It is no surprise that aligning Francis with the whole of the political Left brings with it the arguments critics on the Right usually lob against liberals: That the Left is corrupt on the moral issues, such as abortion and gay marriage that the Left is incorrect as to how poverty comes to exist and that the Left means to replace Christian charity with soulless, dependency-producing state aid programs. Rush Limbaugh labeled Francis a 'Marxist' for that reason, while Fox News's Adam Shaw wrote him off as akin to President Barack Obama, derisively noting that 'anti-Catholics in the left-wing media are in love with him.' Ross Douthat at The New York Times put the same argument more delicately, writing that Francis' 'plain language tilts leftward in ways that no serious reader can deny.' Catholic conservatives thus must carve a way around Francis' difficult insistence that governments be harnessed toward the relief of poverty, not the creation of it.Ī popular conservative criticism has thus been to accuse the pope of having an unhealthy, non-theological affinity for the political Left. Though free markets, profit motives, and unrestrained accumulation of wealth have no immediate relationship with Christianity, the cross and the coin are nonetheless powerful, paired symbols of the American right wing. But for many right-wing pundits in America, Francis' call to relieve global poverty through state intervention in markets was unconscionably troubling.įrancis' message likely raises American conservative hackles because the American right wing has invented such a convincing façade of affinity between fiscal conservatism and Christianity over the last few decades.

For most, Francis' moving exhortation to spread the gospel and engage personally with Jesus was a welcome and invigorating encouragement. Since outlining his vision for the Catholic church in late November, Pope Francis has endured an amount of criticism from the American right wing commensurate only with the praise piled on by the remainder of global Christianity.

Purpose and Power by Donald Stoker