Are You A “Right” or “Left” Wing Catholic? Read This

Catholics in the western world, and in North America in particular, often confuse their politics with their faith. For this reason, there is a widening divide between the political “right” and the political “left” wings. Many fear that this divide has caused so much damage to peace and unity. Catholics should avoid making the damage worse especially because their Faith encompasses elements from both wings. Catholics should ultimately vote and participate in politics but should not turn their politics into religion and vice versa. They should be clear that their politics only represents some – not all – of their faith. It is ok to vote while disagreeing with aspects of one’s political party. Ultimately, Catholics should aim to “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s.” Mathew 22:17.

Before looking at tips for Catholics to prioritize their Faith over politics, here is a brief and general description of the difference between the politically right wing and the left.

Some Differences between the Political “Right and the Political Left

The political right is typically conservative on social issues. They are prolife and pro-traditional marriage as between a man and a woman. They generally have a traditional outlook, preferring concrete realities to abstract formulations. They are therefore more likely to tout Michelangelo’s realist art over the abstract pieces of Picasso. They fundamentally doubt that human nature is innately good on the moral plane. However, they tend to glorify and emphasize human agency in economic or other success stories. This means they are often against any public or system-wide support to the economically poor or other affirmative action for any purported disadvantaged group in society. They tend to be religious especially because religious beliefs are part of historical tradition. So long as something works, they are unlikely to see the need to interfere, because the strongly embody the old adage: “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

Those on the political left are almost in a perfect lateral opposition to those on the right. They are prochoice and open to various formulations of marriage and family life. They embrace the idea of blended and gay marriage as a matter of right and not as erroneous exceptions as the political right tends to see it. They generally push boundaries on traditional approaches, preferring the creativity of Picasso to the fixed and relatively predictable work of Michelangelo. They often believe that human nature at its best, can make decisions to ultimately overcome pressing human challenges, from supporting the poor through government programs to ending the negative effects of climate change in most of the world. They tend to be agnostic or atheists seeing religion as anachronistic to contemporary issues, confining and in some cases, a source of oppression since many religious rules exclude the radical equality of opportunity that they promote. For instance, in the Catholic Church, women cannot be Priests because the Church does not have the authority to change the practice of Christ. But the politically left believe all rules and theological principles are changeable since most do not ascribe to “God” according to the teachings of the Church. For the left, even when something appears to work, they question whether it works for all and how to make it work better through concrete efforts at inclusion of all persons. Limits of ideas are often tested where possible because to the person on the political left, the question is often, “if not, why not?”

The Catholic View is Dispersed Across Left and Right.

It should be obvious that both of these views are yin and yang and should complement each other, but many do not see it that way. Rather, there is a near-war between both factions so much that it has filtered into the Catholic faith.

The political right often sees the Catholic faith and its traditions as indicative of their correctness on social issues. For instance, the Catholic Church is pro life, a point of view that is more popular among the political right. However, the Catholic Church also teaches the importance of social service to the poor which is often advocated more popularly by the political left. 

 What should Catholics do when Church doctrine or the words of Christ are dispersed across two political parties who oppose each other and often do not mingle?

As Catholics, we should be more affixed to our membership in Christ’s body, prioritizing it over membership in political parties because the former is heavenward and the latter is ultimately earth-focused. Participation in politics, while highly encouraged by the Catholic faith, should reflect the yin and yang of Catholic Social Teaching: pro life but also pro support to the poor, immigrants and those on the margins. This is what Christ modeled for us.

It is difficult to strike this balance between the traditional (politically right) and progressive (politically left) views, especially when one is dedicated to one of these political factions. However, with Christ, all things are possible.

Here are some pointers 

Tips For those on the “Political Left” Who Are Catholic

1. Love is not Mere Feelings. Love is a (often difficult) Choice to Obey the Law of God

Jesus’ gospel is about love. However, to stop there is to delete an important part of the gospel. That part tells us that we are now children of God, Romans 8:17. That Jesus came to adopt us as fellow siblings of God the father. This means that Christians are members of a family. In a family, the children are not only supported but also guided. They are loved but also disciplined. To promote love without discipline is to fail to prepare a child for resilience. To show love to their parents, a child obeys them. We will always be children vis-à-vis God who made us and who knows everything – far more than we could ever know. Therefore it is important to remember that to love is not to remain in a state of positive feelings only, it is also to keep God’s commands, John 14:15.

Note that obeying God is not only about doing things without thinking. It is about thinking and choosing to align our behavior to God’s. In aligning with God, we embody God physically on earth and become Christ to others.

TIP: 

• When you feel the need to point out that Christians should stick to love of neighbour alone, remember that Christian love includes obedience to the laws of God. 

2. Love in Christianity is a Transformational Call to Repentance

Jesus went around accepting people who were prostitutes and tax collectors. Today, some of these are Saints in the Church such as St. Mary Magdalene and St. Mathew who wrote a Gospel. Jesus’ love of sinners did not stop at love in terms of emotions and inclusion. It was that and more. His love also challenged them to rise above their sinful decisions and sinful patterns of existence. St Mary Magdalene and St. Mathew left the sex trade and tax collection booth respectively to follow Christ. 

TIP: 

• Remember that love of neighbors comes with a call to repentance. Therefore, it is not only “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” It is also “Go and sin no more.” John 8: 11.

3. Majority Does Not Rule When It Comes to Moral Decisions

Remember those stickers with, ”what would Jesus do,” written on them?  While a bit cliché, this question is an important test for particular situations. When faced with situations where we have to decide what is right or wrong, a brief reflection on what Jesus would have done, using his teachings in the gospel, is a good starting point. It is important to use Christ’s standard in this manner because he showed us that the right view is not always the popular view. Christ himself was killed by a mob for doing no moral or legal wrong.  Therefore, we learn that majority does not mean right. Jesus himself pointed out that all his messengers or prophets were often killed or rejected by the majority.

It is also important to measure goodness by a perfectly good measurement. Christ being perfect God and perfect man is the best measuring standard that none of us can replace.

TIPS: 

• Remember that truth does not rely on the majority or the Supreme Court to be truth. Truth stands on its own whether it is popular or not; whether it is legal or not. 
• You cannot declare that you are good. Goodness can only be measured by a perfectly good person, i.e., Christ. See Why Declaring that you are a  Good Person in your own eyes  is not justified.

4. The Christian Perspective is Eternal. It is Not Based on Earth Alone.

The only perfect place, according to scripture, is heaven. The worst place is hell. Earth is in between heaven and hell meaning that it has both good and bad (God’s Kingdom is here, Mathew 12:28. However, the devil has rights to act until the end of time, 1 John 5:19, John 18:36; John 12:31 ). Christianity aims to have everyone reach their manifest destiny in heaven once we have died and left earth. For now, we try to improve the conditions on earth by doing good actions and spreading the gospel about heaven and how to get there. Given that not everyone chooses the good, there is likely to always be problems on earth. Therefore, teaching aimed at a perfect earth does not understand what earth is, and certainly does not know what heaven is either.

TIPS

• When you imagine a better society, keep in mind that whatever it is, it will never be perfect because earth cannot be converted into heaven by human will. Only God can do that with the cooperation of humans who choose the good all the time or most of the time. Since humans have free will, they are unlikely to choose to cooperate with God’s good will all of the time. This means that perfection cannot be attained on earth; only in heaven, where those who choose the good dwell with God. 
• Humans can only, and should, do their best, leaving the rest to God. Therefore, the question in our plans for a good society should be about how we could do better in spite of a fallen world and not how we can erase the fallen state of our world or how we can force or make everyone choose the good since that is not possible given human free will. Any attempt to force good choices out of others often quickly becomes hellish.

5. Try to Understand Traditions before Dismissing Them

Everything we have been taught by Christ in Scripture, particularly the ten commandments, the beatitudes and the new commandment to love God and one another are all important and unchangeable moral principles that form the essence of Catholic and Christian traditional beliefs and practice. Changing God’s commands because it is hard to do them, is not proper. We often do not cancel assignments or professional work because they are hard to do. Therefore we should be careful not to water down or dilute God’s moral laws to please people in contemporary society. Christ explained that those who lead others astray from God’s law will give account to God and that (using a strong hyperbole), “it would be better for them [those who knowingly lead people astray] to have a large millstone hung around their neck and they be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Mathew 18:16.

TIPS

• Do not – in the name of mercy, compassion, trends and progress – change the laws of God, particularly the moral laws laid out in the ten commandments. Unlike lesser laws about diets and fabrics in the Old Testaments that were often pedagogical, analogical and practical, these are essential and were not changed by Christ but affirmed by him, Mathew 5:17. 
• Separate people from actions. This is normal and necessary. It was what we do when we learn from the past and forgive ourselves or others. Bad ideas may not be redeemable but people are.
• Befriend traditional or conservative people before or while criticizing their position. When you get to know them, you will understand their true intention and above all their dignity as children of God. You will see how traditional principles also guide and produce good people.
• Try to sincerely befriend people on the political “right” and listen to their point of views. Listen to understand and not to silently judge them.

6. The Church is the Body of Christ and Not Merely a Human Institution

The Church is not just a building, a hierarchy or bureaucracy. She is more than these. The Church is the body of Christ. Every baptized Catholic becomes not only a member of the Church but also becomes incorporated supernaturally into the body of Christ,  CCC 1213. 

To maintain incorporation in the body of Christ requires the grace of God but also our cooperation with that grace through avoidance of sin and obedience to the will of God.  Therefore, no one can claim to be good and demand entry into the body of Christ. Entry is a privilege maintained by God’s grace. It is not a right.

TIPS

• The Church is mysteriously both human and divine. No matter what humans do, the divine part would always remain, sustaining the purity of the Church and saving those who are willing to remain in God’s grace.
• Remember that no one has a right to be in the body of Christ. It is his body and therefore his choice to allow only goodness and good people in. 

7. Improve your Appreciation of Reality

We have all heard about toxic positivity – when one is expected to be positive and happy even when the situation calls for the opposite. Indeed, embracing the truth of a situation and accepting it can help us find good solutions that correspond to reality.

To center your Christianity on Christ, it is important to face the truth about reality. Detach from slogans and perspectives that give you social credits. Rather, take steps back from issues to think and consider the options that best correspond to reality. Remember that the majority can be wrong in terms of seeing and interpreting objective or factual reality.

TIPS

• Read books about philosophy and science to learn more about reality – the truth about what is common among humans: in our nature, patterns of behavior in our biology and physiology as well as patterns of history.
• Question ideas not arrogantly but to truly understand if the ideas are viable or congruent with reality.
• Recognize what is general and what is exceptional in reality without mixing the two. General trends help you see patterns to make better decisions while exceptions keep you flexible to the extent that such flexibility may be necessary; but without overriding general patterns.
• Build mental resilience to thrive in objective (as well as your subjective) reality including with the help of a coach.

For those on the “Political Right” Who Are Catholic

1. Jesus is not Politically “Right.”

Jesus managed to annoy all political factions of his time. Even enemies became friends because they had Christ to hate together This was because Christ did not fit the moulid of any popular group. Pharisees became closer to Sadducees. Pilate and Herod became friends. It seems like the only people Christ did not annoy were his disciples and followers. Even they did not always understand him and one of them betrayed him.

Christ’s teaching is the Word of God. Just because it overlaps with certain ideas promoted by the political right does not make Christ a member of the party of the political right. Going by history, if Christ were here today, there is a chance the political right would have disliked him perhaps for having too much support for economic programs for the poor or other presumably “left-leaning” ideas. They would have likely befriended their historical opponents such as the political left to defeat him. This possibility should sober any claims on Christ in context of our political ideas.

TIP:

• Practice the thought that Christ is the Truth and the Truth transcends politics. Seek the truth of a situation by listening to all sides carefully and weighing the moral substance in the light of the gospel. Listen to understand and not simply to wait for your turn to speak.
• Support your political party with a tempered dedication, knowing that it is not perfect or the ultimate truth.
• Try to sincerely befriend people on the political “left” and listen to their point of views. Listen to understand and not to silently judge them.

2. Be Flexible in Mercy While Holding Up Righteousness as the Standard

Christianity is a missionary journey and not a mindset for those who are already in a permanent state of righteousness. As Pope Francis often explains: the Church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum for saints. Therefore, tradition should always have an inch of flexibility so that it doesn’t harden or ossify, closing up on itself without love. This is what happened to the Pharisees of Christ’s time. They avidly promoted rule-following without allowing mercy that exceptions and true love called for. They became self-contented, proud and ultimately killed the person they purported to serve.

TIPS 

• Accept that while we have the Truth in Christ, there will always be situations that are messy. And when it comes to mercy, exceptions can be applied as often as the rule is applied – if not more – because everyone is a sinner and is in need of mercy. This does not mean endorsing sin. It means forgiving and supporting ourselves and others to aim at having and sustaining a better moral life.
• Avoid catastrophizing and generalizing when you encounter difficult situations. These are common psychological schemes plaguing many in contemporary society. They lead to fear-mongering and disable our ability to love and consider mercifully, situations on a case by case basis.
• Criticize positions and not people. Bad ideas may not be redeemable but people are.
• When correcting others on the left, balance your teaching with ways that you can build bridges
• See in others, someone that Christ also died for. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, at minimum, pray for them frequently to return to the path of Christ.

3. Appreciate that the Church is Universal

Christ planned for the Church to include all cultures, ethnicities – all nations, Psalm 72: 7-11. Accordingly, the liturgy of the Mass has various forms such as the Ethiopian or Armenian rites. Even within the Latin Rite which is the largest liturgical form, there has been significant inculturation including liturgical music translated into and developed by various languages and dialects. Some local fabrics are also added to liturgical vestments and altar cloths in parts of Africa and South America. The Church is a unity in diversity. Membership in political parties are only a piece of the Church and should not be confused with the whole – even when a particular political party has the most in common with the Church when compared to other political parties.

TIPS 

• Consider that the difference brought into Catholic practice by other cultures or ways of being, so long as they are moral, are not always a threat to the Church and Her traditions.
• Occasionally, listen and watch Catholic Programs from the Church all over the world .
• Note first that Jesus wanted a universal Church in which ethnic groups can still be identified and seen (Revelations 7: 9)
• Appreciate that Jesus himself and his mother Mary were Palestinian and would be seen as such today. They most likely were not blonde haired and blue eyed as many Europe-inspired images would have you imagine. In today’s western world, they would seem like Palestinian immigrants and likely speak English with a middle-eastern accent.
• Understand that Jesus appreciates diversity. Mary and Jesus have appeared to visionaries around the world in different ethnicities. This is evidence of a heavenly endorsement of inculturation.

4. Balance Mercy and Justice

Justice can be defined as giving each person what is due to them. However, to be like Christ, Justice must be more than that. It should include giving people what they need, even perhaps when they do not totally deserve it. This is the concept of Tzedek in the Old Testament and elaborated in the New Testament through Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, Saint John the Baptist, among others and culminating in Christ. Tzedek implies a generous and gratuitous type of justice or charity. A kind that only God can provide perfectly and which few righteous men demonstrated such as Abraham, Moses, and King David. All were described as “just men” in Scripture. Christ is the perfect example of a just man because his tzedakah or righteous acts were perfectly consistent and consistently perfect, as God alone can do. Observing Christ, we see quickly that His justice is often fused with mercy or a type of generosity that goes beyond the strict sense of giving others their due. The greatest example of this is Christ’s giving up his life to a brutal roman execution as an atonement for our original sin; not because we deserved his atonement (in fact, we deserve death after the fall), but Christ atoned for us because we needed it to be able to live eternally in heaven John 3: 16-21. 

TIPS 

Always put empathy and compassion in justice. The letter of the law should always be backed by the spirit of the law.  This means that strict justice will be applied in some cases but in others, charity and gratuitous justice should be prioritized over a strict following of the letter of the law. Exceptions to the law can be made where charity or tzedek demand it. Some popular examples by Christ are as follows

• See the parable of the Good Samaritan where a Samaritan traveler overcame his differences with the Jews to serve his Jewish neighbor, Luke 10: 25-37.
• The Pharisees were supposed to rejoice that Christ healed on the Sabbath instead of accusing him of working which was not allowed on the Sabbath, according to the law, Luke 6: 6-11.
• See also how Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery. He decided not to condemn her to death even though that was the law. Instead, he forgave her and reminded her to sin no more thereby acting on both justice and mercy, John 8: 1-11.

5. Improve your Emotional Intelligence (Also known as Emotional Quotient or “EQ”)

Having a High IQ or intelligence does not always mean you have a healthy emotional intelligence. According to HelpGuide.com, EQ is “the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.”

EQ is important for building relationships and is a crucial foundation for love, particularly love of neighbor which is a central tenet of Christianity; and the indicator for measuring love of God, 1 John 4: 19.

TIPS 

To improve EQ (with help from HelpGuide.com):

• Self-management – Control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways by being magnanimous: let “small” slights or irritating points of view slide. 
• Social awareness – Listen to understand. Pick up on cues in the emotions and underlying interests that others are not saying directly. Recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization. Restate what you have understood back to your listener, ask questions as to why they think a certain way, restate it back to confirm you have understood; then briefly, calmingly, patiently and prayerfully share where you agree and where you disagree.

7. Relationship is the Whole Point of Christianity

Do you know that God exists in a relationship? The Trinity is a relationship of persons – Father, son and Spirit – who though different in nature are the same in substance. God has extended this relationship to humans by adopting humans into the person of Jesus, His son. We are therefore sons in the son provided we remain in a state of grace through obedience to God’s Will. This is a great mystery and a gift. It implies that Christ is our brother and that other humans are our siblings. Therefore, if your politics makes you see others as less than a child of God or less than a co-relative in Christ, here are some tips for you.

TIPS 

• Practice seeing others as God sees them. There is no other way to do this but to practice.
• Emphasize human dignity and what is good about others as often as possible.

• Recall and meditate on the fact that Christ chose Judas as a disciple even though he knew Judas would betray him. He also forgave all his disciples (almost all had abandoned him in His time of trial).

Conclusion

Catholics should vote and participate in politics, keeping in mind that they are there to be Catholics first. Confusing our politics with our Catholic faith is an error in virtue and theology as the examples above from Christ and the Church demonstrate.

The Point of our Catholic Faith is to Love God and our neighbor – irrespective of political parties. To recognize that we are all in a fallen world together. To see the other person and their apparent sin as two separate things and to love the person as Christ loves them.

Both sides of the political divide are invited to read the tips of the “other” side laid out above. Read not to condemn but to learn. The Christian errors of both sides are similar. Both could be traced back to pride. Both sides think too highly of themselves for different reasons. The left believe they are sufficient whereas the right believe they are sufficient because they have more congruency with Church teaching. However no party, and no one is sufficient. Only Christ is sufficient.

Until we leave this earth and enter heaven – God willing – both political left and right would do well to make the best of our earthly situation and try to improve in their love of God and neighbor using the above tips, based on Scripture and Church teaching, as a guide along the way.