Its the election fever and many year ago I wrote about whether I could support Barrack. This time around, with the 2020 elections cutting it very close and I am sure everyone is on their seat (at least I feel I am as I feel the world would definitely be better without D and in the times we are living in, cooler heads and matured leaders are needed and enough of those populist MAGA stuff), I am once again finding myself reflecting over this question.
The wifey has been asking me this question too – would I support the Man in Red or the Elderly Chap in Blue – given that some of the laws and policies that the Democrats advocate for antithetical to the beliefs of our faith.
Yes I am fully aware of those stands and as a Catholic, I denouce those policies which goes against my beliefs. To sum up :
- I am pro-life and I support the right to life
- I am pro-marriage and I would defend the sanctity of marriage as one that is between a man and a woman. Nothing less.
- I am for catholic schools being catholic and advocating a catholic ethos for students – and that means integrating both faith and science together rather than faith OR science.
And at the same time I am for government intervention and a majority of the social policies that the Blue party stand for – for racial equality, for policies that benefit all of society, for foreign policies that curb terrorism (to the best of their ability) both domestically and at the international scene. I am for foreign policies that promote global stewardship and leadership when the world BADLY needs one. I am for leadership that promotes global cooperation and collaboration and not stoke racial division or xenophobia. We are no longer living in a bubble or a cacoon, We are more integrated than ever before and we need Leadership to lead us through this period.
To me, at the end of the day, the older I get, the more I am becoming aware of what lies in my locus of control and what doesn’t. I can’t call for leadership to focus on doing what’s right in the world, at that means controlling and responding to this pandemic, steering the economy back and foster international collaboration and cooperation. These are things I can’t control. I can’t control if gay people want to be gay and want to fight for their rights.
But I can control how I bring up my children to prepare them for tomorrow’s challenges and society. I can instil virtues and values that will be embedded within my kids that will serve and last time a lifetime. I can practice and instill family values to help my kids not only become better citizens of tomorrow – with compassion, tenacity, empathy yet aware of the Truth that will guide their moral compasses – but also better parents. I can’t negotiate economic trade cooperation, but I can teach my son about integrating faith and science and God as the primary constant in our lives. I can’t control if people want to do a sex-change operation and be genderless, but I can teach my son why God created man and woman and why it’s important to have a gender. I can teach my son what it means to be a man after god’s own heart and wifey can share life lessons with our daughter on God’s amazing design plans for a woman – These are things we can control and we can make a major difference so our children grow up with a right moral compass that will guide them through their lives. Yes it will be hard, but just like the first-century Christians, we do live in persecuting times and we can try to change what we can change at the end of the day.
At the end of the day, I will vote for a Leader who will help create a better future, not one that will sow division and hatred. That goes against my conscience.
I end by quoting a powerful and sensible quote given by Pope Benedict who said this –
A catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil… if he were to deliberately vote on a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stance on abortion/euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favour of abortion/euthannasia, but votes for him for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons
I am taking the moral cooperation route guys.
