Friday 12 October 2012

Price Of A Career In Politics



I suffered from yet another bout of insomnia last night.  This is just one of the side effects of my lung disease and the medication I take for it.  The result of this episode of insomnia was that at about 3 am this morning, South African Standard Time, I was still wide-awake and bushy tailed. 

I decided to turn on the television.  There is only so much one can do when one has already been awake the whole night.  Eventually one of the options to help pass the time, even just for a short while, must be watching television.  I was already tuned into CNN and so, as the television turned on, I saw the vice presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden in the USA kicking off.

I was impressed with Paul Ryan’s calm and polite manner.  I was less impressed with Joe Biden’s rude and condescending manner.  Biden constantly interrupted Ryan and had me thinking that Biden thought winning the debate was about who shouted loudest.  Anyway, this is not what I wanted to write about.

As the debate drew to a close the inevitable question about abortion was asked.  The moderator announced that both these men profess to be practicing Catholics, which they each in turn confirmed in their response to the question.  I immediately sat up and began to pay closer attention.  I was, sadly, very disappointed with the responses from both of these practicing Catholic men.

Although each man presented a different approach to abortion and explained their reasons for that approach, the bottom line is that these men both actually agreed.  It does not matter the degrees of agreement or the reasoning behind it.  What matters is that ultimately what these two practicing Catholic men actually said, is that they would allow the murdering of innocent human life to continue after the election.  It does not matter who wins, both will permit this murder of unborn babies to continue in some or other circumstances. 

What I found sad is the reality that these two men were clearly in the unenviable position of being forced to literally sell their souls in order to get elected.  They have chosen politics as a career so that they can work for the common good of all US citizens.  Yet in order to have a career, they need to compromise their faith and agree to the murder of the most innocent of all humans - unborn babies.

What is unconscionable is that it is Catholics who have put these men in this situation.  You see, these men should be able to stand firm regarding their faith and be true to the teaching of the Church.  They should be able to focus on the other important issues in the election campaign, knowing that they can count on the Catholic vote exactly because they oppose abortion.  Yet the opposite is in fact true.  These men both feel that they need to compromise their belief because they know that by opposing abortion, they will in fact lose some Catholic votes. 

It should be a no brainer.  If a Catholic, during an election, must choose between politicians who will either end abortion or who will permit it to continue, the choice should be easy.  The politician who must obviously get the Catholic vote, first and foremost, must be the politician who will end abortion.  Thereafter other issues come into play to differentiate between who will or will not get their vote.  The same applies to other Church teaching.

We have to ask ourselves what Catholics have become when, in order to secure a majority Catholic vote, not just in the USA but many countries in the world, a politician is forced to make choices that go against his or her Catholic Faith.  Choices that include, in this instance, an agreement that will perpetuate the killing of millions of unborn babies.  I am glad that I don't have to make these tough choices in order to keep my chosen career.  

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defence against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for highlighting that the consciences of American Catholics in the main are being totally led astray.

    Upon close analysis, the political demarcation in the United States have always been in favour of the culture of death. Their history tells of killing, war and greed.

    The Republicans have used their power to promote war over the world, using Conservatism, western Christianity and religion to beat the Protestant drum while placing the American State and idolatry above God, in the Name of God! Thus Catholics have joined forces with their American neighbours in promoting this error of co-existence.

    The Democrats have used their time and power to promote abortion, sexual promiscuity, feminism and liberalism to act out a pretense while in reality they deny Freedom, suckering people to believe in Liberty and Justice to the extreme that now personal health is more important than the freedom of following one’s individual conscience and religious values.

    While, in the name of Christianity, by promoting the ideology of being soft at heart, falsely believing that Love means being nice and sweet, Catholics too have been fooled into following the Democratic way.

    Because of the degree of infidelity among their pastors and spiritual leaders, in the name of Vatican II , many Catholics have been systematically processed to steer away from Dogma and Doctrine.

    Hence, for many, now, abortion and contraception is made to appear "good" as it allows the female to be in control of her own body and selfish desires while God's Commandments are neglected and made to appear as an invasion of free choice. Hence the concept of "evil" is inverted to give the false impression of being “good” as is witnessed through widespread unchallenged pornography and the tainted movie business, making people, both adult and young, to be obsessed with sex, violence, war, killing, etc., falsely believing that this portrayal of evil and self-gratification is good.

    Thus, both the followers of Ryan and of Biden arrive in their own "make believe world", appearing to follow clean shaven good guys; while indeed both are intrinsically "bad", promoting or accepting evil.

    Seemingly none of the two sides see the difference; none renouncing evil, none following the Gospel of repentance.

    Both sides work for the promotion of evil. Their Catholic Faith appears to be utilitarian, being used towards their convenience for the purpose of periodic elections, used to distort the mob’s conscience by confusing right with wrong, used to follow evil ways.

    The neglect of the Sacrament of Confession demonstrates a loss of fidelity to the time-old message of the Gospel. Their modern emphasis of the human value over the Divine Value is demonstrated while allowing Holy Communion to be distributed widely without admonition or adequately providing for the examination of conscience; without requiring the past precepts to be in a state of Grace before receiving the precious Body and Blood of Christ.

    This example of gross neglect, without doubt, makes most of the hierarchy and religious teachers responsible for the prevalent loss of faith and for the increase in mediocrity among the “People of God”.

    Indeed, how can we justly question Biden & Ryan. They too have lost their sense of right and wrong. They have been mal-programmed under Vatican II, in the name of Vatican II which was used used without correction to cause injury to Authority, sacred Teaching, morals, worship, faith and hope and charity.


    In considering the aforesaid, as for us, are we also not ourselves in danger of becoming accomplices in the systematic move of evil which is being played out by our modern technologically obsessed society?

    With this observation, can we guess that we ourselves need to repent every day and to pray for conversion of heart so that all is not swallowed up into complacency and self-deception.

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