Thursday, October 27, 2016

"NeverTrump" + "Seamless Garment" = Spiritual And Political Toxicity

We've all dealt with those who have taken on the slogan "#nevertrump".  They are those who are so taken aback by Trump's personality (I suppose this is preferable?) and media hype, that they rail constantly against him.  They have planned to squander their vote by either voting for some third-party candidate or not voting at all.  I hear them rail incessantly about Trump's faults while uttering nary a peep about Hillary's outright evils.  They have allowed themselves to be deceived (and in some cases, engaged in self-deception) into believing that there is essentially no difference between the two: all along ignoring facts that stare them in the face.  Now this error of false equivalency has taken a sad yet foreseeable turn for the worse.

An individual, once well-known as a leader in the pro-life community, announced on facebook (and maybe other venues) that he intends to vote for Hillary.  He's involved in some "social justice" issues along the "seamless garment" bent, and Hillary's positions on those do jive with his.  If he believes along the lines of the #nevertrump folks that there is no essential difference on life issues between Trump and Hillary, then I for one can see how he'd succumb to the temptation to evaluate things through those "seamless garment" topics that are geared towards seduction into the culture of death.   For now, I won't identify him.  For the sake of this post, I'll call him A.

I discovered this during a discussion on the facebook wall of another pro-life leader.  Again, I won't identify (for now) but will call this one B.  When I stated that those who vote for Hillary risk their immortal souls, B rebuked me, stating that A and his family simply came to "different conclusions" and that their decision to vote for the most pro-abortion candidate in this race posed no danger to their salvation because they were "sincere".

Needless to say, I and others felt like we had stepped into the Twilight Zone.  One the one hand, we have former pro-life leader A announcing his intention to vote for Hillary.  On the other hand, current pro-life leader B is so muddled in his own thinking that he won't listen to the words of pro-life priests (here, here) and just common sense regarding the evil (not just inadvisability) of voting for Hillary.

Again, I believe that the erroneous mindset of A is one that logically follows from the somewhat lesser erroneous mindset of the #nevertrump crowd.  I understand that at least most of the #nevertrump crowd isn't voting for Hillary; that's a plus.  However, now we'll need one more vote to offset the vote of A.

I post now a talk given by a Catholic priest.  I find his analogies to be quite helpful.  Please pay close attention to the quote from Pope Pius XII towards the end.  The late pontiff makes very clear that a vote for an evil candidate is sinful, "sincerity" notwithstanding.

UPDATE - My friend and CMC colleague at Les Femmes put up her own piece regarding the muddled thinking of some pro-lifers as evinced by A and (to a lesser extent) B.

5 comments:

  1. This video needs to travel far and wide. This is an EXCELLENT analogy of what's happening in our country today.

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  2. Folks, please watch this truly amazing sermon by a truly amazing Catholic priest! Please God, send us more such courageous priests!

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  3. I applaud your charity in not identifying these two rogue chaps, but if they think they are doing something to be proud of rather than guilty over, would they consider themselves disparaged by being identified as to their not voting for pro life candidate Trump? Lord, forgive me, but I think these people need to be called out and blasted, because their outrageous action/inaction will result in the election of the most evil candidate (except for Obama) ever elected from which there will be no return. How dare they1

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    1. Just to clarify - B is voting for Trump. He errs in not only refusing to call out A for his scandalous declaration but in rebuking those of us who do.

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  4. Thanks for your persistence, Janet. You are like Simon the zealot whose feast day we celebrate today. And thank you for alerting me so I could pray for these two. I did a post on this today with a link here. Keep up the good work for Christ and His Church!

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