Pope Leo XIV Blames Atheists For Christian Nationalist Abuses
"A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society." - Pope Leo XIV
Reality: It’s Donald Trump’s Christian Nationalist government that’s perpetrating those abuses.
Atheists strongly oppose Donald Trump, who rose to power with the help Christian leaders and voters.
It’s nonsense to blame the problems of arbitrary cruelty in the world on a lack of faith when religion is doing so much to spread that cruelty. —-
There’s a new Catholic Pope this week. He named himself Pope Leo XIV, and he gave his first speech.
The obvious question on everybody’s mind was how the new Pope would address the danger posed by Donald Trump, who is threatening war with Canada, ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and an end to democracy in the United States, with new concentration camps in Guantanamo, El Salvador, and Alcatraz.
Pope Leo XIV chose to respond to this historical moment of growing fascism by blaming atheists for it all. He declared:
"A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society."
This statement is astonishingly out of touch with the reality of social struggle today, especially given that Robert Prevost, the man who now calls himself Pope Leo XIV, is from the United States. Let’s break down his statement, point by point.
Is the loss of meaning in life caused by lack of faith?
There certainly is a general feeling of a loss of meaning in society these days, but it doesn’t come from a lack of faith.
Donald Trump’s rapid dismantling of American democracy is causing huge numbers of people to feel a loss of meaning, and not just in the United States. People around the world had come to regard the USA as unshakably democratic, with a strong system of constitutional law that established and protected liberty for generations. Now, Donald Trump is violating that system of civil liberties, transforming the United States into an authoritarian regime that upholds few principles other than that Donald Trump can do whatever he wants. Americans, and liberals around the world, are dumbfounded by this turn of events, and many are left feeling unmoored, struggling to find a sense of meaning now that the promises of liberal democracy have been abandoned.
Donald Trump was elected with the support of the majority of American Catholic voters, and through the organized political influence of right wing Catholic organizations.
Pope Leo XIV did not choose to talk about any of that in his homily, however. Instead, he warned against the danger of people entering “a state of practical atheism”.
Is the neglect of mercy caused by lack of faith?
In the world today, the most tragic examples of neglect of mercy come from Christian Nationalist governments, not atheists.
The government of Russia, which aligns itself strongly with Christianity, is mercilessly attacking the nation of Ukraine.
Israel is waging a campaign of explicit ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and is doing so with the strong encouragement of the Christian Nationalist government of the United States.
The Christian Nationalists in charge of the US federal government have begun to defund medical research and disaster response, and have taken systematic action to eliminate programs that deliver food to the hungry and medicine to the sick. Millions of deaths are projected to take place by the end of this year because of this Christian Nationalist neglect of mercy.
None of the perpetrators of these cruelties were atheists. To the contrary, the leaders responsible for this neglect of mercy are both personally religious and politically connected with religious political organizations. Lack of faith has nothing to do with their motivation. In fact, these leaders frequently cite religious faith as a motivation for what they do.
Are appalling violations of human dignity caused by lack of faith?
Donald Trump, the Christian Nationalist President of the United States, has begun systematic programs of the torture and humiliation of prisoners who have no record of criminal activity. He has described entire nations and ethnicities of human beings as “animals” who deserve to be hunted down like “vermin”.
Trump does these things even as he declares that he is “bringing religion back” using the power of the US federal government.
Trump is a lifelong Christian who frequently cites experiences going to church and talks about how his special relationship with the Christian god has brought him to power.
Lack of faith has nothing to do with any of this.
Is a crisis of the family caused by lack of faith?
Donald Trump is ripping families apart, splitting up married couples during ICE raids, putting people into prisons from which they cannot contact their families, and even deporting young children who are citizens of the United States while denying them life-saving medical care.
At the same time, Christian Nationalists are clamoring to declare same-sex marriages null and void. Catholic organizations funded by the US federal government are refusing to allow LGBTQ married couples to adopt children. Christian groups are banning books from public libraries for no other reason than that the books dare to mention that same-sex married couples exist.
In the United States of America, Christians, not atheists, are causing a nationwide crisis of the family. The power of faith is proving corrosive to family life, as religious groups spread divisive conspiracy theories and encourage their adherents to shun family members who refuse to submit to the authority of faith leaders.
Atheists just aren’t doing that.
Lack of Faith Leads to Resistance to Fascism
The Christian Nationalists who control the US federal government are destroying democracy and establishing fascism as an expression of their faith.
Non-religious Americans are the strongest most reliable opponents of Donald Trump’s cruel Christian Nationalist fascism. Americans who live without faith voted against Donald Trump by the largest margins of any cultural group in the United States.
The majority of Christian voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump, and months into Trump’s second presidency, the majority of American Christians strongly support Trump’s seizure of totalitarian power.
Atheists and other non-Christian Americans are the ones most reliably holding the line against cruelty, corruption, and social chaos of fascism. Only 14 percent of American Christians are willing to identify themselves as liberals.
Faith Organizations in America Are Using Fascism to Gain Power
Last week, Donald Trump announced the creation of a new governmental bureau, headquartered in the White House itself, that is dedicated to protecting Christian power in America.
At a ceremony announcing the creating of the bureau, called the Religious Liberty Commission, Trump stated explicitly that the purpose of the government bureau is to blend the power of church and state, defying the First Amendment to the Constitution from the Bill of Rights. Trump gave a wandering speech, in which he acknowledged that this mixture of church and state defies all legal precedent in the United States. Trump said:
“You know, they work right out of the White House. They’ve never done that. That’s never been done before. No other president allowed that. I think, you know, they say separation, they say separation between church and state, they told me. I said, all right, let’s forget about that for one time. We said, really? Separation? I don’t know. Is that a good thing or a bad thing. I’m not sure, but whether there is separation or not, you guys are in the White House, where you should be, and you’re representing our country, and we’re bringing religion back to our country, and it’s a big deal… Today, as the American people turn to God and prayer, we continue a tradition that is older than our independence itself… and interestingly, I had none of them, had I had a rigged election, had the election not been rigged, I would have been out of here. I would have been gone. The radical left would have said, we got rid of him, finally. But no, now they have me for another four years. We talk about that… and we’re going to always bring God with us. We’re going to bring God to those celebrations. We’re not going to forget about God… We rejoice that God answered those prayers, and I think God answered other prayers, because he has put in an Administration to run this country that is going to make you proud again. It’s going make you believe and believe more again. Just a hundred days, we are respected all over the world. Every leader is calling and wants to have a meeting, appointments.”
“We’re not going to forget about God,” Donald Trump said. This is not the voice of a person who is suffering from what Pope Leo XIV called “a lack of faith”. Donald Trump is proposing the opposite of a lack of faith. Trump is proposing that the US federal government “make you believe”, that it force the faith of Christianity on the American people whether they like it or not.
Donald Trump was talking to the members of the Religious Liberty Commission, who are:
Dan Patrick, chair of the Commission
Dan Patrick is Lieutenant Governor of Texas. As Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick has declared that members of the Democratic Party must be fought against because Democrats are either controlled by demons (“powers and principalities”) or are demons themselves. Patrick said:
“Scripture says the horse is made ready for battle but the victory is the lord’s, but we have to be ready for battle. We have to be ready for the fight, because we are not in a fight any longer of Republicans and Democrats of the old days. We are in a fight of lightness and darkness. We are in a fight of powers and principalities.”
Dan Patrick has stated that the United States was created by the Christian god, not by any human political leaders. Patrick declares that the Christian god wrote the Constitution.
The Constitution itself contradicts that claim. It declares that it was written by the people of the United States, and that the Constitution was established by people. The first words of the Constitution are:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
There is no mention of any god or spirit or ghost or anything other supernatural in the Constitution, and that’s by design. The only time the Constitution mentions religion, it is in order to separate government from religion. Dan Patrick either doesn’t understand that, or is willingly exploiting the ignorance of religious Americans about this aspect of American history and law.
Ben Carson
Ben Carson is not a religious leader, but is a politician, a former Trump cabinet member who has embraced Christian Nationalism.
Ryan T. Anderson
Ryan T. Anderson is a former staff member of the Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025, a document that urges Donald Trump to replace constitutional freedoms with the freedom to obey. Ryan has preached against sexual freedom, decries “the widespread acceptance of contraception”, and argues that LGBTQ marriages must be broken up, in order to comply with Christian beliefs. That’s not, “religious liberty”, but Christian Nationalists use the phrase “religious liberty” as a euphemism for Christian power.
Robert Barron
Robert Barron is a Catholic bishop. He is a Christian Nationalist who claims that legal rights of people in the United States were not established by any government, but were established by and are subject to the arbitrary power of the Christian god. “It is exceptionally dangerous when we forget the principle that our rights come from God and not from a government,” Barron writes. Barron has embraced the totalitarian dictatorship of Donald Trump in order to promote this idea that the United States of America is the creation and property of the Christian god, and must submit to that god’s absolute power.
Carrie Prejean Boller
Carrie Prejean Boller is a former beauty pageant contestant who opposes legal equality for LGBTQ Americans. She is a former member of the advisory board for Women for Trump. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Boller paid children to go into public spaces without any mask to protect them from infection.
Timothy Dolan
Timothy Dolan is a Catholic archbishop. Dolan is an anti-LGBTQ activist who has argued that the marriages of LGBTQ Americans “imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage” and has stated that LGBTQ people do not have the right to engage in sexual relationships with each other. Dolan also coordinated with the Vatican to conceal $57 million dollars from legal courts so that the money could not be used to compensate children who had been raped by Catholic priests.
Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham inherited the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from his father. He is a preacher who called upon the Christian god to physically attack President Barack Obama, and has claimed that Barack Obama collaborated with the “Spirit of AntiChrist”.
Eric Metaxas
Eric Metaxas is a radio talk show host, who says that recognizing the legal rights of transgender Americans is part of “a Satanic war” and claims that separation of church and state is “Satan’s will”.
Kelly Shackelford
Kelly Shackelford is the CEO of a legal firm that specializes in establishing legal precedents for overturning separation of church and state.
Paula White
Paula White is a Christian preacher who claims to have the power of prophecy. After Donald Trump lost the presidential election of 2020, she attempted to use magic chanting to call angels from Africa to fly over the Atlantic Ocean in order to use their supernatural abilities to overturn the election. White has argued that the American people are not capable of handling the responsibilities of ruling themselves in a democracy, which is why the Christian god should be allowed to take over the USA.
Meir Soloveichik
Meir Soloveichik is the only non-Christian member of Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. He is an orthodox Jewish rabbi who has spoken against separation of church and state.
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These American religious leaders (well, only some of them are actual religious leaders) did not challenge Donald Trump at this ceremony. They were happy to stand side by side with America’s fascist dictator, endorsing his government, in exchange for political power. Instead of criticizing the sadistic crimes and abuses of Donald Trump, they shook his hand and smiled.
Their faith led them to embrace Donald Trump’s crimes, to embrace his fascism.
These religious leaders show that lack of faith is not the problem.
An excess of faith is the problem.
“The loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society” are problems that result of the lack of healthy skepticism, the lack of critical questions, the lack of independent thinking, and the lack of resistance to people and institutions that claim arbitrary authority.
If he were to approach his new job as Pope Leo XIV with an attitude of honesty and humility, Robert Prevost would focus on the role of Christian Nationalist ideology in promoting the cruelty of fascism. He would preach about how faith can create a vulnerability to exploitation by authoritarian regimes.
For the new Catholic Pope to use this historical moment to blame atheists for the problems created by Christian Nationalists is beyond disappointing. It’s despicable.