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FIRST THINGS: On the Square

I had a conversation with a very dear friend of mine once regarding the, at that time upcoming, presidential election between John Kerry and George Bush. In the conversation my friend challenged me on whether voting for a single issue such as abortion is truly a legitimate way to vote. The hinge-point for my friends argumentation turned on the observation that the direction of our country and world creates devastating social issues for our children and their future children. His question, "What kind of world we are leaving our children." It was a hard question full of recognition that many things are only getting worse globally and at home. Yesterday teaching Abstinence to a group of Catholic seniors, I asked, "Socially and culturally are things getting better or worse in America?" There response to me was, "It's getting worse." (I've also asked this in many other public High Schools and Middle Schools and received 100% the same reply) One of the Catholic students said, "Our economy is our religion. We don't really care about people anymore...they are just commodities. Ways of making other people rich."

Thinking back on my friends concern, I must say that I was affected by his passion and earnestness. I am one who lives in a constant tension of accepting that God has ordained the State, i.e. The Sword, and glad of it; that is, I am thankful that when common grace can no longer maintain peace and order, God has so designed that Rulers be in place to threaten and punish the wicked. However, I cannot argue with a clear conscience that Christians out to be the ones wielding the sword. So, I am happy that Tertullian articulated early on many agreeable things which make sense of what it means to live quietly and peacably with all men, suffering evil and waiting for God who will judge and reckon vengence.

That said, I have always voted Republican. And I have done so for usually only one reason: Pro-life/Anti-abortion convictions. That issue settles it for me. Yet, one must ask what difference that has made? Babies die daily in our country and no Republican has been able to change the law of the land regarding these murders.

Nonetheless, regardless of Roe v. Wade still holding sway over our laws, I cannot with a clear conscience vote for a Democrat who might make sense on other issues while maintaining the party plank of Pro-abortion.

Thanks to Justin Taylor over at Between Two Worlds for the heads up on a great article by Robert George. The agony of being a single issue voter is well felt and well said in this piece.

FIRST THINGS: On the Square

A quote:

""So, however much one might dislike Republican policies in other areas, it’s clear that the death toll under the Democrats would be so large as to make it unreasonable for Catholic citizens, or citizens of any faith who oppose the taking of innocent human life, to use their votes and influence to help bring the Democratic party into power."I find no cause for joy in this. I wish that it were possible for pro-life citizens legitimately to support Democratic candidates. I wish that the party of my parents and grandparents had not placed itself on the wrong side of the most profound human rights issue of our contemporary domestic politics. I wish that the killing of embryonic and fetal human beings by abortion and in biomedical research were resolutely opposed by both parties so that we could cast our votes based on our assessments of the candidates’ and parties’ competing positions on taxation, immigration, education, welfare, health-care reform, national security, and foreign policy. It is hardly satisfactory that pro-life citizens — representing a variety of views on the range of issues in economic, social, and foreign policy — find themselves bound to the Republicans because the only viable alternative is a party that has abandoned its commitment to the weakest and most vulnerable members of the human family by embracing abortion and embryo-destructive research."