On politics and religion

It has been some time since I last posted an entry of interest. Hopefully this atom bomb of a post-combining two taboo topics in one- will not come as too much of a shock.

Why have I chosen to touch on this right now? Well, it is an election year, and a particularly volatile one at that. For weeks I have heard so much spoken about politics and religion side-by-side along with varying viewpoints on this relationship- some flawed, some spot-on, others distorted. I address this mostly to my fellow Catholic brethren in the hopes of enlightening them about this essential relationship.

The question of politics, religion, and their relationship to each other has been the defining question of my academic career as a political science student thus far. How do I reconcile my firm religious convictions with the necessity of engaging others who hold conflicting beliefs in varying systems and approaches? This is a FUNDAMENTAL question which we should all ask. Many Catholics, sensing the futility of political pursuits, simply shrug it off in frustration- my original temptation. This comes, perhaps, from a misunderstanding of what exactly the "political" is.

Hannah Arendt, one of my favorite philosophers, said that while philosophy is the study of Man, political theory is the study of Men, which is why the latter interested her much more. We live in the world not in isolation, but amongst others. All the same, we have moral decisions and choices to make each and every day for which we ourselves are held to account. How do we as individuals situate these obligations? Since the dawn of time, and I believe until the end of time, people will situate their existence in the framework of faith, faith in God, who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, in a word, the summation of all things. To flesh it out just a bit, we could say that while philosophy and political theory exist relatively independently of one another, strictly speaking, religion is a unification (an essential unification) of the two.

The great tragedy of modernity, particularly of secularism, is the fatally flawed view that we can look at humanity through a lens that estranges, and ultimately discards, religion as a fundamental aspect of our existence. The same goes for the belief that religion must be divorced from our politics.

Every major political philosopher from Plato to Arendt has had to grapple, in some way or another, with the question of religion vis-á-vis the political. For Plato, the purpose of the political was to give mankind access, in some way, to the Good, which Christians later called "God". Augustine saw the world as divided and in tension between two "cities"- the city of God and the city of Man, out of which the former would ultimately triumph. Machiavelli and Rousseau proposed the idea of a "civil religion", the earliest ideas of state religion as legitimizing the governing order. Burke, the father of modern political conservatism, saw religion and the state as coinciding, with the state defending the church and the church sanctifying the state. Marx saw religion as "ideology" born of the fetters of man that sought to anesthetize man to the conditions of his existence. And so on.

So why must we not fear to let our religion guide us in the realm of the political? The word "politics" is derived from the Greek word polis meaning "city". The political is that which deals with the affairs of the city, of the people. How do people influence one another? How do they interact and make decisions that buttress their social order and manage their limited resources? That is the realm of politics. As you can see, everything that we do is to some extent political, and what we hold in faith through our religion is the source (hopefully) of our political impetus. In an age where religion is increasingly pushed to the side, we must engage our national polis all the more and assert the force of moral authority where it is severely lacking. We must not fear allowing God to guide us in our politics, that is, in our dealings with our fellow men. In a democratic society, the need for religion as a guide for our political decisions becomes all the more essential. Where once politics was reserved for the elite and far-off rulers, now the commonplace is political. As such we can not help but make our religion an integral part of our political decision-making, in large part because of the need for moral responsibility as individuals and as a society.

St. Augustine warned Christians to avoid over-involvement in public affairs as detrimental to the spiritual life. All the same, to sustain our democratic society as a righteous and morally-guided one, we must not fear to assert our faith in Christ and His Church and cherish the guidance that faith gives to our lives and to our dealings with others.

Welcome to the US, Pope Benedict!

Ladies and gentlemen, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Episcopus Romanus, Vicarius Christi, Patriarcha Occidentis, Primas Italiae, Archiepiscopus et metropolitanus provinciae ecclesiasticae Romanae, Princeps sui iuris civitatis Vaticanae, Servus Servorum Dei



The coolest thing in the world: Seeing a Marine Honor Guard bearing the Vatican colors. AMAAAAAAZING!!!! The Catholic Church reigns!

A message from our Holy Father, HH Pope Benedict XVI

April 8, 2008
The Vatican

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the United States of America,

The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you! In just a few days from now, I shall begin my apostolic visit to your beloved country. Before setting off, I would like to offer you a heartfelt greeting and an invitation to prayer. As you know, I shall only be able to visit two cities: Washington and New York. The intention behind my visit, though, is to reach out spiritually to all Catholics in the United States. At the same time, I earnestly hope that my presence among you will be seen as a fraternal gesture towards every ecclesial community, and a sign of friendship for members of other religious traditions and all men and women of good will. The risen Lord entrusted the apostles and the Church with his Gospel of love and peace, and his intention in doing so was that the message should be passed on to all peoples.

At this point I should like to add some words of thanks, because I am conscious that many people have been working hard for a long time, both in Church circles and in the public services, to prepare for my journey. I am especially grateful to all who have been praying for the success of the visit, since prayer is the most important element of all. Dear friends, I say this because I am convinced that without the power of prayer, without that intimate union with the Lord, our human endeavors would achieve very little. Indeed this is what our faith teaches us. It is God who saves us, he saves the world, and all of history. He is the shepherd of his people. I am coming, sent by Jesus Christ, to bring you his word of life.

Together with your bishops, I have chosen as the theme of my journey three simple but essential words: "Christ our hope." Following in the footsteps of my venerable predecessors, Paul VI and John Paul II, I shall come to United States of America as Pope for the first time, to proclaim this great truth: Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture, and social condition. Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father.

I know how deeply rooted this Gospel message is in your country. I am coming to share it with you, in a series of celebrations and gatherings. I shall also bring the message of Christian hope to the great assembly of the United Nations, to the representatives of all the peoples of the world. Indeed, the world has greater need of hope than ever: hope for peace, for justice, and for freedom; but this hope can never be fulfilled without obedience to the law of God, which Christ brought to fulfillment in the commandment to love one another. Do to others as you would have them do to you, and avoid doing what you would not want them to do. This "golden rule" is given in the Bible, but it is valid for all people, including non-believers. It is the law written on the human heart; on this we can all agree, so that when we come to address other matters we can do so in a positive and constructive manner for the entire human community.

Dirijo un cordial saludo a los católicos de lengua española y les manifiesto mi cercanía espiritual, en particular a los jóvenes, a los enfermos, a los ancianos y a los que pasan por dificultades o se sienten más necesitados. Les expreso mi vivo deseo de poder estar pronto con Ustedes en esa querida Nación. Mientras tanto, les aliento a orar intensamente por los frutos pastorales de mi inminente Viaje Apostólico y a mantener en alto la llama de la esperanza en Cristo Resucitado.

Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends in the United States, I am very much looking forward to being with you. I want you to know that, even if my itinerary is short, with just a few engagements, my heart is close to all of you, especially to the sick, the weak, and the lonely. I thank you once again for your prayerful support of my mission. I reach out to every one of you with affection, and I invoke upon you the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Que la Virgen María les acompañe y proteja. Que Dios les bendiga.

Planned Parenthood budget passes $1 billion despite negative publicity

I am working to jump-start a topic series on "Bioethics and the Dignity of Life" on this blog in hopes of incorporating it into the overall discussion on Catholicism and Catholic values (where it forms a most important part as it is). I'm really looking forward to devoting my skills as a writer to furthering knowledge of this issue. The following is a very revealing article recently published that puts the economic exploitation of the unborn by the murderous corporation, Planned Parenthood, into startling perspective.

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Washington, Apr. 1, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Planned Parenthood Federation of America reported income of over $1 billion for the 2006-07 fiscal year, showing an 11% increase in funding driven by over $335 million in subsidies from American taxpayers.

The heavy government funding for Planned Parenthood-- up $31.4 millon over the previous year's figure-- came despite the heavily negative political impact of stories linking Planned Parenthood offices to failure to report statutory rape and to racist fundraising appeals.

Planned Parenthood is America's leading abortion provider, accounting for 289,650 abortions in the year 2006. The group has sold 1.4 million "emergency contraception" kits during that year. But while the organization claims to support a woman's "right to choose," only about 2,400 pregnant women were referred by Planned Parenthood to adoption agencies.

Douglas Scott, Jr, the president of Life Decisions International, noted that Planned Parenthood showed more than $100 million in "excess revenue over expenses" for the fiscal year. Although Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization, Scott noted, that figure represents what is "known to regular people are profit." The group had net assets of nearly $1 billion, he noted, in what is "essentially a savings account."

Beyond "Sola Scriptura"

During my last trip to our nation's capital, I came across a charming (and tiny) little book at the National Basilica gift shop titled Scripture Alone? 21 Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura by Joel Peters. I couldn't help buying it. Just some preliminary skimming and I was thoroughly impressed. What do we do in an incredibly post-sola scriptura world? What do we do beyond the light of Biblical inerrancy? I will attempt to conjecture a few points.

In our "postmodern" era (as if the modern era wasn't bad enough!) we are faced with the tenet of modernism which, in part, rejects the inerrancy (lack of error) in the Bible, as if it was just another book written by a bunch of humans. What has been accepted by the knowledge of faith, i.e., that God can not err in His revelation is now, as with everything else, questioned.

In Timothy, it is written that all Scripture is useful for teaching- not all-sufficient- but useful. When a Catholic needs further clarification or further teaching on a scriptural point, he or she turns to the teaching authority of the Church, from whence came the Bible itself and which has amassed the knowledge and doctrine of God's revelation- scriptural and extra-scriptural- throughout time. In this way, Catholics as a body have a "catholicity"- uniformity- of belief, unlike the diaspora and multitude of Protestant sects. What happens, then, if a Protestant sees the Bible as deficient, if a Catholic sees the Bible as deficient and errant or, worse, if a Catholic sees the Magisterium as bunk?

The usual recourse nowadays is to books written by a variety of authors with wildly varying beliefs (made possible by lack of imprimatur or nihil obstat) or even, particularly among more academic works, anti-Christian rhetoric. We live in an era of Christian self-help books. Unfortunately, more often than not, one begins with Christian self-helpers, then just plain self-helps, and then eventually one begins to believe that the Bible just isn't necessary, nor is "anybody else telling me what to think or do" (because I'm such a genius, God has spoken to me personally, and I'm the boss of me, &c.). Among Christian academics and students who often fallaciously reject biblical inerrancy and/or the religious teaching authority of the Church, I have noticed recourse to writers across the spectrum- from Rousseau to Kant and- far, far worse- Nietzsche (the self-proclaimed anti-Christ), Marx (an atheist Jew), Sartre (another atheist), &c. When I express concern about reading such works as a means to spiritual enrichment (depletion, really), I am simply told that it is good to read such authors to deepen in faith (by cultivating doubt, I may add).

Well, I confess I have read Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche, and Marx- for academic means as I am a political scientist. I have very easily noticed their grave attacks on religion, in general, and have noticed the dangers of using such books too often for the purpose of one's spiritual pursuits.

If Christ gives us all things, why do we insist on asking for more? For the dissatisfied and faithless, behold, the descent of the modernists...


("The Descent of the Modernists", by E. J. Pace, first appearing in his book Christian Cartoons, published in 1922.)

Think you are stronger than that? Do not have so much faith in yourself as I once did. I nearly fell down the path before realizing my immense foolishness.