Pope Francis condemned the "very strong, organised, reactionary attitude" in the US church and said Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

Pope Francis condemned the “very strong, organised, reactionary attitude” in the US church and said Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the US Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

Francis’ comments were an acknowledgment of the divisions in the US Catholic Church, which has been split between progressives and conservatives who long found support in the doctrinaire papacies of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI, particularly on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.

  • @SCB@lemmy.world
    3•1 year ago

    If you allow taxing churches you open the door for Republicans to just tax every church they disagree with, and I’m pretty sure you can figure out how that will go.

      • @SCB@lemmy.world
        4•1 year ago

        The problem is there will still be untaxed churches and all of those churches will be evangelical churches that promote the Republican party.

        All the others will be taxed out of existence.

            • the post of tom joad
              2•1 year ago

              While true, how the us government works in practice currently cannot be a barrier for ideas. I mean that it isn’t working at all

              • @SCB@lemmy.world
                3•1 year ago

                I’d argue being a policy realist is an absolute necessity, rather than a “barrier for ideas.”

                I am a volunteer climate lobbyist in a deeply red constituency, so I very much live a life bound by practicality.

                My rep I lobby most often has solar panels and drives an EV and votes against climate change proposals unless we can sell them as “job creation” so he can sell them to his constituents.

                The messy details absolutely take precedence over what we’d like.

              • @SCB@lemmy.world
                1•1 year ago

                You are aware that the entire reason taxing churches was a big deal in the 18th century is that we’ve already seen what happens when taxing churches is made political, right?

                Do you know this is a topic with historical precedence, in a situation in which it is laughably easy to predict what a certain party would do with this power?