WASHINGTON- US Protestant leaders and thinkers were sharply divided Thursday on new Catholic Pope Benedict XVI, with the most conservative among them cheering the pope's hardline views on moral issues even as they rejected Catholic dogma.
Ironically, the Protestants most theologically at odds with the Vatican, like Baptists, Evangelicals and Mormons, expressed the strongest support for the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's stances against abortion, the ordination of women and marriage of priests, and homosexuality.
Those traditionally closest to Rome, like Lutherans, Episcopalians and Methodists, questioned the choice of a Catholic leader unbudging on issues they themselves have embraced.
"We are delighted with his stance because he holds to the same moral values in society that we do," said Robert Millet, a Mormon professor of religion at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mormons "would stand with him against the erosion of moral values and what he called moral relativism," said Millet.
John Revell, executive committee spokesman for the 16.3 million strong Southern Baptist Convention, said many Southern Baptists "are encouraged by the statements of the new pope on certain issues such as the sanctity of life and the family."
Norman Geisler, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, condemned Catholics for still holding the beliefs that split the church and gave birth to Protestantism in the 16th century.
Even so, he said, "We are very happy that someone like Ratzinger has been elected ... who actually believes in the absolute truth, and who isn't a pluralist," Geisler said.
Geisler said the shared positions of American Evangelicals and Catholics against abortion and homosexuals made them a potent political movement.
"The greatest force for good in America is conservative Catholicism and Evangelicism," he said.
But Protestants from denominations historically closer to Catholics questioned the choice of a pope they called rigid and confrontational.
John H. Thomas, president of the 1.3 million member United Church of Christ, said Benedict "lacked the warm pastoral heart" of his predecessor John Paul II.
"John Paul was a consistent and courageous moral voice for peace and against economic and political injustice," Thomas said, while the new pope has a record of treating harshly those who differed with the church.
"His interpretations of the ecumenical vision of Vatican II have been narrow and constrained", Thomas said, referring to the 1965 liberalization of the church.
Episcopalian Alan Jones, Dean of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, said Benedict XVI represents the Vatican's continuing refusal to admit historical errors.
"He resists the fact that ideas and dogmas have a history ... He appears to have little respect for tradition in light of the way the church has changed over the centuries," said Jones, whose congregation includes a substantial number of homosexuals.
Nevertheless, more progressive Protestants expected the church to continue in longstanding talks over issues they share.
Mark Hanson, bishop of the five million-strong Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and president of the World Lutheran Federation, was encouraged the commitment to inter-faith relations Benedict declared after he became pope.
However, Hanson, whose church has taken a more progressive stance on women and homosexuals than Catholics, hoped the Vatican would be more open on key current issues.
"We must find commonness in the world of today," and address issues like AIDS and the environment, said Hanson, who expects to meet the new pope in the near future.
Most US protestants downplayed Ratzinger's controversial 2000 encyclical "Dominus Iesus", in which he branded non-Catholic churches as false.
"I don't take it as divisive," said Millet. "We (Mormons) are known as the ones who believe they are the only true church," he noted.
American Episcopal Church Bishop Christopher Epting said the document does not mean the pope is not open to dialogue.
"It means you know where you stand," in discussions, he said.
The concerns over "Dominus Iesus" may have overlooked a hidden positive message, wrote Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today.
Galli said that Ratzinger made a subtle change to the Nicene Creed in the document that surmounted a centuries-old issue dividing Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
"Thus, Benedict XVI may be more ecumenical than his critics let on," Galli said.

04/22/2005 08:07 GMT