Fr. Frank Pavone: Politics and the Covenant

As voters, do we not have a responsibility before God that when we choose our leaders, we somehow take account of whether or not they respect the Covenant? Must we not take some account as to whether those who are going to pass laws in our society have any notion of the higher law to which they and we together are subject? We may not see our leaders today setting up false churches. But when they claim the authority to throw the unborn away or to redefine marriage or any number of other things that run totally contrary to the Gospel, then they are leading us into false worship. And we have not merely an opportunity, but a duty to take active part in the process by which these people are either put in to office or thrown out of office.

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STATEN ISLAND, New York (Catholic Online) - One of the ways that we understand who or what Jesus was like is by reading about the people to whom he was compared - and in the Gospels, one of the things the people say about Jesus is, "Maybe this is John the Baptist come back from the dead or Elijah or one of the other prophets."

Presumably, there were things about Jesus, the way he spoke, and the way he acted, that reminded the people about these other people. So what we read in Scripture about these other people reveals to us something about Jesus. And if it reveals to us something about Jesus, it also reveals to us something about us, who are the people of Christ, the body of Christ, called to follow him, imitate him and continue his mission on earth.

Now one of the things about John the Baptist and about Elijah, the two who are mentioned explicitly here, is that they challenged kings. They challenged them quite directly, quite powerfully, to live up to the law of God. John said to Herod, "You're breaking God's law about marriage, you're taking your brother's wife." John witnessed to the public authorities that they have no authority to change the law of God about marriage.

And remember Elijah? King Ahab was fostering false worship and Elijah confronted him. He said, "There's only one true God." And he got in trouble for that.

Both Elijah and John the Baptist got in trouble with earthly authorities, but were rewarded and praised by the only authority that has the ultimate say, God Himself.

Now, here's the point.

These great men had the opportunity to challenge kings. You and I in our nation and in so many nations of the world have the opportunity not only to challenge them but to choose them. And with that opportunity comes the serious responsibility of citizenship.

The history of the Old Testament reveals that the kings who ruled over God's people either led the people to renew their faithfulness to the Covenant with which God had blessed them or led them in rebellion against the Covenant. It was one way or the other, and when you read the history of the Old Testament, it's like a pendulum swinging back and forth.

You have the faithful kings. They led the people in the ways of God and the land was blessed. Then you had the unfaithful kings. They led the people in sin and the land was cursed because God allowed their enemies to come in and overrun them -- and that was not a political problem, it was a spiritual problem. The Old Testament is theological history. People who rebelled against God suffered not only spiritually, they suffered politically.

And so it is today.

Our leaders in civil government will either lead us in the ways of God or they will lead us in rebellion against God. This can be either explicit or implicit. It is not that these leaders necessarily say, "Let's rebel against God." But they will say, for example, "Marriage is not necessarily between a man and a woman, we want to pass laws to legitimize gay marriages." Is that any better than King Ahab setting up sacred pillars to Baal and giving the people an opportunity for false worship?

If we think for one minute that government has the authority to change God's plan for marriage, we might as well go worship at some kind of temple of an idol, because we're violating the Covenant in the same way. And if we choose, by voting, to put someone in office who's going to do the same thing we might as well go on Sunday to a temple of idols to worship. We might as well do that because we are violating the Covenant.

And then, of course, there are those who will stand up and say "I want to be your leader, your senator, your governor, your president; I want to be a judge, but I think it's OK for the government to allow the killing of unborn children. As long as the mother says so I'm not going to interfere with that. I'm pro-choice." If somebody votes for a person like that, are they not violating the Covenant?

As voters, do we not have a responsibility before God that when we choose our leaders, we somehow take account of whether or not they respect the Covenant? Must we not take some account as to whether those who are going to pass laws in our society have any notion of the higher law to which they and we together are subject?

We may not see our leaders today setting up false churches. But when they claim the authority to throw the unborn away or to redefine marriage or any number of other things that run totally contrary to the Gospel, then they are leading us into false worship. And we have not merely an opportunity, but a duty to take active part in the process by which these people are either put in to office or thrown out of office.

The climax of the challenge the prophet Elijah made was when he gathered together the prophets of Baal - a false god for whom people sacrificed the lives of their own children - and told those prophets to call down fire from heaven. They couldn't. But Elijah did. And he challenged the people, "How long will you sit on the fence? If Baal is god, then serve him. If the Lord is God, then serve him!"

So it is in this election. There is no room for sitting on the fence. No candidate is God. But of those who have the chance to actually be elected, it is time to choose those who best embody the Covenant of the God of Life.

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Fr Frank Pavone is the National Director of Priests for Life.

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