Losing Patience With the New Pope
On the March 18 "Today," co-host Matt Lauer noted the simplicity of Pope Francis -- and then tried to suggest it was extreme. "So a lot of people like this move to simplicity, a move to the poor. Is it possible to take it too far?" If Benedict enjoyed revisiting the more regal historic Vatican garb, that was extreme. More humility? Also quite possibly extreme.
This is the kind of general hostility to religion that makes people turn the channel. The networks try to restrain themselves when the ever-necessary eyeballs are flocking to the TV set to see the Vatican news. But seemingly they can't hold out forever. Ultimately, they revert to sounding like jerks.
All three of NBC's regular "Today's Professionals" panelists agreed.
Advertising man Donny Deutsch insisted this was a victory of style over substance. "It's great to do all of this style stuff, man of the people. But, and we've talked about this ad nauseam, until the Catholic Church starts to address what we all know are the real issues the Church has, which is the real concern of the people, this stuff doesn't matter. It doesn't matter."
Liberals demand that the Catholic Church bow to their infallible instincts. You can't just dress humbly, preach the gospel and serve the poor. You have to grant indulgences to the feminists, the homosexuals and the contraceptive industry.
NBC medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman lectured the new pope that "poverty without birth control begets more poverty. ... This is a chance to take the humility and the poverty and say now we're really going to talk about this in a civilized way and move it forward." Deutsch added: "And we can talk about tolerance with gays and attitudes towards women." Snyderman threw in "And women in the Church."
If only the Vatican had thought of that.
Is there anything funnier than a couple of pompous NBC millionaires lecturing the pope about poverty and humility?
The world is shocked. The pope turned out to be Catholic.
In case viewers didn't get the point, anchor Diane Sawyer repeated that the Argentinian president "once called his views medieval." On "NBC Nightly News," reporter Anne Thompson checked the same rhetorical boxes: "As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the pope opposed many social programs that Kirchner endorsed, including gay marriage and free contraception. ... She, in turn, had accused him of holding positions that she said were medieval, harkening back to the Inquisition."
This is how silly these TV news attacks are: President Obama opposed same-sex marriage until last May. Why was it not "medieval" and like the Inquisition for Obama to hold that position in 2012?
The obvious difference is that the pope will not change his position with secular media pressure like Obama did. Everyone who will bow to the libertine left is honored. Those who won't are just hopelessly gauche, crossing their own foreheads on the ash heap of history.
Link
