CAL THOMAS COMMENTARY MAY 12, 2025
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS A NEW POPE. I’M NOT GOING TO COMMENT ON THE THEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CATHOLICISM AND PROTESTANTISM, WHICH HAVE EXISTED SINCE MARTIN LUTHER.
I WILL COMMENT ON THE NEW POPE’S EARTHLY AGENDA. HE APPEARS TO BE IN LINE WITH THE LATE POPE FRANCIS’ EMPHASIS ON THE SOCIAL GOSPEL. DURING HIS TIME IN PERU – WHERE HE BECAME A DUAL CITIZEN IN ADDITION TO HIS U.S. CITIZENSHIP, HIS EMPHASIS WAS ON HELPING THE POOR. HELPING THE POOR IS A BIBLICAL MANDATE, BUT SCRIPTURE IS CLEAR THAT ONE MUST BE BORN AGAIN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. HELPING THE POOR – ESPECIALLY HELPING THEM TO BECOME UN-POOR – IS A SIGN THAT GOD CARES ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION. BUT THE ULTIMATE SIGN OF HIS CARING IS WHEN HE SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR OUR SINS AND THAT BY REPENTING AND INVITING JESUS INTO OUR LIVES WE ARE SAVED FROM ETERNAL DAMNATION.
THAT HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN THE CENTRAL MESSAGE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, OR FOR THAT MATTER TOO MANY PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS.
WE’LL SOON SEE WHERE THIS NEW POPE – LEO THE 14TH – TAKES HIS CHURCH. WILL IT BE A CENTRAL MESSAGE OF SALVATION, OR WILL IT BE A FOCUS ON THE KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD? I’M CAL THOMAS.
I am a huge Cal Thomas advocate, for he was my defender during an October 1990 debate on CNN’s “Crossfire.” The program was about how Scientific American Magazine had fired me as a key columnist when they learned I rejected Darwinian evolution and abortion. Cal played the key role in the program when he asked Scientific American defender and atheist Eugenie Scott: “Isn’t the essence of scientific inquiry free and open access and debate?”
My misadventure with Scientific American led directly to my career as an atmospheric scientist, a Rolex Award, many scientific papers, and several major books–including “Maverick Scientist,” my new memoir that describes Cal’s key role in the above debate (*pp160-161). If Cal can mention “Maverick Scientist” in one of his wonderful presentations, I will be glad to send him a copy.
“Maverick Scientist” describes my Christian experience, my assignments from NASA and NOAA, my 35 years of atmospheric science that cast serious doubts on global warming “theory,” and my involvement as an expert reviewer of the last two IPCC reports–which ignored my advice to include data about the lack of change in the principal “greenhouse gas,” which is total water vapor, which I have measured from 1990 until now.
I can be reached by email (below) and my phone number is: 830-560-0910.
You have a great memory! Thanks for writing me. I think you might like my latest book “A Watchman in the Night.”