{"id":9,"date":"2013-09-25T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=9"},"modified":"2015-10-13T19:13:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:13:50","slug":"new-popes-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2013\/09\/25\/new-popes-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"New Pope&#8217;s Politics?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Famerica.aljazeera.com%2Farticles%2F2013%2F9%2F19%2Fpope-francis-churchcantinterferespirituallywithgays.html&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNF2PI3A0E1lPDfoAGWYk1fqe6TIMg\">In a recent report from Al Jazeera America<\/a> on his first major interview, Pope Francis raises concerns that the Catholic Church needs to change its political priorities if it doesn\u2019t want to \u201cfall like a house of cards.\u201d He argues that the church is focusing too heavily on \u201cnarrow\u201d issues like gay marriage and abortion when it should be fostering a more inclusive message. Is this a new and necessary direction for Catholic politics in the United States, or just a flash in the pan?<\/p>\n<h5>Pope Francis may be right about church collapse. Many Americans choose not to affiliate with religion for political reasons.<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sociology.as.nyu.edu\/object\/soc.Michael_Hout\">Michael Hout<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/sociology.berkeley.edu\/faculty\/claude-s-fischer\">Claude S. Fischer<\/a>, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3088891\">Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations<\/a>,\u201d 2002.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>It also isn\u2019t just political. Narrow theological views on issues like gender and sexuality have an effect on who comes to Mass every week.<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\">Andrew M. Greeley and Mary G. Durkin, \u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/intl-ttj.sagepub.com\/content\/41\/3\/363.full.pdf+html\">Angry Catholic Women: A Sociological Investigation, a Theological Reflection<\/a><\/em>,\u00a01984.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>This isn\u2019t the first shift, though, new leaders and changes in society have a long history of altering the church\u2019s politics.<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/jmc.msu.edu\/contact\/show.php?id=4\">Gene Burns<\/a>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucpress.edu\/book.php?isbn=9780520089228\">The Frontiers of Catholicism: The Politics of Ideology in a Liberal World<\/a><\/em>, 1994.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Plenty of organization for change can emerge from the church\u2019s membership as well. Not all the discontented leave!<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.maryvillecollege.edu\/faculty\/tbruce\/\">Tricia C. Bruce<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/faithful-revolution-9780195385847;jsessionid=709E6CD37C9B9BB240E597C83D4AB226?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\"><em> Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful is Changing the Church<\/em><\/a>, 2011.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent report from Al Jazeera America on his first major interview, Pope Francis raises concerns that the Catholic Church needs to change its political priorities if it doesn\u2019t want to \u201cfall like a house of cards.\u201d He argues that the church is focusing too heavily on \u201cnarrow\u201d issues like gay marriage and abortion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,85],"tags":[26121,38545,38546,42,45],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-politics","tag-catholicism","tag-gender","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-social-movements"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2013\/09\/8427024459_761e11af5f_z.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}