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Today I raise, once more, a very important question: Is it proper for a Christian to vote precisely as a Christian?  That is, to make political choices based primarily on Christian values and principles?  I would answer yes.  Emphatically Yes!

We Catholics, have let the secular society in which we live give us a kind of inferiority complex. We too often speak and act as if the biblical understanding of man and woman and human society were in some way inferior, or as if it were somehow unfair for us to advance our Catholic views and values in the public arena.

We need to remind ourselves that our Catholic perspective on life does not originate with people, but with Christ, the only Son of our Creator.  It was God, the Father, who created the human race and who established the human family.  He is the One who understands how it is supposed to operate, and He is the One to consult when we are seeking wisdom about how to correct the problems caused by that human society.  When we argue for a biblical principle, it is not merely our own idea we are putting forward but God’s wisdom and plan for the human family.

We ought not let ourselves be intimidated by those who ask us accusingly, “But aren’t you trying to impose your views on others?”  And we answer, “Of course we are!”  That is the very nature of our political process – is it not – to advocate positions one believes to be right and just, trying to persuade others of the rightness of such positions, and trying to get them adopted as public policy.  That is precisely what every political party in this nation, every interest group, tries to do.  In a sense, it is what every citizen tries to do every time they cast a ballot or write a letter to their Congressman or President.  Our great American political system is based on the continual tug of war among competing points of view.  To attempt to silence one participant in the process, as some are trying to do with the Catholic Church, is intellectually dishonest and an attack upon our American system.

Nor should we allow ourselves to be taken in by the current rhetoric about the separation of church and state.  Many use this phrase not as it was intended, but to mean in effect the separation of our moral values and public policy.  Some have even gone so far as to insist that any position that can be traced to a Christian teaching should be banned from any political discussion.  One can see what that has resulted in as we look around society today. By this so-called logic one might just as well repeal laws against murder.  After all, the fifth commandment is certainly a Judeo-Christian teaching.  Separation of church and state does not mean separation of values and voting.  Our constitution does not require that when we enter the polling place in November that we check our values and beliefs at the door.  So then how will you vote this November?  Will it be as a Catholic?  I sincerely hope so for the sake of what is right and for the sake of our nation!