While many today are basking in the glow of President Obama's reelection, those who value the importance of life and religious liberty may feel a bit demoralized. I know I do. I didn't really expect to, quite frankly. I had suspected an Obama victory and had come to terms with it. What I did not anticipate or realize was the degree to which our country's Godless, "progressive" left-turn would be made manifest to me. I saw it in state referendums that legalized same-sex marriage. I saw it in states that legalized the recreational (not just medicinal) use and cultivation of marijuana. I saw it in a number of Facebook posts from people of the self-proclaimed "Christian left", who had the audacity to thank God for this pro-abortion President's reelection for another four years. Another four years that, by the President's own admission to none other than (cue irony!) Tsar Putin, will give him "more flexibility" to pursue his goal of moving America "forward".
It is this talk from Christians than saddens, perplexes and even angers me the most. How does one maintain the cognitive dissonance necessary to say they follow the teachings of Christ and simultaneously support a President who wants to make it easier for women to get abortions, and will appoint Federal judges who will follow suit in their legal rulings? These Christians are simply following the model put forth by such warped Catholics as Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who treat their proclaimed faith just as Obama would like faith to become: a hobby on par with knitting or playing bridge every Tuesday afternoon.
The Church has failed to get Catholics to grasp that their Catholicism cannot just be something they do; it must be who they are. That should also apply to any authentically Christian denomination. Perhaps the best summarization on this subject that I have read comes from Aidan Nichols, O.P. He writes, "In the powerful yet soft secularising totalitarianism of distinctively modern culture, our greatest enemy is the Church's own internal secularisation which, when it occurs, does so through the largely unconscious adoption of the ideas and practices of seemingly benign adversaries." I am much more sympathetic towards atheists who are pro-choice, for same-sex marriage and the like. They support such methods, I believe, out of what they think are good motives--women's rights, equality, etc. Without the Lord as their guide, how are they expected to understand why each life is so important (it is created in God's own image) or why marriage can only be between a man and a women (it is a sacrament created by the Creator)?
What is disturbing is the degree to which the modern Christian is willing to choose which teachings they find valuable and which they find too hard or unpopular to support. They are willing to actively support the oppression and destruction of their own faith, and then thank the Lord for doing it! To be such a Christian is not to follow Christ. In fact, I would venture to say that the perverted theology they subscribe to is more idol worship than God worship.
With that said, I remain hopeful for two reasons. The first is that now it has been made painstakingly clear to any devout Christian what they are up against going forward. For decades this nation has not taken God seriously. Perhaps now we can come to terms with being the minority, the persecuted and the scorned. We ought to move towards reinforcing the faith of lapsed Christians. This culture war will only be fought one soul at a time, not through any one politician. We need to spend more time standing up for our religious liberty. The President has already laid the groundwork to erode that right. He has given us a choice: minister to the sick in Catholic hospitals and educate the people of God in Catholic universities OR respect your conscience in refusing to pay for abortifacient drugs...you can no longer do both. If we lose this right, we will not get it back. The road only gets more perilous if we do not put a stop to it now.
The second reason for my hope is that we Christians know the ending of the story. This period of turmoil for people of faith is only a page in the great book of existence God has written. For as dark as times may seem--and they may very well get darker in the near future--the truth of Christ's victory over these forces of evil and suffering and death is absolute and final. If we "finish the race" as Saint Paul instructs, we will win the prize of eternal life with God. The Church has been through persecutions of greater magnitude in Roman times. Yet while Rome is a pile of ruins, the Church continues to protect the revealed mystery of God's love for humanity. And long after the United States is laid to waste, the Church will still be standing, because it is not beholden to the foolishness of men and women but rather the wisdom of God.
This is no time for indecision or indifference--two other characteristics en vogue in the United States today. Like in any war, this one for our soul will require us to choose a side. We know the ultimate winner. The question is, will we be on His side?
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