For the next few days, Americans will be focused on a Christian who is using an official position to speak out on social issues—drawing throngs of supporters as much as critics. No, I don’t mean Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis. I’m talking about Pope Francis.
Arguably, in their core convictions, Kim Davis and Pope Francis may be quite similar. By all accounts, Pope Francis is a traditional conservative who opposes both gay marriage and abortion. In practical terms, the pope and Davis likely agree on more than they disagree.
And yet style is everything.
Here’s Kim Davis: “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience…. It is about marriage and God’s Word.”
And here’s Pope Francis: “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Kim Davis: “It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision.”
Pope Francis: “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being.”
In reading these quotes, it would not be a mistake to conclude that the pope doesn’t want to judge anyone nor assume whom God judges—but Kim Davis does.
And in general, Pope Francis has made a number of moves to make the Catholic Church more open and welcoming toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Kim Davis, on the other hand, has clearly made her clerk’s office less welcoming for the LGBT community—with her own words and, now, the virulently anti-gay protesters she’s helped marshal.
Read more at Quartz
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