Hanne Nabintu Herland is another WorldNetDaily columnist who’s upset with the pope. From her April 16 column:
The Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XIV, has gone to the remarkable step of deciding whose prayers God hears or not. In his Palm Sunday Easter speech at the Vatican, he said that God rejects the prayers of “war leaders,” clearly aimed at President Trump.
The mistake liberal globalist Pope Leo makes is that he attempts to use selective Scriptures that fit his preferred political narrative, misusing his religious authority to impose on all Christians his own Democrat views and disdain of President Trump. It is a massive mistake.
The pope knows perfectly well that warlords like King David in the Old Testament were men of God. King David wrote some of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible. Did God not hear King David’s prayers, and if so, why are his psalms in the Bible? The pope also knows perfectly well that warriors like Joshua, who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, served the will of God. The God of Abraham blessed wars against the unrighteous and helped his people during enemy attacks.
Like others, Herland believes she can lecture the pope on the Bible:
Many kings, presidents and state leaders juggled personal faith with state responsibilities. Did God not hear the prayers of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War? Does liberal Leo seriously mean that he has been given the revelation from God that God did not hear any of the prayers of biblical leaders and state leaders in history who were engaged in warfare?
The pope knows perfectly well that Jesus said: “Give to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and to God what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:21), signifying the different roles that state leaders have apart from individual believers.
Saint Paul also comments on these vastly different roles as he warns individuals from breaking the Law: “… the government is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.” (Romans 13:4) Saint Paul thereby calls government God’s servant that brings wrath on the transgressor. The state has powers given from God to organize and implement law and order so to administer justice among its citizens.
[…]The pope also knows very well that capital punishment was used in the Old Testament, for example for pedophilia, so how can he subversively criticize the Trump administration for using it today? Pro-life means opposing the abortion of innocent unborns and does not in any way whatsoever equate to being “pro-criminals,” excusing those who have violated others in such horrific ways that the death penalty is invoked.
When citing Leviticus 19:33-34, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them” it clearly does not say “when a criminal who has violated the law of the land resides among you, do not reprehend him.” When Jesus speaks of welcoming a stranger, and Hebrews 13:2 says “do not forget to show hospitality to strangers,” it does not say “show hospitality to criminals who rape, murder and engage in human trafficking.”
Ill-advised Pope Leo, who should have stuck to teaching the hedonist, nihilist West the traditional moral standards and spiritual principles of Christianity, has shown his true colors by demonstrating his contempt for “America First.”
Herland didn’t explain how her selective quoting of the Bible helps her right-wing cause, or why she thinks she knows more about the Bible than the pope does.