Over a year ago I wrote a piece detailing why I would not be voting for either Donald Trump or the Democratic nominee in the upcoming election. Without even knowing Joe Biden would get the nod, I was firm in my conviction that nether the Democratic Party nor the GOP could offer a vision for this country that merited my vote. I stand by that conviction today. Many more pages could be filled laying out the myriad ways Donald Trump and Joe Biden have failed this country and continue to promote policies inimical to human flourishing. Instead, I would like to put forward a positive justification for voting third-party and for Brian Carroll of the American Solidarity Party specifically.
Vote your conscience. As a Catholic, I believe I have an obligation to vote in a way that best promotes human flourishing according to a conscience well-formed in the teachings of the Catholic Church. I believe that a vote for Brian Carroll is such a vote. I do not agree with everything in the American Solidarity Party platform. But, it is the only platform that even attempts to conform itself to basic fundamental principles of the nature and dignity of each human being, our relationship to the earth and the rest of humanity, and our obligations to the poor. The American Party’s slogan is: “Pro-life for the whole life,” a principle that I know most, if not all, my fellow pro-lifers agree with. Care for the human person begins before birth, and it does not end at birth. The dignity of each person requires compassion and care from conception to natural death. I believe this principle rejects abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty at the bookends of life, and it also demands caring for the poor, welcoming the immigrant, and rejecting racism throughout life. There is ample room for honest disagreement over how best to pursue these lofty aims, but I believe neither major party gets it right. I intend to vote for a positive vision of the good that I can get behind and be proud of. That, for me, is the vision put forward by Brian Carroll and the American Solidarity Party. I anticipate two major objections to voting third-party. The first and most obvious is that third parties cannot win, and so by voting for a third party you are throwing away your vote. The second, and related, objection is that a vote should not be an individual act of self-expression but rather a political act to be taken in view of what is best for society, not simply for preserving your own sense of integrity. Throw away your vote. The first objection is an appeal to realism: There are two candidates who can actually win, those are the real choices, so pick between the two. I have two responses to this argument. My first response is a practical one: in most states, your vote does not have any affect on the outcome of the election. It is a complete denial of reality to suggest that the way I vote will have any affect on which way Nebraska will go come November 3rd. On that Tuesday night, we will all see Nebraska go red (excluding perhaps an Omaha-shaped blue spot) whether I vote for Trump, Biden, Kanye West, or sit this one out. If the concern is about throwing away your vote, I would wonder why anyone would vote for Biden in a solidly red state or Trump in a solidly blue state. Brian Carroll has just as much actual chance of winning California as Trump does. My second response is that an appeal to realism must consider the actual likelihood of your preferred candidate fulfilling the promises that earned your vote. Some of you live in swing states (or swing Omaha-shaped electoral districts). If you are voting there, then the case for voting for Trump or Biden is much stronger. I admit I do not know if I would be voting third-party if the result was up for grabs. But it is important to ask yourself: If my preferred candidate wins, what am I really winning? For example, will Donald Trump and his conservative judicial nominees overturn Roe v. Wade if he is elected to another four years? He and Pence both indicated in their debate performances that they are not interested in securing that outcome. Both parties’ raison d’etre is to stay in power and they will not jeopardize that power by eliminating the problems that continue to ensure their candidates are elected. Polarization is beneficial to both parties, and both parties will work to perpetuate it. Political, not individual. The second objection to voting third-party is that a vote should not be an act of individual self-expression but rather a political act. In 2016, I voted for Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. I can honestly tell you that I did not look thoroughly into his platform and was not really voting for him. I was voting against Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. I did not want to do the considerable mental work required to figure out which major party candidate would best lead the country (or, more accurately, would do the least damage), so I opted out and voted third-party to uphold my own sense of integrity. I did it for myself, conscientiously objecting and leaving the fate of the country to the rest of the voters. Voting for Gary Johnson may still have been the right thing to do, but I did it for the wrong reasons. I did not vote for the good of the country, but to save face. I hope to not make the same mistake this time. I believe Donald Trump is a better choice for president than Joe Biden. Even though I will not vote for either, it is important to make this determination. It is only after recognizing the relative good of one major party candidate over the other that the decision to vote third-party can genuinely be made. The good of voting third-party must be balanced against the difference in good between your preferred major party candidate and the opposing major party candidate. In this way, a third-party vote is not an exercise in self-expression but a bona fide political act for the good of the community. The question, then, is if a third-party candidate cannot win, how could the good of voting for a third party overcome even the slightest good that would be accomplished by the victory of your preferred major party candidate? A third way. There are two reasons why I believe voting third-party is a political act in furtherance of the common good. The first is the influence that third-party voters can have on the major parties’ platforms. It is likely that a significant number of people will either vote third-party or abstain from voting in the upcoming election. One side will lose and will begin to investigate why. They will see that there were millions of voters united by their distaste for both parties. A losing party may look to adopt these ideas to secure that bloc of voters. My vote for the American Solidarity Party indicates which ideas I believe the major parties should incorporate to gain my vote in the next election. This is not a pipe dream that my third-party candidate will win, but a reasoned judgment that my single vote for a third-party will have a greater affect on the issues that matter to me than a single vote amongst the hundreds of millions that will be cast for the major candidates. I do not need the American Solidarity Party to win if the Democratic Party or the GOP adopt its positions. The second reason voting third-party is a positive political act is that it is a rejection of the two-party system. The relative good of your preferred major candidate winning is severely limited by the perpetuation of an electoral system that inevitably devolves into a choice for the lesser of two evils. The problem with the lesser of two evils is that both are still evil. The best the two-party system can offer is Joe Biden and Donald Trump, how much longer are we going to accept that? I admit the likelihood of taking down the two-party system is slim at best. It is not going away any time soon, but I believe perpetuating the two-party system does actual harm to real people. The only way to begin to challenge the system is by refusing to let it dictate the terms. The only way to empower third parties is by voting for third parties. No third party will ever have a chance of winning until more people believe they have a chance of winning, and that will only happen if people are willing to vote for them. A vote for a third party is a small step towards rejecting a broken system. ****** I want to acknowledge that the American Solidarity Party is not perfect. Sam Rocha has identified serious allegations against the origins of the party and its founders. I discovered the party just this year. None of the alleged problems are apparent in the party’s current platform or in Brian Carroll’s interviews and debates that I have watched. I have not experienced anything problematic in my admittedly cursory interactions with the American Solidarity Party of Nebraska’s Facebook page. I do not know enough about the party’s history to state convincingly that I support it beyond the principles on which it purports to stand. Given my reasons for voting third party above, those principles are enough for me. Link to the American Solidarity Party's website: solidarity-party.org/ A great podcast interview with Brian Carroll: podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS85NTc4NjIucnNz/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC01OTMxNjU4?fbclid=IwAR3zPYJASm2WX_T31HUDoJdGB-wWknYtD3i5ranmlE3_c_rL4jdINEYd-ks
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In about sixteen months we will once again find ourselves celebrating our nation’s favorite holiday. It's a day where people from all backgrounds and social strata come together as a community to berate each other. Truly a blessed day. Brothers will disavow their sisters. Children their parents. Oh! I can still smell the sweet aroma in the air. Do you smell it? It’s a unique blend of contempt and distrust served piping hot in a mug made of political hackery and us vs. them end-of-the-world rhetoric. Maybe it’s just nostalgia but there’s something about watching friends and family tear each other apart on Facebook that makes me feel all warm inside and reminds me why we do this every four years. I mean, it’s just the perfect day. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Tuesday than to decide which part of my soul I’m going to tear off so that I can justify giving my approval to whichever of the two (pant)suits our overlords on Fox News and CNN have deemed worthy. Then, half-souled, I get to try to explain my decision to everyone else. Of course, there are the old scrooges: self-hating little monsters who get a sort of sick pleasure from throwing away all the old traditions. They even sometimes sign off in favor of a third person! An unapproved candidate! I know it sounds absurd but such people do exist. They think because both of the options (so graciously afforded to them) are morally reprobate shells spewing teleprompted nonsense that they have the right to spurn the sacred rituals. On this most holy day of all days! I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to do come 2020. I do not want to vote for Trump. I think he is a racist, sexist, idiotic, conspiring, godless egomaniac who cares about no one other than himself. His rhetoric and refusal to condemn others’ rhetoric only serves to tear apart the country. The way he has handled the border crisis is a complete disaster, his Muslim ban was reprehensible, and on a lighter note I think his tariffs are idiotic. I was leaning towards voting for him anyway (the devil you know sort of thing) because the Democrats have made it exceedingly obvious that they are not interested in my vote. In the run up to this election they’ve made it quite clear that they have no problem with the murder-by-neglect of born-alive babies in addition to the murder-by-murder they’ve always endorsed for pre-born babies. Governors Northam and Cuomo have made quite a name for themselves. They have an utter contempt for the values on which this nation was founded and insist that despite everything this country provides, it is a hell-hole. Somehow they managed to make Bernie look like just another one of the gang by out-socializing and out-promising each other (“When I am class president we will have free ice-cream every day”). I don’t worry so much about how we are going to pay for these programs as how we are going to pay for bread when the world economy crashes under the weight of our $22.5 trillion debt (and counting). They refuse to do anything about the crisis on the border because they much prefer blaming Trump. They are quick to dox children for wearing MAGA hats and smiling, applaud the harassment of a baker, and advocate for court-packing and electoral college trashing. This was enough to make me strongly consider voting for Trump in 2020. If it is a culture war, I sure as hell didn’t want to be left without a side. Then Trump went and tweeted to four elected officials that they should go back where they came from. It wasn’t the worst thing Trump has done, but it was a wake-up call for me. He’s not going to stop the racist dog-whistling. His base isn’t going to embrace any sort of guiding principles above owning the libs. The GOP will continue to pander to him and explain away everything he does until we are left with a sad ugly nationalism with nothing to do but lash out without anything to actually offer. I can see how one will vote for Trump, but I will not. I can see how one will vote for (insert Democratic candidate), but I will not. The funny thing is that I expect to get a lot more criticism for choosing to vote for a third party, spoiler candidate, or independent than I would ever get for just choosing the Republican or Democrat. I will be left tribeless and open to attack from both sides. Both sides will say that by not voting for their side I am voting for the other. This, of course, is nonsense. This seems to assume the votes are already reserved to one side and by not voting red I am taking a vote away from red, or vice versa. No, my vote is uncommitted and free to be thrown away wherever I choose. Our country has been choosing the lesser of two evils for as long as I’ve been following politics (not very long I admit). The prevailing wisdom is to not throw away your vote on anyone not represented by an elephant or a donkey. This is only wisdom to those who profit from the two party system. If everyone stopped thinking that voting outside this system was only a waste of time, then we would be free it. I am not overly excited by Howard Schultz but he started with double digits in polling. He won’t have a shot because everyone knows he won’t have a shot, and it’s important to stress this because if he thinks he has a shot he’ll probably cost the Democrats the election. Rep. Justin Amash just left the Republican Party. He might run for president as an independent and they say that will cost Trump the election. People want to vote for anyone else other than the options they are given, but they won’t because they are afraid of letting the other side win. This is a desperately broken way of electing the leader of the most powerful country in the world. Pundits and columnists like to blab on about how we live in a politically unstable time. Yet, they cannot imagine a world in which the status quo is challenged. MSNBC would rather have President Trump than President Amash because the two party system fuels outrage and ratings and clicks. Fox News is the same. The ruling class will protect itself above all else (just ask Jeffrey Epstein). The current system is making them money. I’m going to vote in the way that I believe leaves my soul most intact and, by some miracle, might throw a wrench in this whole system. I am sorry if the candidate you most despise wins by the single vote I didn’t cast correctly. This holiday season I don’t expect I will be feeling very festive. *** Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the lord! A little while ago I found a little golden ring. I was going up the stairs in my house and it was there sitting on one of the steps. It was thin, it had a break in it, and it wasn’t actually gold. My best guess is that it belonged to a Christmas ornament or decoration of some kind. Whatever it was, it was not designed to be worn.
And yet, I decided to wear it. I wore it for about two weeks and most people either didn’t notice or didn’t feel the need to comment. My friends noticed immediately and gave me varied feedback mostly in the form of either approval or confusion. After I had been wearing it for a while the comments mostly shifted to: “Why are you still wearing that?” My answer was always shifty and didn’t really explain at all why I was wearing the ring. “I like it!” was about as specific as I got. For all anyone knew, my choice to wear a little gold-colored, ring-shaped, piece of metal was entirely based on fashion. I have since lost the ring but I still want to explain it and what it meant to me during that very short time. The night I picked it up off the stairs and decided to put it on my finger I was on my way to Eucharistic adoration at the Adoration Convent of Christ the King (Pink Sisters). I had been recently directed to start going to adoration more often and was informed that the Pink Sisters were open late. When I walked into the chapel with the ring on my finger I was greeted by a striking sight. The monstrance that had held the body of Christ each time I had gone in the past few weeks was gone. In its place was a different monstrance that prominently featured a thin golden ring like a halo around Our Lord. It bore a noticeable resemblance to the ring I had just placed around my little finger. My first reaction was to brush it off as a coincidence. It was far too insignificant to be the direct influence of God and way too easy to explain. Of course if you pick up a golden ring and then go to a place where there is a monstrance you will find something that resembles that golden ring. Almost all monstrances are circular and gold. So, it was a coincidence, but what graces God bestows by way of these insignificant coincidences! The decision to see in this moment a call by God to renew my devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was my decision as an expression of my God-given free will. But I got to that moment by following the tug upon my heart that begged me to return to Him. A golden ring means nothing if you are not willing to see the symbol in it and the graces that God wills you to enjoy through it. This moment was a confirmation in me of what I knew to be true. I needed to return to the Eucharist, especially in adoration. Adoration has always been a special devotion of mine. It was before the Blessed Sacrament that I had my first and greatest “come to Jesus” moment the summer after high school. It was before the Blessed Sacrament that I first felt truly loved and forgiven by Jesus. It was a daily adoration slot that saved my faith during my sophomore year of college. It was Thursday evening adoration that allowed me to grow in my faith at the very moment I most wanted to give up in London, and that kept me from imploding from loneliness and homesickness in Tanzania. Tuesday night adoration with Youth 2000 in Dublin was my spiritual rest in an otherwise spiritually exhausting schedule. I have been called back time and time again to adore my Lord in the Holy Eucharist. Finding a little golden ring may have been insignificant, but the message was clear: Come back to me. In that moment, it was a miracle. Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. - Jeremiah 7:5-8 I didn’t begin to realize the full significance of this little golden ring until I left the chapel. That night as I was going to bed I went to take off the ring and decided not to. I decided I was going to wear it at all times. As I lay there in bed I went to reach for my phone as I always do and felt the ring on my finger. I remembered Christ exposed in that monstrance and I reached for my rosary instead. I fell asleep praying. In the next days I was constantly aware of the extra bit of metal on my hand. At work, at home, or with friends I was forced to think about the significance of that piece of metal. The Eucharist was not confined to a chapel but is Christ who is everywhere. He was with me wherever I go. Even more, I was not simply carrying the ring with me but was wearing it. I was inside of it and it was around me. I was regularly made aware of our Eucharistic existence each time that little golden ring caught on something or got in the way. Each time I fidgeted with it I was called back to that little chapel and the miracle that was there. No part of my life is separate from Christ or can be. There is nothing I can do that is divorced from the call to be with Christ and to be Christ to others. This integration of the Eucharist into my daily life caused me to realize that I usually have things backwards. I wonder and worry about what my life is supposed to be. What job should I have? Will I get married and have a family? How am I called to make a difference in the world? These questions regularly plague me and fill me with doubt. I have no clear answers and so often assume this means that my future will be just as murky and aimless. To combat this, I obsess over the future and fabricate grand plans that satiate my desire to matter, or I exhaust myself in stress trying to be productive with my “leisure” time. I feel anxious if too much of my down time is “wasted” instead of spent doing something I consider useful. Useful could include writing music or reading an important piece of literature (right now it’s The Brothers Karamazov) or writing this blog. I had to force myself to go to adoration before writing this article, and it wasn’t easy to convince myself to do it. Writing a blog is productive and sometimes gets me compliments and recognition. Eucharistic adoration is not productive in that sense and will never get me compliments or recognition (OK, maybe from the old ladies who frequent the chapel). I forced myself to go to adoration and lose some of the time I needed to write this because that is the very point of this article: to express the immeasurable worth of the Eucharistic adoration that can never be matched by a lifetime’s productiveness. We spend so much time trying to figure out what we are supposed to do with our lives that we so often forget that it all begins with Christ. We try to fit Christ into our schedules instead of letting our schedules be shaped by Christ. We make plans to conform our lives to Christ but they so often start at what we will do to get there and skip over the first and most vital piece, that which Christ does. He is the one who will lead us to Himself. He is the one with the plan for us that will bring us happiness. We scurry around from one thing to the next trying to please ourselves, those around us, and God without stopping for a moment to spend time with God and give ourselves over to Him. I guarantee that no saint, canonized or uncanonized, was ever made by their own effort to get to holiness. Holiness is attained by resignation to the will of God. It is attained by regular commitment to a practice of relationship with the divine. It must be found where God is. It cannot be found as a prerequisite to visiting with Christ. If we are trying to be holy so as to be worthy of God then we shall never realize that we will never be worthy and that God doesn’t care. Holiness is union with God. That union is achieved through the Eucharist. It could be the Eucharist of sacrifice, charity, scripture, and community, but it will be Eucharist. It will have as its source the life, death, and resurrection of Christ that can be found under the accidents of bread and wine in every Catholic Church in the world. Every good thing we do must have Christ as its source. Otherwise it is only adding to the noise of the world and can do nothing for our souls. For as Jeremiah told us this Sunday: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh… Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.” We can do everything right, support all the right causes, say all of the right prayers, and change the world with a new non-profit, but if it is done for ourselves it will only help us to fall more deeply in love with our own ego. Our society demands productivity and our faith can easily conform to that same mold. God, however, does not keep a time card or expect results. He just wants us to give ourselves to Him. He wants us to love Him as He loves us. Any moment spent entering into a relationship with Christ, listening to his word and conforming our hearts to his, can never be a waste of time. That is where we must start. For me, Eucharistic adoration is the place I find this relationship most present. It will be different for everyone. I was reminded of the need to return to Christ by a piece of gold-colored ring-shaped metal. This insignificant coincidence was the miracle I needed to draw me to Christ in the Eucharist. It was my little reminder to never waste another moment chasing productivity and achievement when that time could be spent resting in the love. P.S. The irony is not lost on me that the item of note here was a small plain golden ring. Tolkien enthusiasts can rest assured that I have lost the ring and do not find the item itself in any way "precious" to me. Wait for the lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord. Today is January 22nd.
This day means very little to most people. Most people won’t notice its passing. That is because most people are unaffected by its significance. Those most directly affected will never raise their voices to speak about it. They can’t. They did not live long enough to have a voice at all. This day that was life and death to them. This day that the rest of us hardly notice. Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. January 22, 1973 is the day that the Supreme Court of the United States of America legalized the murder of unborn children. It is the day that millions of voices were condemned to silence. January 22 also happens to be the birthday of my first sister. Twenty years ago today I was waiting at my grandparents’ house for the announcement of another life. I knew that babies were possible. I had seen them. But until this day, they didn’t have much to do with me. Late that night my two older brothers and I were driven to the hospital to meet our new sister. Her name was Julia. She looked like a little alien creature and was wrapped in a scratchy hospital blanket. She smelled funny and didn’t seem capable of much. This was the first time I encountered the miracle of birth in a real way. That day I went from a little boy to an older brother. I got to hold a person in my arms. This person’s name was Julia and she was my little sister. Over the past twenty years I have been blessed to be Julia’s older brother. Watching her grow up four years delayed from me has been incredible. A few memories come to mind. We used to put our faces together because it would make it look like the other only had one eye. I am one hundred percent sure this amused me far more than it did her. I once took a protractor and hit her in the face. This was not the only time that I hurt her in my awkward boyishness but for some reason it sticks out in my memory. There was a period where we did this dance where we would hold hands in front of us and both turn over and spin through. It’s hard to explain but I remember it vividly. I watched Barbie’s Princess and the Pauper so many times with her “because she wanted to watch it” that I still remember almost every word. Now she’s a grown up human. She is in college and studying music. She is one of the funniest people I know and an incredible person. She is absurdly kind and forgiving. She is going places and I have been able to watch the whole thing happen. Here is another person who is beautiful in every way and gift to all who know her born on a day that tells us she didn’t deserve the chance. Imagine that she had been conceived in the womb of a woman much less prepared to have a child. What if instead of a loving family, Julia was given to a broken one? What if our mother had been alone? What if our mother had been pressured into making “the smart choice”? In a different circumstance, abortion could have been seen as the only option. It is true that so often abortion does seem like the only option. So many women are left without any support suddenly faced with the reality of a child. How will I afford to raise a kid? How will I explain this to my parents? What about my future? My boyfriend does not want to keep him! These issues are real. They leave women with the hardest of decisions, trapped in a way that I, or any other man, will never understand. What I do understand is that our society has to do better. We have to be there for these women who have nowhere to turn. No woman should be left to feel like abortion is the only way out. This past weekend hundreds of thousands marched in Washington D.C. to protest abortion and its legality in our country. This is beautiful and necessary. It is such a powerful statement that we who stand for the rights of the unborn are not going away, but it cannot just be a statement. The marching in D.C. must turn into action in our communities. No law can ensure that women won’t feel alone or abandoned in their time of incredible need. That is the work of individuals and communities who make commitments to serve and support those facing the wonderfully terrifying reality of carrying a human being inside of them. This does not mean that unless a person works at a women’s center he or she has no credibility in the pro-life cause. No, the pro-life cause is credible by its own merit, but since the goal is the protection of human life, it is self-defeating to ignore the problems at the personal individual level. We must seek to remove the factors that contribute to abortion even as we seek the legal victory. If we abandon our sisters and friends to the lie of abortion while we march in Washington then we are the worst type of hippocrates. Think about your life right now and ask yourself what you would do if you suddenly had to care for a child. Could you do it? What changes would you have to make to your life? Who would be there for you? Every fear that you feel in the hypothetical is a fear that someone is having in reality right now. Those fears contribute to the demand for abortion. As pro-life people we must create a society where every woman knows that although they are scared there are supports, resources, and options. (I do not wish to ignore the amazing work that is already being done in this regard throughout the country. So many amazing people are dedicated to caring for pregnant mothers. We simply need more.) It is not enough to ask the pregnant woman to make the choice of life while we do not lift a finger to help her. Each of us are alive today because our mothers were able to make the choice of life. Life is always the correct choice, regardless of circumstance, but that does not mitigate our moral responsibility to ensure the most life-accepting circumstances. What are we willing to sacrifice in our own lives to give the innocent a better chance to live? Today is January 22nd. Today my family celebrates the fact that nine months after Julia came into being we were able to meet her. Despite Roe v. Wade, Julia was given the chance to live. I know how different it could have been. This is why I fight for the unborn and their mothers. Everyone deserves the chance to meet their family. Wait for the Lord. Take courage; be stouthearted. Wait for the Lord. Do you remember what it felt like? You wake up and check the clock. Shoot! Way too early. Mom and Dad will definitely be unhappy if we do this now. What time is late enough? Seven? Yeah, seven sounds good. You can wait until then. 6:45... so close… 6:55… that’s practically 7. Let’s do this. You proceed room to room to wake up your brothers and sisters. Slowly you creep down the stairs trying not to wake Mom and Dad. Now is the time, the moment of truth. What the night before had been a living room is this morning the site of a miracle. It is a wonderland of joy where the impossible is possible and dreams come true. The tree gleams through half-open eyes casting a majestic glow and for a moment obscuring the true objects of your anticipation. There they are: gifts under the tree and stockings full of candy and treats. Alleluia! Do you remember what it felt like? I do. I can feel it now as I write this, that anticipation of something to come. The belief in something amazing. I knew that the moment I turned the corner from the stairs into the living room I would be greeted by the miraculous. I grew up believing in Santa Claus, but even if you didn’t there is still something magical about Christmas morning that has no equal. It is more than presents and candy. It is the wonder. It is the idea that the gifts are a miracle from Christmas itself. They appeared there in order to be found by us children. There is an innocent hope to Christmas morning. It is this innocence, the wonder and awe, the hope and the trust, that I remember today but cannot replicate. There is no return to the Christmas mornings of our childhood. Yet, there is a lesson to be remembered. We must believe that the wonderful promises of Christmas are true. Much more wonderful than presents under a tree is the baby in a manger. More mind bending than Santa Claus in a flying sleigh is God in human form. We believed without question that Christmas was magical and can do magical things. Now we’ve grown up and don’t believe in magic, but we’ve thrown out wonder and mystery along with it. We act as though Christ being born to a virgin and as a helpless baby in a feeding trough is the most normal thing we’ve ever heard. We act as though God becoming one of us is as commonplace as Tuesdays. You might wonder what I am talking about. After all we spend months preparing for and celebrating Christmas. We’re positively obsessed with it! Yes, we’re obsessed with celebrating Christmas, but more and more the celebrations themselves serve to distract us from thinking about what we’re actually remembering. The parties and decorations are so much noise to hide the whisper we could hear as kids. The invitation to believe in something unbelievable. It is so tempting to go on the defensive with our faith and allow it to be shrouded in vast apologies that promote the rational naturalistic aspects over the mystical and grace-filled. We're so afraid of being called foolish that we ignore the problematic incarnation and focus instead on those things we can explain like spending time with family and giving each other gifts. Christmas becomes a more grand Thanksgiving where we celebrate a very important man’s birthday and sing songs about warmth and cheer. Unfortunately, Christmas demands so much more than saccharine songs and saccharine sweets. It demands belief. This belief that was so simple as children is the hardest to retain as an adult because it necessarily requires us to let some things be left to God alone. Some things are not to be perfectly grasped. Some things cannot be wrapped with a neat bow. Our society tries so hard to capture the mystery of Christ and present it to us in its sterile form (when it doesn’t simply ignore it outright). We must fight against this. We must tear open the neat wrapping not because we expect to understand what is inside, but because know that the neatness is a facade meant to make Christmas palatable to our modern sensibilities. We must remember what it felt like to be a child on Christmas morning. Do not be distracted by the lights. Look for what is truly there. Remember that at the heart of Christmas is a miracle that should mystify us. It should bring us to our knees. Next Christmas, do not be afraid to approach Christ with the innocent heart of a child. What you find will be more wonderful than any Christmas morning you can remember. Wait for the Lord. Take courage; be stouthearted. Wait for the Lord. A few weeks ago the world lost a premier publication. It was thought of as bastion of reason and conservative thought. It had been largely critical of President Trump at a time when many conservatives had given in to the tribe.
At least that is what I was told. I admit, I never did much reading of their articles. I'm talking of the demise of the Weekly Standard. It's death caused quite a ripple in the hyper-specific political world in which I often find myself on Twitter, but of course not really anywhere else. It was while wandering through this world that I stumbled on a tweet. I can't find it again now so I will have to describe it. It suggested that the saddest thing about the shuttering of the Weekly Standard was all the people mourning who hadn't realized that "thoughtful conservatism" no longer existed. It is unclear whether he was on the other side of the political isle and mocking or was a fellow conservative truly disheartened by the naivety around him. Either way it struck me. In the moment I dismissed it. After all, I consider myself a "thoughtful conservative". Then, I realized the truth of what he said. Outside of this one corner of Twitter, the world did not mourn the loss of the Weekly Standard. In fact most people didn't notice. Furthermore, the face of the Republican Party (that party which claims to speak for conservatism in America), Donald Trump, rejoiced in the fall of this thoughtful journal. In terms of cultural and political power, thoughtful conservatism might as well not exist. I began thinking of what thoughtful conservatism is in my view and what it might look like on some of the issues. The following are a few examples of how I think about different issues. They are not fully formed positions but rather exercises. They begin where I find common ground with the basic liberal agenda and then they go on to what my conservatism has to say: - I believe that we must strive for health care for everyone. No one should be left having to choose between their financial well-being and their physical well-being. As a conservative I believe that we must look for ways of achieving this goal that do not give Washington control over our health and the power to mandate inhumane and immoral practices disguised as health care. We must look for ways of providing health care that do not force millions of people into dependence on a government that can only treat them as a number and an expense. We must keep open more choices and options, not less. We must decentralize, placing the power at the state and local levels where the people actually are. - I believe that we must show compassion to the immigrant and give sanctuary to the refugee. This is our duty as Christians. As a conservative, I believe that any policy that abandons the distinction between the needy and the nefarious is not compassionate but reckless and favors chaos over the rule of law. Giving up our border and abolishing control does not create a safe and healthy immigration system. The immigrants are left adrift in the middle of a political battlefield. Scapegoats for some. Pawns for others. Only by streamlining legal immigration and distinguishing it from illegal immigration can we adequately welcome those who come looking for a future. If we ignore laws, these people will always be political pawns used to prove to constituents a belief in one side of the argument. Secure the border. Nice and tight. Then make sure the gates are always open to anyone looking to find freedom and prosperity. - I believe that we must care for the earth and preserve its natural resources. This is our home and no one wins if it is destroyed. As a conservative, I believe that this concern for the planet must be second to, and indeed a derivation of, our concern for human beings. This means that we must find ways of reducing carbon emissions that do not hamstring our ability to grow and compete in the energy industry. The prosperity that we enjoy, the prosperity that allows us to help the poor and disadvantaged of the world, is due to our economic success in business and industry. If we abandom too much too quickly, millions of people will be left behind. Businesses must be regulated and resources protected, but there must be a balance. We must replace coal, not throw it out without a thought. Every effort should be made to develop renewable energy technologies instead of attacking staples of the economy. That economy upon which we all rely. The point is that conservatism has something to say. In fact, it has a lot to say about the problems we are all trying to solve. Right now we are seeing more and more people abandon any sort of ideological coherence in the name of owning the liberals. Anything goes as long as our side can claim it as a victory. Eventually we are left without any ideas or governing principles at all. Republicans had congress and the white house for two years and yet were able to accomplish very little. This isn't because of the democrats or the fake news media. It is because the Republican party lacks any sense of direction. What does it stand for? What is it trying to do? Is conservatism beholden to Donald Trump's daily whims and fancies, or is there something deeper that gives it meaning? I believe the latter, which is a big part of why I write this blog. It is why I read publications like the Weekly Standard and the National Review. My conservatism is based on principles of small government, freedom of speech and religion, respect for life, respect for conscience, and that families and communities know what is best for themselves. Conservatives abandon these principles at their own risk. We'll win a few battles now but lose ourselves along the way. Follow me on Twitter @BenSwanson7 Wait for the Lord; take courage. Be stouthearted; wait for the Lord. For the past few months I have been trying to write something and have not been very successful. I couldn’t figure out how to frame my ideas into a cohesive blog post so I didn’t post anything at all. I wanted to write about Halloween but didn’t quite have enough there. I wanted to write about the election but wasn’t sure enough of anything to put it down in writing. I wanted to write about November and the Saints but got so busy I just couldn’t find the time. Now, I would like to write about Advent and the liturgical New Year and what it means to wait for the Lord.
So, right now I will write about all of these. From Halloween to Christmas we watch the leaves fall from the trees, the days get short and dark, and the air get cold and dry. The year progresses relentlessly to its end and takes with it so much we would rather keep. It is around this time that we begin to lament the loss of loved ones and regret all the things we never got to do. We think back to the resolutions we couldn’t fulfill and the goals we never met. Perhaps it was a good year, perhaps it was not, but no matter what it is coming to an end. But, of course, it is not the end. Not our end. All Hallows We spent the entire month of October dwelling on our end. We may dismiss the season as trivial scares and fun costumes, but there is something about death that captures our attention. We are presented through movies and other media with monsters, demons, murder and everything that is disgusting and terrible. Why does any healthy person subject themselves to images that are, by design, sick and disturbing? For many, it is because they do not believe in any of it. The fear that they feel never moves beyond entertainment because they cannot see any reason to fear that which does not exist. Of course, many of the creatures found in celebration of Halloween do not exist, but many take it a step further. Even death, however inevitable it may be, is not real enough to render a film problematic to their psyche. The thing is, if one does not believe in an afterlife, they will be forced to ignore death to the best of their ability. Otherwise they will be left contemplating annihilation and abyss. No one can stay sane while regularly contemplating the great black hole to which we are all progressing. Halloween, for them, is not a reminder of the reality of death so much as it is a day to push death into the same category as vampires and werewolves. We forget that Halloween is the night before the far more important celebration of All Saints Day. It is only in this context that the night is redeemed. The saints that we celebrate during November have looked all that is horrible and terrifying in the face and unflinchingly triumphed. They are a great multitude of men and women who refused annihilation. There is victory over death, and we celebrate that not only is it possible, but it has been done before. The blessed men and women who chose to follow Christ serve as a light that shines brilliantly through the dark veil of death to show us that all that we fear is powerless against He who has called us to life. Christianity could have made do with All Saints Day, focusing on the light, but instead chose to look darkness in the face. Halloween is not a chance to trivialize death or celebrate darkness, but to acknowledge it in all its reality. The glory of the saints is a share in the glory of Christ. Their light is a reflection of His light. Christ did not spurn death or ignore it. He died death. He entered the black hole and created salvation in the midst of that nothingness. This is what the saints experienced, a love so strong that death itself has no grip. Dying does not make us dead even though the dying is very real. So for most of October we stare death in the face and we have a choice. Do we ignore it because death makes too many uncomfortable comments on our lives or do we greet death in all its horror and proclaim the risen Christ? Christians need not fear Halloween. It is not a celebration of those dark forces that oppose Christ’s light but a chance to remind ourselves that we will die. It is a chance to feel the fear of darkness and death and cling ourselves more firmly to Christ. We quiver in fear not allowing our foot to stray from the bed lest the creature lurking below the bed pull us under. Remember your death and do not let a single piece of your life stray from Christ lest it be used to pull you under. Watch a scary movie and remember that death is so very real and so are the stakes. Remember death and find the confession times at your Church. Remember death and rethink those vices you so pitifully cling to. Remember death and turn towards the path of those Saints who have nothing to fear. Election Day 2018 Our society, more than anything, needs this sort of hope, that exists despite darkness and death rather than avoids it. Look at your TV, on social media, or around your workplace or school and you will see countless people floating through life chasing that phantasm called happiness without the slightest belief that any of it means anything. People of every sort of faith background find themselves desperately grasping for something real in the here and now. Take for example November 6th: the world’s worst national holiday. Election day is a day of “hope” for so many. People hope that their side will win and usher in a new era of justice for the nation. It is a chance to have a voice in the decisions that shape the future. On its surface, it is a very hopeful day. The problem is that we place a hope in our elections that is not meant for them. We give election day quasi-religious significance and make voting a quasi-religious act. We expect political activism to fill that place in our hearts reserved for the eternal. The finite earthly aims of politics, however important, cannot satisfy our hearts craving for true hope. We become angry at our own emptiness and seek ever more zealously to fill ourselves up at the expense of our politically-different neighbor. We persecute our opponents as blasphemers against the world order we will someday achieve. This hope that places everything in the hands of human weakness will inevitably become twisted and ugly. It is imperative that those of us who seek to hold God at the center of our lives do not fall prey to the political cult. It is so tempting to make each election some sort of auto-da-fé, a show of our faith at the expense of our rivals, but no amount of voting or marching or yard-sign-posting can save our souls or bring us closer to Christ. In that first week of November we are presented with the memory of those holy women and men who have gone before us. Each of them knew the proper order of life. We were made for greater things. This too shall pass. This does not mean that we shouldn’t vote. It simply means that we shouldn’t expect to find fulfillment or salvation in that which is transient and fallen. Happy New Year In the tender compassion of Our God The dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death, And to guide our feet into the way of peace. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. This means that we are getting very close to Christmas, but it also means the first day of the new liturgical year. The Church marks the beginning of a new year not with celebrations of joy and bright lights, but in darkness and hushed voices. The year begins in anticipation for things to come. We renew ourselves in silence and stillness. We begin in hope. At the beginning of the Easter Vigil there is darkness until the Paschal Candle brings light into the church. At the beginning of the world there was darkness until God said, “Let there be light!” At the first Christmas there was darkness until Christ our savior was born. We are constantly reminded that we begin in darkness. There is no light except for that which came into the world at Christmas. October and November are months of death and darkness. We are filled with an eternal hope because we know that this darkness has been defeated, but this hope still exists in darkness. It is only the light for which we hope that gives hope meaning. So we begin this new year with hope and longing. It is a hope that believes, despite the encircling darkness, that the light is ahead. It is a hope that knows this life is fleeting and cannot confine us. It is a hope that awaits the coming of a helpless infant. It is a hope that forgets the past. It is a hope that awaits the dawn. We have spent months coming to see the darkness around us because only if it is dark now does the light matter later. Advent is our wake up call. We arise early, before the sun, so that we may see the coming of the dawn in all its wonder. We will see the light fill those places where only sin and death were before. Those places where there was only pain. Those places where there was only guilt. We die to this world and enter into the darkness with the joy of the saints because we have hope in the one thing that can deliver us. We know that the dawn is coming. Wait for the Lord. Take courage; be stouthearted. Wait for the Lord. The Brett Kavanaugh hearings have shown partisanship in its true demented form. Vicious and unrelenting, the attacks have come from both sides largely unencumbered by the search for truth. Journalistic integrity has been abandoned for the sake of tribalism as both sides retreat to the security of their chosen ranks. Our champions have been chosen and the rallying cry resounds through our social media feeds. Now is the time to declare your belief. Pick a side. Do you stand with Brett Kavanaugh or do you stand with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford?
There isn’t room for nuance or waiting to see more evidence. If you support Brett Kavanaugh you are complicit in sexual assault and structures of abuse. If you support Dr. Christine Blasey Ford you are willing to let an innocent man be forever condemned to infamy. Yet, you must decide right now what is true and which half of the country you are willing to alienate for your truth. The problem is that the only thing we know to be true is that we have no idea if Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. You don’t know. You really don’t. I don’t know. Journalists don’t know. The Senate doesn’t know. It is very likely that the FBI will come to the conclusion that they don’t know. The available evidence, so far, is a large collection of “I don’t remember”, on a sea of he said/she said. Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault, a heinous crime worthy of being taken one-hundred percent seriously. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford deserved to be heard and to have her allegations taken one-hundred percent seriously. She has been heard and the overwhelming verdict is that people will believe whoever they wanted to believe beforehand. Half the country watched Brett Kavanaugh and saw a guilty entitled man crying about not getting his way while the other half saw an innocent man backed into a corner, rightfully angry and emotional. It was the same man doing the same things. Half the country watched Dr. Ford and saw a liar fumbling to come up with details and relying on others to bail her out while the other half saw a victim who is hurt and afraid and never wanted the spotlight in the first place. It was the same woman doing the same things. We don’t know which version is true. We are not privy to private conversations, interviews, and documents. Everything presented as evidence, whether it be Ford’s claimed fear of flying or Kavanaugh’s affinity for beer, is just noise. These stories are presented by the media and our senators to hide the fact that no one knows what happened and no one wants to get this wrong. Because letting a sexual predator take a seat in the highest court in the land is unthinkable but so is condemning an innocent man to life wrongfully labeled as a sexual predator. The country is in the midst of real progress when it comes to sexual assault. The #MeToo movement has done incredible good to change the culture of power and predation and give women the voice to speak out against the abuse and harassment. I do not pretend to know how it must feel as a woman to watch this whole process. Women have been hushed and shamed and blackmailed and ignored for so many years. That is unforgivable. It is only right that those for whom this issue is so very real would be vocal and passionate in their demand that Dr. Ford be heard and taken seriously. Dr. Ford has been heard. It was messy and partisan and frankly hard to watch, but she was given the platform to speak. She has enjoyed the overwhelming support of the media and the Democratic party. She has been given time for others to come forward and corroborate, and she has been granted an additional FBI investigation. Any sober-minded look at the situation must acknowledge that, while neither pretty nor perfect, she was taken seriously. Still, no one with first-hand knowledge has come forward to corroborate her accusations but rather some have refuted them or claimed no memory of the party she describes. Now, I must reiterate that this in no means proves she isn’t telling the truth, but it does mean we no longer have reason to give her the benefit of the doubt. Continuing to call for the downfall of Brett Kavanaugh puts the #MeToo movement in danger as it will cease to have credibility as a movement of empowerment and justice and will instead be viewed as a political weapon that can be wielded at will. That shift would do irreparable damage to how we as a country deal with sexual assault and to our political system generally. This is all to say: Stop pretending like you know. If you find yourself feeling certain take a minute to consider the opposite situation. Imagine a liberal pro-choice judge was nominated and accused of sexual assault. Honestly imagine it. How much would your stance change? How much would you overlook to get him confirmed or keep him out? Let’s not assume we are unbiased. Let’s not pretend that we didn’t know how we wanted this to shake out long before a single hearing was held. Finally, I suggest two courses of action. The first is forgiveness. Not of Kavanaugh or Ford (because, of course, we don’t know), but of each other. When the dust settles we’ll have friends who fought on both sides. If we are able to genuinely admit that we don’t know, then we will have nothing to justify our anger. Accept the result of the vote however it falls and have faith, one more time, in our democratic republic. The second course of action is prayer. Set aside the news and social media and remember to pray for everyone involved. Pray for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Pray for their families. Pray for the senators who have to make this decision. Pray for the journalists who have to cover it. Pray for the citizens of this nation that we will be able to look at each other again. Although we do not know what it is, there is a true story in all of this. Pray that the truth prevail and justice be done. When I heard that Cardinal McCarrick was a serial abuser I thought it was horrible and disgusting and the fact that bishops knew and did nothing is unforgivable. But, I told myself, it is one case. This is an old man who somehow slipped through the reforms of 2002. He is a ghost of the Church’s dark past. The Church is OK. When allegations surfaced in my home Diocese of Lincoln I was hurt and angry. This was too close to home. These accusations were about priests that I know. It was my bishop this time who did not adequately disclose what was going on in our diocese. (Some before his time, some during). But still it was the first time something like this had happened in Lincoln and it did not appear to be part of any troubling pattern. The Church is OK. When a grand jury concluded that a pattern of abuse and cover up had been the norm in Pennsylvania for seventy years and more than 300 clergy are implicated in the abuse of over 1000 victims, it all came crashing down. The Church is not OK. In fact, the Church is gravely ill. It is a dark and scary time in the life of the American Church. Millions of people over the past few weeks, myself included, have been forced to question the very institution that promises truth itself. Priests of the Catholic Church, men vowed to a life in the service of Christ, his Church, and all children of God, have committed the most heinous of crimes. Bishops of the Catholic Church, the shepherds and leaders, have repeatedly and seemingly without a second-thought created an environment where these criminals can go undetected and unpunished. Children have been abused so that comfy bureaucrats could maintain their status and prestige. The Body of Christ is now seen to be bloody and broken at the hands of those who were supposed to be its greatest defenders. The response from the people of God, those who truly know the love of Christ on the cross, must be anger, disgust, overwhelming sorrow, and action. It is clear now that any solution that does not include mass resignations and the complete dismantling of the structures that allowed comfy bishops to cover-up pervasive child abuse is an incomplete and cowardly measure. There is no longer a place for policy-talk or “deep sadness”. We are past that. Now is the time for action and justice. We can no longer allow the Church, the very body of Christ, to be debased by cowards and perverts. Every priest guilty of abuse should be arrested. Every bishop guilty of cover-up should be arrested. Any priest or bishop guilty of blatant violation of Church teaching (such as consensual sexual activity or the promotion of such practices) should be forced to resign from ministry and live a life of seclusion, prayer, and penance. The truth is that priests and bishops are not the Church. The church that you go to each Sunday is not the Church. The Pope and the Vatican are not the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ. When we forget what the Church truly is, it becomes possible for the institutional power to turn into very real evil. When bishops and priests believe that their downfall is the Church’s downfall they justify cover-ups in the name of protecting the Church. What is accomplished, however, is not the protection of the Church but its destruction. The danger to the Church is not secular authorities taking legal action. The danger is members of the institutional church polluting those structures of Grace and Sacrament with their own evil under the dark cover of secrecy. The only way for the Church to be protected is for truth to root out and destroy that evil. Light and truth cannot be enemies to the Church for the Church, as the Body of Christ, is light and truth. So what can we do? It is easy to say that the lay faithful must stand up and demand justice, that we must do something since our bishops won’t. It is much more difficult to know what to do. Most of us have no power or influence in the course of action the Church takes. Most of us are not directly involved with any priest or bishop deserving of arrest or resignation. The first thing that we can all do is become more involved. This is counter to the expected reaction. The outside world and many Catholics will expect the faithful to leave. Stop going to mass if you don’t like what the Church is doing. Just go somewhere else. This again falls into the same misguided view of the Church that priests and bishops are the Church. Our Catholicism, however, bears a much higher allegiance. Only by true faith and participation will we be able to bring virtue and love back into the heart of the Church. If we leave the Church to the corrupt then it will continue to fall further into its mockery of Jesus Christ. Instead we must be informed and we must be involved. The bishops who have orchestrated this evil secrecy would like nothing more than for people to give up. No, we have felt the love of God and come to eat of the Body and drink of the Blood of His Son. There is no giving up. We must dive deep into the heart of all that is wrong in the institutional Church with the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist as our guiding light. The structures of the Church must come down because the Church is worth saving. The Church is not any of us. It is all of us. It is up to each one of us to make the Church holy by our own holiness. Immorality and cowardice caused this unspeakable evil. It will be faith and hope in Jesus and His Most Holy Body and Blood that will be the cure. Jesus died on a cross to save us from sin. We must, as a Church, be prepared to die on that same cross now and every day for the sake of His Sorrowful Passion. The second thing we can do is remain vocal. Those who are complicit in evil want this thing to blow over. They want us to get caught up in whatever sensational news story follows this one (and there will always be one). If we let it blow over, it will eventually blow up a decade from now when we learn how many more kids were abused. It may feel strange but it is vital that we share every article, post, tweet, etc. that sheds light on the evil that has infiltrated our church. It is vital that we speak with our friends and family about how much this has hurt us. It is vital that we let the Church and the world know that we will not stand for this and we will not rest until justice has been done and morality has been restored. In the coming weeks it will be so easy to forget. It will be so easy to thank God that “our priest” is one of the good ones and move on with our lives. We cannot move on. Every day that these same men remain in power is the day we renew the call for their removal. We will keep our disgrace and shame at the actions of our own leaders in the forefront of everyone’s minds until the institutional Church has been reclaimed by Christ. Finally, we must have hope. Remember that the Church belongs to Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to see now but the victory of Christ has already been won. The God that created the universe is the same God who dwells in our hearts now. He is the same God who died on a cross for our sins. All of our sins. He will not abandon us now. He will not abandon us ever. Go to Him in prayer and tell Him that you are hurting. Tell Him that you are confused. Take courage and pray for the grace to find peace in Him alone. Find time to sit in adoration or to say a rosary. It may not be easy but that is what we are being called to right now. We must pray for those who do not have the strength to pray and hope in the love of Jesus Christ. Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord! - Psalm 27 MORE: This week Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano released a statement accusing Pope Francis (among many others) of knowing about Cardinal McCarrick and moving to reinstate him after Pope Benedict XVI removed him from ministry. So far, one other prominent Catholic official, Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume, has corroborated those claims and several others have vouched for Archbishop Vigano’s credibility. The Pope, when asked directly to refute the accusations, refused to comment. It is important that we are all aware of the grave nature of these accusations. Many people are calling for the Pope’s resignation. Hopefully those who are able to verify or refute these claims will do so soon. Every day this continues in confusion the greater the damage to the life of the Church. For the articles related to the Diocese of Lincoln scandals look for Rod Dreher’s reporting here: https://www.theamericanconservative.com For everything else I recommend reading the reports from Catholic News Agency: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/ This past January at the annual Walk for Life, Gov. Pete Ricketts declared the State of Nebraska a ‘Pro-life state’. As of 10:47 this morning, he has some explaining to do. Largely due to Ricketts’ efforts the state of Nebraska carried out its first death sentence in 21 years and executed Carey Dean Moore. After 39 years on death row the convicted double-murderer was finally put to death. The question that must be asked, and the only question that matters, is whether or not killing Carey Dean Moore was the right thing to do.
The answer is that this morning’s execution was inexcusable. I believe it is within the rights of the government in extreme circumstances to execute capital sentences because one of the just functions of government is to protect its citizens, but Carey Dean Moore was not a danger to the citizens of Nebraska. The execution, then, was only an act of vengeance. Just because it took 39 years and thousands of dollars to accomplish does not make it any more civilized or Christian than “an eye for an eye”. What is lost in any support of the death penalty is just how radical human dignity truly is. It cannot be diminished or dispersed. No action on the part of an individual can lessen the inherent dignity of that individual in the eyes of God. The crime of murder is a crime against this baffling truth of human dignity. Justice demands the highest punishment, but it is not ours to dole out. Did Carey Dean Moore deserve to die? Most likely, yes. It is not that mourn the loss of a murderer from our society. We mourn the loss of morality in our choices. We mourn because we have for a moment lost sight of the dignity of each human as God sees them. Capital punishment for the sake of punishment or retribution makes the state out to be God. It elevates the government beyond what any social contract could create to claim authority it does not have. Consider for a moment the actual execution. Does it not have an eerie resemblance to a religious event? The ritual, the sacrifice, the final words, the witnesses. It is the liturgical expression of the worship of the state in its pursuit of worldly values. The greater good is affirmed as it is embodied in the state by the killing of a human person. This is not right. It is evil and, to borrow Pope Francis’ word, inadmissible. I am writing this too late and I’ll have to come to terms with the fact that nothing I can say here will make up for the fact that I did not say anything before or stand with the handful of people in protest. We must remember to pray for all those directly affected by this situation that they may find some peace. We must also pray for the people of Nebraska, our elected officials, and for the courage to stand up against injustice. |
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