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No Pope Francis, Toleration Is Not Acceptance

Pope Francis has called for the church to be more tolerant while not changing any official doctrines … especially when it comes to marriage equality.

“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws … as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives,” Francis writes in a sweeping paper outlining his stance on family matters.

CNN reports, “He urged priests around the world to be more accepting of gays and lesbians, divorced Catholics and other people living in what the church considers “irregular” situations.

The Sword would like to report that marrying the one you love is not an “irregular” situation.

 
The Washington Post adds, “Single women get pregnant, and need the support of those around them, Francis wrote. Children sometimes need punishment – and, he notably added– sex education. Gays and lesbians deserve protection from “unjust discrimination.”

“And while he clearly upholds his church’s teachings of marriage as only between a man and woman, he notes that unconventional unions do indeed form. And they are not, he writes, without their “constructive elements.”

Perhaps most importantly, he exhorts the church – specifically it’s clergy – to use “discernment,” and not paint with a broad brush. Do not, he warned, wield “moral laws” like a weapon.

 
Like a weapon. That part I agree with. After all, the church already has plenty of experience wielding some of the biggest weapons around …

[Watch “Scandal in the Vatican 2: The Swiss Guard” at BelAmi]

 
 
Am I too cynical here? Is this more evidence that Pope Francis is trying to nudge the church towards toward a legitimate welcoming environment for our community — or he is simply making the old rhetoric seem more palatable?

6 thoughts on “No Pope Francis, Toleration Is Not Acceptance”

  1. I don’t understand why all of a sudden we feel everyone must accept the madness or die at our hand. Why can’t we all just live with our belief systems tolerating each other. As long as we continue to push something bad will eventually happen, and it may lead to a lot of unhappy people.

  2. Will the old religious dude make the entire religion that he has no real say over any more liberal, despite the very nature of religion as a static construct of our imaginations? Gee, I don’t know. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?

    1. Actually in the catholic religion he holds a lot of say…whether or not the clergy follows out his mandates we will have to see.

  3. It’s true that Pope Francis is the most progressive pope in probably forever. At the same time, though, he does seem very flip-floppy and conciliatory in his stances on things like doing away with ant-gay sentiment in the church. He also has to keep the church’s conservative old guard happy, which means that his support for minorities in the church waxes and wanes. It’s nice to have some support in the uppermost echelon of the Catholic Church, but at the same time he can be really wishy-washy.

  4. He’s doing good things. No pope has ever said a union had constructive elements. He’s doing his job as a religious leader while also telling the clergy to back off and realize we are all sinners. Kudos for him. It’s not a big step, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

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