![\"Putting](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/wuerl8.jpg\")
<\/a>Putting principles over politics<\/p><\/div>\n
At RNS news, Jacob Lupfer writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n Americans of all stripes bemoan political polarization. For people who claim to derive their political values from their religious traditions, polarization raises vexing questions. More than perhaps any other group, faithful Catholics struggle to reconcile their church\u2019s teachings with the platforms of the two major parties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Do all Americans bemoan polarization?\u00a0 I thought only liberal politicians did that as a backhanded form of attack?\u00a0 They want a uni-party.<\/p>\n And what is so difficult about reconciling Catholic teaching with politics?\u00a0 That’s only hard if you’re unfaithful.\u00a0 There’s no liberal policy that a good Catholic can endorse without enabling stealing, cheating, oppressing, killing, immorality, or hatred of God.<\/p>\n Last\u00a0week at the University of Notre Dame, an ideologically diverse group of Catholic leaders gathered to discuss how political polarization affects Catholic life in the United States. Under the theme \u201cNaming the Wounds, Beginning to Heal,\u201d the conference sought to change the tone of political engagement by priests, lay people and the hierarchy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ideologically diverse?\u00a0 If you took part that meeting you were either an actor or an enabler.<\/p>\n Conservative evangelicals can be faithful Republicans because their churches affirm the GOP\u2019s social conservatism and sexual traditionalism but they speak only timidly on matters of economics, deferring to and accepting (if not outright sanctifying) market forces. Mainline Protestant denominations\u2019 political teachings align neatly with the Democratic Party\u2019s platform. This includes robust support for abortion rights and, increasingly, same-sex marriage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Free markets are not something Southern Baptists ‘sanctify’ as if they were animists.\u00a0 A free market is just people giving their time and property to each other.\u00a0 If you don’t think that’s moral, then you must believe stealing and oppression is.<\/p>\n People have a God-given right to give and exchange what’s theirs.\u00a0 They are obligated to use their gifts in a Christian way, but it is not your place to force them.\u00a0 True charity (love) requires freedom.\u00a0 Liberals don’t value love so they don’t understand freedom.\u00a0 They want control, ‘equality,’ and materialist results.\u00a0 The truths behind a free market are natural rights, not un-Catholic idols.<\/p>\n Moderate evangelicals, black Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox traditions cut across the two major parties. But since the Catholic Church spans the breadth and depth of America\u2019s political landscape, it is important for Catholics to model Christian political engagement in a context of partisan and ideological polarization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What?!<\/p>\n Robert McElroy, the newly installed Catholic\u00a0bishop of San Diego, gave a brilliant speech<\/a> last year about the moral dilemmas of partisanship. While acknowledging the parties\u2019 role in nurturing mass participation in politics, he cautioned against the ways both parties can be hostile to human dignity and the common good.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No polarizing ‘partisan’ there, McElroy.<\/p>\n For the Christian citizen, parties pose a paradox. It is a good thing that we have ideologically distinct parties that will, when in power, pursue different policy goals. But when partisans \u2014 whether elected officials or ordinary voters \u2014 abandon their religious principles in order to fall in line with their party, Christian political engagement ceases to exist.<\/p>\n Nothing serves the interests of political parties more than interest groups that use religious rhetoric to promote secular ideologies and add, \u201cThus saith the Lord.\u201d And Washington is full of them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So is the American hierarchy.\u00a0 Mr. Lupfer closes:<\/p>\n Polarization challenges Catholics more acutely than it challenges many other religious adherents. They should seek ways to promote fuller expressions of their church\u2019s humane teachings in both parties. In elevating principles above party loyalty, they can witness to their faith and model authentically Christian political engagement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But you must have<\/em> principles in the first place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At RNS news, Jacob Lupfer writes: Americans of all stripes bemoan political polarization. For people who claim to derive their political values from their religious traditions, polarization raises vexing questions. More than perhaps any other group, faithful Catholics struggle to reconcile their church\u2019s teachings with the platforms of the two major parties. Do all …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,280,279,278],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-vote","tag-free-market","tag-notre-dame-conference","tag-polarization"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2175,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}