I’ve seen this idea a few times now that somehow being inclusive will ‘spread division’ which makes absolutely no sense at all. Including people and groups repairs division.

This was one of the things the majority of Australians parroted when they voted ‘no’ to recognising Aboriginals in our constitution. Somehow a respectful act of inclusion would divide us? So long as you don’t think for even a second about it it’s easy to believe and get outraged I guess. We all gotta exclude people so that we can unify.

If you think being inclusive is divisive, you’re probably the one doing the exclusion and by extension the division.

The alignment between Catholics and Protestants in US politics is a relatively recent phenomenon. Up through the 70s, Protestant groups were generally anti-Catholic (something that was a factor when Kennedy ran). The KKK was anti-Catholic. Prejudice against Catholics, who were often suspected of having more loyalty to the Pope than the country, was pretty constant throughout US history.

That started to change in the 80s. The Southern Baptist Convention, which was controlled by moderates at the time, had originally supported the Roe decision. Catholics, on the other hand, were against abortion and birth control (and also largely against the death penalty). When the federal government started to demand that Baptist colleges start to admit black students, that all changed. Abortion became the wedge issue of choice. Conservative Catholics leaned into the shift, with growing political power fueled by donations to Catholic lobby organizations and by the creation of JPII as a charismatic media star.

As a former Catholic and a strong atheist, I have absolutely no love for the Catholic Church. I do, however, believe that Francis is sincere in his beliefs and attempts to reform things. I suspect that the next pope is going to make Ratzinger look like a hippie - they’re going to become ultra-conservative. But for now, as a member of Team Rainbow, I really do appreciate what he’s trying to do. And if it can break off even a portion of the Catholic vote, so much the better.

he’s just marginalizing you assholes, and that feels like division to you… it should feel like division… you are being separated out and told to fuck off…

The church who is wholly responsible for the hate and violence against the LGBT+ community suddenly decides it’s “ok” to bless us?
FUCK OFF you sick cult. No one needs religion. Religion prevents progress and the evolution of Humanity.
Treat your fellow Humans with respect is all we need.
Your money laundering, pedophile, hypocritic cult can burn in the fake hell you so desperately believe in!

Yeah… tolerance of things that religious morons don’t understand (and therefore hate) is completely unacceptable!

It’s the long overdue start of the “division” between those who use the lords name in vain and those who actually love their neighbour.

On another note, Jesus would probably have flipped a lot more than just their tables, ngl

It’s not likely to happen, but it would be great for everyone if the voting block composed of American Catholics and American evangelical Protestants were to splinter.

Hang on, evangelicals source in protestants, don’t they? We already get they hate the pope, shaddup already

Isn’t the Pope infallible? So if the evangelical leader finds himself ‘divided’ against the Pope, shouldn’t the evangelical leader admit they’re wrong and repent?

[Rhetorical question, we all know he’ll just double down.]