When Catholicism Becomes a Political Party

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The pattern is obvious and it shows itself throughout Catholic life. Catholics come in wit h a political framework alrea dy in place, and then they start filtering, selecting, and prioritizing Church teaching based on what already fits their political framework.

We’ve been doing it with “Jesus” for decades. Whatever we find in the Bible that doesn’t accord with our errant preconception of Jesus, we overlook, toss away, ignore, or explain it away with a statement like “I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way.” But whatever fits what we think we know about Jesus, that’s what we focus on, and even magnify beyond even the parameters of the scripture itself.

Now we do it with the Catholic Faith. It’s the exact same paradigm of reconfiguration and distortion. Teachings that align with our instincts get emphasized, while teachings that challenge or indict us get tossed away. Teachings that don’t “make sense” to us or that we don’t agree with get downplayed, reinterpreted, or ignored