Personally I find all the hoopla and presidential deference given to what is, essentially, the visit of a religious leader a little out of proportion, weird, and kind of troubling. I mean, Gordon Brown is a far more essential world leader and yet you don’t see the president coming to greet him on the tarmac.
I know I’m in a minority on this, but I just find it weird.
Related: I am curious, however, what the Pope plans to say about the child rapists his church helped to hide for all those years.
I am curious, however, what the Pope plans to say about the child rapists his church helped to hide for all those years.
Absolutely nothing.
I am curious, however, what the Pope plans to say about the child rapists his church helped to hide for all those years.
What will he say? Why,
OK. But what will he do, you ask? Well,
Yeah, pretty much what Duros said.
Dude expressed regret over the pedophiles on the plane en route to Andrews AFB. I ain’t heard no politicians denouncing their priests in the manner Obama was asked to denouce Rev. Wright tho’.
I don’t understand why he’s traveling with pedophiles, Lee. It makes no sense.
Religion is kind of weird.
Women originated from a man’s rib.
Doesn’t the discovery of DNA kind of throw all of that out the window.
I’m not saying there isn’t a creator or start to it all but to believe
stories that are over 2300 years old when they thought the world was flat is kind of weird in itself.
Got to go I have a lamb I need to sacrifice.
Sean, I believe those are called platitudes. They go nicely with the beatitudes.
Langx, some whole sage leaves and rosemary stalks with the lamb. Yum
Interesting, Oliver, that while I am probably to your left on religion, I see the Pope coming as a bigger deal. To be a Roman Catholic is to view the Pope as Christ’s deputy in charge, the Vicar (i.e. placeholder, substitute.) Whether this is a wholesome belief or not is immaterial. The Catholic Church is the largest religious organization in the country and the U.S. is the third largest Catholic country in the world.
From a pragmatic standpoint, which this Pope is no liberal either in style or substance, it’s pretty devastating to compare Benedict - an extremely erudite scholar whose ability to articulate his views in 8 languages, accents aside stuns friend and foe alike - to Bush, who remains a cue-card-reader at best and aphasic in his native tongue at worst.
By comparison, when His All-Holiness Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the Orthodox Christian leader who enjoys primacy of honor in the Orthodox Church, came to town a few years ago, nobody noticed. Why? Well, there are Orthodox Christians in the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania in substantial numbers but not enough to matter mathematically. Maybe that’s part of it, though part of it is that the Patriarch is not analogous to the Pope in many ways.
I’m sure the pope coming is a big deal for Roman Catholics. But it shouldn’t be a big deal for the President. I’m not saying the president shouldn’t receive him at the White House, but with this visit its as if Jesus himself were coming. How many other world leaders does the president go to the airport to meet?
chickengeorge had to meet him at the airport because the Nazi Pope wouldn’t have dinner at the White House.
“aphasic”
I love learning new words! Thanks!
“How many other world leaders does the president go to the airport to meet?”
I’m wondering how many world leaders he’ll ask to help him move.
Two things justify the reception in the eye the majority population, and presidential protocol:
The Pope is a head of state (the Vatican even has an embassy in D.C.).
He is the titular head of a major denomination.
As I noted in my entry: Gordon Brown is a head of state. So is Angela Merkel. So is Sarkozy. Bush doesn’t meet them at the airport, and they are far far far far more important than the Pope.
I think the term we’re looking for is “pandering.”
Sarkozy is a head of state, but Merkel and Brown are not. The German president (Horst somebody, as opposed to Prime Minister Merkel) is Germany’s head of state. Elizabeth II is the head of state of the United Kindom (and various other countries such as Canada and Australia). In some countries the head of state is the head of government, but in other countries it is not.
As various news accounts have noted, Bush’s greeting of B16 at the airport is unprecedented and unusual. On the other hand, the Pope is in an unique position in that he’s the head of state of what is nominally a country and is the leader of a religious denomination that includes tens of millions of Americans. I think it’s something of a pander, but certainly not in the top 1000 of disagreeable things done by GWB.
B16
You sunk my Battleship!