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(Caveat Lector: use your discernment.) When first my body was dead -- you don't read that in every blog, now do you -- Jesus told me many things that shocked me and turned my worldview inside out. This post is about one matter the Lord stressed at some length and has required that I entirely change my frame for looking at such things.
The Lord Jesus told me to never choose the lesser of 2 evils. He said it was an idea that was a lie from the father of lies, and it only served to control human beings like livestock. It was a very difficult confrontation for me because I am a child of my culture and I wasn't prepared at that point to admit that my culture stood in such naked opposition to God on most things.
The Lord showed me a particular presidential election in the USA. I knew the result. I had had to hold my nose and vote for an unworthy candidate -- a lesser of 2 evils. The Lord then showed me what would have happened if we had been freed from this demonic pattern of choosing between evils or rather between unworthy candidates. In that particular federal election, the Lord showed me that neither party candidate would have been elected, and someone entirely unexpected would have been voted into office by the Electoral College. He showed me the future that would have unfolded from that moment for the USA, and seeing it and knowing the reality in which we live it still fills my heart with the most incredible pain.
We sell ourselves short and then we materially participate in putting into office (read: power) people who hurt and deceive us. And we do this election after election after election. We are poised as a nation to do this again. Many of you will "hold your nose" and vote either for the Republican or the Democrat knowing full well that your conscience tells you that the person you are voting for is unworthy of your vote and that there are better people whose names you could write in on a federal paper ballot.
If you vote choosing the lesser of 2 evils, ...when you die, you will face a most excruciating self-awareness as you are brought face to face with how your willingness to choose one of 2 undeserving individuals gave humanity a far darker future than if you had stood on your own integrity and cast a ballot for a woman or man you could fully, whole-heartedly support.
Integrity brings an increase of integrity. Choosing the lesser of 2 evils brings with it more of the same. Because each of our choices is known to the divine mind, God can easily tell us whether our choices were truly of our own integrity or if we were abrogating our individual responsibility because of a culturally imposed norm or peer/cultural conditioning. In terms of eternity, there is no wasted vote so long as how you choose to vote is consistent with what you know of yourself -- and if you are a believer in God then you have to realise that you will visit with God about this choice.
My experience of God is that choosing the lesser of 2 evils is not a defensible reason in itself. Sometimes we use the expression "lesser of 2 evils" when we do not mean 'evil' at all. We mean one is rotten, and the other is a little less rotten so we'll vote for the less rotten one. As a rule I do not choose between 2 rotten bananas. If one is more rotten than the other, I don't want to eat either: I throw both rotten bananas into the compost and get an apple to eat.
My understanding is that God expects us to always choose what is good and to leave what is rotten alone. The same thing goes for real evil. In the November election, we are at a point where a lot of folks would rather vote Queen Elizabeth into office than either of the 2 candidates we have got. (If you are serious, remember to write her name as "Elizabeth Windsor, Queen of England" on the ballot.)
At this point in November, if I am still alive as well as an U.S. citizen, I will require a paper ballot with which to vote. And on that ballot I will be writing in the name of someone I believe would be the best person for the job. I won't be writing in Queen Elizabeth's name as a protest vote or the name of Mickey Mouse, but I will write in the name of someone I believe is best and concerning whom I do not believe my vote would require me to materially participate in evil ... whether that evil is (1) undeclared wars, the killing of innocent civilians, and the assassination of citizens by presidential executive order or (A) the declaration that a corporation is a person as I am a person, that the IRS and the NDAA should continue as they are today, and that the many Executive Orders of the past forty years are just dandy -- evil is evil.
And let us recall the gospel according to Dr. Seuss: A person is a person no matter how small. As Catholics how can we vote for anyone who has never repented of supporting the murder of human beings in the womb of their mother. It isn't simply making the right policy decisions regarding human life. We need to look to see if they have financially benefitted or supported businesses that make profit from the murder of small human beings. Such persons must publicly repent if we are to advance any credibility to their candidacy. If Catholics took this seriously in the USA, they could change everything. But when compromising on the essential of protecting human life, every other decision taken will be a decision clouded in darkness. As Catholics our electoral choices must be consistent with living in the marvellous light of Christ.
My hope is that if you have read this the next time you cast a ballot you will do so with a clear conscience and in a manner consistent with your own integrity. Because you are you and I am I, we will come to those decisions in unique ways. But if we give up our personal integrity, put blinders on with respect to wrongs committed and wrong-headed positions taken by candidates, or decide to choose the lesser of 2 evils, we will be in a far darker future e'er long than the one we would have had if we stood on our integrity and cast a ballot for someone we believed was truly worthy of the high office.
+Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.
