In the age of Pope Francis, can a good Republican be a good Catholic?

What a SNARK you are.....some Christian.

So making light Of YoUr shouTING typiNG sTYle is SNark? LOL

LOL...I did Google it...Lawton Chiles Middle School....OK!!!!

I see what your saying, If we were to take this pope’s ideological pronouncements as tenets of the Catholic faith then being Catholic would be incompatible with being Republican or Democrat or really much of anything but a subject of the imperial Pope.

That said as a Southern Baptist I don’t really understand what Catholics see in their Pope beyond that he seems to be a crazy old man that claims to speak for God dispute the fact that we already have God’s word written down for us in the Bible.
Beyond that I for one believe God speaks to each and everyone of us, to Catholics not share this believe?

Why do you need one man in Rome to run everything on earth for you?

Well there you go, its possible to look things up for yourself, and to capitalize the words that should be capitalized and not do every 3rd or 5th in a post. Excellent!!!!

There is no protestant theologian, pastor, bishop who is considered to speak for all protestant Christians.
Certainly none of those you listed speak for me.
No leader is said to be infallible when addressing matters of faith and morality.
I may admire, respect or have love for certain pastors or leaders but I am free to disagree and check my Bible.

I don’t really understand what Catholics see in their Pope beyond that he seems to be a crazy old man that claims to speak for God...Why do you need one man in Rome to run everything on earth for you?

Interesting points and/or questions. If someone claims to be a practicing Catholic and a faithful Catholic, the Papacy is an important institution. The thing of it is is it doesn't seem to be only Catholics who think it's an important institution.

Heck's bells our own MSM collection of atheists, sodomites and pro-slavery activists waits with baited breath for every Pope's latest pronouncement.

During my life two or three of them were genuinely good men who were or became true giants on the world stage, recognized that role and performed miraculously in their roles. Pius XII rescued Jews at a rate that made Oskar Schindler look like a piker and was more in the Raoul Wallenberg class.

John Paul II was an important part of the Reagan- Thatcher-JP II team that brought down the Soviet Union.

People have argued most of my life about the greatness of John XXIII. There isn't any doubt he started a process that shook up the world and is still being felt today. A pope can be a great leader of a great institution i.e. The Catholic Church. When he is, he's like the leader of any institution. People he leads expect him to do certain things and he expects that what he does will have impact. If he is leading a religious institution, he needs a good moral foundation, and IMHO, must be the Rock of Gibralter in his leadership. He can NEVER bend the width of a scintilla in his assessment of right and wrong because such isn't relative.

Popes that fail at this are in the wrong job at the wrong time or do much damage in the process. If Callixtus III were not such an evil man who normalized some hellish practices, the Lutheran Church may have never come into existence. There may have never been a need for a Protestant Reformation.

...we already have God’s word written down for us in the Bible. Beyond that I for one believe God speaks to each and everyone of us, do Catholics not share this believe?

Of course. In my mid to late 40s I came to believe that John, the evangelist penned his gospel thinking two millennia into the future and had me specifically in mind. The same is so for any literate people (or illiterate people who have really good memories and have someone to read that written word to them). I guess we don't need churches or pastor's or rabbis or any leaders or places of group worship. At least for me, I'm not the most exemplary Christian ever and need the discipline of a default place to keep me at least stumbling in the right direction.

If we are part of an organization we have to, at least, try to live within the framework of that organization. Otherwise, our claim of being part is hollow. In a semi-free society, living Catholic is no different than living Southern Baptist. We either accept what they're selling or we're not part of the organization. If not, our claim is hollow.

When I got big enough to fight back, no one ever pointed a gun and said, "Live Catholic." It's voluntary and a matter of faith. So far it works for me. I just hope Pope Francis doesn't do irreparable, even if well intended, damage.

Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.

Conservative, orthodox, Lutherans.

If the Bishop and priest are preaching that Jesus was not Incarnate (not fully God and fully Man) then they are by one of the seven councils, not Catholic.

Thank you for your well thought out reply. It is enlightening to see the internal politics of the catholic church. I guess the underlining point we protestant have always made is that The church is too important an institution to be run by human hands, let alone one particular human’s hands. That the Church should be a community of believers bound by their common believes not the dictates of any one potentially corrupt if not heretical man.

Still I can see the strength of such leadership to keep the church on the straight path. But it depends upon the frailty of men and the corruption of power.
Pope Francis like many other popes of the past seems to see his position as political more than theological and that as you pointed out is not good for the church he is suppose to be leading theologically.

Will the catholic church endure the current politician for a leader? Most likely but connecting religion and science have always been great errors by church leaders just as connecting policy and religion. The church is about guiding men to the bible and letting God lead them from the heart.

Thanks for your reply. The only part of it I question is the part about science and religion. I don't find them incompatible. Maybe you don't either and I missed that point.

I seriously question "religious" people who make a scientific conclusion du jour the basis for saying this or that is what God commands us to do. I always thought the laws of physics, as we understand them, were as much God's creation as were the all other aspects of life.

Scientific conclusions have proven a good deal more fallible in history than any theological thing some Pope issued ex-cathedra.

When a religious leader says something must be so even when it's obviously false as we can note using God-given senses. such religious leaders need to be run out of town on a rail. When Francis talks about "man made climate change, he sounds every bit as annoyingly stupid as does obama or Jeb Bush.

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I seriously question “religious” people who make a scientific conclusion du jour the basis for saying this or that is what God commands us to do. I always thought the laws of physics, as we understand them, were as much God’s creation as were the all other aspects of life.
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Like you I firmly beleive God created all things that guide and make up our universe including the laws of nature as they really are (not necessarily as we may presently or any time in the future come to understand them).

The bible however does not seem to be a book overly concerned with the physical workings of God’s universe but rather our own personal moral spiritual workings that define us.

This to my limited understanding of God’s grace is the real prize to him. Not the achievements or understanding of his creation but that of our own soul. For God puts us on this Earth only for a limited time insignificant compared to the period we spend elsewhere.

To this end I don’t really think its meaningful or helpful for a preacher to preach about the working’s of Gods universe, and it is certainly a distraction and perhaps even dishonest when or if they do so claiming the authority of God’s Church or even his word.

As for membership in the Catholic church requiring anything beyond that of the basic qualifications of the christian faith as spelled out in the bible. I suppose that is your earthly institution’s choice but being a Protestant I don’t see it as honest to claim the Catholic Church’s additional membership requirements come from God, or that they are a refection of God’s will.

I don’t accept that the Pope has any special mouth piece or ear from God as I find nothing in the bible to prove him as such. I think Popes are men nothing more frail leaders of an institution that provides structure and services the world over in helping to spread the world of God but they are only so good in that regard as they remain faithful to the word of God and not try to put their own word’s into God’s mouth.

We are after all trying to walk in the foot steps of Jesus, not simply any man who claims to follow him.

To that end I find the existence of the Protestant denominations to be a necessary and healthy thing to help keep in check the potential for corruption in any human institution Such as the church. I do not see inter-denomination rivalry as necessary for anything other than the attempt to remain truer to God’s word.

I feel our churches rather recognizing the frailty of men being the necessity for their separate competition in spreading and upholding the good words of God should welcome converts moving freely from one denomination to the other and back as leaders in each fall away and rediscover the lord.

If a Catholic man finds the leaders of that church are straying away from the word of God they should move to a different church more faithful to that word. No church should institute rules seeking to restrict or make difficult that movement.

I think Popes are men nothing more frail leaders of an institution that provides structure and services the world over in helping to spread the world of God but they are only so good in that regard as they remain faithful to the word of God and not try to put their own word’s into God’s mouth.

I've often wondered if Popes most worthy of the title don't see life about this way.

I suspect, in the end, you and I think about what's important pretty close to the same way.

There is no infallible issue here. Infallibility has probably already been explained on this thread.

I know...I was just speaking about general protestant practices.