The usually excellent George Rutler has written an alarming and alarmist post in today’s Crisis Magazine online: http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-election-of-2012.
Although I agree with Fr. Rutler’s overall analysis, it is an exaggeration to suggest that the outcome of one election is apocalyptic. It is also a trifle simplistic to refer to our present situation as “post-comfortable Christianity”. Christianity, fully lived and truly understood, is never comfortable. It involves the carrying of crosses and the willingness to lay down our lives for our friends. Whenever Christians become too comfortable, they tend to become corrupt, which is to say that they tend to become less Christian. The uncomfortable fact is that comfort and Christianity do not mix. A quick perusal of the work of Dante or Chaucer will show us what happens when Christians choose comfort instead of Christ as their Bridegroom.
And as for the abomination who is Obama, we have seen his ilk in the past. He and his kind come in many shapes and sizes: Herod, Henry VIII, Robespierre, Stalin, Hitler, et cetera, ad nauseam. Obama is not the first to seek to Crucify Christ and His Church and he won’t be the last.
I agree with you, Joseph. No one admires Fr. Rutler more than I do; he is a remarkable jewel of a priest and an insightful intellectual.
However, his article posits the election as a defining moment in our history, yet, to think that our societal and cultural problems would be solved by simply switching parties is not persuasive. For instance, The GOP always seeks the votes of pro-lifers but what has it even done to eliminate the abortion horror when it controlled both Congress and the Presidency? We’ve just been provided another reminder of this kind of nonsense, as it was Bush appointee John Roberts who ruled Obama could force us to buy health insurance.
One major party seeks to promote abortion, expand the government to monstrous dimensions and to degrade the culture, yet the other one seeks imperialistic meddling around the globe, promotes unbridled capitalism and a engenders a messianic worldview that encourages Americans to think the lessons of history and the limits of power don’t apply to us. Hudge and Gudge anyone?
As a former Army officer it greatly disturbs me to see so many politicians, particularly from the GOP ranks, so eager to send our troops everywhere in the world especially the Middle East; it’s amusing to note how few of these same keyboard commandos, when given the opportunity to fight Ho Chi Minh’s Communists back in their youth, found creative ways to Camp Deferment!
I’m sickened by the thoughts of more of Obama, but I’m convinced our answer is to be found in the pew and the hearth and not the ballot box.
To Harry:
Our recurring dilemma (“choice”) is between Big Business and Big Government. Not much choice, but there is one difference: BB doesn’t carry a gun or have a license to shoot it….