Indeed. They're utterly baffled (and enraged) by him, which really does prove that a startlingly huge number of American Catholics and Christians in general have never bothered to actually read much of the Bible.
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he started right off the bat: his first big event as Pope was the annual foot-washing for... Palm Sunday, I think? ... and there were a lot of cardinals offended that he went to an orphanage and washed the feet of orphans, many of whom were not Catholic, instead of washing the feet of cardinals.
FWIW I am not Catholic and I know he's still hidebound in a lot of ways but his sincere dedication to caring for "the least of these" really impresses me.
The way I feel about it is he’s basically as progressive as a pope can possibly be. It’s not perfect but I’ll take “ok whatever it’s a sin but it shouldn’t be a crime and of course we should materially support LGBT people who need help”
It was so annoying when the 80s bombarded us this constant message that we were supposed to love and respect Reagan and John Paul II and both of them were genial old men with awful ideas empowering truly horrific underlings.
For me it’s far more about what someone does for members of the community than whether their statements regarding that community are carefully sanitized to perfection and it’s impossible to argue he doesn’t care about materially supporting those who need it
The man still believes in the dogma of the organization, he is just interpreting in its most humane and decent fashion possible. It isn't revolutionary to emphasize the very real message of equality and social justice that exists in the words of Jesus, it is just shocking and affirming to see it.
One of the more bizarre experiences in my life was watching the Last Temptation of Christ, seeing Jesus as this very human figure. And I was, wow, I'm not Christian, but I like this guy.
And then some evangelical friends from high school, without having seen the film, call it horrible.
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https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/03/28/175601237/in-ritual-pope-francis-washes-the-feet-of-young-inmates-women
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/pope-francis-kisses-disfigured-man
And then some evangelical friends from high school, without having seen the film, call it horrible.
They are just the loudest.