The Pope's Visit

Now that Pope Francis’ visit is coming to an end, I wanted to take a moment to share a few observations:

1.      I am deeply concerned about what I term “Pope-mania” – which is really nothing more than the worship of a human being. The Bible is clear that no one other than God deserves our worship – not even an angel, alone another human. When John attempted to worship an angel who had made revelation to him, here is how the angel responded:

 “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” (Revelation 19:10 ESV)

I have no doubt that the Pope is a pious man, but like all the rest of us, he is a sinner in need of God’s grace. I can’t find one verse in Scripture that excludes the Pope when it claims that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

(Note: Since I don’t want this post to turn into a book, I don’t have time to address the whole concept of the distinction between “clergy” and “laity”, which actually appears nowhere in the New Testament or the misunderstanding of Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:18 that is used wrongly, in my opinion, as justification for the establishment of the papacy in the first place.)

2.      Although many of His followers certainly wanted Him to, we have no evidence that Jesus ever attempted to influence the politics of His day. About His only foray into politics recorded in the Bible was to tell people to pay their taxes. When He spoke about things like taking care of the poor or meeting the needs of others, He addressed the religious leaders, not the political leaders.

For the most part, His disciples followed His example. When Paul appeared before Felix, Festus and Agrippa, he didn’t speak to them about their politics, he spoke to them about Jesus and the gospel.

My greatest disappointment with the Pope’s visit is that he had a great platform to share the gospel with a nation who certainly needs to hear about the hope that we can find in Jesus, but instead he used his influence almost exclusively for the purpose of trying to influence our nation’s politics.

3.      Finally, I find it very hypocritical that so many of our politicians of both parties who would be the first to cry “separation of church and state” as a convenient way to limit any influence of the Bible on our morals as a nation were so quick to embrace the Pope when his message suited their purposes.