Well, At Least They Aren’t Marxists!

The mix of hope, drive for success and belief in a God who rewards faith, sometimes with financial accomplishments, has become dominant across the United States and Latin America, experts on Latino religion say. https://t.co/csn9qq67x7

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 24, 2024

Well, the CIA made sure liberation theology died in Latin America, mostly because “God’s preferential option for the poor” was seen as Marxism, or near enough for dammit.* And also because liberation theology advocated “a radical restructuring of society.”

You know: where the first are last and the last are first, and the first of all is last and servant of all. That crazy Jesus stuff every right thinking person knows Jesus only meant metaphorically or maybe allegorically, but certainly not literally! I mean, most prosperity gospel preachers claim to take the Bible literally, but they aren’t that crazy.🤪 

Is this where I point out the first use if the phrase “the gospel of wealth” was by Andrew Carnegie, who coined it to describe the duty of robber barons like himself to use their wealth for the public good? The first public library I knew was a Carnegie library.📚 

The CIA was worried about liberation theology enough to notice my church taking an interest in it in 1985. Which is downright funny, actually.

Of course Marxism is the gateway to Communism, so:

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!

It’s the last Christmas under Democrat Communist control.

Freedom is coming! 🇺🇸

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 24, 2024

Some things never change.

Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a Fox News interview that thrice married, twice divorce, adjudicated rapist and serial liar Donald Trump “takes his Christian faith seriously.” 

“I’ve had talks with him before in the past where he’s pretty blunt about, you know, he can’t say that he was raised as a, as a very zealous Christian, but he takes his Christian faith seriously,” Dolan told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” in a clip highlighted by The Hill. 

Dolan also claimed divine intervention saved Trump from assassination this summer. 

“I think of Ronald Reagan and John Paul II,” Dolan said. “Both survived assassination attempts very close to one another, and when the two of them met for the first time, Ronald Reagan said to Pope Saint John Paul II, ‘Mother Teresa told me that she thinks the Lord spared me, because the Lord has somethin’ special in mind for me.’” 

“And Pope Saint John Paul II smiled and said, ‘She told me the same thing,’” he added.

I’m sure somewhere in the afterlife the shade of William F. Buckley is looking on contentedly. Because at least nobody’s taking the gospel too seriously.

*It’s telling that the Catholic Buckley had proper Church officials on to critique LT and its RC proponents, but none of the priests themselves (Gutierrez, Sobrino, etc.) He might have had a proper debate then!