“I felt so sad that I groaned aloud an Old Testament lamentation AAAAIEOOOOOW! To which responded a great silent black man sitting next to me on the blocky couch: ‘Ain’t it the truth though.’ After that I felt better.”
—Love in the Ruins, Walker Percy
For the last several months, I’ve slowly turned into Father Rinaldo Smith, and wish to spend my days in a tower, watching for fires, pooping into a bucket, and most of all not talking to anybody. It may not be helpful, but it feels like the least bad thing I can do in a most bad year. But today’s the day, so here’s my little speech:
If you’re a Catholic voting for Biden because you just love tearing innocent babies limb from limb in their mother’s wombs, don’t do that! That’s bad! Bad Catholic voter!
If you’re a Catholic voting for Biden because you think he has the guts and the grit and the vision and the know-how to turn this country right around, please send me your address so I may invoice you for your new bridge.
If you’re a Catholic voter and your parish has started playing the Star Spangled Banner at the elevation at Mass, and you definitely don’t want to vote for Biden, and yet HERE WE ARE, I’m with you. I’m going to vote for Biden, because I’m pro-life, because I still stupidly believe in the Constitution, because I don’t want war, civil or otherwise, and because some things are just not tolerable. It’s not a sin to do the best you can in a crappy situation, no matter what bozo told you what bozo thing, even if it was a priest. I’m with you.
I’m going to a little town to pick up election results for an election night results aggregator, and I keep wondering if I should bring a gun in case someone flips out and gets violent (and despite the repeating riot loops you’ve seen on Fox, it’s many, many, many times more likely to be a far righter flipping out and getting violent than a far lefter). I doubt it’s necessary, but it pisses me off that I even have to wonder. Get it together, America. We will always have 99 problems but this should not be one of them.
I guess before I leave, we will pray this litany to Mary under all her various titles as patroness of each state. (And get it together, Colorado!)
“You’re a fake Catholic going to hell” comments will be given the Mr. Tiddles the Obliging Kitty Cat treatment, so if you want to waste your time and mine, feel free. I’m just sitting here making meatballs anyway.
Before I go back to my fire tower, what I really want to say is: Our duty today is the same as it ever was, which is: To keep our humanity, to remember the humanity of everyone we meet, to walk away if we’re having a hard time with that last one, and to remember our death. Pray for the dead. Pray for my friend Elizabeth who starts chemo today. Pray for my friend who’s having a very important disability hearing today. Avoid useless fights. And pray for our country, but try not to get too attached.
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Image by Royalbroil via Wikipedia (Creative Commons)
May God reward your charity and good will, Martha. I hope there are still people open to the Truth and facts. Your analysis of Trump is spot on. But we live in the era of the internet. There is basically no such thing as invincible ignorance if you live in the first world and own a computer. These are apocalyptic times and diabolical disorientation is everywhere. It has contaminated the Church and the laity alike. By their fruits you shall know them. We are living in unprecedented times as far as the Church and the whole world is concerned. If you find yourself supporting the James Martin faction of the Church and the rabidly pro-abortion candidate in national politics, you are on the wrong side.
Pound for pound Muslims are the most dangerous.
I don’t have the energy to respond to some of the other comments here, but I just wanted to say that I see you and I’m in the same boat. And yes, I’m a pro-life Catholic.
Prayers for you, your friends, and our broken country tonight.
I am pro-life.
Good for you, Martha Shuping! It is so refreshing to see someone earnestly try to “instruct the ignorant” in good faith, believing that if they only knew the Truth, they would necessarily do the right thing. Sadly, they know the same facts you do; they just ignore them and culpably choose evil. It is as simple as that. Catholics who should know better just decide to do the objectively wrong thing in the direst of circumstances and humbly brag about how hard it is to be a good Catholic. I feel genuinely sorry for their children and grandchildren who will have no chance of staying Catholic in any real sense. This is insane.
I thought perhaps some people actually don’t know these things, because they often are not covered in mainstream media. I read both liberal and conservative news media, and some international papers, one of the UK papers, and others. I am aware that there are factually good things that President Trump has done that simply are not covered, and there are some negatives about Biden including his dementia and issues of financial gain from China and other countries that are being aggressively censored on social media and in most of the news media. Beyond a couple of issues that Catholic teaching considers “non-negotiable” I think Trump is by far the better candidate but there has been relentless criticism and inaccurate coverage in the media which I think has led some to think that Biden’s values are better – and yet I see nothing in what Biden has actually done or will do that fits within our faith – and his dementia can be seen clearly in numerous video clips throughout his campaign – he is not someone who can lead or negotiate with foreign leaders. By the time I posted, I expected it would make no difference in anyone’s vote, but it appears that Trump has some likelihood of winning re-election, and if so, perhaps looking back at the accomplishments I named, perhaps some will have less distress about him being President, considering the various accomplishments – or perhaps not. It is sad that there is such a divide in our country, that we actually are not dealing with the same set of facts and “both sides” can look at each other as if we are from different planets. Thank you for the feedback, JC. I do think that people who say they are pro-life who vote for Biden perhaps are not actually pro-life or perhaps they are unaware that Biden-Harris would be paying our tax dollars into the UN population fund which contributes financially to pay for forced abortions in China (Obama-Biden paid in; Trump cancelled). Biden also would do away with the Mexico City policy first implemented by Reagan, but always cancelled by Democratic presidents since then, and reinstated by Republicans – with Republican administrations forbidding US tax dollars from going to foreign countries in our aid packages, and Democrats including abortion funding and promotion of abortion in foreign aid to developing nations – many of whom don’t actually desire abortion. And under Obama, if nurses lost their jobs due to refusing to help with abortions, due to their deeply held beliefs, oh well. Trump has gotten conscience protection rules implemented at HHS and while abortion is legal, and health care professionals can provide abortions, those who have conscience issues against abortion cannot be forced to participate against their beliefs. There is a long list of things that Trump has been able to accomplish in regard to abortion. I don’t know why we can’t all agree that we should not be forced to pay for forced abortions in China, or why we can’t all agree that health care professionals should not be forced to participate in abortion – but there is no agreement there either, and some Catholics again, either don’t know about the foreign abortions, or don’t mind paying for those forced abortions. Very strange when one considers Catholic understanding of each human being as created in the image of God – and the harm to the women who lose a wanted child is mind boggling, to think anyone can vote for that. Biden of course didn’t campaign on that – but the Democrats have been very extreme on abortion, and Kamala and Joe have been extreme in the things they have done already.
I am puzzled why anyone votes for Biden. Trump has been nominated for 4 Nobel Peace Prizes for the historic peace agreements he has gotten made in the Middle East through his diplomacy – peace between Israel and neighboring countries, agreements that no one could make before – after all this time. Arabs and Israelis are doing business together. The ISIS caliphate – which killed people and destroyed homes and churches, creating who knows how many refugees – once held territory the size of 2 New Jerseys and is now 2% of what it was. Here at home, I have noticed many black Democrats – yes, black Democrats, some of them legislators at the state level – have endorsed Trump. Rev. Dr. Alveda King, niece of MLK, has endorsed Trump – she is on one of his advisory committees, and she has often met with him individually and with the advisory committee, to advise him and pray with him. If he truly is the misogynist and the racist that the mainstream media claims – why is he taking advice from a black woman, and why is he receiving ministry from a black woman? And why would Alveda King not notice that he was racist, if he is? She actually wrote a book, “Why Trump” in which she gives her endorsement and shares some memories – a picture that looks different than you see in, say, the Washington Post. The reasons that many blacks are endorsing Trump, and crossing party lines to vote for him include 1) lowest black poverty rate ever, 2) lowest black unemployment rate ever, 3) strong support for historically black colleges 4) historic prison reform incorporating advice from many black leaders, which allows many men to return to their families, having been incarcerated for years for non-violent crimes under Joe Biden’s crime law, that he sponsored and passed years ago, 5) police reform that includes ending choke holds, having standardized national training for police with independent certification 6) opportunity zones in minority neighborhoods, creating jobs for minorities 7) school choice so that parents can pull their kids out of failing schools. These are many of the reasons that many blacks are shifting to support Trump. Plus – there are many, many black men and women running for Congress on the Republican ticket today. They are not experiencing discrimination within the party. John James, running for Senate from Michigan was brought up on stage with the President and endorsed by the President. Interviews I’ve seen with black people in poor neighborhoods, and polls, show that the vast majority of blacks do not want less policing in their communities, and they do not appreciate seeing Black Lives Matter protests end up burning down black-owned homes and businesses and destroying their neighborhoods. That actually helps no one, and then who pays to rebuild? Where does that money come from? Then again, President Trump has been protecting religious liberty overseas and at home, too many things to mention. But when a U.S. citizen, a Protestant minister who had a church in Turkey for years was incarcerated on false charges, Trump personally made a couple phone calls and got the pastor released and sent home. Trump told Turkey, after Turkey said, “no” the first time – okay, 30% tariff on your steel… and the pastor back in U.S. in 24 hours. He was not a criminal, he was just a Christian pastor running his little mission church per usual, and apparently some of the Muslims were tired of Christians. I like that the President looks after Americans in foreign countries. But he has brought American soldiers home, started NO new foreign wars and has been instead, ending wars. On the other hand, poor Joe has dementia and once elected will never run the country. I suspect Kamala will try to cover for about two years, and then they will make the arrangement formal – if she takes over 2 years into his term, then she can still be elected herself as President 2 x, so she could have 10 years that way instead of only 8 years – or in reality, 12 years since she’ll be running things from Day 1. Hope you like Kamala.
That’s a really long comment, fam
Thank you🙏
Amen 🙏🏾
Thanks, Sim.