Contrast

Pope Francis was a good man who tried to lower the temperature on Catholic orthodoxy by being more welcoming. A man who was used to dealing with the disenfranchised he contrasted sharply with his predecessor. 

As religion and politics are freely intermingled and bastardized in the form of Christian nationalism in the US, you could see the dividing line between religion as rebuke of difference versus the welcoming Jesus who dared people to cast the first stone. 

Despite distancing myself from formalized religion, I liked what this man was doing in his expanding an umbrella of charity. While I still found the church needed to go further, I realized that 2,000 years of history and tradition made for a very large obstacle not easily moved. 

We never used to talk in terms of right-wing and left-wing Catholics and yet they exist because I have talked to them. The dividing line seems almost to be old Testament versus New which on one side features a benevolent yet firm judge contrasted against the carpenter who came to seek the down trodden and welcome them. 

Fascism uses religion as a weapon to exclude people and will arm itself with religious imagery and language to exact vengeance. Hitler did it and Trumpism is its latest incarnation which seems to work particularly well on the simple minded and the vengeful. 

All those nasty administration people appearing on television with big crosses never fail to turn my stomach.