It's far from Northern Ireland, but...
the marriage of conservative Catholicism and the evangelical right in the US was pretty much an established institution. Its lines blurred to the point that the term 'cathevangelical' described many top Catholics such as Rick Santorum, Pat Buchanan, Paul Ryan and even many American bishops and cardinals. As we all know, the two religious groups worked together to lobby against such policies as gay marriage and women's reproductive rights. They were in one mind in their anti-science stance over evolution and global climate change. Their worship of capitalism, their hatred of Muslims, their rigid ideology and belief in giving obeisance to the wealthy while denigrating the poor made them brothers-in-arms.
The advent of Pope Francis has shaken their establishment. He's condemned their precious capitalism, their worship of wealth, the golden calf and their treatment of the poor among them. He's placed their enemy, science, in the front and center, where it's challenging their perceptions of their own creation, their grasping for wealth from fossil fuels, their power over the masses they seek to keep in subservience.
Is it a schism in the air I smell, a revolution of American liberal religion from its conservative cousins? The backlash against Francis is beginning in the religious right. Time will tell if it's only grumblings or if it results in a full-fledged rip in the fabric of American conservative Catholicism and the religious right. My family is rabidly Catholic, with only one sister who is of the conservative bent and struggled in the primaries in 2012 as to her choice to vote. She was fervent for Rick Santorum until he made his comment about Spanish speakers since we're Hispanic. And I see the conundrum she's in now. She has a Master's Degree in nursing and once believed in science until she got sucked into the right wing bizarro world. After that, she scoffed at the Big Bang Theory, evolution and science in general. I can see the struggle she's going through as she tries to reconcile American Catholicism with the comments of a pope whose ascent she heralded with joy and love.
I'm not going to be watching all this with a Big Gulp and a bag of popcorn, tempting though it may be. Religious acrimony can be fun to watch if its ramifications don't have the potential power to shake countries and kingdoms. I'm not a fan of Francis, but I can see where the devil I know is better than the devil I don't. Am I making a big deal about all this? Will the turmoil Francis is causing in conservative Catholicism and religious right turn out to be sound and fury, signifying nothing? A mere tempest in a teapot? Or will it cause a series of events to unfold that will create chaos we can't even begin to understand right now? He's threatening the fossil fuel industry after all. The fabric of capitalism and the kings who sit on their golden thrones (never mind that he's the richest guy in the world).
I like watching theists beating on each other. I don't like it when it results in any kind of assassinations or blood on the street. Am I being a drama queen here?
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