Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new administration in D.C. Whether you voted for him or not, I believe a few comments are in order from a Catholic perspective.
First, Catholicism has always encouraged active and faithful participation in the public square where policies and laws are created that influence and control the lives of all people. We should feel the obligation to let our love of God guide the love we have for our country. It’s too easy to let our faith be something strictly personal, something we just take care of on a Sunday morning. It’s also quite understandable to feel apathetic about what those put in office by the electoral process say and do with the authority they possess. So, the first thing all of us believers should commit to is to pray that officials exercise their authority with a strong sense that any authority they have comes to them from above. The words of Jesus before Pilate are just as true today as when first uttered. So let us pray that everyone from President Trump down to the newest “dog catcher” consider the counsel of faithful religious people around them.
We should recall the words of John Adams, the second president, who said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’ There are a number of people who have fought against the Trump campaign, often sighting his checkered moral past. Top of their list are those examples of “womanizing” or “philandering” of the past. Only God knows the accuracy of all the accusations we’ve been made aware, but suffice it to say, few are saying he’s without any sin. Lest such an awareness of such a checkered past cause a deeper sense of apathy in one’s patriotic soul; I believe God would have us pray for him and his continual conversion.
There is something strange or out of the ordinary about a man whose track record of marriages and relationships is less than stellar who has worked so hard at renewing the deep respect for God's gift of life by promoting prolife policies and personnel as well as biblical marriage. There is a natural tendency for people who have failed in this area of life to support more liberal pro-abortion policies. The new President’s pro-life efforts are there for the viewing. The heated opposition to his campaign by those committed to abortion rights shows the world he is not following the normal course of a philanderer. There is good reason to believe he can continue the road of conversion and a deeper walk with the Lord.
Other political figures whose Christian credentials were much more prominent often compromise the Catholic teaching about respect for life of the unborn and use their authority to maintain abortion rights. Let’s pray this week, not just for this new President, but for a renewal of the sense of “Christendom” for our country. I pray too, if I am right about his sense of conversion that he will inspire other folks with “checkered moral histories” to a deeper conversion to Christ.