Christ the King

Political talk can be divisive, which is why I've avoided it in my blog.  When people ask me if I'm a Republican or Democrat I avoid the answer.  I tell them I'm neither, which is techically true; I'm not registered to either party.  But I do have leanings which I try not to betray so as not to cause undue division.  To proclaim the Gospel faithfully is to risk rejection from those who find it hard to accept Jesus' message of repentance and self sacrifice.  But it is always done in the hope of gathering together all people into the one fold of Christ. Politicians hope to unify the like minded and sway the unsure, forming a coalition to consolidate power.  I don't have to tell you that politicians often compromise, accommodate and sometimes flat out lie in order to achieve their goals.  Are there honest, hard working public servants concerned with the general well fare of the community, both local and national? Surely. But partisan politics by it's very nature divides and can never bring the unity so many candidates promise.

I dare to touch this topic today, and risk alienating some of you, because it is the Solemnity of Christ the King (my post on The Catholic Readings goes into the particulars of the feast, so I won't repeat myself here).  The feast calls us to recognize that our entire life, all our attitudes and relationships need to be formed in the light of Jesus Christ.  This conformity to Christ doesn't mean that we are apolitical, or that we don't participate in the political system.  What it does mean that party affiliation comes second to the Gospel since no party, especially in a pluralistic society, represents Gospel values perfectly.  We must make hard decisions when we walk into the voting booth, sometimes choosing between the lesser of two evils.  I have a fear that there are Catholics here in the United States, on both sides of the political divide, who read their party's platform and mistake it for the Beatitudes.  They confuse loyalty to a party line with Gospel values, and shape their discipleship according to a political doctrine as opposed to the other way around.


I do struggle with the demands of faith and citizenship.  I taught a social justice class for three years, and found it hard, because so much of the literature is anti free market and puts the responsibility on the government to solve the problems of poverty.  Is statism really demanded by the Gospel?  When I look around I'm not sure government has all the answers to our social ills, or that following Jesus demands that I think it does.  On the issue of immigration I heard a Christian politician claim that after reading the Bible he saw no place where respecting the rights of undocumented aliens was demanded.  I thought of Leviticus 19:33 immediately.  While the Divine author doesn't specify the legal status of the aliens in question, the passages certainly give us a spirit with which to understand the issue more clearly. 

So am I a Republican or a Democrat?  I'm a Catholic citizen of an ethnically, religiously and politically diverse nation.  I want to be a good, active citizen, but I will not bow to a platform or march in lockstep to a party line.  I grope, struggling along the way and pray I am being faithful to Christ and what He would want.  In the end His is the only platform that matters, and when I'm being judged His is the only endorsement I want to receive.