Kengor_Catholic_2012 Election Pt 2_110912
I’m a Christian, a Roman Catholic. I’m pro-life, as any Roman Catholic should be. I believe life begins at conception, and thus, I’m against the dissection and destruction of human embryos for medical research. I’m also against contraception, which, I understand, isn’t true for all Christians, or even all Catholics. We disagree on that.
But I’m gravely disappointed that on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, a majority of Americans, most of them Christians and millions of them Catholics, voted to force me to fund abortion, Planned Parenthood, contraception, and embryonic research. It’s one thing if they vote to legalize those things. It’s profoundly another thing altogether to force me to fund those things. I’m left with no choice to the contrary. I can’t even appeal to conscientious objection and religious liberty.
I also know that my fellow Christians and Catholics sanctioned gay marriage and gay adoption, and I imagine that soon both I and my faith tradition will be forced to comply with those edicts as well.
You know, in the days before the election, I heard many believers say, “Well, it’s in God’s hands.”
But was it? I think the election was in our hands. God left it there. Just as God has given us and given nations the power to choose right over wrong, good instead of bad, and even to accept or reject God, so, too, I imagine, God wanted to see how we chose this November 6, 2012.
Consider a Scripture verse as precedent, 2nd Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Well, on November 6, 2012, we Americans were those people. And we chose as we did. And many of my fellow believers chose to compel me to violate my deepest religious convictions. They did so whether they know it or not. The choice was theirs, not God’s. The 2012 election was in our hands, not God’s hands.
For Catholic Exchange dot com and Ave Maria Radio, I’m Paul Kengor.
