Our Duties At the Start of This General Election

The advent of another general election season is upon Americans as the presidential primary season draws to a close. Given that the two major party candidates are historically unpopular, many voters, especially Christians, are expressing hostility to both candidates. Not liking either candidate is understandable. What isn't understandable is refusing to vote in the general election.

The Magisterium of the Church formally teaches that the typical Catholic in a country with free and fair elections has a responsibility to vote. This duty to vote is based on the teaching of Our Blessed Lord to spread the Gospel. Spreading the Gospel includes being witness in the electoral system by using the message of the Lord when we vote. There is no separation of Church and State in this regard, at least not in the way the secular world expects. We are not to leave our values at home when we vote. We are expected to bring Christ's love to the world. Yet, when we speak of love we forget that Christ's love included His speaking difficult truths to those whom He spoke. This can, and does include subjects that mark Christians as being intolerant (in the 'logic' of the secular world). The secular world, and we ourselves, often confuse Christ's love and tolerance He preached with blind acceptance of problems.

So where does that leave us in this general election? Periodically the US Bishops release Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a sort of guide for principled Catholic voting. It's not a partisan document, rather it's meant to inform the conscience of prospective voters. The US Bishops are Apostolic men and thus these words bear weight for any Catholic who claims to be faithful to the Church. Lately I've seen a lot of chatter online about how priest X in diocese Y says no faithful Catholic can vote for Candidate Z. With respect to the priesthood, these are the opinions of individual priests. They may or may not be correct. Rather, the tenor and tone of their statement when compared to that of the Bishops is a better guide. The Bishops make no overt claims about any candidate in the elections. Rather, certain principles emerge that help form our voting conscience. These principles are the core of Catholic Social Teaching: The Dignity of the Human Person, Subsidiarity, Solidarity, and the Common Good (or charity). In addition, certain issues are non-starters for any candidate, that is, traditional marriage, abortion, and euthanasia.

I'm not going to define each of those concepts, as that is the stuff of philosophy and political theory. Indeed, I'm doing just that in my doctoral dissertation and the length required to do those concepts justice isn't appropriate for a short blog post. Suffice it to say those principles combined with those issues that cannot be compromised are meant to be our starting points in voting. In my life this has made voting harder, not easier, because no candidate falls in line with those concepts perfectly. So what are we to do? We do the best we can. In the current election are choices come down to a candidate who passionately supports late term abortion, gay 'marriage,' and other issues that embrace those non-starters. Their opponent is a brash person who has changed their opinion on all manner of topics and uses harsh and crass language to describe cultural outsiders. So the task isn't easy, but we have no excuse to not vote. Pray, fast and then vote. That may be the only options you have. And remember: Christ expressed his love of those who didn't love him by pointing out difficult and unpopular truths. Surely they thought He was hateful or crossing the line. We cannot project our internal sinful response to words or positions taken by candidates onto those candidates by dehumanizing them, by turning them into hateful demagogues. That is the way of the world. It is not the way of Christ.