OPINION AND COMMENTARY
President Trump’s attack on Pope Leo for condemning wars, those who start them, and the invocation of God to justify them is not surprising. It would have been surprising if he had showed restraint and said nothing.
To the President, everything is personal, even when it is not. This isn’t the first time a Pope has condemned a war in modern times. The Holy See condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas War, the Iraq War, and the Vietnam War.
The fact that the attack has garnered support from some religious and political leaders is also not surprising in 21st century America. A certain segment of our country seeks to curry the President’s favor at all times and is willing to pay any price to do so, even at the cost of their own soul.
But this latest outrage against any one who challenges the President or his administration reveals something deeper and more profound about American Christianity: It is mostly empty of any moral authority.
The Physical and the Spiritual
Much of the criticism is that the Pope is not “staying in his lane.” The idea is that the Pope should limit himself to matters of faith and religion and not say anything about world affairs.
This demonstrates a dualism in American Christianity that is contrived for our comfort and convenience. It is also dangerous.
It splits the world into two spheres, the physical and the spiritual, and treats them as two areas that have no relation or impact on the other.
It argues that our political decisions have no religious implications because the two are completely unrelated. The irony is the many of those who take this view regarding Pope Leo’s comments are the same ones who are adherents to the heresy of Christian Nationalism.
The truth is that every decision we make in life, including political decisions, are spiritual.
Christianity is somewhat unique among world faiths because it places so much emphasis on there being no division between the physical world and the spiritual.
The incarnation is essential to the Christian faith. It was the act of God in becoming man to redeem the entire world, both physical and spiritual, and unite them. But the way many American Christians live is a demonstration of lack of faith, they do not really believe in the incarnation.
We treat religious faith as a convenience to support our personal and political views and as a hated obstacle when it does not. Usually we just transform our religion to fit our politics.
For a Christian every decision is a spiritual one–how I treat other people, what I spend my time doing, what I think, how I speak, and how I vote. By their fruits you shall know them.
The decision to start a war is a spiritual one, as is the decision to have or not have a child, to impose one’s religious or political views on another, to censor what we read or think or say, to make life more difficult for the stranger and alien in our midst, to not feed or help house the poor, and to not care for the veteran who has borne the battle, or for widows and orphans.
Every vote a Congressman or Senator makes is at its heart a spiritual decision. Every executive order a President signs is a spiritual one. Every time the President orders the military to attack, kill and destroy, that too is a spiritual decision. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. The same goes for all branches of government.
By any measure, Democratic or Republican, Right or Left, we have all fallen short.
