Jon Stewart highlights GOP incoherence on Pope Francis and climate change, church and state

Jon Stewart tackles the pope and climate change and the GOP and church and state — (Image credit: The Daily Show)

The Republican Party is usually "pretty pro-pope," Jon Stewart said on Thursday's Daily Show, "sharing as they do a yearning for the simpler morality of the 15th century. But now that the pope has gone rogue, how they gonna handle it?" Stewart was referring to Pope Francis' 200-page encyclical on the moral imperative to combat human-influenced climate change. And Republicans, even Catholics like Rick Santorum and Jeb Bush, aren't handling it well.

Santorum said that the pope should stick to "theology and morality" and leave the science to the scientists — who overwhelmingly agree with the pope, Stewart noted — while Jeb Bush said that the church should stay out of politics. Which is "weird," Stewart said, "because Jeb seemed very in favor of church and state at least dating at last week's Faith & Freedom Coalition" — especially, Bush said, "when people of faith want to take a stand for traditional marriage." Ah, Stewart said, "maybe people would be more for preventing global warming if we referred to it as 'taking a stand for preserving traditional sea levels.'" Which is all funny and good. But does Stewart suggest at the end that Pope Francis was bought off by ExxonMobil? Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.