Voting on Truth

It appears that the citizens in our own state of Missouri are going to be allowed to vote this November on whether to overturn the current laws and decide whether infanticide is an acceptable practice. I am certainly disappointed that the question is even being asked, and also praying for those who got this put on the ballot. I pray for their repentance (because if they do not, there is no doubt they will each spend eternity in Hell--regardless of what other nice things they may do).

This is one of the reasons why democracy is so prone to evil (once again, no, I am not--absolutely not--a socialist of any kind). Once we allow the concept that the common man (read: educated or not) can decide what is good and what is evil, we have opened the doors to corruption. Here, we should see clearly, why the Church is not (and never will be) a democracy. Yes, I know there are parishes that are run much like a democracy; I am not saying it does not happen, just that it is not Catholic to do so.

I recall years ago as a protestant pastor hearing about a well-known denomination that had just "voted" on a few theological issues to decide whether they were true. Everyone got together in some formal kind of meeting and cast their vote as to whether Jesus had really said and did the things stated in the gospel (I kid you not!). No, theology does not work like that.

Just yesterday I spoke someone seeking to convert and become Catholic and he said something that was profoundly powerful. He told me that he was beginning to find a comfort in the fact that the Catholic Church would tell him what is true and what is not, and he no longer had that weight on his shoulders. The oppressive weight of private interpretation is unbearable to anyone with the slightest amount of honesty about their own weaknesses. Only those who have puffed themselves up like modern day Pharisees can find any true comfort in the idea of private interpretation of the Scriptures.

So, while our nation and our state can vote on things that they should not be voting on, we must realize that they do not have the power that they imagine that they have: truth is still true, and no amount of votes can change reality. All that they can change is how much pain that they put people through, and the severity of the eternal punishment that will be given to them for doing so.