Government is an unfortunate necessity. We need it to do that which we cannot do for ourselves. Its functions are listed in the preamble to the Constitution — to preserve the union of states, to protect the innocent and prosecute the guilty, to enable its citizens to live in peace and to protect them from foreign or domestic threats, to provide them with the opportunity to prosper and to protect the tenets of liberty for its citizens and their descendants.
One would think that the two main political parties in the U.S. would both aim towards the same goals even though they might differ in their preferred means of achieving them. That no longer appears to be the case. As they are currently constituted, neither party seems overly concerned with protecting our rights and limiting the size of government. One party is actively working to make the country and the citizens less safe, less prosperous, and more divided while the other party talks a good game but rarely follows through.
Christians have a duty to “render unto Caesar what is due to Caesar.” that is, to obey and support lawful government. We also have a duty to form and inform our conscience, not to obey unlawful orders, and to “teach and admonish one another” when necessary. Sadly, there are liberals in the public arena who are doing the opposite, causing scandal by leading others astray. This may have eternal consequences.
One such scandal that never seems to go away is that of abortion. The Church has opposed this from her beginnings. In the book of Exodus we see, “When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life…” The meaning is clear. Justice is meted out to anyone who causes harm to a pregnant woman and the unborn.
In 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion “is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors… I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.” Leftists sometimes obfuscate the issue by claiming the unborn are not ‘persons’ while the reality is that they are human beings at particular stage of development. The question is, “Do all human being have human rights”?
Just as support for abortion is incompatible with Christianity, so is transgenderism. While this is a recent phenomenon the Church’s teaching on the subject is, like abortion, based on biblical truths. Exodus teaches, “So God created man in his own image… male and female he created them.” We are made in God’s image as to our soul but replicating our physical bodies require procreation, which is why God created two sexes. In 1905 Dr. Nettie Stevens, a cytogeneticist and researcher at Bryn Mawr College discovered that sex is determined by hereditary traits passed through chromosomes.
Body Integrity Identity Disorder. In both cases the individual wishes to rid himself of healthy body parts because he does not believe they conform to his identity. Individuals suffering from these conditions would be better served by mental health professionals rather than endocrinologists and plastic surgeons.
Another essential component of liberalism is unfettered immigration. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote eloquently on the topic in the 13th century. He said that immigrants may be peaceful or hostile, and that the latter may be excluded. He also observed that some foreigners merely pass through, some stay as visitors while others wish to settle permanently, and that those who settle should not be granted citizenship immediately as the integration process takes time. The delay is necessary because, as he says, “…the foreigners not yet having the common good firmly at heart might attempt something hurtful to the people.” 250,000 British children have discovered this to their sorrow.
In a June 2024 The Economist/YouGov conducted a poll among 1600 U.S. adults in which immigration took second place behind inflation. With good reason. The names Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, and Jocelyn Nungaray echo in the public consciousness. Debrina Kawam’s name is less well-known but the images of her immolation on a NY subway will haunt this writer for a long time.
Archbishop Robert McElroy, who was recently appointed to Washington, D.C. by Pope Francis declared that while a nation has the right to secure its borders, “wider indiscriminate massive deportations are incompatible with Catholic doctrine” as they would “violate the dignity of individuals.” Perhaps the Archbishop doesn’t follow the news, or maybe he’s been listening to Brian Stelter and Joy Reid (which is the same as not following the news) rather than Tom Homan.
When he was questioned on his deportation plans in a “60 Minutes” interview Homan replied, “Well, lemme tell you what it’s not going to be first. It’s not gonna be — a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. They’ll be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find ’em based on numerous… investigative processes.” That’s hardly “indiscriminate.”
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as Apostolic Nuncio (Ambassador) to the United States from 2011 to 2016 quickly tendered a reply to Archbishop McElroy on ‘X’, “The ‘mass deportation’ of illegal immigrants is a decision that the State can legitimately take, and this is a principle dictated by Natural Law even before positive civil law or Canon Law… [It] is certainly and unquestionably incompatible with the subversive plan of ethnic substitution shared by the globalist elite, because it thwarts it and prevents the creation of the premises for social revolt that are intended to lead to a further restriction of fundamental freedoms.”
There are obviously other concerning issues besides abortion, transgenderism, and illegal immigration. Radicalized, left-wing governments that espouse them are collapsing at local, state, federal, and international levels and it’s causing great misery. People are suffering from natural disasters and incompetent government policies and responses in Lahaina, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and the surrounding states, to name a few.
In order for something to be good it must attain its designed purpose. Governments are instituted to protect their citizens and create conditions under which they may flourish. Governments abrogate their responsibilities when they pursue courses that not only fail in those aims but endanger and impoverish their citizens.
This past November, Americans embarked once again on the path suggested to us by our Founding Fathers “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations… evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
It is to be hoped that the new administration will be one that Christians can wholeheartedly support.
Image: Pixabay
Jesus Christ is King
