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                How do we – priests, religious, lay persons – become involved in efforts to build a human society which respects the dignity and promotes the welfare of all?  Obviously, as believers we must call attention to the moral and religious dimensions of all issues.  We must point out the demands of our Christian Faith for a just transformation of society.  We must keep the gospel values alive and well in a world that needs them desperately.

                How many of us take a stand on the side of gospel values when issues arise in public education, housing, homelessness, sexuality and health care?  How many can be counted on to speak out in defense of human life at all its stages in a society that tolerates abortion on demand well over a million times a year, or teaches people how to take one’s own life?

                Our Christian Faith doesn’t invite us to become involved.  It demands that we speak up.  It assures us that when we do, our lives will take on more meaning and dignity in the eyes of God and all members of the human family.

                In a few months we will be asked to vote for the candidate of our choice.  Is it proper for us to vote precisely as a Christian?  That is, to make political choices based primarily on Christian values and principles?  I would answer yes.  Emphatically yes!!

                We have let secular society give us a kind of inferiority complex.  We too often speak and act as if the biblical understanding of man and of human society were in some way inferior, or as if it were somehow unfair for us to advance our religious views and values in the public arena.

                We need to remind ourselves that the Christian perspective does not originate with Christians but with Christ.  It was God who created the human race, who established human society.  He is the one who understands how it is supposed to operate.  When we argue for a biblical principle, it is not merely our own idea we are putting forward but God’s wisdom. 

                There are no easy answers.  We should vote, and we should vote as Christians, but that does not mean it is going to be easy.  Deciding to vote as Christians does not automatically point us to the “right” position on all issues.  Deciding to vote as a Christian does not tell us which candidate to vote for in many instances.  If anything, voting as a Christian must take more study, more hard thinking, and more prayer, not less.  If we are going to fulfill our commission to bring the mind of Christ to bear on the problems of our day, into the political arena, then we had better get down to work.  The upcoming election provides us with a grand opportunity.  Do not let this opportunity slip by us.  Our future and the future of our country are at stake.