I believe that as a Franciscan Brother of Life, whose duty it is to preach and teach the Gospel of Life I can shed some light on the question of political office and people of faith.
There is a major difference between: contraception, fornication and same sex-relations on one side and abortion, adultery and same-sex marriage on the other. For the sake of this thread, let’s just stick with abortion. But what we say about abortion carries over into the two other areas that I placed on that platter.
Contraception, fornication and same-sex activities are not violations of human rights. They violate the dignity of human sexuality. Abortion violates the rights of an innocent human being and by extension the rights of society. Everytime we violate the rights of any human being, we hurt ourselves and society at large.
A man or woman of faith in public office has a God-given mandate to protect the citizens under his or her care. Therefore, he is not acting contrary to his office when he votes against any law that violates the rights of human beings. The most fundamental rights of human beings are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, we cannot protect those rights at the expense of an innocent party or parties.
It is not contrary to good government for the legislator or other public figure to vote contrary to the wishes of his constituency when his constituency is blind and does not see the harm in a particular legislation. He is doing the greatest good by them, even if they do not recognize it. It is the moral duty of every human being to choose the greatest good, not the lesser of two evils. When you choose the lesser of two evils, you’re still choosing evil. Man does not have the right to choose evil. This is very clear from the time of the Deutoronomic law. Only God has the power to decide when a life is to end. Man does not have that authority.
The Torah does not give man freedom to make this choice. In every case where man has engaged in some kind of conflict that resulted in the taking of a life, it was always in obedience to a command from God. It was God’s choice, not the choice of Israel. We see in the life of King David when he takes it into his own hands to set up his brother that God is not pleased and that David is repentant. Yet, there were other situations in which God leads the Jewish people into battle. Unless God leads someone into abortion, this may never happen and may never be allowed to happen.
I would appreciate it if you folks would stop referring to this as my position or the Catholic position. This is neither mine nor the Catholic Church’s position. It is the position revealed by God. When Catholics begin to use the correct language, maybe they can begin to understand the fullness of this revelation. As long as Catholics refer to this moral law as a Catholic law or as this person’s opinion or that person’s opinion, it remains very human and subject to human rejection, contradiction and misunderstanding. When we accept that it comes from God, then we will see that we cannot take an opposing view or compromise without serious eternal consequences.
I’m going to take issue here with Catholics, not non-Catholics. I believe that many Catholics are disingenious. There are many who prefer to see this teaching as a Catholic teaching or the opinion of some Catholics, because it leaves them wiggle room to disagree and not to have to justify themselves before conscience and God. That’s very convenient. But God knows when we’re playing games and when we’re honest. We can fool our brothers and sisters. We may even successfully fool ourselves, but we can never fool God.
It’s time that Catholics who believe that they are truly Catholic begin to speak as Catholics. God’s revelation is from God, not the Catholic Church or the person across from us. Those are just the means via which God communicates. The Jews in the OT did not attribute the message of the prophets to them. They knew that these messages came from God through Issaiah, Jeremiah, Ezequiel, etc. Why is this suddenly so difficult for Catholics to see what was so obvious to our Jewish anscestors? Truth comes from God, not from man. Man is the messenger. “Thou shall not kill” came from God. It did not come from Moses, Israel, the Apostles or the Catholic Church. I wish that Catholics had kept the old word for the Pentateuch. It may have been easier to understand. Torah, means Law, with a capital L. It is Divine Law. It is not up to human negotiation or up for human disagreement or opinions. God does not leave room for this. Jews, Muslims and Christians know this, because we are all sons and daughters of Abraham. And the Law was given to all of Abraham’s descendants. Therefore, there is no way out of this one. We can call it a Catholic rule all we like, but God will disagree, since the Torah preceeds the Catholic Church.
Deutoronomy is very clear, “You shall love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself.” DT 6.
An unborn child must be loved as we love ourselves and we must desire for him/her everything that we desire for ourselves. To do anything to the contrary is a violation of human rights. No state, no religion and no parent has the authority to violate those rights or to allow another to violate those rights. This is why we should not even be discussing whether or not this is morally acceptable. It is not a law that we created. Therefore, it’s not a law that we can change.
The most fundamental right of every human being is the right to be born. If we cannot guarrantee safe birth, we must at least guarrantee non-interference with God’s plan for parents and child.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
