Pope says don’t use religion for political power

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https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/09/14/Pope-says-religion-should-not-be-used-a-prop-for-power

Religion and Politics have never mixed well.

Christianity, as I read the Bible, was always supposed to be separate from politics IMHO. Except, you know, humans got involved. I feel like Pope Francis knows the right messages to emphasize for these times.

I actually do have a lot of respect for the pope. But it’s ironic that the pope can say don’t use religion for political power when he himself wields an incredible amount of political power due to his position in a large, unified, global church that has at various time exerted tremendous influence on many governments.

Christianity should transcend politics, and I believe it succeeds in this. The truth is, though, that politics involves PEOPLE and their relationship with government. Many of those people happen to be Christians or are otherwise religious. It’s foolish to imagine you can separate church and state completely. At best all you can say is that government is by the consent of the governed, with effort made towards equity for all.

But of you actually take the bible seriously, you'd have to give away all your wealth to the poor and turn the other cheek. That's not necessarily a good, or even a viable way to build a state or a holy roman empire that lasted through the middle ages.
It kinda only works even eventually, the end of the world does occur during your lifetime, and I think that's basically why christianity has this split and eventually kinda fizzles out - catholicism feels not all that distant from hinduism, but hinduism doesn't have this contradiction at its core between how human societies and life works, and what the actual text demands.

I think if people were actually successful at bringing christianity back into politics, it won't work for all that long - if it's a form that can't bridge this divide like catholicism managed to do.

Separation of church and state. That was the intention of the founding fathers, and of the first Protectants. Good enough reason for me.

The Pope seems to be saying "dont exploit religion to gain political advantage because that is a crass debasement of religion".

Sounds like he was looking at that picture of Trump waving the Bible while standing in front of that church in Washington DC, when he said that.

Francis nailed it!