Dear Editor,
Pope Francis has a political or state agenda. In 2015 he’s met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and will speak to the United States Congress as the Vatican leader. The Pope is also expected to speak with President Obama regarding climate change. Furthermore, he has called for all political leaders to come to an agreement on world peace as these meetings are all natural for state leaders. The Vatican is a state and the U. S. has an ambassador to the Vatican.
Pope Francis also has a religious agenda. He is seeking to define family and the importance of family behavior to a strong nation. He has pontificated on issues such as divorce and homosexuality. He also dictated all Catholic priests may forgive the sin of an abortion for a year to their repentant followers. He is also rethinking issues like marriage for clergy and the allowable roles for women in the Catholic church. The Vatican is the worldwide headquarters for the Roman Catholic Church.
When America emerged in the 18th century the forefathers tried to assure religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In other words, the state would essentially allow churches to follow their doctrines in freedom and not attempt to interfere with their gatherings or doctrines.
Biblical end times requires state mandates for morality. Removing the 10 Commandments from public view, confirming the required national acceptance of gay marriages begins to show how state requires the church to bow from Biblical morality and accept societal morality.
Protestants particularly and Biblical protestants specifically should take extreme care not to be swayed by the Pope’s agenda to combine church and state issues for the purpose of world peace and global love. Protestants should remember why they are not Catholic. A lot of people died in the Reformation to create this logical split.
Jim Moore
Pace
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pope combines church and state