Joy and Hope, Grief and Anxiety
As the results and implications of Tuesday's voting becomes clearer, some of my Catholic friends are in paroxysms of joy, and others are wallowing in the pit of despair. Myself, I can't get really worked up either way. As Dale so rightly pointed out in his recent comment about pre-election voters' guides:
A truly solid Catholic voters' guide doesn't exist.
Any such guide would have despair about the American party system wafting up from the pages.
What we need is not the domination of one party or another, but Catholic voices upholding human rights and opposing attacks on life, no matter what form they take, and doing so in a way that witnesses to Jesus Christ, not some flawed political agenda.
And, look, Dale is talking about things which, to some, might be far more interesting.
A truly solid Catholic voters' guide doesn't exist.
Any such guide would have despair about the American party system wafting up from the pages.
What we need is not the domination of one party or another, but Catholic voices upholding human rights and opposing attacks on life, no matter what form they take, and doing so in a way that witnesses to Jesus Christ, not some flawed political agenda.
And, look, Dale is talking about things which, to some, might be far more interesting.
posted by Mark Mossa, SJ at 1:21 PM
6 Comments:
Huh. The CCC is written from a human-centric viewpoint. Would the cylon have an objection to raising the kid Catholic, though? Seems like they're rather...ardent...about their beliefs, and there's nothing to indicate that it's the same god as the Christian one. They haven't articulated anything particularly trinitarian, either. Has it ever been established that cylons have souls? I'll have to watch "Flesh and Blood" again...
Although if a Catholic spouse kills his/her cylon spouse, is that grounds for an annulment? The cylon isn't really going to die, if there's a resurrection ship nearby.
A couple I know are strongly 'pro-life' yet they seldom these days get involved in the 'political' side of it. They 'act' to protect life in other ways. When a woman was hospitalised with post-natal depression, they cared for her baby until the woman was well enough to leave hospital. When my orphaned sister was desperately unhappy at boarding school they took her in to live with their family. When a young nurse tried to take her own life, they offered her space in their home until she was ready to leave. Their lives have been witness to the value they attach to all life.
And we don't need the demonization of one party or the other (my opinion). I've seen and read too much over-identification of people with political parties. Neither is fully life-affirming, neither matches Gospel values in full.
But, I think we can't expect too much out of politics either - it seems designed to pull to the surface a lot of bad traits in people. We can, however, call people towards Gospel values, rather than Republican/Democrat values.
The big pendulum of history keeps swinging back and forth. Neither side is perfect, and both have a tendency to overreach if left to wield power alone for too long.
I'm feeling positive this time around, though, because like myself, I see a lot of Catholics are starting to think about "going home" to the Democratic Party. For me it was a comforting feeling, even a feeling of liberation, of not feeling like I had to tie myself to the Republican Party (very few of whose values I share) because of one issue that trumps all others. There are some Pro-Life people who are going to assert themsleves int their ancestral Democratic Party, and it's about time.
Jeff,
I hope you're right. My fear is that the democrats might mistakenly see this success as an indication that they don't need to change in ways it seemed they were starting to realize they need to. Let's hope the momentum that was forcing them to take more seriously religious and life issues continues (and pray too!).
It is good to see that other Catholics do vote democratic. I have a hard time with a party being the "correct" party simply because they claim to be pro-life. It is funny to me that some of these pro-life people are pro-death penalty.
Sometimes I feel so alone at church with my political views.
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