Tancredo and Dobbs vs. Pope Benedict

In case you don’t know, I am not Catholic. I am, in fact, a Baptist. My church belongs to the Conservative Baptist Convention, which is more or less to say that we’re independent of any other congregation. The reason I’m saying this up front is because I want to drive home my point about what the Pope says, and make it clear that I’m not just backing the Pope because he’s the Pope. Depending on whose Christian history you believe, you might well find that Baptists have been defying Papal authority since well before the Reformation.

But that’s a different story for a different day.

Two anti-immigration stalwarts have decided to take on the Pope himself, and have made themselves look like complete fools in so doing.

So, let’s look at the three players. First, there’s the Pope. Pope Benedict is an intellectual theologian, and a strong advocate of right doctrine. He’s also the head of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. I’m not sure how many people, therefore, follow him, but it’s certainly quite a good number.

Lou Dobbs is a TV anchorman who has made a bigger name for himself lately by crusading against illegal immigration.

Tom Tancredo is a Colorado Congressman who ran for President until he endorse Mitt Romney, and really ran so that he could drive immigration as an issue (which must have worked really well, since John McCain wound up with the nomination). He’s not merely anti-illegal immigration, he’s been known to wear T-shirts with the slogan “America is Full.” Tancredo, of course, was also the genius who suggested that we should bomb Mecca in the event of another terrorist attack.

Pope Benedict issued a call for the humane treatment of immigrants in the US, and encouraged his bishops to continue offering hospitality.

“I want to encourage you and your communities to continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials and to help them flourish in their new home.”

Tom Tancredo doesn’t like the sound of that, apparently, and accuses the Pope of just trying to recruit new Catholics –

“I suspect the pope’s immigration comments may have less to do with spreading the gospel than they do about recruiting new members of the church,” Tancredo said. “This isn’t preaching; it is faith-based marketing.”

Lou Dobbs manages to take this even farther –

“I don’t care if he listens or not, but I’m going to send him the message because I really don’t appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me in this country and my fellow citizens what to do.”

There are several other Dobbs comments at the linked article. If you want to make sure that you lose all respect for Dobbs, check them out.

As I said, I don’t feel the need to obey the Pope, necessarily, but there are a few things about the Papacy in general and this Pope in particular that are worth mentioning — first of all, he leads the single largest Christian denomination in the world. That alone entitles him to a measure of respect. Moreover, it makes him more than “a guest,” as Dobbs derisively called him.

Dobbs also remarked:

“Here he is, I guess, in many ways insulting our country, talking about the need to be welcoming, taking up the issue of illegal immigration without any comparison to the rest of the world.”

Yeah … the Pope is talking about Christian love and charity. Who does he think he is?

Beyond that, though, let’s unpack a bit. Dobbs is accusing the Pope of insulting our country? How so? By saying that we should be welcoming? Frankly, it sounds like having a conversation. He’s stating a principle.

Dobbs, though, is resorting to the same kind of weak-kneed attempts to cut off debate that I accused the Chinese of using last week — claiming that someone is insulting the entire population. If Dobbs wants to take on the Pope, he can do so. But it’s simply dishonest for him to claim that he’s doing it on my behalf. Dobbs knows it, too. He wants to excite nationalistic fears and sentiments so that we unite against the outsider — in this case, the Pope — because he’s one of THEM, telling US what to do. The fact that he’s a man of faith who speaks on the global stage apparently doesn’t register with Lou Dobbs. The Pope is expected to express his views on spiritual and moral matters around the world. It’s his job. If Lou Dobbs doesn’t like what Pope Benedict is saying, that’s one thing … to object to him saying it is more than a little peculiar. I also have to wonder … just what kind of weaklings does Lou Dobbs think that Americans are, that we can’t take a comment from the Pope feeling so deeply and pitifully insulted?

Moving on to Rep. Tancredo, I have to look at his challenge to the Pope’s sincerity. He’s accusing the Pope of caring not for the Gospel, but just for bringing more people in to fill seats in churches.

So, getting past Tancredo’s little catchy attack, let’s look at the substance of his attack. Which sounds more like it’s based on the Gospel: A t-shirt reading “America is full” and a policy of refusing any immigration, or welcoming newcomers and inviting them to join in the national bounty?

I’m going to have to side with the Pope on this one. And I’m going to have to reverse the charge — Tom Tancredo names himself an evangelical Christian, yet he can speak with such profound ignorance of what love and grace mean that I question whether his life has anything to do with sharing the Gospel, or rather he simply uses the label “evangelical” for the purposes of faith-based marketing.

Rep. Tancredo also challenged the Pope to identify what kind of violence was being committed against immigrants. I was planning to write more about that, but Andres Oppenheimer already did it so much better than I would have.

More and more, I’m watching the Right attack faith in the US. I wrote about Tony Perkins of the Family Research Center and his derision of the Compassion Forum for asking about AIDS and global poverty. Four Republican Presidential candidates — Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani — refused to attend a Values Voter Debate last year that would have allowed Christian and Jewish leaders to ask them questions. The label “Religious Left” is being thrown around at anyone who dares mention that there is more to a Christian’s life than opposing certain moral offenses and voting Republican.

I would rather be called part of the Religious Left than be part of the Secular Right.

This kind of attack on Christian values is being permitted by a Christian church that has become complacent about partisan politics and weak on its own values. The Pope is reminding people that we are called to love the stranger among us. If you want to challenge him on this point, I think that the only legitimate way to do it is going to be to pull out a Bible and attack him in his battleground, in the language in which he was speaking.

Fair warning: You’ll lose.

WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• That ’Insulting’ Pope
• Pope Speaks Up for Immigrants, Touching a Nerve
• Pope Celebrates Mass With Message of Hope
• For Many Catholics, the Idea of a Pope Is Clear Even if the Definition Isn&…