Perhaps you saw Donald Trump’s dumb picture of himself as a divine healer, before he deleted it, and then said he just meant to show himself as a Red Cross doctor or something. Here is the image he posted:
Maybe you also saw his insane little rant about the Pope, which he apparently stands by.
Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of Word on Fire Media who serves (and I do mean “serves”) on Trump’s “Religious Liberty Commission,” did see it, and he responded. Here is Bishop Barron’s response post on Twitter:
Barron wasn’t the only one who thinks Trump should apologize. Lots of Catholics, and others, including the President of of Iran?? were horrified and offended that he would say and share such things.
Not me! I don’t care. It’s all dumb and ridiculous and yes, I guess it’s offensive, although my capacity to be offended has been worn down to a mere grease spot these days.
What I do care about is why this, a stupid little social media post calling names and being dumb, is what finally stirred Bishop Barron out of his long, comfortable slumber and spurred him to make a statement (sandwiched in between some bootlicking). This? This is what finally gave his conscience a little twinge?
The Pope doesn’t want or need an apology for the president being disrespectful, I guarantee you. It’s the kind of thing Trump posts all the time, and always has. It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is what Trump DOES.
So I wonder, Bishop Barron. Should Trump apologize for bombing a girls’ school?
Should he apologize for referring to our fellow children of God as “animals,” “garbage,” and “people with bad genes?” Should he apologize for sharing an AI video of himself dumping liquid shit on the heads of American citizens?
Should he apologize for yanking funds away from USAID, consigning thousands of utterly innocent people to death, while pouring torrents of money into wars of choice, vanity projects, and of course golf?
Should he apologize for gleefully cramming countless human beings into a man-made hell without even the pretense of a trial?
I could go on. Bishop Barron, though, is apparently pacing himself, saving his dissent for the crimes that will really echo through the halls of eternity: A post on social media.
Social media matters because it amplifies opinions and shapes people’s worldview. But when that worldview and those opinions are already being translated, in real time, every day, into real life acts of terror and destruction and wholesale degradation of the entire country, only a fool cares what someone posts on social media. Only a fool adjusts his collar and asks for a Truth Social apology when the real world is in flames.
An insult on social media post isn’t the worst part of what Trump has done, your excellency. The worst part is everything else.
Definitely the raping.
This is excellent – thank you!
Thank you for articulating so well what I was feeling!
Magnificently said–thank you.
Thank you for this Simcha. I have always admired and respected Bishop Barron, but I’m really sorry to see how he is sucking up to Trump in the midst of asking him to apologize.