Odds and Ends on the Bread and Circuses

I just want to follow up a little on what I wrote the other day concerning the ongoing campaign for president. 

A friend of mine commented that he was a bit surprised at the little fervorino with which I concluded the piece. I didn't take it as a criticism, but an observation, one that nonetheless got me thinking. I write on many topics here, from pop culture to current events to all things Catholic. No matter the topic I certainly try to connect everything back to faith in Jesus Christ and the truth of the Catholic religion. I've also tried not to make that the sole justification for my point of view as presented here. Not that faith isn't enough; it's more than enough for me. But I'm not trying to preach to the converted: I'm hoping to reach those who either don't believe, or my accept Christ but aren't sure if the traditional beliefs held by the Church are still valid. Arguments from authority or tradition aren't effective in persuading most people because so many don't trust authority or respect traditions as still being valid. So I avoid making Scripture or Apostolic Tradition the reasons to believe (though as I've said, they're good enough for me) as much as show that these two fonts of Divine Revelation are themselves reasonable. In light of this, I rarely give the hard line pitch to accept Christ and His Gospel, preferring a more subtle approach.

In normal times this strategy is perfectly fine. And there is still a place for this approach today (we're basically talking about the method used by many solid Catholic apologists). But for me, I believe the Lord is calling me in a different direction: to be more explicit, more "evangelical," for lack of a better term. We are living in a time of decision, and I'm not simply referring to the election, though the presidential campaign is a microcosm of the crisis we face. So desperate times call for clarity of purpose and the bold proclamation of the Gospel.

One reason that we (I'm speaking of practicing Catholics) are at this cross roads is that we have, either explicitly or implicitly, accepted the idea that our religion is about the here and now exclusively. Marx charged that religion is the opiate of the people, drugging them with promises of a future paradise so as to anesthetize then to the injustices of this earth. We uncritically accepted the charge, and proceeded to turn the Church into a social service agency or NGO. The Church's charitable works and advocacy initiatives are essential to Her identity, but are one ore by which the barque is moved forward. Without the proclamation of the Gospel in its completeness: the call to repentance because the Kingdom of God is at hand, we become just another political party or lobbying group, moving in circles since we have only one ore, offering temporary solutions to perennial problems.

For too long people of faith, with all good intentions, have tried to effect change through the political process. Maybe we thought that we could be a leaven that influences the system, making it more Christian. Maybe we thought that one side or the other better reflected Gospel values, or worse thought one side was the "Catholic Party." In this way some were even deceived into seeing one candidate or another as "God's Candidate," even if subconsciously so. We have gotten into bed with political movements that are flawed in the misguided notion that the very real political implications of the Gospel render our faith another political movement. Archbishop Sheen predicted this identification of religion with politics, and how destructive if would be to the faith.

Many of us clung to the Republican party because they got the life issues right, and generally defended traditional marriage. Others of us clung to the Democrats because of their record as being pro-labor and more concerned about the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. We ignored the parts of their platforms that didn't jibe by telling our selves that one part of the Gospel was more important than the other. We convinced ourselves that God doesn't care about our prudential judgments or private morality, as long as we were against abortion or for a larger social safety net.

But we were used, by both sides. But not just people of faith were duped. I believe the rise of Donald Trump and the persistence of Bernie Sanders is rooted in the fact that people of both the left and right feel betrayed by their respective parties. They know the the system is broken and corrupt. I don't believe that any of the three candidates left standing are the solution. They will either lead us into tyranny or further economic and spiritual ruin: but probably all three things. But the American people are desperate: a very dangerous atmosphere in which to select a new president.

In future posts I'll get into more details, especially about how I see things shaking out over the next six months. I'll only say now that we may see a third or even fourth party candidate run, and we may have the first election to be decided by the House of Representatives since 1824. I'm no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, I'm just riding a hunch. But my thoughts here will not be guided solely by human logic or conventional wisdom. We got in this mess because we took God out of the picture. We're only going to get out of it by inviting Him back in and seeing the world through spiritual eyes.