Posted by blood roses at 3:35pm Jun 13 '04At church this week, along with the weekly bulletin, we got a list of things that as Catholics, we should keep in mind while voting in the upcoming federal election. (Now personally, I am going to vote according to my consience, not how the church tells me, but that's not really what this post is about.)
To sum it up, Catholics should consider the following things:
Is the candidate pro-life?
Is the candidate comitted to preserving the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman?
Is the candidate comitted to helping the poor?
Is the candidate comitted to creating a just society in which the current gap between rich and poor is greatly reduced?
And it occured to me... there is no major party, either here in Canada or in the US that represents all of these ideals. The right wing parties are pro-life and against gay marriage, the left wing parties are comitted to helping the poor and creating a just society, but there is no party that is comitted to both. It's strange that in two countries that are predominately Christian, it should be that way.
But what is even stranger to me, is that you have all these Christians endorsing the Republican party as the party that represents Christian values, when it doesn't represent the key Christian values of helping the poor. I don't understand why there are so many Christians who are concerned about making sure a party gets into power that will make abortion and gay marriage illegal, but not about making sure a party gets into power that will help the poor and create a just society.
To sum it up, Catholics should consider the following things:
Is the candidate pro-life?
Is the candidate comitted to preserving the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman?
Is the candidate comitted to helping the poor?
Is the candidate comitted to creating a just society in which the current gap between rich and poor is greatly reduced?
And it occured to me... there is no major party, either here in Canada or in the US that represents all of these ideals. The right wing parties are pro-life and against gay marriage, the left wing parties are comitted to helping the poor and creating a just society, but there is no party that is comitted to both. It's strange that in two countries that are predominately Christian, it should be that way.
But what is even stranger to me, is that you have all these Christians endorsing the Republican party as the party that represents Christian values, when it doesn't represent the key Christian values of helping the poor. I don't understand why there are so many Christians who are concerned about making sure a party gets into power that will make abortion and gay marriage illegal, but not about making sure a party gets into power that will help the poor and create a just society.