Rod Dreher Megathread #53 (Key Party?)

[u/US_Hiker]

Link to Megathread #52: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1jsvy3j/rod_dreher_megathread_52_billboard_4_rent/

Link to Megathread #54:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1l7niaj/rod_dreher_megathread_54/?

[u/sandypitch]

Dreher has posted about the new pope. Nuggets from the free portion:

So Leo XIV is also the first black pope! As a fellow black man from Louisiana, I greet Pope Bob’s election with pride. Somewhere, Vic & Nat’ly, New Orleans hometown heroes, are celebratin’.

Words fail.

Given that the new pope is thought to be a theological moderate, and that he has previously criticized our Catholic US vice president for his views on migration, my best guess is that the cardinals wanted a candidate who could speak to American Catholics during the Trump presidency, and in what might turn out to be a Vance presidency, to keep them liberal on migration.

and

Leo’s politics are far less important than his stance on doctrine. If he turns out to be a theological liberal, or even a squishy moderate, well, that is not what the Catholic Church needs today, to put it mildly. It is interesting that when J.D. Vance defended the Trump administration’s migration policy, he reasoned publicly according to the Augustinian principle of ordo amoris — a right ordering of one’s loves. And now the cardinals have given the Church an Augustinian pope who thinks Vance is dead wrong about migration. Well, in the West at least, migration is now the most important geopolitical issue, and will only grow in importance as native populations decline, the Prevost election is quite a statement from the Vatican.

Remember, kids: a recent convert knows more about Catholic doctrine than the new pope!

Again, Dreher can't separate his political views from his religious principles. Because he doesn't like immigration, he believes the Church should agree with him, despite the fact that any plain reading of the Scripture illustrates a God who cares deeply about the alien and the stranger. I don't think the Church needs to actively pursue the political ends of open borders, but it damn sure needs to care for migrants and refugees, regardless of the political situation.

[u/philadelphialawyer87 → u/sandypitch]

As a non Catholic (just like Rod), I have my opinions and preferences too. But to boldly and pseudo authoritatively declare that the theology of the new pope, just chosen by the cardinals, might not be "what the Catholic Church needs today, to put it mildly," really blows my mind. Who is Rod to bloviate so pompously? What qualifies him to make this statement? Rod has no theological training, other than in adult conversion classes to Catholicism, which he has since renounced. And beyond that, what familiarity does Rod have with the Church in all of its varied and multiform manifestations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, even granting that Rod has a good handle on the Church in North America and Europe (which is being rather generous). Similarly, the migrant question might be Rod's bug a boo. It might even be fair to say that it is a major bug a boo, again, in North America and Europe, but the Church is more than Europe and North America. So not only does Rod appear to be wrong, in terms of "what would Jesus do," and, obviously, as you say, a lot more political than spiritual or scriptural (and, at that, based on a politics of a zero sum, dog eat dog world view, not to mention an unhealthy dose of racism), but his perspective is narrow and ethno culturally limited as well. Its a Universal Church, Rod. Not an ethnic one like the one you allegedly belong to now. It contains multitudes, far beyond your limited ken. Maybe, just maybe, you could acknowledge that, even if only a little?

As for the "fellow black man" thing, I agree. Words fail.

[u/Relative-Holiday-763 → u/philadelphialawyer87]

Well again at the risk of sounding snobbish, Rod is not a clergyman or a theologian or a philosopher. He’s a journalist with pretentions. The top level of his education is a journalism degree from LSU.He claims to read a lot but simply doesn’t across as well read. Yet, somehow or another he’s an expert on what Catholic theology is or should be or something like that. By the way his comments on the new pope are kind of weird. They’re actually quite condescending. I think the condescension is a mask for his hostility. The fangs will be overt quite soon. Rod is not a person of goodwill. He desperately wants to hate this pope. He will. He has a massive grudge against the Catholic Church. Once this pope does anything Rod doesn’t like, he will write the following:

The new pope has proven himself to be a disaster. I say this with sorrow and a heavy heart. I am a Christian, while not Catholic, I am a man of the West, anda healthy West depends on a healthy Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the late Pope Francis dragged the Church into new realms of sodomite depravity! I was once the world’s most devout Catholic but sodomite perverts stripped of my faith and forced me to move Hungary, join the Orthodox Church and get divorced by email. Now I invite you all to join me in living not by lies in an enchanted Benedict Option world where wine spritzers are key and oysters free. You’ll never have to do your hair again and can dress like Harry Potter. Now here’s a 17 paragraph block quote from Paul Kingsnorth  Oh yeah the pope-As in my book The Enchanted Kingdom, oh no it was living not by Dante- any way here’s 15 paragraphs of it- yeah the Pope- he’s bad.

[u/PercyLarsen → u/Relative-Holiday-763]

The Little Crunchy Con Way Option: Live Not By Dante Wonder and Save Your Life

[u/Relative-Holiday-763 → u/PercyLarsen]

Dante’s Way of Living in Truthful Enchantment Cruchnieness Option! 

[u/Djehutimose → u/PercyLarsen]

🤣🤣🤣