It seems that Americans are breaking for Bush in the presidential vote. The closer it comes and the more they tune in and see John Kerry up close, the less they like him. That seems to be especially so for Christian voters, who see right through Kerry's thin veneer of "Catholicism." I tell you, there is nothing thin about it; it's a shockingly intimate religion if you get familiar with it.
But Catholics have not traditionally voted Republican, so what is happening here? Kerry's insincere aura and flip flops surely have something to do with it. But there might also be a realization that Catholics and Evangelical Protestants have much more in common than is usually admitted. In a majority Christian culture, Christians could legitimately split over all kinds of issues. We don't all agree on how things should be done, even if we can be close on what our goals are. Christianity is not left or right and this can lead Christians all over the political map.
We might be reaching a period in which Christians have to put the that kind of disarray behind them. They are faced with a very real and growing threats from without and within. The threat from Muslim jihadis is obvious to anyone who is awake. Less obvious are aggressive secularists who will take advantage of a foolishly split Christian vote to continue ripping Christian heritage from all of our laws and institutions if we let them. Secularists will continue to threaten the weak, the old, and the young because they are a hassle to their groovy freedom, man.
We can't let it happen. We can't let it happen because there is no reason to think that the threats will stop there. As Mark Shea points out:
we have coasted along on custom in continuing to talk as though our culture still is founded on that mystical Christian faith in human equality. I fear, however, that sooner or later, it will occur to somebody to get rid of this mystical Christian belief in equality as they have gotten rid of so much of the rest of the Christian tradition.When that happens there will be nothing to stop the label of "non person" from being applied to anyone who is unpopular and vulnerable. I'm not saying it's around the corner, but every inch is an inch too much for my liking. Anyone born after Roe should probably be aware that they could easily not be here, if that had been the will of their mothers. And in Canada, where we have no laws restricting abortion at all (the supreme court struck down the existing law and our government is too gutless to even mention the issue to the public), kids can be aborted at any time for any reason. That would include just seconds before natural birth, if you want to be a stickler about it. That would be a baby that could easily live outside the mother. But, no matter. If she wants to kill it, she can have it killed on taxpayer dime and there is nothing that can be done about it under the present regime. It might be objected that this is rare, to which I say that is a cold response to someone struck by lighting. Liberals and secularists like to say that they do not force people to do anything, and that they want to be fair and impartial to all, regardless of their religion. They like to say that Christians can't be trusted in government because they will "force" everyone to follow their beliefs. To which I say, stop it already. Christians have in the past been reasonable stewards of the rights of nonbelievers in America and they can do so still. I don't claim they made no mistakes. Of course they did. One of the reasons Christianity has been whittled down politically in recent times is that it has allowed religious tolerance and plurality to flourish; hence the divided faith you see today. At this point the Liberal likes to bring up some knuckle dragging stereotype of a fundamentalist as a kind of boogey man. That brand of Christianity has never been in a majority and it is a severe insult to describe Catholics and mainstream evangelicals in those terms. Our positions and our arguments are solid and often science can be used to buttress our claims. On the issue of abortion, for example, we now know that the child has a unique DNA from the moment of conception. If that's not a unique person, I don't know what is. Kind of blows up the "it's my body" argument, doesn't it? So I hope that Americans do rally around president Bush. I hope it is one of many steps Christians can take in reasserting their common bonds and the reasonableness of what they profess. If you've visited my wife's blog, you may know this already. But if you haven't, I'll repeat it here. She was born after abortion was legalized in Canada (I was born before) and as her Mom was older and alone, she was asked if she wanted to carry "it" to term. Thank God she said yes. Rebecca and I will celebrate our third anniversary tomorrow, and our fifth year together.
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