In California, voters elected the most liberal candidate ever to run for the presidency and on the same ballot supported Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage.
The same voters:
passed Proposition 2 which guarantees that egg-producing chickens be housed such that they are always able to stand up, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs in their cages;and
they turned down Proposition 4 which would have established a 48 hour waiting period for notifying an adult family member of a girl under 18 seeking a surgical or chemical abortion. (Presently an underage girl in California cannot get a tan at a tanning salon, a cavity filled, or an aspirin dispensed by the school nurse without a parent knowing.)Massachusetts voters elected the most pro-choice president in history and at the same time voted to end greyhound racing on the grounds that such racing is inhumane: that the dogs are routinely injured, suffer broken legs and paralysis and sometimes die from cardiac arrest.
Go figure...
-ConcordPastor
Interesting post and thoughts on this subject. I know right now I am praying our country, Barack Obama and Joe Biden that God will be with them during the next four year. I am praying for other believers to continue to stay strong no matter what happens and to remember God is still God. God is our strong hold. God is for us as believers. I know God will take care of us as Christians if we remain righteous. As King David mentioned in the Psalms, "I have never seen the righteous for saken and needing bread." God is so good and we must remember that. Thanks again for this great post and topic. I want you to know that I really enjoyed reading your blog. I will definatly be back soon and often. Keep up the great work you do with this blog. You, your family and ministry will be in my prayers daily.
ReplyDeleteRemembering that God uses all things for good, who knows what is in store for us with an Obama-Biden presidency. We must pray and we must be who we fully are as Catholic Christians.
ReplyDeleteYesterday at daily mass, our pastor said some really good things in the Prayer of the Faithful about praying for Obama and Biden, that the Holy Spirit guide them always.
As I have often heard said - there is no accounting for grace.
If life is as precious to many of us as we say, then we must continue to pursue justice in a just way, thorough our prayers and works.
That hopefully won't change - other than an increase in those prayers and works, more open minds and hearts united in God!
California is a mystery. I will say that a friend of mine reported getting a robocall on election day, from the Yes on 8 group... It was the use of Obama's voice saying that he was not in support of gay marriage.
All of which would have been fine except that Obama came out very heavily in support of the No on 8 movement based on discrimination.
This is simply another way our political system uses words in ways that are less than upright.
Often we do not always fulfill our responsibilities as outlined in Faithful Citizenship and other documents. We are required to enter deeply into knowledge and prayer so that we may be informed and not simply reactive as members of the Body of Christ.
Peace, wisdom and grace to all.
Fran
Do you actually think the voters thought to themselves, who cares about the unborn, lets save the chickens??
ReplyDeleteGoing to have an abortion is a lot different than going for a tan, having an aspirin, or to the dentist to have a cavity filled. The decision is most times heart wrenching, reckless, troubling, and desperate. It's for most, very traumatic and leaves women with a lifetime of guilt and pain. I think the voters might have been thinking if the 48 hour waiting period was passed, some of these young and desperate women won't wait and try to abort the baby in ways that will also endanger their lives.
Good post! I linked to you -- just had to! It reminds me that we humans make crazy decisions and I thank God for His higher plan and path.
ReplyDeleteA quick aside.
One of my students announced that it was ok if the person you voted for did not get elected because "it is God's will that Obama became president so God really chose him. God knows everything"
I teach in a Catholic school so, thank goodness, I was allowed to respond.
"Well," I said, "It is true that God knows everything . . . but remember He gave us free will to make our own decisions. That means that the voters -- people -- chose Obama. He wasn't made president because it was God's choice."
I was trying to be gentle and help her distinguish between God's will and our choices. Any suggestions for follow up with this 2nd grader?
I closed the discussion with how we must always remember to pray that our leaders follow God's will.
I teach dance and PE so this was obviously a quick discussion! We got on with class. :-)
I can't speak for the Californians, but speaking for myself... it's just not that simple. Even if electing McCain were to bring about a change in the legal status of abortion (which I doubt), I don't believe his administration would do as much good for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, or exploited laborers as an Obama administration would.
ReplyDeleteI tried to be realistic and consider more than one facet of how we might, as a nation, do better at respecting life. I also prayed to God to guide us in making a choice between imperfect options.
Put abortion on the ballot and I'll gladly vote my views on that -- but we got to vote on dog racing this time around. Did we do wrong by moving to end that particular abuse?
I can only speak for myself as a voter for the Obama-Biden ticket. I had to put together all the characteristics needed in a presidential candidate. Claiming to be pro-life is not all that is required. The ticket perhaps thought of as pro-life combined a presidential nominee who was too old for the post and had serious health problems and a mother who, if elected, would not be home for her children, two of whom had serious problems of differing natures. She also, in my opinion, lacked the high degree of intelligence and education to assume the presidency with all its national and international challenges, should her ticket be elected and the President die. We have had eight years of a below-average intellect in the Presidency; he has probably not reduced the abortion rate and has caused many deaths in war, not to mention presided over the ruin of our economy. No ticket is perfect. I thought the one I voted for, and which won, had the better chance to meet our country's challenges. I shall pray for him, his vice president, and all those who lead us.
ReplyDeleteI think free will is a bit overrated... Good Points Padre! ROB
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that I am thrilled that we have elected the first African American in our history. When I watched the faces in the audience at Grant Park and saw the tears streaming down the cheeks of many black people, I started to cry myself. Part of my proportional argument in voting for Barack Obama was his ability to bring people together, our country together, our world together to help to end the intrinsic evil of racism and to lower the intrinsic evil of abortion, which he has pledged to do. He has inspired so many people and will continue to do so. May God watch over him, guide him, guard him as he tackles the many enormous challenges we face as a nation.
ReplyDeleteMaeve, Wow - Great post! I could not have put it better. When have we ever seen such enthusiasm, such involvement, such voting, such joy from other countries. I am as pro-life as anyone I know, but there is more to being a president than one issue --and no one can predict what a supreme court judge will rule on any one issue anyway. We have been surprised by their judegementw in the past. I finally have hope for our country. Yes We Can...Yes We Did...Yes We Will!
ReplyDeleteGood points! And thank you for the post. These are difficult times for Catholics and our politicians. Whispers in the Loggia has some interesting articles about it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog-its one that i follow often.
I enjoyed this post, both for the political commentary as well as the simple and humorous juxtaposition of such seemingly contrary views of the electorate. Remember, that tylenol is dangerous stuff.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think we take too much from each election result. If 2.5% of the country changed their vote, McCain is president and I am pretty sure all of our strengths, challenges and opportunities remain quite the same, despite the commentary from our european friends. Perception is the rule after an election, and those wide eyed true believers in Grant Park or in Kenya saw what they wanted to see. I am pretty sure we only elected a man, not a savior, and we did not see an actual cloud removed from our great country. I don't think we are any more or less racist, spiritual, kind, partisan, generous, conservative, moderate or liberal that we were last week. Whatever we are, elections simply display it more clearly at a moment in time.
I did not vote for Obama, and I am quite unclear about what he will do. But as others said, I wish him all the best, and I pray for his good judgement, honesty and integrity as he takes us into the future.
With that said, I would feel much more confident if Mr Obama had the Concord Paster giving him spiritual guidance instead of the Rev. Wright. Maybe we can get the president to read this blog to balance him out and benefit from his quiet wisdom!
If we'd elected McCain/Palin, we'd have in our Vice President a role model of a parent who wasn't responsible enough to teach her children about effective birth control. This is the recipe that brings women to having to decide about the necessity of abortion. If one can choose about getting pregnant, one doesn't have to choose about whether one should carry that pregnancy to term or not!
ReplyDeleteI harbor no doubt that the Obamas are raising their daughters to know their options and to weigh them using both their heads and their hearts, and I am confident that those girls' father will help defend every woman's right to choose what she would have happen to her body.
As for California, I'm glad for this small step for the chickens (and for the greyhounds here in Massachusetts), but disheartened by the slap in the face of loving couples who have done no-one any harm. No-one should ever be in the position to vote away anyone else's civil rights!
We have to be careful not to look to President-Elect Obama to singlehandedly solve all our problems for us and bring about federal civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans -- or right any other wrong we're currently living with. One of the things I like best about him is how his focus is on empowering people to effect change. In his victory speech he turned MLK's "arc of history bend[ing] towards justice" to point out that it is human hands which create that bend. There are a lot of hands in America. Lots of them voted this week. The first African American President of the United States is the first change we've brought about. Now we have a chance to bring about more.
Piskie makes a basic mistake in linking the push to enshrine gay marriage to the effort by African American to obtain civil rights. Racism is based on skin color, something an individual has no control over. Sexual preferences and practices are behaviors; there is no convincing scientific evidence that anyone is born gay (identical twin studies such as the famous Minnesota study)show that same sex attraction is present in both twins only 50 percent of the time, ruling out genetics as sole determinent. It more likely such as anorexia or alcoholism, conditions that have genetic and environmental components -- but which are no so determined that they require legal protection.
ReplyDeleteI cannot recall seeing anything in this blog on the ministries and programs which claim some success in moderating same-sex attraction, although Cardinal Sean's blog did mention an event in which same-sex attraction was analyzed and treated as an attachment disorder. Perhaps Concord Pastor could get information from the Courage Ministry of the archdiocese and inform his readers of their success stories.
Regards the comment of "anonymous" above: I'll go with the statement of the American Catholic Bishops, "Always Our Children: where they write:
ReplyDeleteYou can help a homosexual person in two general ways. First, encourage him or her to cooperate with God's grace to live a chaste life. Second, concentrate on the person, not on the homosexual orientation itself. This implies respecting a person's freedom to choose or refuse therapy directed toward changing a homosexual orientation. Given the present state of medical and psychological knowledge, there is no guarantee that such therapy will succeed. Thus, there may be no obligation to undertake it, though some may find it helpful.
All in all, it is essential to recall one basic truth. God loves every person as a unique individual. Sexual identity helps to define the unique persons we are, and one component of our sexual identity is sexual orientation. Thus, our total personhood is more encompassing than sexual orientation. Human beings see the appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart (cf. 1 Sm 16:7).
God does not love someone any less simply because he or she is homosexual. God's love is always and everywhere offered to those who are open to receiving it. St. Paul's words offer great hope:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)