In my upcoming book “It’s Complicated, Isn’t It?”, there’s a chapter on Religion and Politics where I delve into the absurd positions that “Christian Right” Republicans hold on immigrants, trickle-down economics, the social safety net, and guns. With the news of Catholic Cardinals casting their ballots for Cardinal Robert Provost to be the next Pope, the same group of Republicans are losing their minds. Oh great, now we have a “woke” Pope.

Republicans have been faced with the challenge of twisting the messages from the New Testament to fit their caste system for decades now, and the election of Pope Leo XIV is going to make it considerably harder.

Contrast these two points of view.

You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.

— JD Vance (A Catholic) on Fox News

Republicans using gymnastics to twist the message of Love Thy Neighbor is nothing new. We’ve been witnessing Olympic Champion levels of deceit in the halls of Congress for decades, but this is potentially a powder keg of anti-Trump messaging waiting to happen. And I am here for it.