Thursday, September 11, 2008

Catholic Vote - 67 Million Strong

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3 comments:

David Nybakke said...

Dear Athos,
Great new video. I tried to embed the video on our blog and was unable to.

You familiar with Fidelis? They are the ones behind Catholicvote.com.

Interesting organizational goals or rather mission for influence.

Would you say that they could be seen as the actual "fighting-in-the-trenches" extension of Corpus Christianum?

I don't want to be negative about the video, but after reading one of the comments from Creative Minority Report I would have to agree with Anonymous as s/he writes:
"I have to disagree with the majority of positive comments. I see this as a missed opportunity.
While I think the images and copy are good, I believe they are all for naught, when at the end is the text: "Vote your conscience."
This is the "out" folks use who view all issues of equal weight: "Well, I'm just following my conscience."
VERY rarely is it ever explained that one's conscience is to be well formed by the Word of God as our light for our path, examined before the Lord's Cross, assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by witness/advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church. (via the Catechism)
If it was explained, not only that we follow our conscience, but more important, that it is correctly formed and how to do that, this I think, would make all the difference."

Aramis here: I think also this clarification of formation opens other doors to needed conversations about our faith and what it means to truly follow in the Tradition. I believe all of us Catholics regularly need this reality check so we catch ourselves before we stray too far away from the faith. And from a Girardian perspective this point can't be stressed enough!

September 11, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Athos said...

I agree with 'Anonymous' about the "Vote your conscience" imperative; however, we live in perilous times when the Church herself may face litigation for supporting and lending assistance to politicians and, thus, lose exemption from taxation or worse.

I think "VYC" means "Vote acc. to a conscience catechetically formed and infused by Catholic truth." And this is about as clear as can be stated. But this is my hypothesis.

September 11, 2008 at 12:33 PM
David Nybakke said...

Ah, I agree Athos. And alas I am stumped.

Anonymous' comment though brought home what I feel is a huge problem in the world and why Gil Bailie's ERI is so important. We need teachers to teach us. Gil remarked in the "Let This Mind be in You" series, tape 11, that terms like equality and human rights have had a role in history to stop the murder(s), however they have been co-opted in the attempt to de-Christianize the moral force at the heart of the Western civilization. I believe that this term 'conscience' in the Catholic video has similiarly been hijacked by secular and Enlightenment humanists to where most of us walk around in a fog as to how our conscience is formed or worse they simply figure that it is the enlightened self which determines the conscience. I agree with Anonymous that many or might I say most of us of the West have bought in on the Enlightenment idea and that is why this slogan, "vote your conscience" will be (way too easily) co-opted by Obama. Anyone who I know who is saying that they will vote for Obama feels that they are voting their conscience when they vote for him.

How do we separate, if you will, a direct endorsement of a political candidate and the direct teaching of the formation of our conscience and faith?

September 11, 2008 at 2:43 PM

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