Summary: This Thursday, the 24th of September, Pope Francis will be addressing a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. In interviews, many Congressional Republicans strongly disapprove of the Pope taking his religious views to a political event. They disagree with his progressive and liberal-leaning views on climate change, capitalism, gun control, and immigration. Rep. Paul Gosar (A Catholic Republican), plans to boycott the event, saying he doesn't want to be lectured about climate change. The Pope says it's caused completely by humans and it is urgent to make laws to save the environment, which they especially hate. He is also very tolerant of gays. No one is sure how assertive or forceful he will be in front of the Congress. Sen. Dan Coats says he is stepping too far over the line into political issues. Abortion is one of the only issues the Pope agrees with Republicans on.
Analysis: I think it's great that Pope Francis is going to speak to Congress. Sure, he is a huge, influential leader of a religion, but he's a huge, influential leader regardless. They will probably be so narrow-minded that they won't even consider what he's saying, but still. I hope he knocks some sense into them about climate change; it is completely our fault and we should pass some sort of new law to preserve our wildlife and environment. As far as we know, we only have one Earth, and it's insane Congress refuses to do anything about the overall declining health of it.
This article was written by Manu Raju and published on Monday, September 21, 2015. It seems unbiased because Raju writes about some Congressman that support the Pope coming to speak (like Sen. Tom Tillis) and others that don't support it. He gets both sides of the argument.
This reminds me of Roger Williams vs. John Winthrop and the rest of the Congregational Church. The Pope is like Williams, having ideas that seem too liberal for the rest of the people to handle. Congress is like Winthrop and his men because they exclude others who have differing ideas, without listening or reasoning with them at all.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/21/politics/pope-francis-congress-republicans-politics/index.html
Nicely written. I think this is a good example of history repeating itself, with your comparison of Winthrop and Williams to the Pope and Congress.
ReplyDeleteMaddie Hanratty//8th period//Comment #1
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ReplyDeleteWhat I like about this is, if the GOP tries to pull something about "separation of church and state" and disregard the Pope's opinion, we can bring up the fact that their only argument against gay marriage was the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emir, politics is full of paradoxes and contradictions. Also nice why to tie in what we were learning in class with current events :).
ReplyDelete-marlee fleisher 9th
DeleteTristin Manus 8th -- I love how you compared the modern day issue with the past ( Roger Williams vs. John Winthrop). It is like history is repeating itself and I hope Pope Francis knocks some sense into these closed minded men who only put their priorities in their favor versus the people as a whole.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Godfrey Period 8
ReplyDeleteI find it ignorant that congress thinks that the pope's religious views will interfere with what he is talking about. This type of close-mindedness is the reason why the current pope is only the fourth to visit the western hemisphere. I believe that congress needs to just listen to the essence of what he is saying regardless of his religious beliefs.