They’re not all pigs.
I’m writing that to answer a question that was posited by a woman friend of mine. She was talking about male elected officials. Are they all pigs???
Based on the news, one would certainly think so. But the answer, from someone who held elective office for 18 years and was privy to all sorts of things you’d rather not know, is that no, they’re not all pigs.
One of the great goods of holding elected office is the friendships you make. This is not a party-particular thing. I served with people — and yes, 90% of them were men — of both parties, and of many different political ideologies who were sincere, upright and good people. I fell in love with and married another House member.
My most trusted friends to this day are often men I served with in elected office.
Having said that, I can also affirm that yes, many of them are pigs. In fact, many of the men who hold elected office in this country have personal morals which are so low that it’s an insult to pigs to make the comparison. They are predators, both sexual and in other ways. They are crude, cruel, amoral, people-using narcissists. They treat women like dirt, and — get ready for this now — not all of them are heterosexual. The number of Bible-banging switch-hitters in public office is far greater than most people realize.
So … what’s a voter to do? More to the point, what’s a Christian voter to do?
I’ve been writing about this over and over again, and I usually end up being called a few names for my trouble. But I’m not going to stop. The reason I’m not going to stop is because I am convinced that this is what God wants me to do.
Here is my answer. One. More. Time.
We must stop worshipping political parties and begin following Christ. How many times have I written that? I’ve honestly lost track.
Every time I write it, someone denounces and attacks me for saying it. Do you get that? I write in Catholic publications that Christians should follow Jesus and I get attacked for saying it. I even get told that anyone who would say such a thing can’t possibly be a Christian.
That convinces me that I am saying something that needs to be said.
We’ve made little ‘g’ gods of political parties and we’ve given over our faith and our thinking brains to that idolatry. We are not following Christ when we trim the Gospels down to fit the platforms of our political parties. We are not following Christ when we parse right and wrong to try to pretend that blatant amorality is somehow or other acceptable.
We are following somebody when we do these things, but it isn’t Jesus. And it does not lead to eternal life.
In truth and in fact, our political parties are both corrupt and amoral. In truth and in fact, more than a few of the men we’ve put in office — men from both political parties — are sexual libertines who disrespect women to the point of despising them. In truth and in fact, other people we’ve put in office — again, from both parties — are fine and good people who live upright moral lives.
But — and here’s the fact no one wants to know — you can’t tell the difference from your living rooms. You have no idea what kind of people you are voting for based on campaign ads and the drivel that passes for news coverage. Occasionally someone comes along who is such a total sexual predator that he cannot hide it.
But most of the time, we have to vote based on outsider knowledge and wishful thinking.
Which brings me back to my main point. We must stop putting these false idols of partisan politics ahead of loyalty to Christ. Join whichever political party you wish. If you follow Christ, you will frequently end up in alliance with other Christians who follow Christ, even if they are in the opposite party. You will also find yourself at odds with your political party much of the time.
This is the point where someone usually jumps up and says you can’t be a Democrat and be a Christian. But the truth is, you can’t be a Christian if you place salvation in a political party — any political party. You must put your faith in Christ, not politics. And you must free your mind from slavish devotion to whichever party you chose.
If you want to be a Christian and go to heaven, you have to follow Jesus. And that means you must go against your political party a big part of the time.
If Christians want to be Christian, they must follow Jesus. It’s that simple.