Friday, November 7, 2008

Catholic POV

I'm curious as to what the Church says about allegiance to one's President after one has voted for The Other Guy. Especially when one feels that one's President isn't 100% worthy of the title. I tried googling information about what characters in the Bible have done in the past, when they served evil kings, but all I could find were stories about being made to bow before false idols. By the way, do I think Obama is evil? NO! But I had to search for something, so I put in "evil kings +Bible" in the search window.

If you have any opinions, let me know. Is it part of being a good Catholic/Christian to support my President no matter what? Even when I strongly oppose his ideas and platform?

1 comment:

  1. One of the corner-stones of the Catholic Church is the seperation of Church and State. Unlike the caricature it has become over time among materialists, it started out as the idea that, unlike the priest-kings of pagan times, the head of (the) Church and the head of the State were to be different entities and the State shouldn't interfer with the appointments of Bishops etc. In medeaval Europe this became known as the 'battle of investiture', which the Church eventually won (this is one of the reasons Henry VIII and other temporal rulers embraced Protestantism, it allowed them to appoint pastors etc. again).

    But back to your predicament. The short answer is: of course not. The State isn't the corner-stone of morality, it's just a temporary solution on the question of how to govern a certain country in a certain place in time. St. Augustine reprotedly even said 'A kingdom is nothing but a succesful gang of thieves'. In the Old Testament prophets continually criticized the kings of Israel (a concept they weren't wild about in the first place; book of Samuel) and to me it makes no sense, especially in a democracy, to claim that a citizen wouldn't be 'allowed' to criticize its employee (which basically elected officials are). Of course you are, if he doesn't want to be criticized he should be doing a better job!

    Obama Bought The Presidency

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