Faith and Patriotism

Archbishop Chaput has an op-ed in today's New York Times entitled, "Faith and Patriotism." In it, he chides Catholics who argue that we must not "impose our beliefs on society" or who are unwilling to stand up for Catholic principles in public debate out of respect for the concept of "separation of church and state."

"We are doubly unfaithful--," he writes, "both to our religious convictions and our democratic responsibilities--if we fail to support the right to life of the unborn child. Our duties to social justice by no means end there. But they do always begin there, because the right to life is foundational."

I certainly agree wholeheartedly with the archbishop. The right to life is foundational, and it encompasses a number of issues beyond abortion. The problem for me is how do I go about supporting the right to life in a way that is consistent with both my religious faith and my democratic responsibilities? As Michael Perry so aptly pointed out in his most recent post, I would not dream of telling anyone that she could not vote for President Bush and honor her faith commitments The issues with which we are confronted in this election are much too complicated for such simplistic reductionism. I take my religious faith and my democratic responsibiilities very seriously. Personally, however, I would abstain from voting rather than vote for George Bush.

I find it incredibly disturbing that many Catholics see the theoretical potential for an overturning of Roe v. Wade under a Bush administration as the only responsible way a Catholic can support the lives of unborn children. As other posts have pointed out, more unborn children have died during this Republican administration than in the previous Democratic one. One may argue about the reasons, but the facts remain the same. And what of the lives of countless innocents in Iraq, and potentially, Iran and North Korea that would be at risk under a second Bush term? The fact that war may be licit in some circumstances does not relieve this administration of its moral responsibility for the current conflict, which now rests on justifications that have little or no support in Catholic teaching, or for the destabilization of the global order that their announcement of an immoral policy of pre-emptive wars will inevitably create. Are unborn children in the United States more deserving of life than Iraqi children, many of whom die slowly and painfully as a result of injuries sustained during this conflict, or because of the poor health and nutrition that is always a part of the social breakdown that results from war?

Democratic responsibility is about a lot more than voting. A Catholic citizen can certainly practice "faith with works" in any number of meaningful ways that have a much more profound effect on the life of the society in which he lives than the simple act of casting a ballot for president. Indeed, it is often on the local level (and in local elections) that the real work for supporting life often has its most immediate effects. Are Catholics voting to fund health, nutrition, education, and social service programs for poor children? Are they working to help these children in other ways? When a Catholic votes for a candidate who vows to cut taxes and the public services those taxes support, does she recognize the long-term consequences of that choice?

It will take years, at best, for a Republican administration to do anything meaningful to change the current abortion laws, but I know that George Bush and his allies have been doing, and will continue to do, all that they can to redistribute wealth upward as quickly as possible. I know that they see war as just another foreign policy tool and they are willing to use it regardless of what the international community (or the Catholic Church, for that matter) thinks. I know that they disparage our longstanding allies and that they have disdain for international institutions and processes that they cannot control. I know that innocent people have suffered and died because of these things, and that they and others will continue to suffer and die as a direct result of his policies if he remains in office. I know that this administration has brought out some of our nation's worst isolationist and nativitist tenedencies. Yet, I am supposed to ignore all this and vote for him because he might make a few appointments to the Supreme Court that might lead to more restrictive abortion laws? I don't think so.

Vince