Why Barrett will backfire for Trump -- speaking as a Catholic

[anamnua]

The theory is out there that Trump is trying to neutralise Joe Biden’s obvious advantage with Catholic voters by this appointment.
There is a certain type of extremist ‘Holy Mary’ nut job Catholic most of us mainstreamers will have encountered at some stage during our formation and against whom we will have developed lifelong antibodies. This lady seems to be a classic of the genre.

[Ohiogal]

1. Don't the evangelicals

consider Catholics as “not REAL Christians”?

[yellowdogintexas]

4. yes. In fact, Catholics were targeted by the KKK in the 20th resurgence

Idolatry, veneration of the Pope, were part of the hatred.

[lisa58]

7. They hate us but have no problem with us voting with them...

...They know ‘Jesus’ loves them best😜

[hlthe2b]

9. A bit like their appropriation of Jews and Israel.

[lisa58]

10. Exactly like that - yes

[DownriverDem]

17. repubs sold

their souls when they aligned with the religious right including Catholics for votes.

[Texin]

63. And virtually entire SCOTUS is composed of them.

I think only Kagan and Breyer are not (and perhaps Thomas, but I believe his wife is Catholic and it's pretty clear he only does what she tells him to do).

[LakeArenal]

19. Funny. I don't consider Evangelicals as real humans.

[lambchopp59]

41. Ditto

Even long before my life threatening encounter with the sort, I'd become wary of the psuedo-racist gospel the sort convinced themselves of.
It was the long arm of the "Westboro Baptists" who arranged the strangest and most disruptive period of my life, shortly after I got "outed" in the small midwestern town my parents had moved me to. There was little doubt in my mind that I'd met the most repulsive, evil human ever in a pre-arranged, Fred spitting, idiots around chanting "go to hell fag" at a... ahem...
"party in my honor".
I'd never, and never since have been so humiliated, disgusted and completely through with most all organized religion.
I had to become homeless to survive the environment they'd soon incited for me. Had I been caught and returned home I wouldn't be alive to tell you this.
There is LGBTQ blood of innocents on their hands.
The only religious folks who did anything at all for me during my scrounging period were some catholic nuns, who asked no questions, just fed me and allowed me to bathe.
My parents were not particularly religious. But after quite some time of these zealots preaching their nonsense at them, they disowned me.

Oh, I have some issues with the damned "evangelicals" alright.

[LakeArenal]

44. Wow That sounds pretty awful.

I’m glad you were able to survive and hopefully flourish. Best regards.

[lambchopp59]

53. Yes, the story ends in triumph. But a powerful moral the "evangelicals" are largely devoid of

Even old Fred himself began to get a glimmer of how desperately wrong he was, after some of his most gentle caregivers in the end
were the sort he'd previously have incited murder and and prayed to be "sent to hell".
My parents were also forced into some reconciliation after some really satisfying tongue lashing they received from extended family a couple years after this.

[Maraya1969]

57. I'm so sorry they did that to you. And I'm glad you seem out and proud now!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

61. I certainly don't see Evangelicals as real Christians.

They worship a god they have made in their own image and likeness.

[Mariana]

20. Yes, but that only means they think Catholics are going to hell when they die.

They're happy enough to have the enthusiastic help of Catholics when it comes to their mutual goals of oppressing women, LGBT people, and non-Christians.

[anamnua]

25. The irony is

that extreme Catholics and extreme evangelical Protestants have more in common than either would like to admit.

[Ohiogal]

29. So true!

[OMGWTF]

49. Evangelicals and the Taliban have a lot in common too.

[misanthrope]

67. Bingo! As someone raised Southern Baptist who married a Southern Roman Catholic

I laugh at the differences they think exist between the two groups. To me, there is scarcely any difference. Catholics will drink in public and that's about it.

[wnylib]

39. My experience was the opposite.

I grew up in a mainstream Protestant church, not evangelical. Most of our neighbors in my childhood were Catholic.

I remember one incident that shocked a Catholic friend of mine. She walked home from school with me. When she saw Christmas decorations on our house, she said that my family should not imitate a holiday that was not ours to celebrate. I asked what she meant, because we always celebrated Christmas at home and in church.

She told me that Protestants were Pagans who did not believe in Christianity. She was amazed when I said we had the Commandments, Apostle's Creed, and Lord's Prayer. She said the nuns and priest told her that Catholics are the only true Christians. I pointed out that the custom of Xmas trees came from Martin Luther and that the main difference between us was the number of sacraments. She kept saying, "Wow, I didn't know. I didn't know."

[Ohiogal]

40. Oh yes,

Years of CCD they used to drum that into you ... Only Catholics were going to Heaven and Catholicism was the only true Christian religion.

[LakeArenal]

45. That's what made ex-catholic Mr Lake an atheist.

Nuns railed at his left handedness and tied it to the chair forcing him to be right handed. He still writes left but golfs and throws right handed.

[Ohiogal]

50. I'm not an atheist

But consider myself a “recovering Catholic “.

[LakeArenal]

52. Yeah. Mr Lake is an amateur astronomy.

Pretty much in with Hawking and
De Grasse Tyson.

[Ohiogal]

54. You can't go wrong with those two guys as your heroes!

[wnylib]

56. How awful to go that far in trying to enforce righthandedness.

I went to public schools and remember some teachers making lefties write with their right hands. But they would never have gotten away with tying a kid's hand. They'd have been fired on the spot.

And after all the fuss about it in grade school, lefties freely wrote lefthanded in high school where teachers never paid attention to it.

[ChazInAz]

59. Unfond memories.

After arriving in America, with a brief pause to improve my English, my parents enrolled me in a Catholic school.
Not only was I left-handed, but I came from one of those Iron Curtain countries in the 1950s and had a strong Bela Lugosi accent.
Man, those nuns did everything but order up an exorcism!
So...I understand Mr. Lake.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

62. I remember coming across one man who told me that Jews were going to Hell

I said, "Your God is sending Jews to Hell because they're Jews. The Nazis sent Jews to Auschwitz for being Jews. How does your God differ from Reinhard Heydrich?"

He didn't have an answer.

[Poiuyt]

68. I have an evangelican acquantance who says Catholics are cult members.

Irony

[hlthe2b]

2. I have experienced that (through close Catholic friends/extended family)--especially in urban areas

Those extremists are like a skunk at a picnic. Very unwelcome.

[lisa58]

3. Speaking as a Catholic....

You are absolutely right - I’m related to such Catholics- my mother was a huge fan of Scalia. My strategy is to tell everyone that I don’t care whether you vote for Biden or not, but that man is a National Treasure. It usually starts a conversation that I get my point across - which I find very rare

[redstatebluegirl]

5. As a recovering Catholic, I agree.

I came in contact with a few of those. It helped me decide to turn away from the Church which cost me my inheritance. Worth every penny. Those type of Catholics are nuts.

[Mme. Defarge]

6. I am hoping

that the appointment will have given many of the social conservatives who have supported him while holding their noses enough of what they want so they can now vote him out of office.

[arlyellowdog]

8. Amen

Just read Fr. James Martin’s Facebook to understand how outraged Democratic Catholics are at right wing priests, William Barr getting honored, this appointment, and all of the abuses of Donald Trump. Senators have to focus on showing how this appointment hurts social justice and, especially, health care.

[MaryMagdaline]

11. Agree

This cult thing is a turn off to mainstream Catholics

[mrs_p]

12. Having grown up catholic and

Even joined a convent in my early 20s, there is something about this type of catholic that terrifies me. They have taken over much of the church it seems. And they are part of the reason I am no longer even a Christian now. There is no following Jesus’ teachings. It is all control. No love.

[BComplex]

16. Can you tell me, please, because I've never found it, where in the Bible talks against abortion?

I can't find it.

[TicketyBoo]

18. Just suppose the anti-abortion folks got their wish...

no more abortions. What are THEY going to do about all the unwanted/unloved/starving/mistreated/sick children?

Of course, it won't happen. There will always be abortions. They will just be driven underground again, with all the complications that brings.

Google "The only moral abortion is my abortion" for unbelievable tales of hypocrisy. Those are the women that the lack of legal abortion is most likely to hurt.

I say NOBODY is "pro-abortion." It's choice that is the thing.

[wnylib]

43. Yup. I had a Catholic co-worker years

ago who was very active in the anti abortion movement after Roe v Wade. She lived with her boyfriend who was a pre law student. One day she cornered me at lunch time and said she was pregnant. She knew I was pro choice and asked if I knew where she could get an abortion out of town where nobody would know her. I was shocked but she said, "I just CAN'T have a baby now. The timing is all wrong. I'm supposed to help support us when Tom gets into law school."

She found a place out of town and had her abortion. I asked her how she could oppose it and still do it. She said she still opposed it in general, but her situation was "different."

[Tommymac]

58. It's not about abortion per se. It's about men controlling women.

Abortion is simply the popular wedge issue that Movement Conservatism uses to rally the common folk around their flag.

Repealing Roe v Wade is extremely important to these asshats - but their real target in this case is contraception and Gay rights. They need to get rid of Roe in order to to get rid of Griswald:

1965 =>U.S. Supreme Court decision, Griswold v. Connecticut, rolled back state and local laws that had outlawed the use of contraception by married couples.

This decision set the groundwork for these landmark SC rulings:
> Right to birth control for unmarried couples, 1972
> Right to abortion for any woman, 1973
> Right to contraception for juveniles at least 16 years of age, 1977
> Right to homosexual relations, 2003
> Right to same-sex marriage, 2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut#:~:text=Griswold%20v.%20Connecticut%2C%20381%20U.S.,use%20contraceptives%20without%20government%20restriction.

These hateful patriarchs want to keep women barefoot, pregnant, in the home under their thumb...and demonize same sex relations.

Sorta like the philosophy of Barrett's splinter cult group.

[Mariana]

22. The Evangelicals fall back on the Commandment against murder.

They simply redefine abortion as murder, and claim that therefore abortion is prohibited by God.

[BComplex]

24. Really? They can get away with that?

[Mariana]

27. Religious beliefs aren't rational, by definition. nt.

[rickyhall]

28. But ignore it for state executions & pre-emptive war.

[Mariana]

30. They don't define those killings as murder.

See? It's all very convenient.

[Hekate]

65. That's because it's not in there. The closest it comes is an Old Testament text that says ...

...if a woman who is with child is injured by someone and miscarries, her husband is due a payment for damages.

A modern reader can parse that out in any way they want, but in no way can they conclude that the fetus has “personhood.”

Both Old and New Testaments have abundant teachings on taking care of the poor by feeding them, sheltering them, and in all other ways treating them as brothers/sisters. Likewise caring for the stranger in your midst, “because we were strangers in Egypt.”

So, did Jesus address abortion? No. Homosexuality? No. Prosperity Gospel? No. Just the really hard stuff, such as: love your neighbor as yourself, and forgive others.

[BComplex]

70. Good answer. Thanks!

[Hekate]

71. You are more than welcome

[Volaris]

48. Also raised catholic, AND spent time inside the charismatic renewal as a tween.

Most of those people are, at their worst, ignorable because they're harmless. But you do learn to spot the cray, the truly dangerous ones.

I'm watching closely, and so far she hasnt convinced me shes sane. Not even a little bit.

[StClone]

13. Abortion is still a hammer cons use

Some Catholics are not high on Trump's life as it is one of disgust to many a middle of the road Catholic. But FOX and AM hate radio have corrupted many a Catholic minds on the right to choose.They are also hypocrites who ignore kids in cages, defunding of SNAP to feed poor kids, defunding schools for wealthy tax breaks, and allowing Trump to allow Covid to run rampant. The latter spelling a death knell to Catholic elders.

[napi21]

14. When I checked out the cult she belongs to I realized she was no Catholic! I don't know about the

Evangelicals but any Catholics will put her down as a Cultist. There was a posting is the las few days that had a link to a complaints blog about People of Peace (I think that's the name). Almost all the posts were by young people, teens & 20s, and what they experienced while growing up in that cult. It sounded more like Sharia beliefs to me.

[Shermann]

15. She isn't a hypocrite on abortion

I'll at least give her that. She carried a child with Downs syndrome to term knowing well ahead of time of the prognosis. You can say what you will about that, but she eats her own dogfood there.

[bedazzled]

21. I guess she has the money to see that the child is cared for

Alas many don't. With no social safety net it would be agonizing to think of the future of a dependent child

[dflprincess]

26. She chose to carry the child to term

A choice she would deny others.

[Shermann]

34. So she's a True Believer and not a hyprocrite

I'm not sure which is worse?

[dflprincess]

36. She's both

I would bet she'd claim there was no choice to be made when, in truth, there was. Whether she admits it or not.

[SophieJean]

64. Exactly.

[Mariana]

35. Did she actually make that choice for herself?

She may very well have been coerced into continuing her pregnancy by her husband and/or the leaders of her church.

[LakeArenal]

23. Organized religions abhorrent to me.

Tithing grosses me out.
The money in the Vatican is so contrary to Jesus.
Big statues of the crucified white guy are so awful I can’t even....

Tax exemptions piss me off.

Ooo that rant felt good. Thanks.

[erronis]

33. It's OK. Let it all out. Rinse and Repeat. Most of us feel that way too.

I guess my biggest complaint is the sheer hypocrisy of the cults and the politicians that use them (or are used by them.)

And in the end, every one of these cults would love to kill the "others". Whether xian, catholic, protestant, evangelical, muslim. Just depends on which sub-cult you are currently part of.

[hoosierspud]

31. I'm a former Catholic and used to sing in a choir

At a church where "The Latin Community" had their Mass right before the service we sang at. Not only where they some of the most tight-assed, dogmatic people you would ever want to meet, but they were treated with kid gloves by the Catholic hierarchy. The bishop would say Mass for them several times a year.

One morning as we drove into the parking lot of church, my friend said, "The Latin people frighten me. I think they're one bumper sticker away from a militia movement."

[Volaris]

55. Those are the opus dei loons (who want Vatican II rescinded lol) who want mass in Latin only...

And you're correct to be concerned. I expect that in a previous life, Bill Barr was an inquisitor and theres NO such thing as a catechismic lawyer who isnt a complete garbage human.

I'm a collapsed catholic currently, and for my part I'm glad that Francis is willing to call these assholes out occasionally.

[dflprincess]

32. I'm a happily lapsed Catholic

But the people I know who are still practicing don't have a whole lot of patience with the more Catholic than the Pope types. And I gave no doubt that Barrett and her cult think Francis is "too liberal".

[DallasNE]

37. The Current Court Has

6 Catholics and 2 Jews. This would make it 7 Catholics and 2 Jews. Not much diversity on the court. And no wonder we have decisions like Hobby-Lobby with that kind of representation.

[DallasNE]

38. The Current Court Has

6 Catholics and 2 Jews. This would make it 7 Catholics and 2 Jews. Not much diversity on the court. And no wonder we have decisions like Hobby-Lobby with that kind of representation.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

42. There are so many extremist wings of the catholic church today.

An African priest gave a Sermon 10 years ago in a Huntington Beach church that was an attack on Obama and various liberal causes. The peaceful Franciscans have been sent into exile from that church by an angry Bishop.

And Pope Francis standing has fallen in that YouGov poll behind Trump. The church is a listing ship in a stormy sea.

[Kaleva]

46. Generally, Freepers do not like Catholics.

I've read a number of posts over there complaining about the number of Catholics on the Supreme Court and attacks on Catholics and Catholicism.

[Mariana]

60. They love Trump much more than they hate Catholics.

If Trump appointed the Pope for the Supreme Court, they'd support it 100% - not because they like the Pope, but because they worship Trump and truly believe he can do no wrong.

[Kaleva]

69. There's a sign nearby. Trump-Protestant, Biden-Catholic

[Mariana]

72. Do you think the person who put up that sign

is going to decline to vote for Trump in November, because he's put another Catholic justice on the Supreme Court?

[Kaleva]

73. Well, they certainly wont vote for Joe because he is a Catholic.

[Mariana]

74. They love Trump much more than they hate Catholics.

The OP appears to think Trump will lose support from Catholics with this appointment. That may be so. He won't lose any from his Protestant supporters over it. If Trump appointed the Pope for the Supreme Court, they'd still support him 100% - not because they like the Pope, but because they worship Trump and truly believe he can do no wrong.

[soldierant]

47. I agree with every ford of your post except one - "lady." She isn't.

[jorgevlorgan]

51. Here here!

She cray. And most catholics see her that way.

[misanthrope]

66. Don't agree, completely

Barrett is a poison pill for several reasons other than Biden's faith. They are hoping to lure Democrats into giving them a chance to play the Christian victimhood angle. She also has two adopted children from Haiti so they think that can be a handy refutation of racism accusations. They also think her gender can be used to counter feminist critics.

Underneath it all is the reality that her far-right beliefs are the catalyst for the GOP. For Trump, it would have to be the guarantee she will take his side on election squabbles, though that won't be released publicly.