Remember What Jesus Actually Did Do

The old saying goes you shouldn’t talk religion or politics over dinner.

However, nothing was ever clearly stipulated about talking faith over Easter brunch. So for those who want to avoid the discussion, now might be a good time to get those chocolate eggs you hid in the forced air vents last night.

As a Catholic, Easter represents the holiest weekend of the year, a time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and give thanks. It’s also an appropriate time to reflect on the health of ones faith. Especially given today’s atmosphere when it comes to religion.  

After writing this column for over two years and publishing over 50,000 printed words, the most memorable reader responses have come after columns about government’s role in dealing with contentious social issues. These responses have been less about meritorious objections and more about attacks on my Catholicism and my relationship with God.

“I can’t believe you’re a Catholic”, an email read after a column on viable ways to prevent abortions. Another one admonished me because I wrote that science not ideology should dictate public policy. “Quite naïve Andrew” the reader replied. One said I should be denied Holy Communion because I wasn’t a real Catholic.

But my favorite came from a reader who wrote “All I can tell you Andrew is that I will pray for you as I know that you were brought up Catholic, and know what God thinks about all this”.

So what does God think about all this?

Well, it seems strange that in a day and age when a common question is “What would Jesus do?” We forget what Jesus actually did. Through the gospels, we know that justice, compassion and reconciliation were the cornerstones of his teachings. It was all about forgiveness and faith. And his message on tolerance was very clear.

In Matthew, Jesus asks his disciples “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” This lesson of self-reflection is revisited again in John when Jesus challenges the persecutors of an adulteress to “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone”.

But throwing stones for religions sake and political gain has become commonplace.

We see it constantly with wedge issues designed to divide instead of unite. It’s a way to impugn values and convictions by a process of association. These divides force people to choose corners while impeding solutions based on justice, compassion and reconciliation. These exercises aren’t about seeking faith in God they’re about putting faith in partisan politics. They are fool’s errands.  

In  “God & Politics: Why The Right Gets It Wrong And The Left Doesn’t Get It”, author Jim Wallis speaks to why our personal faith has suddenly become partisan political commodity. Today, it’s not about being on God’s side, it’s about trying to prove God is on your side.

Wallis details how today’s politics has created an environment where politicians are invoking God’s blessing on public policies. And by inferring that God has somehow chosen sides, it risks hubris and misguided intentions. But in striving to be on God’s side, that leads to humility, reflection and maybe even penitence—the missing values in politics.

Eight weeks ago while lying in the hospital, anxiety inevitably caught up with me. To calm myself I kept repeating a reassuring spiritual sound bite sent to me by a reader. “If God brings you to it – he will bring you through it”. Truth be told, seeking faith has always proven more productive than seeking sides.

In the beginning it was Jesus who posed the question of faith to his frantic disciples. After calming both raging winds and seas, Jesus demanded to know “Where is your faith?”

In the end the question will be exactly the same: Where is your faith? And no amount of email criticism or partisan pandering will ever change the fact that only one person gets to answer that question. No matter what your faith is.

Please pass the scrambled eggs.