I feel like a man coming off a bender, trying to remember everything about the night before.
I have vague memories of the tragicomic primary season, so entertaining with its serial clowns. Remember when the GOP front runner was Rick Perry? And his delightful meltdown? Or when Newt Gingrich was a serious challenger to Willard? Or Herman Cain? And Rick “Supercatholic” Santorum’s rise and unlikely withdrawal?
And then the race itself, with Mr Romney remaking himself at every turn, ready to say whatever it took to be president.
But it is the morning after, a time to sort things out.
While “prolifers” (I no longer use the term without quotation marks) insisted that Romney was the man, he himself and his surrogates did everything they could to distance themselves from an antiabortion stance, other than insist, to the right crowds, that Mitt would govern as a “prolife” president, whatever that means in that context. And it became abundantly clear that to too many, especially to conservative Catholics, the only issues were abortion, gay “marriage”, and the HHS mandate. There were various “voter’s guides” that stressed four or five “non-negotiable” issues, none of which involved torture, war, economic injustice, health care, or much else north of the waist.
In the aftermath there is a sort of shock settling in on the political and religious right. While some, like the almost ineffible Quinn and Rose, believe that the reason for Romney’s defeat was that he just wasn’t far enough to the right, I heard a chastened Hannity consider the possibility that the nation was no longer “center right”.
Duh.
While Americans of whatever stripe still suffer from the undiagnosed disease of messianic nationalism, the nation indeed is changing. Two days ago, for the first time, gay marriage was approved by the electorate in two states. Obama lost the popular vote among white voters, but carried every other demographic. You know, the ones that are increasing in numbers. It is not unlikely that we are seeing a new paradigm emerging.
As with most things, this is not all bad: in the long term it looks like the sort of “Thing That Used To Be Conservatism”- to use Mark Shea’s phrase- appears doomed. But as I recall, the Thing is very resilient.
But what is emerging is not friendly to traditional Christianity, either.
And that is not all bad, either. It may awaken the churches from their stupor.
It is high time that the apostolic Churches and other faith communities to remove themselves from the cushy relationship to power, with its embrace of the heresy that is American civil religion, that this photo epitomizes:
Cardinal Dolan, who apparently aspires to be the Cardinal Spellman of his age, is playing the part of the establishment prelate, in an age when that establishment is more hostile to what he proclaims to believe than at any time in the nation’s history (though the idea that it was ever friendly to the faith is an illusion).
It is high time for Christians to abandon their belief that America is friendly to them, that we are a valued part of the status quo. This, at a time when the credibility of the churches is at an all time low. When the public face of Christianity is the abuse scandals, prosperity preachers, and polls that show religious people more in favor of war and torture than the general public, we have a long way to go to make any mark in the wider culture. The nation needs spiritual renewal, and it is very unlikely that that is going to happen, given the impression we Christians are making.
The only place to begin is within, to reassess our own discipleship, to begin again to truly follow, not the Americanist version of Christ, but the real Christ, the One who commands us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us.
If we can even hear Him, amid the shouting.
But let us begin by heeding His first words to His first disciples: “Come, follow me.”
I need to talk to an intellectual calvinist. Because Tuesday, we proved the total depravity of the American voter mathematically, and I do not know how to contemplate that heresy without being tempted to suicide.
99% of voters Tuesday, voted for intrinsic evil. 98% of Catholics did.
NOBODY was for my understanding of Christ.
The communion of Saints is my only comfort now; there is no good left in my world.
Sure there is; don’t be so dramatic, and PLEASE don’t contemplate suicide. That would be selfish, plus we are commanded to have hope, whatever the state of the world.
It is very hard for me to face that commandment, in the light of 98% of Catholics voting directly for intrinsic evil.
It isn’t just being dramatic. I spent my entire commute going home last night in tears for the death of morality in America.
I don’t know how Calvinists can face such a concept. I’m quickly learning that I cannot.
I hope Jesus comes back soon. And God Bless America- because I can’t.
Ted, in all seriousness, find someone to help you. A trusted priest, family member, heck, a crisis hotline if you don’t have any other choice. You are worrying me. This isn’t the end of the world, just a presidential election, and those Catholics, very few of them were “voting directly for intrinisic evil”. They were, like me, voting for what they perceived as the lesser evil, most of them, and Benedict, back when he was a cardinal in charge of the integrity of doctrine, said that one could, for proportionate reason, vote for someone who favors legal abortion.
Plus, whatever the direction the country is headed, this world is still God’s creation and it is full of beauty and goodness. Spend some time with a two year old; I find that restores my perspective every time…
Daniel, what was the proportionate reason for voting for Obama this time around? You know by now he’s a warmonger, just like Romney and Bush.
I covered that a couple of days ago:
“I must confess that I was tempted- and I choose the term carefully- to vote for Obama. Driving home from work last night on the way to the polling station I was listening to Hannity. His guest, some expert on election data, was gushing that Republican areas were showing huge voter turnout, while Democratic areas were way down. He predicted a Romney landslide. While I have been relentlessly critical of both candidates, and view Obama as a disaster, I began thinking of the different sort of disaster a Romney- Ryan administration would herald. They would finish off the working class, and while they avoided specifics in the campaign, Ryan’s budget has never been repudiated by Romney, and the slashes to social programs and the dismantling of the very flawed Obamacare would result in much human suffering and even death. It would certainly result in increased abortions as poor women would be stripped of even the meager resources they have. Romney’s foreign policy is even more belligerent than Obama’s. And Ryan, as a prominent Catholic falsely claiming the mantle of Catholic social teaching while in fact a hypercapitalist, would help erode what little credibility the Church retains.
The polls in Ohio were neck-in-neck. Shouldn’t I hold my nose and vote for the arguably lesser of the intrinsic evils?
In the end I did not; I was probably the last undecided voter in Ohio as I entered the polling station. But in the end, standing there in the library, I went with principle; I voted Socialist. Democratic socialism, as Benedict XVI has said, is close to the vision articulated by Catholic social teaching.”
In a simple reply, I’d say that some of the bishops in the Latin rite were clear that snuffing out innocents in the womb was more of an evil than slighting those already living. So, I don’t buy the logic. I’m not sure, however, the position of the Eastern Churches. And one must follow his bishop. Evil, is evil, but some evil is worse than others. See Green Bay bishop’s letter:
http://wtaq.com/news/articles/2012/oct/26/gb-catholic-diocese-warns-voters-their-soul-is-in-jeopardy-on-election-day/
Except, Greg, voting for Mitt Romney would change nothing re legal abortion. It is going to remain legal for the forseeable future, not matter which party is in power. Can’t you see that? And indeed, as I said, if the GOP wipes out social programs, which Ryan’s budget would do, there would be more abortion. So, which vote is “prolife”?
Thanks; I’d missed that post. FYI, Obama is going to “finish off” the middle class just as hard as Romney would have.
I too didn’t vote for either of them, because they’re wrong or useless on every major issue.
I understand the logic, but to me, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, unbridled abortion, federally funded abortions & contraception, gay marriage, as well as a host of other things the Church proclaims as either evil, or intrinsically disordered, Mr. Obama will perpetuate. We’ll have to watch as things unfold,
Ted, you are looking for Christ in all the wrong places. I am currently reading a book titled, A Message of Hope, Confessions of an Ex-Satanist. In it Lipsky breaks down in a simple understandable way the spiritual warfare that goes on between hell, and heaven. They are both in a constant battle for our souls. Only the powers of hell, will use whatever means to cause us to despair. And one point she made is that when you make a deal with the Devil, don’t expect him to abide by his side of the pact, he only uses it to suck the life out of you. He is obligated by no one to make good on his side of the promise, as he is the “father of lies.” And in a varied sense of that, when we start believing in politicians who tell us whatever we want to hear just to be elected, then for our part we should trust none of them. They will forget all about us tomorrow once they are elected. And as for where this country is going, well, what did Jesus say? “When the Son of man returns, will He find Faith on earth?” Luke 18:18. So let’s look for the Son of God where we can find him, and for Catholics, that is in the Eucharist.
As for 98% of Catholics who voted for evil, well I was apparently one of them. When you have only two candidates, and both of which believe in some kind of legal abortion, then I will choose and vote for the one who believes in restricting it to some degree. I voted for Romney. There wasn’t much choice, and I had to realistically choose one or the other, or not vote. So I chose to vote, but that doesn’t make me evil. It was like having to choose between getting bitten by either an African Black Mamba, or a Copperhead. There’s not much of a choice there: the one will probably kill you; the other will likely be a horrible, sickening experience, with a prolonged recovery, but you can get through it. I myself put no stock in this country, or this world, but only in Christ. I have long since placed any faith in our government, as it is only a heartbeat away from total corruption at any time, and at minimum causes us to choose people who do not believe as we do, and chips away at our core system of beliefs. So vote when you need to, but be aware the Devil and his cohorts are also working the election from every angle, attempting to suck souls down to hell regardless of political party, through despair of losing, jubilation of an anti-LIfe victory, or whatever means they can use. They don’t care, they only want you.
OK, Daniel, now back to business: how about posting some more lovely spiritual music and some art, something you do so well?
(That’s not to imply that you don’t comment on politics well, by the way; you do. But I’ve had enough of Bronco Bama like the little girl in the video. I’m weeping for beauty to relieve the hideous ugliness of all this election politics and to inspire in a way that no volume of political stuff possibly can).
That’s a huge part of the problem. I don’t believe there are any proportionate reasons anymore. Voting for the lesser of evils, is still voting for evil.
Racism and abortion have taken over America. It’s your pick which is the “lesser evil”- but both are intrinsic evils. I am tempted to say abortion is the worse evil- especially with what we’ve learned this year of the racist policies of Planned Parenthood- but clearly 50% of Catholics would disagree with that.
But I am finally beginning to see some bright spots in this election. One of them is that there is clearly no longer enough angry white men to carry the racist side of things anymore; we’re not quite to the point where blancos are a minority, but neither are they a plurality able to carry an election anymore.
I’m just not sure that is enough to overcome the dark, dark cloud that has been sitting on my soul for three days now. But tomorrow, I have Knights of Columbus Ceremonials, and I plan on following that by the sacrament of confession. On Sunday I will be turning 42, and I plan on going to Mass twice, the first for my regular service, the second in support of people with disabilities.
I am hoping that is enough for me to start seeing good, because the way I feel right now, makes me intellectually wonder how Jean Calvin ever survived creating his brand of Protestantism. It’s such a dark vision.
“It is high time for Christians to abandon their belief that America is friendly to them, that we are a valued part of the status quo. This, at a time when the credibility of the churches is at an all time low. When the public face of Christianity is the abuse scandals, prosperity preachers, and polls that show religious people more in favor of war and torture than the general public, we have a long way to go to make any mark in the wider culture. The nation needs spiritual renewal, and it is very unlikely that that is going to happen, given the impression we Christians are making.
“The only place to begin is within, to reassess our own discipleship, to begin again to truly follow, not the Americanist version of Christ, but the real Christ, the One who commands us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us.”
Very well said, Dan.
Ted, take some heart in knowing that it isn’t actually “98 percent of Catholics” who voted for intrinsic evil. That statistic only counts those who voted. Some did not vote at all. Who knows how many, but they don’t figure into the numbers that are bringing you down.
Mome,
Who was on the ballot that was proLife other than Romey? I checked the websites of most all of them, and could find none.
I’m not sure why you’re asking me this in response to my comment. I was just pointing out that some Catholics did not vote at all, and therefore it cannot be said that 98 percent of Catholics in general chose intrinsic evil because those who chose, for whatever reason, to abstain from voting were not counted in the “98 percent” statistic. (And abstaining is an entirely legitimate option when one does not wish to support the choices that have been put forward.) In any case, my comment was meant somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I’m sure many of those who abstained did not do so based on principals.
Also, as Daniel has pointed out more than once on this blog, Romney is not pro-life. He even approved commercials saying so.
The Constitutional Party puts forth Candidates that have Life as their first priority. As oposed to 20th in the Republican platform.
I want to also thank you for this. It never occurred to me, a third party voter who is counted in the 2%, that MANY Catholics might have chosen not to vote in the Presidential race at all.
The popular vote was nearly 120 million people. IF the candidates had simply decided to throw a huge party instead of actually campaigning, they could have fit $50 each into the budget for the $6 billion spent, with some spare change left over.
I propose instead of a campaign season, a whole bunch of prime rib dinners in every town or city in the nation for 2016.
Here is a more optimistic take on the results of the election and what it means for the role of the Catholic Church in American politics, from the reliably excellent Catholic Moral Theology blog : http://catholicmoraltheology.com/catholic-social-teachings-american-moment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=catholic-social-teachings-american-moment Ted I think you especially should read this.
Thank you Zeb- I really needed this. REALLY needed this.
It shows in part that I’m on the right track personally. In addition to being Grand Knight of one of the youngest KofC councils in Oregon, I am also State Roundtable Chairman. One of the *BIG* things I want to do, and will do at our State midwinter meeting on the 1st of December, is a big rethink about the whole Roundtable concept- and using it to reach out to the disabled community specifically.
We already support Special Olympics with the tootsie roll drive. Next up, let’s make sure *every* disabled man, on his 18th birthday, is invited to join the Knights of Columbus. Pair him up with a special advocate appointed by your Grand Knight. Have the advocate get to know the young man and his family; have the advocate *by his side* throughout all three initiation degrees. And finally, form a roundtable in your council made up of advocates and their disabled Brother Knights.
This will make a HUGE difference in the lives of families worried about a disabled man’s transition to adulthood, a particularly stressful time indeed for any family with a disabled individual.