President of Catholic Bishops Sounds Much Like Trump


Archbishop Gomez sounds like Trump in that he can't make an appearance or issue a statement without the equivalent of "I am the greatest President. I was robbed of reelection." Trump, as we recall, was finally banned from Twitter for repeating his themes. 

In Gomez' case he issued best wishes to Biden but could not resist retreading his commercial against abortion and birth control. Sometimes people who read my blog wonder why I write so much about abortion. It is because some religious leaders talk about it so much. 

Like Pope Benedict a few years ago could not give a Christmas message without bashing his favorite villain, homosexuality, Gomez uses what should be the hand of help and support to bash abortion. If ever an Archbishop exhibited odd behavior we saw it yesterday.

The Catholic Bishops, along with the Pope, are the face of an institution called the Catholic Church. Trust and faith in institutional religion used to poll favorable in the 75% range. Now it polls in the 40% range. Trust is falling. The reaction of some, like the Archbishop, is to close ranks and carry a bigger stick. Hammer home conformity so people get it. The result is a smaller church.

The Archbishop sounds like Trump in another way. It is that winning is everything, especially in politics. Not only must he defeat his opponents, he must destroy them. Catholic Bishops believe they have the high moral ground, higher than anyone else's. That is in contrast to the editor of Christianity Today. He recognizes that the faith comprises a variety of political and religious views and a variety must be welcome for it to survive.

Catholic Bishops would do well to recognize the limits of their egos and influence. After letting the faithful know they should vote for candidates who want to put their religious views on abortion into law they found their candidate did not win. It is laughable they might think they can influence Biden when they were failures in the Presidential election.  

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