Taking a Step back
These things happen every once in awhile. I was standing in the back at mass when the deacon threw out something that knocked my socks off. In full disclosure, I have considered the process of becoming a deacon. It involves a number of sacrifices which includes nearly a decade of study and an extra masters degree in the process for most. So, when the deacon speaks it carries some weight.
In this case the deacon was talking about venial and mortal sin. There are four key mortal sins which include blasphemy, heresy, and murder. I highlight those three because he did. He said that if you go into the voting booth and pull the lever for someone that advocates policies against the sanctity of life then you are guilty of murder.
He’s a fairly smart guy. He’s not going to mention the specific political party because that would be a violation of the church’s tax exempt status, but anyone paying attention to politics knew what he was referring to. My initial response was rage. Thankfully I was in the back when he uttered that line or I might have been tempted to storm out. He was calling me and most of my family murderers.
My trouble is that we have taken something as expansive as life itself and narrowly construed to focus on the birth. The sanctity of life means so much more. It refers to the refugee looking for safety and being turned away. It refers to that same refugee that encounters barbed wire that endangers her life or the life of her child that the church professes to care about so deeply.
It applies to those that don’t have enough food to eat during the day and may need those two meals at school to keep them healthy. It refers to those adults and children that can’t reasonably afford health care coverage and need the Medicaid to get the treatment they need.
It refers to the prisoner that has committed the worst sins in our society. It governs whether we as a society have the right to take their life because it will make us feel better temporarily. Life is about dignity. It is about dignity from natural birth to natural death. We don’t get to pick and choose which planks we care about and when a life might be worth less to us than it does to someone else. There isn’t a ledger sheet where a brown person’s life is worth less than a white one’s. Someone speaking Spanish is not worth less than someone speaking English.
Our Lord and savior was a refugee. His family fled to Egypt when King Harrod threatened his life. They didn’t put barbed wire on their border. They didn’t consider him a potential terrorist. They didn’t put him on a bus and ship him off half way across the country for a political stunt. They were allowed to stow away and return when it was safe for them to do so. This is in the Bible they profess to love so much.
Which party is kinder to life in general? Which party fights more for the rights of people and for their general safety and welfare? Which party cares more about people? If we answer that question honestly then maybe we can turn that whole notion around on them. Perhaps that tune would quickly change if it became palatable to say that voting Republican is a mortal sin.
The simple truth is that voting is not a sin. It can’t be. It is a choice and like most choices, there are no perfect ones. The choice is whether to simply pull the lever for the party you think highlights the majority of your values or not to vote at all. What is in your head, heart, and what you do with your mouth and hands makes that determination. Do you personally support life? Do you follow the laws and rules that God has laid down? Do you make the world a better place or a worse one? I’m not about to confess for voting for Joe Biden when the choice clearly dictates I vote for an evil man. If that’s the standard then I’ll find the door.
When I was in 8th Grade at St. Patrick’s school, two women came and spoke to the entire 8 grades in the auditorium. They said we were to go home and tell our parents to vote for Richard Nixon because George McGovern was pro-abortion.
Wish I had known about tax exempt status back then. I’d have turned them in.
1This is excellent. It deserves a wider audience.
@Malarkey – I don’t know about decades past, but for quite a while the requirements for tax exempt status have been widely violated with impunity. Ask Americans United for Separation of Church and State or the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
2So this Deacon you will be co-ministering with ain’t one of our Popes greatest fans.
3AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!! being pro-life is taking care of those the Lord did – the exiles, the scorned, the sinners. Not just taking care of one small segment of life.
If the pro-lifers were really pro-life, they would make sure that ALL children, while, brown, yellow, red or any combination were ensured a safe place to live, ample food, education and opportunity – regardless of where they came from or what language they spoke.
But they are not pro-life – they are pro-control – control of what women do (they’d prefer them barefoot pregnant and in the kitchen), control of who lives where and what chances they have to better themselves. They always seems to forget that Christ most likely had darker skin – much like many Palestinians do.
4Nick, Your second to last sentence is confusing or in error.
Didn’t you mean for the word “choice” to be “Church”? And adding a comma.
“I’m not about to confess for voting for Joe Biden when the choice clearly dictates I vote for an evil man.”
Versus :
‘I’m not about to confess for voting for Joe Biden, when the Church clearly dictates [that] I vote for an evil man.’
Which the damned deacon was commanding the flock to do: ‘vote for an evil man, tRump’. Rather than ‘commit a mortal sin’, and vote for Biden and any Democrats, and therefore have a need to confess it.
For you, all the religious stuff is your choice, and sustains and comforts you I guess. I had fourteen years of Catholic schools* indoctrination, and became a solid rational agnostic by the age of fourteen or fifteen. Haven’t seen any reason for changing my opinions of all organized religions of all types, which remain mildly hostile.
They’re all primarily self-serving constructs meant to control people [and tithe them..]. Not that many don’t tangentially advocate for lots of good and benign things to help people.
* 12 years in one private parochial school, which was amazingly liberal and free-thinking by today’s Church standards, and 2 years at a top Jesuit university, which was largely secular in practice [then went to state Unis].
5Jace @3, There’s an open rebellion in progress by large numbers of ‘conservative’ US Catholics and clergy against Papa Paco.
6Not sure how that’s going to play out, but I don’t hardly follow it much.
This is why I don’t go to church.
7So the Pope is infallible until you disagree with him? Is that how it works?
8The hypocrisy of the church in supporting such an evil person (evil in so many ways)- I guess the fact that orange 45’s actions and lack of leadership led to 1000’s of deaths during the Covid pandemic is righteous.
9Well said, Nick? And you are going to send your piece to the deacon, aren’t you?
(BTW, it’s King Herod, not King Harrod. Harrod’s is the big department store in London.)
10Sandridge,
My words were not as artfully written as they could have been but I meant choice. The idea is that if I am not permitted to vote Biden then my only choice is an evil man. I suppose my biggest complaint outside of the narrowly construed views on the sanctity of life itself is the notion that any vote is analogous to sin. Any modern politician of any renown has held positions hostile towards life in some form or fashion. Heck, Obama seemed okay with using drone strikes that caused collateral damage with normal citizens as long as the margin for error was small. I wouldn’t support that if I were strictly adhering to a policy based strictly on life and the sanctity of it.
If the church is so against voting for people hostile to life then I’d suggest they mandate we not vote. I can’t in good conscience support Abbott, Patrick, Cruz, or any of their ilk either. Obviously, there is a larger conversation to be had about public versus private sin. Can one advocate evil policies and be privately generous and inclusive? I suppose one could certainly hope so. I see that from this particular deacon, so it’s hard for me to completely condemn him as I’m sure he could poke holes in my daily activities.
11Many churches should, but never will have their tax exempt removed because of the conflation of religion and politics. This action, however justified on the part of the government would be cited as another example of the war on religion that many in the religious community are currently crying about.
I’m currently reading ‘The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory’ by Tim Alberta. Any person interested in exploring how politics has infected religion in the US should read Alberta’s book.
12I found the door.
I found it after completing the Lay Ministry program and was barred from even applying for the Deaconate program solely because I was female.
For the hypocrisy of its sex abuse scandal.
And for supporting a man who lies cheats and steals.
Who committed adultery numerous times and married x3.
A man who thinks he can grab women by the Pu**y because he is rich.
Yes, I found the door and I have never looked back.
13“life itself and narrowly construed to focus on the birth.”
One could argue that there are lies of omission. Which implies the deacon was bearing false witness. But it sounds like he’d be only too happy to argue the finer points of his means, justified so he can make a beeline to an end point with an even narrower focus on what is right.
14The Church survived for 1800+ years without an official position on abortion. Then finally, the pope got a message from god that didn’t get through for 18+ centuries.
15I am Episcopalian. Our Parish recently lost our Rector through retirement. After the Church service yesterday we held a two-hour meeting of the parish concerning where we are now and what we wanted or needed in a new Rector [In the Episcopal Church each Parish is able to choose its own Rector, subject to veto by the Bishop]. We broke into subgroups for detailed discussion. At my subgroup table of five, two of the members told about leaving the Roman Catholic Church to become Episcopalians because they wanted the freedom to think for themselves, living the questions rather than being dictated to from above as to what they should think. Nick, from your message I think you would make a good Episcopalian.
16Apart from the issue that is exercising everyone here, the deac is full of shit. There are not 4 (or any other number) of key mortal sins. Some priests like to say pride is the greatest sin, but mortal is mortal.
17Same ol’ argument; ie, sanctity of life at birth but no real effort after that to provide the mother and child with proper support until adulthood.
18Support: educating the mother, providing a middle class environment of food, shelter, education to reduce the number of “takers”, “slugs”, “drains” on society of today. Is the upfront cost (investment) worth it? Nick, you may have better access to this kind of data. Of course, likely the usual vested interests in the present system will adamatly resist.
Thank you thank you for saying all this. I’ve been saying for years that railing against abortion while ignoring hungry children, children living with violence and abuse, children separated from their parents at the border, the DACA children … I could go on and on … is deeply hypocritical at best. I don’t know if I could have stayed for the rest of the service, myself.
19So Nick, are you still going to go to that church?
20@nick – I was raised Catholic and, for many reasons, I left. As @dianne #9 says, I found the door. Mostly for the same reasons she did.
BUT, when I hear your experience, I can’t help but be reminded of something a seminary classmate said to me after she became entangled in a school controversy.
She said, “They can take away my degree, but they can never take away my faith.”
Keep the faith, Nick! <3
21I used to give the Catholic church a pass when it comes to abortion because (I thougt) they were steadfast in that one belief. Seems they are losing people of deeper values. But here in Tennessee, especially the rural areas, it’s the evangelicals that are telling people how to vote from the pulpit and it’s so sad because it’s antithetical to their interests.
22The Church has no room to talk about sanctity of life when one considers their history.
23*Religion* was invented to legally steal your money . If you don’t know the difference between right and wrong ………….
24“sanctity of Life”??? Xtians have NEVER believed in such a silly concept. They believe in the ‘Sanctity of CONTROL of people’s lives’. And they prove that with every shooting that goes on.
25@L.Long: Whoa, there. This Christian knows that the faith I choose to follow (even though I often fail) has always stood on the side of life and its sacredness. I will not defend how some white males have distorted the words of Jesus “Love your neighbor as yourself” in order to protect their power and prejudices and to control others. I also question their abuse of power and of faith.
26Autocorrect killed me there Expat. I did not send the deacon this piece, but I did send him a letter that was more respectful. To answer another question, yes I am going to church still. I am a catechist and my daughter is still active. I know those are excuses but I am entangled quite a bit.
27Father Andrew Greeley, noted author of fiction and theology, said in his writings that American Catholics are Catholic because we say that we are. We don’t need any clergy saying we can or cannot be Catholic. “We don’t need no stinking badges. “
28I would have been incensed too if I had heard this deacon tell me to vote for the guy and the party who couldn’t care less about life outside the womb. Abortion is just a talking point for most in this party. They certainly don’t practice what they preach in many respects. You are a good man, Mr. Carraway and I value your opinion because it is measured and respectful of true christian values.
29Currently attending when I can an Episcopal church. An awful lot bugged me so much that in my 40’s I weaned myself off the RC church. For one thing, this “faith” has me guilty of sin even before I was born which meant I needed to be baptized in order to be “real”. In the E church, the christening of a newborn simply means a welcoming initiation into the church family. I am dog-gone sure that my absence does not mean the RC church is going down the tubes because I am no longer there or that they actually miss me.
30