One More Day Alive

Despite differences Catholics and Christians might have with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, they must be respected. However, it is the duty of believers to fight for their beliefs in the public square.

Now that the most expensive election in U.S. history is behind us, let me echo the gracious words of former presidential candidate and senator John McCain to say that
now we must all support our president-elect, Barack Obama.

He not only deserves our respect, but also our prayers and suggestions for how he can be the best president possible. Remember that the passing of another presidential election means we are celebrating another proof that this is a
government of the people, by the people and for the people. And plenty of those people are Catholics.

One Catholic who has jump started that process is Florida Bishop John J. Ricard, SSJ, who is asking Vice President-elect Joseph Biden to think a little bit more
about his position on abortion before accepting Holy Communion.

Whether or not Biden, a man who has been committed to keeping abortion legal for more than 30 years, will ever be swayed is dubious at best, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try, and it doesn’t mean we can’t have an effect.

After all, politics is at its heart a game of compromise, and though the sad truth is that we must sometimes accept compromises on our values in the political world, it also means that we can get those who oppose our moral values to compromise a bit on theirs.

Case in point: the argument against gay marriage, and Barack Obama’s shifting stand on the subject.

A year before the election, Sen. Obama was clearly a proponent of it, but fast forward to his presidential campaign, and he was against it. Then, when pushed to say whether he supported constitutional amendments against it at the state or national level, he appeared a little less convicted.

Though some pundits accused him of flip-flopping and capitulating in order to get votes (presumably those pundits who were in favor of gay marriage), another way of looking at this is that he responded to the will of a huge sector of society that wants to protect the integrity of this historically established institution.

Brilliant balance

The fact that three separate states, the overwhelmingly liberal California included, recently voted to approve an amendment to keep marriage between one man and one woman is more than just a little proof that support for same-sex marriage is not as widespread as the mainstream media might have us believe. President-elect Obama may have realized that.

Therein lies the amazing potential of our democracy in America – it is a brilliant balance between responsible elitism and populism – whereby we elect leaders who must and should strike their own balance between deciding what they believe is right and responding to the wishes of the electorate.

That means that our job has just begun with the election of our new president.

The Bible tells us that ordained leaders are to be respected – at least until they betray that trust, at which point we have the right to remove them by peaceful
democratic means in America.

But as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver explains in his recently released book “Render Unto Caesar,” American democracy depends on citizens, especially religious
believers, fighting for their beliefs in the public square – respectfully but aggressively and unapologetically.

Let us all remember that Democrats were once the leading party of segregation, yet clearly with our most recent election, we have seen the completion of a diametric journey on that party’s behalf. Who is to say what other monumental shifts might occur in that party and our recently elected president.

It is our duty and our responsibility to let our leaders know what we value. After all, they are there to serve us, and we are here to help them do that as best as they can.

After that, it’s all in God’s hands – and the next election.

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