Popes, Israelite Kings, and National Leaders

A few quick thoughts on Pope Leo and other rulers:

I did not set out to write a piece on the new Pope and related issues, but as is often the case, a confluence of things conspired against me, so here I am! Let me briefly state them, and then look into matters a bit further. In my morning Bible reading I am back in 1 and 2 Chronicles once again.

As I was walking my dog thereafter, I was thinking about how so many of the kings were such a mixed bag, doing some good things and doing some bad things. I thought that if the rulers of God’s ancient people were such a combination of good and evil, how much more could pagan or secular leaders be the same today. God has very questionable material to work with here!

And then on the social media a friend asked me if I was going to write a piece (or more) on the new Pope, Leo XIV. I said this to her: “With so many other good writers, including Catholic writers, already having done so, I am not sure if I will add to it all.”

I did offer a few quick details: “An American-born Pope, close in sync with Francis it seems – another progressive in various ways. But he seems to be pretty pro-life at least. He could be a worry all up – time will tell.” And then I said what might have been my most helpful comment: “At the very least, we can keep him in our prayers.”

I could just leave things at that, but CultureWatch of course exists to comment on the issues of the day from a biblical perspective. With some 100 different categories, including politics, economics, ethics, theology and philosophy, and with some Christians sometimes looking to me for my thoughts on various matters, I suppose I should weigh in on this just a bit.

But as readers should also be aware, it has long been my policy to try to avoid the incessant sectarian debates. I differ with Catholics of course on key issues, being an evangelical Protestant. And with zillions of other places in existence where Catholics can criticize Protestants, or Protestants can criticize Catholics, I try to steer clear of all that. However…

Pope Leo XIV

So I will say just a few quick things about the new Pope. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost from the United States is now the 267th Pope – and the first American Pope. The 69-year-old speaks six languages, is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, and has served in Peru doing missions work.

Given that many believers – both Catholic and Protestant – care about the various moral and cultural issues, let me speak to those briefly. As mentioned, he seems to be fairly pro-life, with stated concerns about both abortion and euthanasia.

As to the LGBTQ issues, in the past he has said “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.” And in 2012, he said the media in the West is at odds with the gospel because of its “sympathy” for the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

The question remains as to how much he still holds to these views. His past beliefs may or may not reflect what he will now do as the new Pope. There are of course other issues one can discuss. The conservative Catholic news outlet, LifeSiteNews has released a number of pieces already on Leo.

One article had the title, “5 worrying things you need to know about Leo XIV”. And remember, before you look to string me up, this is a Catholic site! They were certainly quite critical of Francis, and they will likely keep the heat on the new Pope as well. The first point they raised was this:

Vocal critic of Trump immigration policy 

 

Prevost is a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and has consistently used his X account to promote material hostile to Trump’s immigration policies. In one instance from February 3, Prevost reposted an article by NCROnline titled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” The article criticizes the U.S. vice president for correctly arguing that we owe more immediate responsibility to our own family members and country than to those overseas – a position taught by St. Thomas Aquinas and reiterated in the “social encyclicals” of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century popes. He shared a similar article by dissident America Magazine on the same topic days later.

You can read what John-Henry Westen said were his other concerns here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/5-worrying-things-you-need-to-know-about-leo-xvi/  

That is just one bit of Catholic commentary. By now thousands of other Catholics would have written extensively already about what to expect from the new Pope, and whether he will be good or bad overall. And Protestants have also been discussing him.

For example, the American theologian and ethicist Robert Gagnon posted about him on the social media today. Gagnon has been a leading figure in upholding and affirming the biblical stance on things like homosexuality and transgenderism. He said this in part about Leo:

“He appears to be almost a Francis clone, located theologically and politically close to where Francis was, sadly; though perhaps slightly less favorable to currying LGBTQ support. He is being touted as a ‘centrist,’ which generally means left-tilting.”

He continues:

The National Catholic Reporter states:

 

“He is closely aligned with Pope Francis’ vision regarding the late pope’s pastoral priorities, especially regarding environmentalism, outreach to the poor and migrants, and a pastoral approach that emphasizes meeting people where they are…. He showed mild support for the Vatican’s 2023 document Fiducia Supplicans.”

 

The last point is alarming. Fiducia Supplicans requires RCC priests to give “non-ritualized blessings” to “couples of the same sex,” without (allegedly, but absurdly) blessing the homosexual sex that makes two persons of the same sex a “couple.” Support for this policy means that one is either practicing deception (supporting the homosexual sex while pretending not to give support) or is incredibly self-deceived.

He also cites The Associated Press which said, “On social issues, he is viewed as progressive…” Like me, Gagnon wonders just where exactly he will end up on so many of these key issues. Time will tell.

The Israelite Kings

As I mentioned, having been reading the books of Kings and Chronicles has nicely tied in with thoughts on the new Pope, as well as some recent elections, including the American election of Trump and the Australian re-election of Albanese.

When you read about the kings in the Old Testament, you are struck by what an odd collection they were: a few quite good ones, quite a few more bad ones, and a number of them somewhere in between. Some years ago I looked at these kings in a bit more detail, so let me share from that article:

The Divided Kingdom

 

-Jeroboam ruled in Israel (the northern kingdom); its capital (eventually) was Samaria. All the kings there were bad kings.
-Rehoboam ruled in Judah (the southern kingdom); its capital was Jerusalem. There were some good and some bad kings.

 

The divided kingdom is covered in 1 Kings 12 through to the end of 2 Kings (which list the northern and southern kings), and in 2 Chronicles 10-36 (which only lists kings of Judah in the south). All up we have 38 kings and 1 queen covered:

-19 kings (18 kings and 1 queen) in the north (Israel), all of whom were bad.
-20 kings in the south (Judah) who were a mixture of good and bad kings.

 

Of the 39 kings, only one is given an unqualified good rating: a southern king, Josiah. Some of the kings in the south stayed good, some went from good to bad, a few went from bad to good, and some stayed bad. Let me look at some of the kings who went from good to bad:

 

-Rehoboam – he went with wrong crowd
-Asa – he had faith in man, not God
-Joash – he lost his godly influence
-Amaziah – he became complacent after victory
-Azariah – he became proud and disobedient
-Jotham – he did not show whole-hearted obedience
-Josiah – he picked the wrong fight

 

One of the tests of a good king was whether he destroyed the high places of the Canaanite gods, and centralized the worship in Jerusalem:

-Of the northern kings, only Hoshea and Shallum made an attempt to do so.
-Of the southern kings, only Hezekiah and Josiah did the best. Six others suppressed idolatry but did not remove the high places. The other 12 did nothing. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/04/25/getting-grasp-old-testament-kings-prophets/

Leaders today

As can be seen, the Israelite kings were all over the place – much like leaders today. Just a few days ago I was chatting with a left-leaning Christian. He never has anything good to say about Trump, and he raised his latest beef with him. I reminded him that no one gets it all right, and that in a fallen world any leaders we have will always be a mixture. Some will be better than others, however.

But hardly any leader will get things right all the time, nor always please us with what they say and do. Trump is far from perfect, and I do not like everything he does. But here is the scoop: I pray for him every single day, just as I pray daily for Albanese, Macron, Starmer, Farage and so many others.

And as I mentioned above, we can keep Pope Leo in our prayers. We will see in the days ahead just how he turns out. Plenty of conservative Catholics were deeply concerned about Francis. One very devout Catholic friend of mine even called him a “heretic.”

Time will tell what Leo ends up being like. We may have little or no influence in the affairs of the Vatican and the Papacy, but all believers certainly can pray. So let’s do that to start with.

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