VOTING

 

American Flag Being Held by a Young Person

by Isabella Fischer

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Rather than re-invent the wheel every time someone presses me into a discussion about our current political climate, I am writing this.

I identify as a religious person, not a political one.

I am not a partisan political personality and, although I make an effort to discharge my civic responsibilities and vote whenever I have the chance, I do not identify with any party, except inasmuch as the process requires that I choose one at various points in the process. Whatever political opinions I hold are based upon principles, not personalities or political parties. So, if you are going to disagree with me, please anticipate that I am not going to respond to demands that I defend all the actions of everyone in any one party. There is no political party with which I agree on every value, goal and plan. The only organization to which I have that kind of devotion is the Catholic Church, the values of which I endeavor to follow as best I can, attending to the highest authorities in it, to the best of my ability.

Many of my fellow Catholics are hotly debating the current political cycle, and a number of them are making wild claims and demands about whom we are required to support. But, according to The Faith itself, it has been my experience that there is quite a bit of leeway in the faith which is meant to accommodate each person's appreciation of "proportionate reasons" that impinge upon their vote. In fact, two people could vote for two separate individuals and still be faithful to requirements, depending upon their rationale of WHY they are voting suchly, so I disagree with folks when they tell me that "The Church" demands that I vote for one person in particular. That's not how The Church operates.  

I would prefer NOT to talk about politics, but because these wild accusations and demands are flying around social media space, I can't ignore the political topic because it would be a disservice to new members of the faith, for instance, who are being misled.

Neither party is aligned with a cohesive Catholic world view.

We have, essentially, a two-party system and it is always a binary choice. One or the other. Pick one. Neither party conforms completely with the viewpoints of the Catholic faith, as Pope Francis recently pointed out.

Often times, one has to think of one's vote as a choice between the lesser of two evils. Often, there are issues of importance to EVERY American that are at stake in an election, and this year's election is one of those.

I do my best to follow the faith, as put down in The Catechism, and as interpreted and promulgated by various popes, one of whom I respect, in particular, being Pope Benedict XVI. Before he became Pope, he was a Cardinal and the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; one of the most important Dicasteries of the Roman Curia. He was known to be of great philosophical mind, a traditional Catholic, and here is the instruction he crafted in order to explain The Church's stance on voting, in light of the topic of the criminalization of abortion:

Pope Benedict's guidance about voting:

"A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation [emphasis added], which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons." Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

It is up to each individual to assess the "proportion reasons" that Pope Benedict talks about.

Donald Trump is dangerous to our democracy.

Donald Trump and the new iteration of the GOP have become a dangerous force on the political scene. It would take dozens of pages to demonstrate why this is so, but it isn't necessary for me to justify why I came to this conclusion. There are so many, varied and weighty examples why this twice impeached, 34 times federally indicted, proven liar, rapist and slanderer is dangerous to our government, that I know it would be quite easy for you to find these reasons yourself, without any help from me.

We cannot cure moral ills with political force.

When I discuss this topic with other Christians, they ALWAYS bring up abortion, as if making abortion illegal is worth any price, even the loss of our democracy itself. 

Although I am opposed to abortion, I do not think that this problem can be cured through the political process, and I will tell you why. There are a number of reasons. Abortions have always been available, legal and illegal; the pro-abortion population is much larger than we are; and this is such a hot issue that the fighting will never end if we continue to focus all our attention on the very worldly political process.  In addition, the party that is in favor of outlawing abortion is so tragically flawed at this moment that their stand on other issues is dangerous to our entire democratic process, thanks to Donald Trump and his cult.

I am not devoted to either political party.

In previous years, I have always felt I could vote for either party, depending on what was "hot" at the moment. Sometimes I vote for Republicans, and sometimes Democrats. But, until the current divisive, racist, xenophobic GOP candidate disappears into distant history, and the GOP repairs itself, I am afraid I have to vote Democrat. I have PLENTY of reasons for this that have nothing to do with how the news media treats the candidates. What I have seen, heard and know from my own eyes and ears, is that the methods promised by the Trump cult are toxic and will not produce a positive result that outweighs the negative it creates.

One day, American politics will have to hinge upon COMPROMISE. 

It is an old principle that a deal that is made in which neither opponent is happy is the BEST deal possible. In American politics, where each side has a vested interest in the welfare of the other, this is particularly true, especially now that the outer fringes of each party have swung so far to the corners.

If I got every political thing I wanted, many people would have to get little or nothing of what they want.

Compromise does not make me personally happy. When I imagine a society in which I would be happiest I see one in which the Catholic Church is once more a respected and popular authority; where the church bells toll loudly at least 3 times a day, and where Christian morals and ideals are the norm, not the reviled exception. But, if I were to have my idyllic dream imposed on the unwilling, there would be a lot of people for whom this vision would be their version of hell. My idea of happiness, therefore, would rest upon the unhappiness and unrest of a large part of the population because the realization of my kind of spiritual vision is the result of an authentic spiritual life that cannot be an artificially created facsimile. 

Americans would continue to fight against our religious vision.

Moral issues that are "settled" by force of law, against the will of a majority of the people, will not remain "settled" because Americans feel they have the right to determine how they are governed. In the area of abortion, for instance, most polls agree that up to 63% of the population believes that the decision about what happens within a woman's womb cannot be made by politicians and that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

For details about the demographics on this statistic, see:

 PEW RESEARCH CENTER ARTICLE

In the Pew research:

•  73% of white evangelical Protestants think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases;
• 86% of religiously unaffiliated people think it should be legal in all or most cases
• 71% of black protestants think it should be legal, as do 64% of white NONevangelical protestants, and 59% of Catholics

We can not pretend we are not religious in our objections to abortion.

In the public square, I have seen a good deal of effort on the part of Christians in fashioning reasons to criminalize abortions from a perspective other than religion - and these efforts are being made, in most cases by people who are religious and who are opposed to abortion because of their religion - not because of these creative "nonreligious" reasons that they fashion from another logic. That other logic is legitimate and not far-fetched, but our motivation did not arise from that "nonreligious" logic, and the rest of the world can see us crafting this pretense, which makes us appear to be hypocrites in their eyes.

Both sides create straw men to fight.

To be clear, I see both sides resolutely refusing to acknowledge the central reasons behind their opponents' position on this topic and then mischaracterizing it. Then they go to war with the straw man they have created, which is a famous fallacy of classical logic. Both sides ARE doing this.

While I agree that, in order to make any inroads into the abortion problem, we need to appeal to the minds of Americans, we can't manufacture the devotion necessary to change people's minds through this creative "nonreligious" logic that is not our obvious primary incentive. 

Evangelization of the culture should be our method.

Our primary method of combatting the sin of abortion, and other moral failings, should be authentic evangelization to the FAITH, something that requires an awful lot more work than flapping our internet lips on social media and other public areas. Our solution is religious, not political. Once the culture is evangelized, we could have an abortuary on every corner, and the halls would echo in their emptiness of clients because the FAITH has found its way into their hearts.

When it comes to the elimination of social ills, it is entirely a question of METHOD. Which METHODS will most reliably arrive at the goal? I anticipate that a nuanced scheme of systems would have to be combined.

While I believe that politics should not be our primary method of turning around the awful abortion statistics, there are a few things we can do in the political arena to encourage the growth of a culture that is pro-life, and I say "encourage" because they are positive solutions, such as government-paid maternity and paternity leave, nursery school, child care, AND education at all levels. They have these programs in many of the other industrialized nations, while we behave as if we hate one another and are in competition with one another, instead of supporting our population, from cradle to grave.

We are ashamed.

It occurs to me that the reason why we have shifted our attention to politics and away from evangelization is because of the awful sex abuse and other scandals. We are ashamed, and it is no wonder! I suspect that the church needs to cleanse itself of its perversions and become more true to its principles, and then it must make amends for not cleaning house before now. Only then can we evangelize the culture from the religious perspective, because, if we are honest, it is the religious perspective that is at the heart of our objection to abortion.

Political power is no substitute for evangelization.

Forcing people to live by Christian standards by wielding political power will only create more hostility and division. Just look at the public discussions about the legal status of abortion! Each side is so entrenched, politically, that if something does not change, the fight will go on FOREVER.

The political fight might go on forever.

My pragmatic approach infuriates some people. Those people do not seem to care that making abortion illegal has never been a particularly good insurance against abortion, except for poor women, that it probably will not stop abortion, and now that it has been legal for more than 50 years, a high percentage of the population is not in favor of returning to the time when it was illegal. They want the decision to remain with the woman.

The cooperation of the mother is required.

An important thing to remember is that, in order for a child in the womb to survive, you have to have the cooperation of the mother. Forcing her to live by your moral code at this late stage in the game is not a reliable method. This is hugely important because, once the woman is pregnant, it is far too late to begin to comment on her moral failings.

The root problem is primarily sex outside of marriage.

I have yet to hear ANYONE talk about sex outside of marriage as a problem. Even Catholics take it for granted that this is part of life and they themselves are living this way. It is so common in society for people to have active sex lives outside of marriage that I never hear Catholics discuss this grave moral ill. I can't remember the last time I read any article about it, and if Catholics were to refuse to watch any movie or television show that featured people "living in sin," either shacked up or occasionally, and they made it known they were doing this, the motion picture and television industry would be gravely affected. It makes me wonder exactly just how much we are "Catholic," if at all, when we are frantically vocal about abortion but remain largely silent about the underlying cause.

If men and women never had sex outside of marriage, there would be scant few abortions to discuss.

These are my opinions.

I have written this blog post because I am tired of reinventing the wheel during conversations online and, in order to do justice to the topic, I wanted to explain my views completely, in one place. I am not an expert, by any means, though I do attempt to educate myself by reading the opinions of experts and staying up to date on verifiable facts.

I understand that people of good will may disagree with my conclusions. 

I respect the viewpoints of others on this matter, but please be advised that it is not necessary to write to me to tell me that abortion is a grave moral sin. I certainly agree with you. 

I do not support abortion. My opinion has to do with whether or not making it illegal will accomplish anything.

I am not having any abortions, nor am I suggesting anyone else should have an abortion, nor would I encourage anyone to have an abortion. If you have actually read this blog post, these facts would be clear to you, so if you feel moved to write me and call me names and behave in a vulgar, inappropriate fashion, you will understand when your comment is not published.

I will correct my facts, if proven wrong.

If you find something in my blog post that is factually incorrect, and if you have proof from a reliable, legitimate and recognized source of that type of information, please provide it and I will correct any and every instance of wrong fact that you present to me. I am devoted to Truth and have no interest in perpetuating anything else. Just keep in mind, however, that an opinion piece from a partisan organization will not meet the criteria for a source of proof.

I will not defend positions I have not taken.

"Whatabout" accusations that ignore the points I have made and which demand that I defend things I have not proposed will not be published. 

I will not read or publish partisan opinion rags from either side.

Disputes that rely upon someone else's opinion, in the form of internet articles from partisan platforms, will not be read or published.

Threats of any and every kind will be referred to local law enforcement for prosecution. 

Respectful, pertinent questions for the purpose of clarification of something specific that I have said will be answered in the same tone and with the same consideration.

I thank you for your patience and understanding, in advance.

God bless us all!

Silver Rose

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