What we believe

I saw a post on facebook recently that got me quite riled up (I know, shocking).

I guess it seemed like a good idea to whoever put it together. Unite all the hot causes under one umbrella feel-good mantra. Plus, anyone who disagrees with any of those statements is clearly an unsympathetic bigot (who wants to deny any of that?). But here's the thing: I don't believe you. I don't think you really believe those things. I think you believe the very surface level of what each of these catch phrases was trying to capture, but you don't really believe this at all.

Black Lives Matter

Obviously these are buzz words meant to conjure images of cops shooting unarmed teens, and therefore blatant racism. Who doesn't want to eradicate racism? Ignoring how wild that leap is, let’s just take the words at face value. Black lives matter. I assume that means we want blacks to be able to live, and likely to have a certain quality of life. So, what are the real threats to that? The number one killer of blacks, by far, is abortion. According to the CDC’s latest data, there are just over 300,000 black deaths a year. There are over 250,000 reported abortions performed on black women a year (likely total numbers are at least 30-50% higher). If black lives really matter, let’s protect the most vulnerable. But I don’t see that argument going over well, because "it's not a human until it's born". So let’s set aside the abortions and go back to the 300,000 deaths of already-born blacks. The number one and two causes of death are heart disease and cancer, accounting for 45% of black mortality. Homicide? Number 8. If you really care about black lives, let’s focus on heart health, cancer screening, and access to quality health care. And possibly educating black men and women about their sexuality, the meaning of the family, and available options if they do get pregnant. By the way, abortion, heart disease, and cancer are the leading killers of all races.

Women’s Rights are Human Rights

This one drives me crazy. It reduces all of my rights to the “right” to abortion on demand and free contraception. Because those are my “rights” as a woman? What about the right to worship, to work, to become a mother, to serve, to be safe and free? The UN Declaration of Human Rights (granted, it was written a long time ago, but it seems pretty comprehensive and relevant--if not downright liberal--to me) says we are entitled to life, liberty, security of person, freedom from slavery and torture, recognition as a person before the law and equal protection under the law, a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, privacy, travel, nationality, the protection of marriage and family, property, religion, assembly, work, rest and leisure, motherhood, and education. Do some of those surprise you? Do you think some of those are possibly more important than access to free birth control? Do you think if we eliminated these rights, that access to “reproductive choices” would even matter much? By the way, those were nowhere on the list. The document also says that these rights are subject to limitations “for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order, and the general welfare”. Food for thought.  

No Human Is Illegal

This one is just false. There are laws that exist in order to protect the rights listed above, and if you break those laws, you are, by definition, acting illegally. It’s really a nice sentiment that is meant to equate dignity with legality, but let’s be clear. No human should be denied their basic rights, but if they are jeopardizing public order and the general welfare, and have broken the law, there need to be consequences. What this is really saying is rules don’t matter because we should all just get along. Good luck with that.

Science is Real

Okay, I think you probably believe this one. I have no idea who disagrees with this. Science is just making a hypothesis, testing it, and drawing a conclusion. Don’t leverage science to try to prove the rest of your inane generalities true.

Love is Love

Again, this is a nice platitude that no one would want to disagree with. What else, after all, would love be if not love? But what this statement is really after, and where it falls grossly short, is assuming that all “loves” are the same. I love pizza. I love Colorado. I love sleeping in. I love my husband. What about when my husband needs me to get up early? Then I choose him over sleeping in. Usually. The point is: real love is a choice. It’s a gift of oneself, a choice for the good of the other person. And for that, you have to know what the good is. Which requires what John Paul II called “an adequate anthropology”. For nearly all of human history, “good” was virtue, not comfort. That’s changed now in many ways, but that doesn’t make it right. If you want to be correct rather than cliché, love is virtue. Still interested?

Kindness is Everything

Is it? What about Truth? Justice? Beauty? Goodness? Holiness? Courage? What about something bigger than even the created world? It’s called God. That’s everything. When you hyperbolize like that so that the reader will agree with you, you’ve just lost all credibility.

So here’s what we believe in this house, and I bet is actually pretty close to what you believe as well:

All lives matter.

Human rights are endowed to everyone.

Rules exist for a reason.

Science is real.

Love is a virtue, and it's hard.

God is everything.

Political musings

Here's the thing, I don't really want to go off on a political rant. It seems kind of pointless and has been done before. I'm not sure what I hope to gain except to use this as a sounding board. I have a lot of thoughts regarding the American political and economic systems, but because of the adage not to discuss religion and politics, having intelligent conversations about them is next to impossible. So, in the absence of that, you get this: my thoughts.

Our political system doesn't give the everyman much of a voice in choosing their leaders. First of all, money wins elections. It's a fact no matter what level of politics. So, whoever raises the most money wins, which means whoever gives the most money has the best chance at electing their pet candidate. I think this carries through to once they are elected. Special interest groups have a much louder voice than the average American, especially if that interest group has money. Hand-in-hand with this goes a lack of accountability by the candidates towards their constituents. They want to keep their seat, and since money and power can all but guarantee that, whom do you think they will serve?

Secondly, the primaries in most states are determined by delegates rather than popular vote. At our caucus, only 2 people volunteered for the 2 slots for our district...not very democratic. They had already decided where to cast their vote, so the voice of those in their district didn't matter at all. Add to that the unpledged delegates, and by the time you get to the national convention, the popular vote counts for very little in choosing a candidate. The fact that our electoral college is set up so that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election must make those states that "don't matter" want to just throw in the towel. Similarly, in a red state, why would Democrats vote or vice versa if the state is already guaranteed to go the other way? Yes, we all need to be involved in the process, but when it seems to make so little difference, it's not any wonder so few are engaged. (I don't have a fix for this, by the way.)

The other major concern I have is that right now in America things are so far polarized that any conversation regarding politics has more of a chance of ending in name-calling than progress. Promises of change are valued more than actual policy because everyone is unhappy. I think a large part of this is that people have forgotten what the role of government is. Catholic social teaching stands on a few basic pillars centered around the dignity and rights of every human (not the "right" to a free education or to birth control, but the right to life, the right to work, to build a family and community, and to worship), as well as the responsibility of every human to care for the poor, the environment, and to give back to society. America has become a nation split between those that want to keep everything for themselves because I earned it, darnit, and those who want free handouts because life is hard and it's just not fair. Neither of these is realistic, but those are the platforms I see emerging, and it's scary.

The lack of a voice, the lack of candidate accountability, the inability to find middle ground, the deeply selfish attitudes of both parties--all of this makes me a little bit hopeless. But, as Fr. Riley said today, God will win. Even when it seems like darkness is everywhere, He can win. I need to believe that. We all need to believe that.

Our world needs God more than ever, but post-modernism has a disdain for and fear of anything that will challenge its comfort. We need to made a little bit uncomfortable. We need to seek common ground, to take our responsibilities seriously. If Catholic social teaching doesn't make you a bit uncomfortable, doesn't challenge you, then you should probably start your cause for sainthood. I know it challenges me. If Christians across the country took seriously those rights and responsibilities, I'd like to think we could actually right the ship.