealed his support for gay civil unions, breaking with Catholic tradition. Catholic conservatives were shocked, of course, but the Pope's message simply acknowledges that the Church's long-held position on the issue didn't reflect today's scientific consensus on human sexuality and wasn't particularly "Christian."

The Hill: "Pope Francis’s comments occurred in a documentary about his life titled “Francesco,” which premiered in Rome. In the film, the pontiff said that gay individuals are “children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it [their sexuality].”

It's interesting that the pontiff's statement was released the same week that we discovered that conservative Catholic Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett served on the board of a group of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren’t welcome in the classroom. The schools, in Indiana, Minnesota and Virginia, are affiliated with People of Praise, a deeply conservative Christian sect that relies on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Under the Free Exercise Clause, evangelical churches and schools in the South and groups like People of Praise are within their rights to discriminate based on sexual orientation just as they are free to teach that the world was created in seven days, 4000 years ago. But, Pope Francis's statement this week shows how ugly such discrimination is in light of what we have learned about human sexuality over the last 2000 years. Francis's Christianity is about truth and love, even when that contradicts tradition.

In the 21st century, groups such as People of Praise will become an anachronism, but because of Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court, it will take much longer than it should.

#religion #news #opinion

By: Don Lam & Curated Content