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DURING INTENSE POLITICAL TIMES THE REFUGE IS VATICAN, NOT THOSE WITH HATEFUL VIEWS
Politics has become a sport, a blood sport, whereby a person likes one party or person and hates the other, often in the name, of course, of religion. Such is an example of our fallen nature.
Fairness and objectivity are no longer part of the landscape in politics and it is fashionable not only to disagree with those who possess an opposing view, but to ridicule them in a way that used to be confined to the barroom (or playground).
Because politics is often interwoven with religion -- particularly when it comes to abortion -- worldly forces have captured an entire faction of Christianity. They have done this by siding with us on the pro-life issue, while at the same time espousing other causes, emotions, and beliefs that are contrary to Catholicism. Agree -- totally -- with a certain leader, party operative, or talk-show host, or you are the enemy.
That is the nature of a cult, and it is a clear and present danger. We are turning into a nation of cults (liberal and conservative). It began when the media became dominated by liberals promoting not just abortion but many immoral or libertine trends such as pornography, fornication, and homosexuality as they attacked the core of Christian belief, tending to the agnostic. After years of duress, those of more conservative tendencies (among whom we certainly number) began to coalesce and now are responding through the internet, radio, and other alternative media.
The problem is that Christians are tainted when they seek refuge with the worldly. Coarse language even finds itself on Christian websites.
Wrote one viewer, Brian A. Cook, back last fall: "Where are warnings against sins of the Right? Shouldn't they be considered
signs of the devil? Shouldn't they be considered evil? Is 'evil has become
good and good has become evil' strictly a liberal or modern phenomenon?
"What about a 'pro-family' radio host who mocks autistic children? What about
skinheads who assault homosexual persons? What about biologists who preach
right-wing eugenics? What about a man who opens fire in a Unitarian Church
with intent to commit murder and mayhem? What about a man who mails anthrax
to politicians who happen to support abortion, as serious a crime as
abortion is? What about a ultra-nationalist politician in France who
dismisses the Nazi Holocaust as 'a detail in history'? What about violent assaults on immigrants?
"I do not want to cast aspersions on your motives," he complained to us. "I only wish to raise questions about whether you are truly fighting for the Gospel or merely for rightist traditionalism."
We must take such criticism seriously. To the list we can add a radio host who laughed when talking about a Muslim woman who was beheaded in Buffalo and another who joked about shooting a congressional leader. A large faction of conservative Catholics has fallen under the spell of media celebrities who have been indicted for drug use, have had to settle sexual harassment suits, brag about using Viagra (although unmarried), are serial divorcees, and in general spew negativity, if not hatred. In some cases, there are indications that racism is cloaked by righteous indignation. Meanwhile, there is the TV host who has his nightly "worst person in the world" segment.
It is dangerous to hook into the spirit of those who are worldly and who while opposing abortion, care little about (or at least never mention) those -- including the unborn -- who die from pollution or as civilians in war-torn countries. Death is death. Killing is killing. Life is life. Political types who oppose abortion often demand that those who have sought harbor with them likewise adopt their other political or philosophical views, even unto economic policy (of which the Vatican has constantly warned).
Can you imagine what might be done if all the time spent on hateful e-mails, internet blogs, TV shows, radio programs, and newspaper articles was instead spent in prayer, which can change anything (and anyone)?
"I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world," said Jesus in today's (5/27) Mass reading, John 17. "I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world."
The evil one is on both sides of the fence.
We are conservatives, but above all we are Christians. Jesus raged against no one (except the money changers). His war was a spiritual war -- against the devil, who is the enemy of every human.
This is why the Vatican is where we need to look.
It is balanced. It does not ridicule. It does not rage. It does not form a cult.
It has carefully balanced all issues and takes no political side but rather God's side -- which is the side of love.
