I'm not a Catholic. I have a few rosaries, but mostly because rappers kept wearing them in videos as they referenced Jesus while pouring champagne over some woman's head at the club, which is the stupidest thing ever.
Champagne is not cheap at the club. Especially not the kind they're pouring on models in the club. Some people just have too much disposable income. I've lost my point. Let's regroup.
I'm not a Catholic, but I do recognize the significance of the pope. He's pretty much St. Peter's right-hand man down here on earth. When he visited America last week and (allegedly) disrupted the nation's capital for three days, I paid attention more so for how it would affect my morning commutes (it didn't at all; I think all government workers were effectively scared into teleworking, leaving the highways to look like ghost towns in the mornings) and with a detached curiosity about what he'd say. Seeing as I'm one of those not-really-religious-but-goes-to-church-sometimes people, the pope's position on any number of issues really doesn't mean much to my life.
From afar, though, I've noticed that people feel a certain progressive and comfortable energy with this pope. The term "people's pope" has been evoked numerous times, and every so often a story about the pope's stance on an issue like abortion or gay marriage, or just some issue where the stance seemed set in stone, hits the news and I say to myself, "Hmm, Self, that seems like a more progressive stance than I would assume the church would take."
Some of this could be a call to bring folks back into the economic fold, since times they are a changin', and taking a hard-line stance on issues for which history seems to be receding doesn't do much for growing one's constituency. But again, all this is my view from afar. People far more politically inclined and more informed can likely wax poetic about who Pope Francis really is.
But even not knowing much about him, and only basing my opinion on the bits I've gathered and what I heard while he was here in Washington, D.C., that meeting with Kim Davis really doesn't sit right with me. It seems contradictory. Also, the fact that the Vatican only acknowledged it after he left the country, and did a bit of hemming and hawing about it, makes me feel like this pope might not be who folks think he is. Again, though, I could be wrong.
For starters, I didn't even actually believe it happened. The initial reports seemed like pure nonsense. Why in the world would the pope, this man of the cloth, meet with Kim Davis? For why, Lord? I mean, it's Kim Davis!
Kim Davis is a fraud to me. She's a woman who had a job and she decided not to do it because it didn't align with her own personal beliefs, which to me means you get a new job. Having personal beliefs is fine. Forcing your personal beliefs into your public office? That's a no-no. If you want to work at a company that allows your personal beliefs to carry over into your work, get a job at Chick-fil-A. Or Catholic Charities. Not public office.
To me (and to many others) she broke the law because she doesn't like it. Somehow, because she's standing up against homosexuality, there are segments of society that are willing to look past her illegal transgressions. These same segments of society would love to lock up law-abiding black citizens who are seen legally carrying firearms. But I'm sleep.
This woman is no hero. She's somebody who took the law into her own hands and got to keep her job. She's Tom Brady. (I don't like him, either, but I at least respect that man.) The pope meeting with her, in private—taking time out of his jam-packed schedule—is a form of approval and says, from the holiest man alive, basically, "I support you."
I don't care if people who stand for their beliefs need to have a voice—which I agree with—but singling out her for that type of special treatment makes her seem like a person who is deserving of some accolade for her acts, which again, for an elected official, fly in the face of her job. The fact that Americans, so many hell-bent on people respecting the law (at least when it comes to not infringing on their own personal wants), basically turned the other way, and now the freakin' Holy See is out here making her out to be a person of reverence, really doesn't sit right with me.
And I'm not even sure why. I don't care for her, and I think she's a total fraud who respects the sanctity of marriage about as much as Donald Trump does. She represents, to me, people who feel strongly about one thing and act on it while not realizing how their own actions fly in the face of said stance. In everyday parlance, we call those people hypocrites.
And that's what bothers me: The pope is supporting a hypocrite. A known one. A person whose history is available online, and he's dropping off blessings and rosaries and prayers in support of this woman. How you gon' be out here blessin' all the trap n—gas, basically?
I love that song by Future, "Trap N—gas," but I also think it's one of the most puzzling songs in history because he's asking God to support all these men who are about to go destroy the community. I get it; trap n—gas are doing the best they can and just trying to make it, but to ask God to bless those that destroy is just an odd request.
And that's how I feel about the pope meeting with Kim Davis privately. It's supporting somebody who has already broken the very covenant you're praising her for upholding. Maybe not in that specific fashion, but she ain't exactly out here living the godly life. Granted, she's not Catholic, either, so perhaps her rules don't matter, and to the pope, she represents nonviolent resistance, but this dude was not out here blessing all of the protesters in Ferguson, Mo., or Baltimore and meeting with anybody from those camps who are actively seeking real change in the form of social reforms intended to stop the destruction of the black community.
I'm still sleep, though.
I had no real opinion of the pope before this. He was the head of the Catholic Church, and that meant something to something like a billion people. So he mattered. But now? His stances and opinions should all come with a grain of salt. But since he is blessing Kim Davis … I do hope he can ask God …
… to bless all the trap n—gas.
It's tough out there.
Panama Jackson is the co-founder and senior editor of VerySmartBrothas.com. He lives in Washington, D.C., and believes the children are our future.