Catholic Bishop and Protestant Pastors Rally Voters to Confront “Evil” at Ballot Box

So often today we use weasel words, terms that just aren’t, you might say, “up to the challenge.” We may state that something is “inappropriate,” “suboptimal,” “problematic,” “misguided,” or “inadvisable” — even if it’s downright wicked. But not so with Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. He’s urging Catholics to “confront the evil in our world,” which, this November 3, is actually on Virginia’s ballot.

Mounting a parallel effort on this front are more than 150 Protestant pastors. At issue are two proposed Virginia constitutional amendments on abortion and same-sex “marriage.” And all these clergymen are hoping that some moral clarity will rally voters against them.

This gets at an even wider issue, too. Moral clarity informs that all elections are a matter of good and evil, right and wrong. This realization could perhaps inspire election turnout among church-going Christians, tens of millions of whom habitually fail to vote.

“Virginia Is for Lovers”? Yes, but of Good or Evil?

Reporting on the current story, the Daily Signal wrote Wednesday:

Bishop Michael Burbidge met with Catholic priests throughout the Diocese of Arlington last Thursday to reinforce the importance of defeating two constitutional amendments on the Virginia ballot.

The proposed amendments have prompted an unprecedented effort by Burbidge to raise awareness among Virginia Catholics. Question 1 would expand abortion access throughout pregnancy while undermining parental consent for minors. Question 2 would redefine marriage and enshrine transgender ideology in the state constitution.

“These are tough and challenging days, and these are very unsettling questions we’re voting on,” Burbidge said on the latest episode of his “Walk Humbly” podcast. “But we have the truth, and we have prayer, we have fasting.”

Burbidge has asked Catholics to spend October fasting and praying for the defeat of the two proposed amendments. On Fridays, he asked Catholics to pray the Stations of the Cross and to fast, eating only one full meal and no meat. On Sundays, he asked Catholics to pray the Rosary and fast from social media for at least a few hours, ideally before and after Mass.

Such efforts have a long history (minus the social-media abstinence!). During the Crusades era in the Middle Ages, for example, prayer and fasting were part of piety movements that arose. These Christians knew they were confronting evil and that they were part of a “total-war effort” — physical and spiritual.

Also fighting on both fronts (voting is a physical act) are the aforementioned pastors. The Daily Signal reported on them as well, telling us on September 27 that more

than 150 Virginia pastors have signed an open letter urging voters to reject two proposed constitutional amendments on abortion and marriage. The letter adds a broad coalition of Protestant voices to the growing faith-based opposition ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

“We believe these two amendments must be rejected for the Commonwealth of Virginia because they will harm our state as they are opposed to human flourishing and contrary to the Word of God,” the pastors write.

Elaborating and addressing prenatal infanticide, the clergymen stated:

Abortion is the killing of a pre-born child in the womb. It is moral distortion to present this violation of the sixth commandment as a moral good or as a fundamental right, and it is deceptive framing to present abortion’s destruction of life as healthcare.

As for “marriage,” the pastors stated that the term has only one meaning. That is, “the uniting of one man and one woman into a single, exclusive union.…”

“‘What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate’ (Matthew 19:6),” they continued. “It is likewise true to say what God has defined, let not man seek to redefine.”

Christian Duty?

A question now arises, however: Will this get those MIA Christian voters to the polls? Some perhaps, not all. Many Christians, you see, ignore political affairs, believing they’re to be floating around in the ether — “above it all.” Yet this just places them below much; in particular, their obligations to others. After all, performing civic duty is a moral duty.

Christians, of course, should prioritize moral behavior. Their many good works are, too, why they’re the world’s most charitable people. But if our inaction enables government that will do bad works, is it not itself akin to a bad work?

The Founding Fathers certainly would agree. Nearly all the 56 Declaration of Independence signatories were affiliated with Christian congregations, and they did more than vote. They established a new government, rebelling against history’s greatest empire — and risking being hanged by the neck.

In fact, Declaration signatory-to-be John Witherspoon preached a Christian sermon advocating the Revolutionary cause on May 17, 1776. This date was a General Fast day, announced by the American Colonies’ congress. This is just as how medieval Christians had called for piety centuries earlier and how Bishop Burbidge does so today.

In his sermon, Witherspoon deemed the cause in which America was “now in arms” one of “justice, of liberty, and of human nature.” Not weasel-lipped, either, he used words up to the challenge — such as “evil.”

Of course, Christians today aren’t called to hot war, but a cold political/cultural one. They’re not to take up the sword, but the ballot. It’s helpful remembering here, too, a congregational confession of sin recited in many churches. “We have sinned … in what we have done,” it states — “and in what we have failed to do”

Let us not add to the latter a failure to cast an informed vote.