Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, October 15

by Dr. David Pence

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

NEW CARDINALS APPOINTED BY POPE FRANCIS: Cardinal means hinge. The new cardinals. John Allen at Crux calls the American part of this group the "McCarrick Caucus." McCarrick is the former cardinal of Washington DC; personal ally of Teddy Kennedy; and a well-known homosexual predator. He is not a pedophile and probably thinks they are disgusting. His prey has always been older adolescents and young males in the age groups of college seminaries. To call him the centrist wing of the church tells us a good deal about John Allen and the corruption of the cardinals selection process in America under Pope Francis and his American advisers Cardinal O’Malley of Boston and Wuerl of Washington. If what Allen says is true, then the homosexual (not moderate) wing of the American episcopacy has the pope’s ear - they don’t have his back. Pope Francis is not in any way part of the homosexual lobby in the priesthood, but like both his predecessors he has put his trust in men with nefarious designs. American bishops need to face the bishops and priests within their ranks whom they have never been willing to face. The beginning might be for some group to start with Theodore (Uncle Teddy) McCarrick and ask that he stop performing the Mass publicly and be committed to an ecclesial institution where he is under guard and forced to do penance and restitution. The reform of the Catholic Church will entail much more direct accusations and remedies aimed at the homosexual cartels so entwined in the Catholic priesthood and episcopacy. This is the other half of the Catholics-Democratic Party story associated with the leaked emails to John Podesta (chairman of Hillary Clinton campaign).

The teaching of the Catholic Church is committed to patriarchy, fraternity, and heterosexual marriage but the priesthood and major orders of sisters are deeply infiltrated by homosexuals and feminists who have sabotaged that teaching for forty years. Tim Kaine and Nancy Pelosi are creatures of this hypocritical culture. Thousands of victims of sexual abuse (80 percent adolescent males) still scream for justice and reform.

II. ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST

IN DEARBORN, THE ANTI-ISIS RALLY OF MUSLIMS IS ON HOLY DAY OF ASHURA: On this day of the year, Sunni Muslims commemorate the freeing of the Jews from Egypt. It is a much more significant feast for the Shia - the followers of Ali. They remember the slaying of Husain - the third Shia Imam (they don’t use the term caliph). This is a significant Holy Day for the Shia in terms of organizing opposition to the murderous Salafist and Wahhabi ideology which treats them as non-Muslims worthy of death. Here we see an openly anti-ISIS and anti-Saudi rally by American Muslims. Are we listening? In Dearborn, Michigan the feast has taken on this modern understanding of the continued persecution of Shia Muslims by Wahhabists.

ALEPPO - MUCH OF MEDIA MISSES THAT IT IS AL NUSRA THAT RUSSIANS AND SYRIANS ARE TRYING TO REMOVE: Al Nusra is an Al Qaeda-type Salafist group that all agree is an enemy to the US as well as to Assad and the Syrian government. That is the group the Russians and Syrians are trying to dislodge from Aleppo. They are hiding in a city - it is hard to kill them in that cover. The linked article reports the UN asking al Nusra to stop holding the city hostage. Taking back Aleppo is a huge setback for the Syrian rebels but displacing an entrenched force from a city comes at a great human cost. It is not a war crime; it is war. We will see the same problem when we take back the major cities of ISIS. Cities still held by ISIS.

SAUDIS ESCALATE IN YEMEN - MAY CAUSE NEW ENEMIES: The wedding bombing which may draw northern tribes into the fight. The New York Times turns their eyes to Yemen - US moral duty to stop the Saudis.

III. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

TRUMP VS. CLINTON - THE ELDERS OF THE BABY BOOMERS - TWO FACES OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: Heather McDonald at City Journal on the "Trumped up outrage" of the sexual revolutionaries. Summing up Trump - Seven articles making his case. And, finally, our response to the bizarre TV drama of CNN’s Anderson Cooper becoming America’s expert on good touch/ bad touch. Only in TV studios could Gloria Vanderbilt’s pampered boy pose as the defender of American womanhood against the big heterosexual bully daring to run for president. We examine the two faces of the sexual revolution:  The Playboy and The Feminist: Lessons from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

TRUMP SAYS RUSSIA, IRAN, AND SYRIA ARE ALL FIGHTING ISIS - THE FOREIGN POLICY DEBATE PITS TRUMP VS. HILLARY DEMOCRATS AND BUSH REPUBLICANS: One reason it is hard for Trump to really explain his foreign policy views is that it will pit him first and foremost against Republican hawks. This was the striking reality of the VP debate in which Mike Pence vigorously argued the Republican line on Russia that Mr. Trump has opposed throughout the primaries. Donald Trump represents the first significant challenge to the bipartisan disaster of our post-Cold War foreign policy. The parties will not sort this out during an election. All the more reason we need good journalism to clarify the strange alignments emerging. After the election, a serous antiwar movement in the Democratic party will emerge to debate these issues. That will happen no matter who wins.
 Who should be our allies? Who are our real enemies? This is what the Senate should be debating, and the presidential election should be addressing.