Are you already tired of all the bickering going on about politics in our country? And it’s still almost a year until the 2020 national elections!
What can we do in the face of the rancor and bitterness?
Tag: politics
Talk on applying Catholic teaching to electoral politics
MADISON — Barbara Sella, associate director for respect life and social concerns at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, will present “Be Catholic First: Tools for Discerning as We Approach Election 2016” Tuesday, Sept. 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Social Hall, 602 Everglade Dr.
Sella will address the importance of taking time to learn more about the Gospel teachings and ethical principles that form the basis of Catholic social teaching.
What’s happening to our ‘perfect Union’?
We Americans have always prided ourselves on having a democracy that operates fairly well.
Unlike some other countries, we usually settle our differences nonviolently (the Civil War being one big exception). We’ve relied on the ballot box to vote for our leaders.
Changes in our democracy
But over recent years, it seems as if our peaceful way of governing has given way to nasty bickering and even violence in word and deed.
China’s population crisis: an evangelical opportunity?
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State-sponsored cruelty has been a staple of the human condition for millennia.
But has there ever been a more wicked policy, with more disastrous social consequences, than the “one-child policy” China began to implement in the early 1980s a state-decreed population-control measure that resulted in, among other horrors, untold tens of millions of coerced abortions?
In her new book, One Child (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), veteran China-watcher Mei Fong describes both the impact of the policy on the destruction of China’s traditional social fabric and its draconian effects on China’s medium- and long-term future.
These days we are heeding wrong ‘golden rule’
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When he spoke to Congress last month, Pope Francis quietly urged his listeners to heed the Golden Rule of “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
But there is another golden rule. The late Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus liked to refer to it from time to time. Commenting (with disfavor) on the nature of “old school politics,” Dreyfus observed that the golden rule of such politics is “He who has the gold makes the rules.”
Message for November 4: Vote
In Wisconsin, voting is a basic right enshrined in our state constitution. Voting is also a solemn obligation of all faithful citizens charged with a responsibility for the affairs of the community.
There are several powerful reasons for all of us to take the trouble to vote in the coming election.
Many don’t bother to vote
For one thing, the vote is a powerful weapon for those who use it, and too many of us don’t bother to vote.
Pew survey looks at religion and politics
Polls and surveys are not infallible. Nor do they define what is true. But they do have their uses.
If they are conducted carefully and without bias, they can offer insights regarding public opinion or perceptions at a given moment in time. Among other things, polls can help us understand the mood of the moment and confirm or question trends of changing opinion.
Among the more respected polling organizations is the Pew Research Center. The center has a particular interest in measuring the role of religion in public life and how those who identify as adherents of a particular religion feel about issues and events.
Polarization: Can Catholics narrow the divide?
One doesn’t have to try very hard these days to read or hear media accounts of how polarized our politics have become. The topic has been studied and commented upon at length in recent months.
Some of this commentary notes that Wisconsin is among the most polarized places in the country, where the chasm between liberals and conservatives and Democrats and Republicans is especially wide.
Why is our politics so divisive?
For one thing, as was noted recently in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story on the topic, voters are more ideological. That is, they rarely blend conservative and liberal positions. Instead, they are more likely to embrace either a liberal or a conservative view across the board.
The Rules of Engagement
Since 1945, the New York Archdiocese has hosted the Al Smith dinner, a black-tie event named in honor of Alfred E. Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate.
Millions have been raised through the dinner to support charities in New York City. Speakers have included Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Bob Hope, and, during election years, presidential candidates invited as the guests of honor.
It’s a break from debate. It’s not an endorsement and no awards are given. Candidates’ speeches take on a humorous tone. As described by the Al Smith Foundation Web site: “In the days before Saturday Night Live, the Al Smith dinner served as a kind of ‘proving ground for the candidate as entertainer,’ as one reporter described it.”
In year of divisions, Catholics can model civility
Labor Day is past and the fall election season begins in earnest. As in previous years, party leaders and political commentators see Catholics as swing voters. That means people will be paying attention to us. This attention provides an opportunity to explain and witness our values and to express them in ways that elevate, not coarsen, the debate.
But our witness is effective only when we practice what we preach amongst ourselves. The reality is that faithful Catholics are both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, partisans and independents. And, even as we discuss our political differences, we ought not to lose sight of our shared values and common humanity that bind us together as persons created in the image of God.