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First it was Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz. Now Trump is at war with the Pope.
Returning to the Vatican from a trip to Mexico, Pope Francis questioned Trumps’s (alleged) Christian faith, due to Trump’s much-ballyhooed promise to build a wall between Mexico and the United States. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”
Trump’s biggest rival in the race, Ted Cruz, is also for protecting the Mexico-U.S. border; in fact, in 2012 the aspiring Texas Senator supported building a wall across the Texas border before Trump ever promoted it. I don’t see Cruz attacking the pope. But this is Trump whose (alleged) Christianity is being questioned and, well. . . . Trump’s gonna Trump.
Here’s part of Trump’s rambling response to the pope, from his campaign website:
If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.
He concludes:
For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.
What a change from earlier on Thursday, when Trump was interviewed on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily. “I respect the pope, and I love the pope in many ways. I love what he stands for, and I like his attitude. He’s very independent, and he’s very different. He’s sort of a modern day pope if you think about it.”
Well, that was then. The Pope had the audacity to question His Trumpness, and the potential bromance between His Trumpness and Francis was instantaneously extinguished.
But, of course, Trump’s minions were quick to defend His Trumpness. Dan Scavino, Trump’s senior adviser and director of social media, claimed in a tweet that the Vatican itself is surrounded by a wall.
Amazing comments from the Pope- considering Vatican City is 100% surrounded by massive walls. pic.twitter.com/g3iVLDVGe5
— Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) February 18, 2016
And Trump fanboy John Nolte from Breitbart also was prompt to ridicule Pope Francis on the Vatican wall.
https://twitter.com/NolteNC/status/700390569344966656
Not so fast. Hot Air’s senior editor Ed Morrissey pointed out that the Vatican wall does not extend all the way around Vatican City. He should know — he’s Catholic and has traveled to Rome. The “wall” that Scavino illustrated is a political border, not a complete wall.
There is no wall in front of the Piazza di San Pietro as shown here. https://t.co/z5osQ7IWo4
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) February 18, 2016
As far as Trump claiming that it was “disgraceful” for a religious leader like the Pope to question his faith, perhaps the thrice-married, property-grubbing, misogynistic, openly promiscuous, and lying casino-builder who doesn’t even ask God for forgiveness might want to think deeply about his (alleged) Christian faith. I think the Pope has every right to question Trump’s faith.
But he won’t. Who knows, maybe he’s huddling with his lawyers trying to figure out a way to threaten the Pope with a lawsuit.
GWB says: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”
Sorry, dude-in-a-funny hat, but you’re WRONG.
Scripture is full of wall-building. Nehemiah might be a book the popester would want to read. If he’s concerned only about the gospel, then he might want to look at Paul (and others) excommunicating people – that’s a very clear metaphorical wall-building.
He might also want to review (throughout the OT – Isaiah, in particular – and some of Paul’s writings) the bits about the purpose of gov’t, as instituted by God: the protection of the people and the execution of justice. The pope might also want to study one of the big reasons for that big schism at the beginning of the 16th century – that the Roman Catholic church was meddling in politics, where it shouldn’t have been involved. There was a war caused by it, and everything – 30 years, iirc.
Get off your high horse, Francis, and stop lecturing people who know MUCH better what it is to be a Christian than you appear to.
I am proud to be a Christian
Sorry, Donald, but you certainly don’t show it. I doubt you even grasp the basics of the faith.
No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.
Sorry, Donald, but that’s utter, prog bullcrap. And, yes, I’m judging you – just like Scripture says I should.
Now, having said that, whether he is a Christian or not is not my most important criteria for a President right now. Though, I happen to think a conservative Christian would probably be a better choice than the liberal, big-gov’t “Christians” out there or the non-Christians. *Anyone* would be a step up over our current emperor-king, however.
Kim Quade says: I agree with you on the Pope’s statements — he is consumed too much by Catholic social justice, probably due his South American origins. As a Lutheran, I do miss Benedict. . . .
But all the GOP candidates have expressed a need to protect the borders — some, of course, more than others. They’ll just move on, but in Trump World, there is no such thing, is there.
Johnny says: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”
I think the Pope is forgetting something…
1st point – author kim quade attacks trumps christianity by calling him openly promiscuous– i’m reading this article on a site called “victory girls”, which has as its masthead image a very very scantily clad woman in a provocative pose with her leg hiked up to nearly show it all, accompanied by several other smaller similarly provocative suggestively posed drawings of women…..
2nd point — the pope has no clue about what scripture teaches of true christianity… by his proclamation, nehemiah wasn’t a christian…what would the pope make of revelation 21:12 and its context??????
Kate says: Hi and welcome to the blog!
Just a few comments in reference to your first point: #1 – Unlike Donald J. Trump, we aren’t running for POTUS using Christianity as a hook to entice Christian voters. We also don’t advertise our blog as a Christian blog though many of our writers are. #2 – I encourage you to review your WW2 history about the significance pinups played on the morale of our pilots and their crews. We love that time period, are military supporters, and our pinup in the masthead is very decently clad. But now I’m curious. Do you have these same concerns about Melania Trump and some of her photos? Or is she exempt to your criticism? That’s what I thought. 🙂
Have a great evening.
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