A parishioner complained to his pastor that the church was too involved in political issues. He longed for the “good old days” when you went to church to pray and to a political rally to hear about public policy issues. “What about the separation of church and state?” he asked.
The pastor realized that this was a not too subtle complaint about his preaching, since he was the one who usually preached at the masses that the gentleman attended. He knew that the man was not complaining so much about his preaching style but more over the topics about which he preached. The pastor saw this conversation as a “teaching moment”, so he tried to respond to the parishioner’s concerns.
“Being a Christian isn’t just about the intensity of our prayer or the beauty of our liturgy. More than anything else, it is about living out Christ’s commandment to love one another. This is how people will know we are Christians. This is how we will be sorted at the Last Judgment. If we can’t act in a loving manner toward the “least of our brothers and sisters” then we are failures as disciples. This has implications for how we treat one another, not only on an individual basis but as a community.
“Implications play out at the community level in our social policy; that is, in our laws and in government actions. As your pastor, part of what I am supposed to do is help to form your conscience. That is, to help you understand the difference between right and wrong, not only regarding individual behavior but also regarding the community of which you and I are a part.
“As members of this community, we share in responsibility for its actions. When the community does some noble act to help people, we share in its glory. When the community commits some grievous offense against persons, we are accountable for that evil action. As Christians we must ensure that our social policies do not force us to participate in evil or that we build up structures of sin in our community.
Concern over social policy is a necessary concern for any Christian and goes back to the beginning of the Church. Each generation has issues that are of particular importance to that generation but the underlying concern for the weak and vulnerable goes back to the beginning of the church and is an integral part of the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ.”
The story of the parishioner’s complaint is not unusual. I’ve heard it myself plenty of times. Part of the problem is that we compartmentalize our lives. We often feel that our faith only deals with our relationship with God. That relationship seems to focus on prayer, the sacraments and Sunday Mass. Our faith may expand out a bit to include practices such as rosaries and baptisms. If there is a component that deals with how we act, it usually deals with personal sin, such as anger, infidelity or theft. Compartmentalizing our faith encourages us to keep what goes on in the community separate from our faith.
This is wrong. Our faith is meant to permeate every corner of our life. It is meant to transform us and make us better people. It can’t do that, if we fence it in and allow it to influence only one little part of our life. Our faith gives us the basic principles by which we discern what is right and wrong and how we should act; whether we are dealing with personal sin, such as infidelity or theft, or social sin, such as public policies that discriminate against people based on their race or ethnicity. The same moral principles apply to both situations and derive from what we were taught by Christ. Both are grievous sins for which we are accountable.
We are approaching the November general elections. The next few months will be filled with discussion on a variety of social policies both local and national. Come November we will be given the opportunity to influence the policies of our community through how we vote at that time; through the candidates we elect and the various initiatives that are on the ballot. It is not the responsibility of the church to tell anyone how to vote. However, it is the responsibility of the church to instruct the faithful in the moral principles that are inherent in our faith. These moral principles are tools that people can use to discern for themselves the best course of action, consistent with a clear conscience.
Between now and November Along the Way will explore these moral principles with the goal of offering you the tools that will allow you to make the best decisions for the social policies of the CNMI. I will not support or oppose any candidates. My focus is on moral principles and their implication for social policy.