| POLITICS AND RELIGION The United States of America has an election coming up in November. Openly discussed hot topics include rights for women and doctors to kill babies in the womb, laws to silence us who speak against the practice of homogenital sex, teaching perverted sex practices in our schools, rights to marry for those with gender confusion issues, how to defend our nation, how to spend public money, illegal entry into the U.S., as well as a host of other important issues of which we will hear nothing until politicians have already imposed laws upon us that we do not want. Politicians are men and women who earn their living by making and enforcing laws that tell us what we can and cannot do, whether we like it or not. Politicians base their decisions on the money that they receive from people who hold influence on them, on public opinion, on pressure from various groups, on their desire to stay employed in office, and a very few who actually decide issues from the morality in the Bible and from common sense of the natural law. The peaceful upright person for the most part doesn't like contention, arguments, and the nasty rhetoric, deception, and shrewdness of politics wherein special interest groups are trying to impose their way of life which require the rest of us to change our lives to accommodate novelty and evil when it is not in our best interest or our morality to do so. It is my observation that faithful Catholics work hard, support families, pray, and wish to live in peace and harmony enjoying our leisure without the added work of being vigilant for our safety, our welfare, our future. This lifestyle of work and leisure is noble and good. Living naively and ignoring vigilance for your family, safety, and future is deadly. Jesus told us in Matthew 10:16, “Be clever as serpents, but innocent as doves.” A clever man is one who is informed of the issues, the arguments, the friend and foe, and who is prepared to act, leaving aside work and leisure to protect his family's safety, welfare, and future. The innocent man is one who is honest, open, transparent, morally upright as Jesus is forming us to be with His grace. The naive man is one who, for fear of the work involved or the contentions to come, hides his head in the sand by going on about his work and leisure neither knowing nor wanting to know about issues and the ongoing plans of others which will change his life and make him do things he may not want to do. Jesus never told us to be naive. While we labor, play, and sleep, special interest groups are working tirelessly with politicians to make you do what you do not want to do as Christians. For them the end justifies the means. They consider you and me to be common, while they are elite. You and I are bigots while they are enlightened. You and I are old fashioned, while their evil novelties are called “liberal” or “progressive”. Special interest groups are undermining morality under the false pretense of “rights” and “equality” with constant pressure on politicians to support killing children in the womb . People who practice homogenital sex are promoting “marriage” for themselves, passing laws to teach your children in public school how to perform such sex acts on one another telling them that this is normal. While we labor and leisure naively, special interest groups work tirelessly to influence politicians using money, manipulation, threats, and attacks. Their efforts have given them power to have approval of their agendae from the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Bar Association, the National Education Association, the current platform of the Democrat party, the Academy of Pediatrics, and numerous other organizations even in the Catholic Church. Jesus tells us through 1 Pet. 5:8-9 “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith.” One of the greatest weapons of those who hate our Catholic faith and its teachings is that of silencing us. Ironically, we actually succumb just as they tell us to do and insist that we cannot talk about political issues while they do so all the time. We have a saying, “Never mix religion and politics in polite company.” From this, you have been beguiled to think that the Catholic church cannot engage in politics. Believing this is to give your life away to those who wish to control you. Polite company might be a dinner party where people come together to relax in light conversation. The world in which we live is NOT polite company, and neither is the world of politics. Catholics have a right and an obligation to speak of politics in the church. Some of us do not want to do so because the realities of evil will challenge our long standing affiliation with a politician or a party with whom we have put our faith and trust in previous times. Times, however, have changed. It is said you cannot negotiate with a terrorist. For us Catholics we cannot negotiate the life of a child in the womb, the foundation of the family as marriage between a man and a woman, or that love is to be expressed only between a man and a woman in marriage. Those who oppose this will stop at nothing to impose their view. We Catholics need to respond in kind by speaking and voting Catholic. As pastor, I will neither tell you to support a candidate nor a party. I won't tell you to vote Democrat or Republican. I will, however, present you the truth of the church, the false teachings of special interst groups, a politician's voting record and his public statements, to engage you in the political process, and tell you to vote Catholic for the sake of the safety, welfare, and future of your family, our country, our faith. All Catholics should engage in the political process, regardless of their citizenship. Know the bills being proposed. Take action by writing your legislators and executives to make known your will on pending legislation. Let others know as well. Organize to promote your Catholic faith. If you are a U.S. citizen, vote Catholic and encourage other citizens to vote Catholic as well. Fr. Richard Perozich |