{"id":161004,"date":"2026-04-14T11:23:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=161004"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:23:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:23:40","slug":"popes-politics-policy-morality-and-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/14\/popes-politics-policy-morality-and-lanes.html","title":{"rendered":"Popes, Politics, Policy, Morality, and “Lanes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hot off of overseeing the fall of the Orban regime, failing to secure an unlikely peace with Iran, and, as far as I can tell, killing the last Pope (that one’s probably not completely true), Trump attack dog J. D. Vance is back in the news, lambasting the (new, as-yet-unkilled-by-him) Pope for not staying in his lane regarding the US war on Iran.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
JD Vance defends Trump amid spat with Pope Leo: \u2018Stick to matters of morality\u2019<\/div>
Catholic vice-president effectively tells Leo to stay in his lane after pope criticized the White House over the Iran war<\/div>
www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/14\/jd-vance-defends-trump-pope-leo-spat<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Quoth Vance, himself a Catholic convert:<\/p>\n

It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what\u2019s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

For the last half-century — arguably since the founding of the US, but I’ll focus on politics-as-I-remember-it — the conservative right has been asserting, if not demanding, that\u00a0morality<\/em> should be and must a key component of public policy. Every discussion of sexuality, of civil rights, of reproductive freedom, has had the evangelicals, the GOP, and the Right in general demanding that\u00a0morality<\/em> is intrinsic to decision-making and actions. Hell, every argument\u00a0still<\/em> being made about gay marriage, or trans rights, or what books shouldn’t be in the library are\u00a0still<\/em> framed as moral issues.<\/p>\n

And, of course, they were right.<\/p>\n

All actions have a moral dimension to them — in how we interact with and treat ourselves, our world, and each other.<\/p>\n

The same is true of government action.\u00a0 Public policy does not occur in a moral vacuum (that, itself, would be a course with moral implications).\u00a0 If an action affects individuals, groups, people in general, morality comes into play.<\/p>\n

The catch, of course, is whose morality is expressed in such policy.\u00a0 If I want a book to be banned, that’s my moral judgment being asserted. If I want a book\u00a0not<\/em> to be banned, that’s founded in morality as well. In either case, I want what is “right,” what is “best for everyone” (or for “the children” or for “intellectual freedom,” or for …).<\/p>\n

That expression of morality gets resolved at a micro level in this country through the democratic process — elected officials and (directly or indirectly) elected policy makers making decisions, passing laws and regulations, and applying those to given circumstances.\u00a0 At a macro level, that’s done within the framework of existing laws, up to state and federal constitutional restrictions on what government can do and why.\u00a0 And even that level can be changed through direct and indirect democratic processes.<\/p>\n

In other words, Vance’s attempt to draw a bright line between the Pope handling questions of morality and the Dear Leader handling questions of public policy is nonsensical.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Trump administration has been\u00a0explicit<\/em> in trying to assert (or assume) a moral case for the Iran War. Look at Pete Hegseth gleefully foaming at the mouth as he quotes the Bible about God crushing evil-doers. Look at Trump talk in semi-coherent terms about the Iranians (or their leaders) being “not good people.”<\/p>\n

Look at Trump pretending to be Jesus, surrounded by soldiers and fighter jets and angelic warriors …<\/p>\n

\"AI<\/a>
“I thought it was me as a doctor,” he claimed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m pretty sure\u00a0morality<\/em> is being expressed there.\u00a0 As well as a bit of blasphemy and a lot of poor taste.<\/p>\n

Even the fundamentally lucid arguments about the war — keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear power to protect the lives of potentially millions of people — assume a moral position of “protecting (some) innocent lives is good.”<\/p>\n

And it\u00a0is<\/em> good. Protecting the Middle East, and the world, and ourselves from a government that has actively used terror as a policy tool coming into possession of nuclear weapons — that’s a (defensible) moral goal.\u00a0 Freeing the Iranian people of a theocratic regime that has ruthlessly and bloodily oppressed its people — that’s a (fraught but also defensible) moral goal as well.<\/p>\n

Of course, how<\/em> one goes about such actions, as well as an analysis of other reasons why<\/em> one pursues such a course — those are questions of morality, too.\u00a0 Lobbing Tomahawk missiles and sending stealth bombers to blow up Iranian military targets\u00a0and anything that happens to be around them<\/em> —\u00a0<\/em>that has obvious moral implications. Threatening, even as a negotiating tactic, to destroy civilian infrastructure, to bomb a country “back to the Stone Age,” to “end a civilization” … I’m pretty sure there are moral components there, too.<\/p>\n

For Vance to suggest that one can<\/em> (and, by implication, that his boss has)<\/em> separate “matters of morality” from “American public policy,” and that the Pope should stick to the former as his lane and shut up about US military actions, is so misguided as to be disingenuous.\u00a0 Vance is smarter than that. Trump, maybe, can’t juggle those concepts (especially as his fundamental morality seems to be “If I want to do it, it’s okay”), but Vance knows better, including here:<\/p>\n

The president has the prerogative to set American foreign policy, he\u2019s got the prerogative to set American immigration policy. He has to look out for the interests of the United States of America, and that inevitably means that when the Vatican comments on issues of public policy, sometimes there\u2019s going to be agreement, of course, and sometimes there\u2019s going to be disagreement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The President does, in fact, legally have the prerogative about such policy (though he is bound by law and the Constitution as to how he goes about pursuing those policies).\u00a0 That doesn’t mean they are independent of morality, as Trump’s very statements about them show otherwise.\u00a0 Pope Leo isn’t suggesting that the President of the United States must obey him, that the Papacy has authority over American policy.\u00a0 He’s doing his job — calling out his evaluation of the (im)morality of actions take under those policies.<\/p>\n

After spending all that time trying to draw an artificial line between Trumpian policy and questions of morality, Vance’s conclusion?<\/p>\n

When they\u2019re in conflict, they\u2019re in conflict. I don\u2019t worry about it too much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hey, J. D., given\u00a0 your boss’ ongoing attacks on the Pope …<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Trump says he won't apologize to Pope Leo and explains his reason for posting much-criticized meme<\/div>
President Donald Trump is refusing to apologize to Pope Leo XIV after criticizing the pontiff's opposition to the war in Iran.<\/div>
apnews.com\/article\/trump-pope-leo-xiv-02f6b4554ea4b83af02af15987ae1f2d<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

… I think he<\/em>\u00a0is worrying about it a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When should a public policy item be morally judged? When can it ever not be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[109,10,349,380,1071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-state","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-military","category-nationalism-exceptionalism","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trump-as-Jesus.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133533,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/24\/the-pope-gives-more-than-a-small-nudge-to-trump-about-climate-change.html","url_meta":{"origin":161004,"position":0},"title":"The Pope gives more than a small nudge to Trump about climate change","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-May-17 12:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Is there any chance that Trump (who this morning tweeted, \"Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis. I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world.\") will actually read it, let alone pay attention to it? Pope Francis presents Trump with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133906,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/19\/trump-re-certifies-the-iran-nuclear-deal-is-going-okay.html","url_meta":{"origin":161004,"position":1},"title":"Trump re-certifies the Iran nuclear deal is going okay","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jul-17 3:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite calling it the worst deal ever, dumb, dangerous, the prelude to nuclear holocaust, and his number one priority to repeal upon assuming office, the President has acquiesced to all his top national security advisers, agreeing that Iran is honoring the nuclear deal they signed with the US and other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136393,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/11\/the-trump-of-the-deal.html","url_meta":{"origin":161004,"position":2},"title":"The Trump of the Deal","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-May-18 9:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"So basically Trump demonstrated leadership by not engaging with Iran, by avoiding negotiations with our frenemies China and Russia, and getting our actual European allies to agree to all sorts of concessions and come supplicate themselves to keep the deal in place, only to throw them under the bus. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/trump-making-a-point.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135570,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/07\/trump-winning-friends-influencing-people-iran.html","url_meta":{"origin":161004,"position":3},"title":"How Trump is Winning Friends and Influencing People … for Iran","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Dec-17 3:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Will Trump's unilateral decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem garner some support for him in the US? Maybe, but probably only from people who were already supporting him, and who wouldn't stop supporting him if he failed to do so. Will it hurt US interests in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Ayatollah-Seyyed-Ali-Khamenei.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132142,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/01\/people-are-becoming-concerned-that-trump-might-do-what-he-said-hell-do.html","url_meta":{"origin":161004,"position":4},"title":"People are becoming concerned that Trump might do what he said he'll do","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Dec-16 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To the point that the head of the CIA is now publicly warning the President-Elect that his oft-promised scrapping of the Iran nuclear accord would be a huge mistake, no matter what his Iran-hating advisers are advising.Ah, well, not to worry -- I believe that Trump will be able to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132730,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/01\/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-trump-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":161004,"position":5},"title":"How to Win Friends and Influence People (Trump Style)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-Feb-17 10:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's almost like the Trump & Co. have a bet as to how many crises they can foment in a single day through being obnoxious, obscure, or both.On today's list: Iran, Mexico, and Australia!IRANNot that the Gang in Tehran is a particularly nice set of guys, but vague saber-rattling doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161009,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161004\/revisions\/161009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}