. I don’t know how to gracefully do this, so let’s simply entering into it.
I see so lots of memes about how you can’t potentially be a Christian and support Joe Biden. That you can’t be a Catholic and vote Democrat. That it’s Trump who is the leader who upholds the faith we must be choosing.
I read them and I think … what the real hell?
It is my faith that leads me to vote Democrat. It is maturing in the teachings of Jesuit Priests that have filled me with compassion for the displaced and running away, inviting them to my country as my next-door neighbor.
It’s my faith that taught me that every individual, no matter the background or bank account, is worthy of food, shelter, and safety.
My faith has actually filled me with the belief that it’s not the tax breaks that will get me into heaven, however genuinely providing a shit about another person, through every stage of their lives.
I keep in mind sitting in Mass as a kid and listening to a homily about how we need to approach everyone we fulfill using a blindfold, providing love and empathy initially, sight unseen. We are not entitled to their story. We are not owed validation or explanation of their options. We just enjoy and accept them. And it empowered my soul.
Every human has value. Every human is equal. No individual is unlawful. Love is not a sin.
It feels weird discussing this. Christian blogging isn’t really my design, and if you asked me to draw a line representing my brand name of religion, it ‘d undoubtedly be a giant scribble. I’m not Mother Teresa but if you require me to define my level of spiritual zealous, I ‘d say I’m an “Are You There God It’s Me Margaret” Catholic. I was raised in Catholic school, I go to Mass when I can, but me and God talk everyday.
My religious beliefs is not my faith. My soul has room for both science and my belief in God, and I do not struggle to house both.
Listen. Churches are filled with an entire mess of “isms.” The history of damage there is deep, and it’s not a stranger to masking itself in Jesus sticker labels to conceal its bouts of hate.
I see it on a global scale, playing out in acts of war and oppression. More notably, I see it in my own life.
The people sitting in the very first bench of my church, nodding their heads with the priest asking them to love one another- without booking- who then going house and post violence and hate on their walls. I see them with their Pray to End Abortion check in their yards, as they vote versus policies that would feed and look after the very “lives” they shout to safeguard.
We are taught to offer someone the t-shirt from our back, yet bemoan the concern of the undocumented.
We are taught to love thy neighbor, yet our rose garden is used to list and threaten our enemies.
We are taught to wash the feet of the poor, yet vote to cut those in requirement off at the knee.
And abortion. The foundation of every political and spiritual argument. How do I correct that with my vote? A few ways.
I believe in the quote that I will now butcher: your right to swing your fist ends where my nose starts. Meaning I use my personal faith to guide me, not legislate you.
Second, my strong belief in science and viability aside, the truth is, I too, hope to end abortion.
I pray that we are offered with the methods and education to ensure decisions. I pray that men no longer rape or dedicate sexual violence against ladies. I pray that ladies never ever feel they need to make a choice about their bodies based upon fear or financial methods. I pray that a lady’s worth is not connected to being a vessel. And I pray that no matter what decisions they make with their medical professionals, that they are met the respect and empathy we have actually been taught to give, blindfold on.
Abortion has been the dangling carrot coaxing the faithful into the voting cubicle while hunger, hardship, and injustice is sold to us as self-created concerns we are not accountable for shouldering.
I see all this, and it’s easy to believe, perhaps I’m not produced religion. That I’m too pissed and weary to eliminate to keep both my faith and my convictions.
But then I bear in mind that I can since I’m able. And even if my comfort because seat is cyclical, my faith is not.
Compassion. Addition. Justice. Generosity.
You ask me how can I believe in God and vote Biden, and I state to you, how could I not?
