Whatever is ailing us as a country is resulting in an alarming uptick of political violence. Hateful rhetoric is certainly one of the main culprits. At root, at least in my view, making something provisional, namely politics, ultimate is a huge problem. Too many people are finding ultimate meaning in the vacuity of politics.
Like wealth, politics cannot save you but it can surely damn you. Too many people are not content to think someone who holds a different view is merely wrong. Too often, someone who holds an opposing is seen as evil. What this amounts to something like- "If you don't agree with me, you're clearly acting in bad faith." Like money, politics easily becomes an idol, complete with saints and messiahs. Money, power, and sex are now and have always been Satan's greatest tools.
I admit to not knowing much about Charlie Kirk. I know enough about him to know that as the founder of Turning Point USA he often travelled to college campuses, setup a pavilion, and sought to engage in argument with all comers. On YouTube last fall, during the election, I watched some of these exchanges. At least to me, it was more political theater than serious engagement.
In my view, wise and prudent students spent their time in the library studying or in class. Nonetheless, these were the circumstances in which Kirk was maliciously shot and killed. An abhorrent and cowardly act. I am not going to try to investigate or adjudicate his murder on my blog. It isn't just sad. It's horrific and should be (yet another) wake up call to all of us, a prompt to dial it down several notches.
Now, this is not to say that I disagreed with Kirk on everything but there was plenty with which I did not agree. But this isn't really about the issues- both sides gave up serious engagement with issues about 10 years ago. We now mistake propaganda for legitimate political discourse.
The result of our seduction by propaganda is the "meme-ifcation" of politics. The motor of propaganda is the generation of slogans. Memes amount to sloganeering in the service of propaganda. A complex issue resolved in one or two pithy sentences.
What passes for conservatism in the U.S.today is not conservative in the least. It is a pretty radical program of the kind that make true conservatives wary. A conservative, after all, needs to grasp what it is s/he is trying to conserve. To write more on this would to be digress.
Lest, during this time of polarization, when many insist that you must pick one extreme or the other, I will note that I feel the same way about other media/political milieux on the opposite end of the political spectrum. I have long insisted that our decreasing ability to make important distinctions endangers us, like our refusal to find common ground on vexing matters. I would also say our political polarization is diabolical. In Greek diabolos is one who divides. This is the opposite of E pluribus unum- something like "from the many, one."
About 20 years ago, one of the bishops under whom I've served, a very intelligent and moderate man, in a conversation about politics in the United States, insisted that the worst thing that was happening in our country was the collapse of the political center. He was right, as we can now see. When the center doesn't hold, things fall apart.
Far from morally non-committal, moderates understand that prudence governs all the virtues. They also grasp that the object should determine the method, the contrary of the old saw "when everything looks like a nail, all you need is a hammer." Moderates, to put it provocatively, were usually the adults in the room and thus able to broker the kinds of political compromises our political system requires in order to function.
While not prophetic, the bishop's observation about the collapse of the political center was an astute observation. This same bishop, holding a PH.d in English literature, was a very literary person. Our regression from literacy back orality is just that, regress, not progress. If nothing else, it contributes to the erasure of memory, which, as anyone who has read 1984 knows, is vital in the service to truth.
To stick only with the victims of explicitly political violence: I lament Charlie Kirk's murder. I lament the murders of Melissa and Mark Hortman. I lament the wounding of John and Yvette Hoffman.
It isn't just "the other side" that bears the burden of making our political discourse more civil. Just like peace on earth begins with me, civil discourse begins with me. Christian faith is not a political ideology. The Church has survived and thrived in a multitude of political constucts and will do so until the end of time. This isn't to say that Christianity has no political implications: it certainly does. But being Catholic in one's political orientation makes it difficult to fit comfortably into any party or group.
As not only a Catholic but as a Catholic cleric, I try to take my political cue from Church teaching, particularly the Church's well-established but always developing social teaching. Catholic social teaching is erected on four pillars: dignity of the human person (this includes every, single person), the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity. Solidarity and subsidiarity, like political conservatism and political liberalism, moderate each other.
Over the years Psalm 51, known by Roman Catholics as the Miserere, has been our Friday traditio several times. I can think of nothing more fitting for today than this psalm of contrition. So, Psalm 51 in Aramaiac, sung for Pope Francis, is our traditio today. Kyrie eleison.
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