By Landon Stokes
If you’re someone who keeps up with every web edition of The Haystack, then you’ve already seen the two or three other opinion articles I’ve written on Donald Trump and might be tired of hearing about him.
But the man never ceases to impress in the media, and this time we’ve got a good old-fashioned standoff between our beloved billionaire and the head honcho of the Catholic Church himself, Pope Francis.
This issue may be hard-hitting for many Christians, as Pope Francis has openly called Trump, “not Christian,” stating that, “[building walls] is not the Gospel.” Upon hearing this, Trump claimed that, “everyone knows that [the Vatican] is ISIS’ ultimate trophy,” and that Pope Francis will wish Trump was there to protect him if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS. See what I mean? This fight is almost comical in its absurdity.
That being said, usually I side against Trump on just about anything, but if we’re all being honest there’s no winner here; both Trump and the Pope have no idea what they’re talking about. For starters, saying that ISIS’ ultimate goal is to attack the Vatican and that he is the only one who can stop it is far more hilarious than Trump intended it to be. The man thinks he’s a superhero, but he’s more like the boy Mr. Incredible always ditched who comes back to be a villain because he developed sidekick daddy issues.
Similarly, the Pope, while being a pretty cool guy most of the time, is just as much of an idiot in this case as Trump. For starters, even the leader of the Catholic Church doesn’t get to decide who’s a Christian and who isn’t. The whole point of Christianity is that it teaches (among other things) what God is to the individual. And in case Francis has forgotten, Catholics have a history of wanting to keep undesirable people out of their faith, not to mention the whole “buying salvation” thing. Although it may not have been Francis himself who perpetuated these ideas, it is still a part of his history so he’s not necessarily in the best position to be telling other Christians what the Gospel is.
It’s important to note, however, that the feud between the two has since subsided. It seems both Trump and the Pope realized how stupid they were acting before the situation garnered significant media backlash; which almost disappoints me in a way. As much as i disagree with Donald Trump’s policies, the man balls really hard and I respect that. He’s not afraid to go toe-to-toe with powerful people and mock them on national media, and that’s what I like to see. Just not in a president.
