[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":65},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fwriting\u002Fwhat-i-mean-by-unity":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"date":52,"description":53,"draft":54,"extension":55,"meta":56,"navigation":57,"path":58,"seo":59,"stem":60,"tags":61,"__hash__":64},"writing\u002Fwriting\u002Fwhat-i-mean-by-unity.md","What I Mean by “Unity”",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":48},"minimark",[9,13,16,19,22,25,42,45],[10,11,12],"p",{},"To begin, I want to make it clear off the bat that I don’t play the partisan games. I stand by the social teachings of Jesus, made clear in scripture and the community of those who follow Him unreservedly, the Church. And all of these teachings are important to me. As unpopular as it may seem, I think the Church’s political involvement is critical because of the Church’s involvement with…well, people. And people are so valuable that they’re worth it. They’re worth caring for, they’re worth sacrificing for, they’re worth protecting, and we depend on each other. According to Jesus, they’re worth dying on a cross for. So when it comes to political issues, I find myself agreeing with people on both sides of the aisle. Alright. That’s the foundation for what I’m talking about.",[10,14,15],{},"But meanwhile, I’ve been preaching to our youth group recently on how critically important it is to be unified in the Church, especially in an age where partisan politics divide us. Part of the mission of the Church is to be a witness to the transforming salvation of God—to show that to be Christian is to be different (Romans 12:1–2). Yet the Catholic vote is split almost completely 50-50. Catholics on both sides of the aisle participate in the inane, disrespectful name-calling and insult-dishing that every other politician seems to be doing. In the eyes of the public, to be Catholic is to be no different.",[10,17,18],{},"Last Sunday, one of the students who attends our youth group asked me about what I really meant by that. He seemed concerned that he could never see such a huge organization or amount of people ever being able to settle differences that seem so diametrically opposed to each other. How could you convince everyone to commit to one side?",[10,20,21],{},"There’s something to that question, but I think it misunderstands what I mean when I’m talking about unity. It takes for granted that American politics can be nothing more than our current two-party system. Either Democrat-leaning Catholics must “convert,” or the Republican-leaning Catholics must. If that is true, then I’d agree—I don’t foresee that demographic shift happening.",[10,23,24],{},"There are two realities that I want to identify. First, let’s be done with the bickering, name-calling, and reputation-trashing. I think this one’s obvious when it comes to unity—how can we expect to come together if we demonize the other side? I don’t think blocking and ignoring all of our friends who don’t agree with us is helping our cause. Of course we can disagree on issues. Of course we can be critical of decisions politicians have made in the past. But I’m talking about blatant ad hominems and personal attacks that are launched by Christians and at Christians. And this hasn’t been only this year. But this year, it’s exacerbated the polarization we’ve been feeling.",[10,26,27,28,35,36,41],{},"On the contrary, I was very challenged this election year—and this gets at the second issue—by listening to voices that I trusted on both sides. I’d highly recommend ",[29,30,34],"a",{"href":31,"rel":32},"https:\u002F\u002Fcatholicstuffpodcast.com\u002Fpodcast\u002F2020\u002F10\u002F22\u002Fpolitical-spin-class-pt-1.html",[33],"nofollow","this episode"," of the “Catholic Stuff You Should Know” podcast for a longer discussion on this. Particularly, reading ",[29,37,40],{"href":38,"rel":39},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.americamagazine.org\u002Ffaith\u002F2020\u002F10\u002F01\u002Fjeannie-gaffigan-trump-biden-election-abortion-pope-francis\u002F",[33],"Jeannie Gaffigan’s article in America magazine"," was enlightening for me: here is a woman of prayer, who upholds the dignity of all human life, who wants God’s justice in our society, and who outlines the reasons why she did not vote for Trump.",[10,43,44],{},"As someone who is inundated with “vote pro-life and life alone,” I was shaken by Jeannie’s article. Are pro-life issues important? Certainly. I am not disagreeing nor is Jeannie. But take a step back: as a whole, are the policies either side is advocating for building us into the kind of society that we in fact desire? Take a step back from who to vote for: what, as Catholics, are the principles we want to be the foundation of our civilization? Now how does that match with the actions and words of your political party?",[10,46,47],{},"I don’t think it’s in our best interest to “marry” ourselves to either political party, even because of an issue as important as abortion. We don’t have to compromise our Catholic values just because we’re in a two-party system. Unity means remembering our foundations and sometimes reminding others that we’re on the same side, even if we voted for different parties.",{"title":49,"searchDepth":50,"depth":50,"links":51},"",2,[],"2020-11-29","Unity in the Church doesn’t mean everyone voting the same way. It means remembering our foundations.",false,"md",{},true,"\u002Fwriting\u002Fwhat-i-mean-by-unity",{"title":5,"description":53},"writing\u002Fwhat-i-mean-by-unity",[62,63],"Church","Politics","v63gB4NIV-Aq6ChCf_BFJozQ1SOmpWI9H4l5r15FAVo",1790943880773]