Jeb Bush rejects God

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

So most religious politicians pick and mix their supposed "divine" beliefs to back up their preconceived thoughts. Who'd have thunk it?

(And yes lefty religionists do this as well.  It's a two way street. Still intensely amusing to see people like Sicoko Santorum suddenly lose his pious warbling when it comes in conflict with the donors)

Faith in climate change is not a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. If Francis publicly proclaimed his preference for Pepsi over Coca-Cola, Catholics would not be obliged to drink it.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

So most religious politicians pick and mix their supposed "divine" beliefs to back up their preconceived thoughts. Who'd have thunk it?

(And yes lefty religionists do this as well.  It's a two way street. Still intensely amusing to see people like Sicoko Santorum suddenly lose his pious warbling when it comes in conflict with the donors)

Faith in climate change is not a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. If Francis publicly proclaimed his preference for Pepsi over Coca-Cola, Catholics would not be obliged to drink it.

I wonder how Jeb Bush squares his record of executing prisoners with the Catholic Church's stance opposing the death penalty.  Issues of life and death, even of condemned murderers, ARE matters of faith and morals, are they not?  I would like to hear Jeb, Santorum, and Paul Ryan explain their support of the death penalty in light of their stated Catholicism.  (I concede that pro-choice Catholics are full of it, so . . .)

The catechism of the RCC states that civil authorities have the right to execute criminals in order to protect the public. We now have means of protecting the public that do not involve execution but the thing in itself is not condemned by the Catholic Church.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

So most religious politicians pick and mix their supposed "divine" beliefs to back up their preconceived thoughts. Who'd have thunk it?

(And yes lefty religionists do this as well.  It's a two way street. Still intensely amusing to see people like Sicoko Santorum suddenly lose his pious warbling when it comes in conflict with the donors)

Faith in climate change is not a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. If Francis publicly proclaimed his preference for Pepsi over Coca-Cola, Catholics would not be obliged to drink it.

But here's the thing. Frannie isn't just saying "oh it would be super nice if we built some solar panels " - he's making it out that Catholics have a moral imperative to fight Climate Change.

What makes that different from previous Catholic indictments to fight the scourge of abortion, which Jeb and Rick so stridently support?

The Catholic position on abortion was dogmatically and infallibly defined in Evangelium Vitae. We won't know if the new encyclical does the same for climate change until we can actually read it.

The Pope's authority to teach infallible doctrine ex cathedra only extends to issues of morality and faith but his statements about humanity's duty to protect the environment could be interpreted as a moral teaching and therefore one that binds Catholics. I think that this has always been a tacitly held belief by Catholics, though. I believe that Bush, Santorum etc. would only be in conflict with Church teaching if he publicly stated that the environment wasn't worth preserving.