Last week I began our discussion on the upcoming election by reflecting on the privilege of voting we enjoy as Catholics living in a free, democratic country. To briefly recap, voting is more than just a nice idea; it is actually one of the primary ways we exercise our faith in the civic arena to ensure a just and compassionate society. Catholics should not excuse themselves lightly of the responsibility to vote and we are obliged to take time to know the issues and candidates and prayerfully reflect on how we will cast our ballot. Last week’s readings centered on faith and hope, which was a very good place for us to begin. No matter what age we live in, no matter who our choices are for public office, our faith and hope must always be placed squarely in God. Not on a party platform, promises, or political candidate. It’s no secret that many people are troubled by the upcoming election, especially the candidates for president. Now, more than ever, there is the temptation to be cynical, despondent, or to try to isolate ourselves from society. Some have become apathetic, feeling that their vote has no importance, and refuse to participate in any way. None of these are healthy Christian responses. But they are certainly understandable. We live in a very morally-complicated world. Trying to sort through the many issues facing voters and evaluate them according to our Catholic values can seem overwhelming.
Fortunately for us, the Catholic Church has been around a long time. Drawing on 2000 years of wisdom, revelation, Tradition, and Divine Guidance, she can help us prepare our consciences to vote on November 8. Today I want to share some of that insight for your consideration, especially in regards to evaluating the moral issues and policies at stake. For you and me, the teaching of the Church is a great blessing because it provides us with guidance in making our choices. We don’t have to fumble around on our own.
The first teaching for us to keep in mind is that not all issues are of equal importance or weight. Some things are always right or always wrong, regardless of the circumstances or what religious tradition you come from. These are the issues that relate directly to who we are as human persons, living together in society. They follow the truth of natural law, that inherent sense of right and wrong, written on the heart of every human person. These matters have the highest importance and are in a class of their own. All other issues, as important as they are, need to defer to these. The issues or actions we can never do or support are: abortion, euthanasia, embryo-destructive research like cloning and embryonic stem cell lines, racism, treating the poor as disposable, and same-sex marriage. We call these intrinsically evil actions because they can never be morally justified. As an important clarification, we are not calling the people involved in these actions or who support these actions intrinsically evil. They are children of God, loved by Him in the same way as anyone else and deserve our compassion, respect, and kindness without exception. Knowing the importance of these fundamental issues is a great starting point for evaluating the candidates vying for our vote. We can score each of them according to their stance on these most important matters.
After we have prayed and wrestled with these issues involving intrinsically evil acts, we can move on to the many other serious moral concerns that are at stake in the upcoming election. These matters are significant political issues like education, foreign policy, fiscal policy, healthcare, national security, nominating judges, green energy, and transportation, to name a few. Each of these political issues are open for debate and argument. You can make an argument for your position and the candidate who supports it and, unless your thinking is downright immoral, your position can be totally valid. However, there could be another person who disagrees with you and your candidate and could have another completely rational and morally acceptable viewpoint. These sort of things are true political “issues.” They are not hard truths and we are not required to hold any particular view but we simply cannot ignore them. These issues are of secondary importance to the matters involving intrinsically moral evils. They should not be given the same weight but can still be helpful in determining which candidate receives our vote.
We might find it enlightening to rank or score each candidate depending on where he or she falls on both the intrinsically evil acts and the serious moral concerns. Giving each issue the proper weight, depending on which category it falls in, along with with prayer, can help us arrive at a decision. It is also possible that, after considering the candidates for certain offices and their stances on each of these topics, some people will conclude they cannot in good conscience vote for any of the candidates. This is also a morally acceptable decision, provided it has been reached with due diligence, prayer, and reflection. It would be important for someone who is reaching this decision to acknowledge that they will have to accept whatever outcome and consequences result from the election. In the end, each of us needs to vote according to our conscience and make sure that our conscience is properly formed and informed. We should be able to defend our decision before God.
The difficult part about voting in this election and really, any election, is that there are no perfect candidates. More than ever, we are faced with the dilemma of choosing between candidates who each hold morally-problematic views and may support one or more intrinsically evil acts. In these cases, we should choose the candidate who will do the least amount of evil. It’s a pretty lousy choice to be left with but we still have some say in limiting the damage. Once again, it is very possible that we may decide we are unable to vote for any of the candidates. If this is our decision, after prayer and reflection, then we should be at peace withholding our vote.
My prayer for all of us is that we have the humble courage to vote in a way that reflects the beauty and holiness of our Catholic Faith. Our world, our nation, needs Christ more than ever! Let’s trust the wisdom of our Church to inform our decisions in the coming weeks, a holy wisdom which has been guaranteed the guidance of the Holy Spirit until the end of time. May God bless and protect our great nation and give us the leaders we need to establish our country in justice, peace, and compassion.
