Just yesterday, the governor of Idaho, a state filled with people who I love dearly, enacted a strict abortion law modeled after Texas’s and I’m getting nervous. Not because these laws are about abortion, but because the people in power are claiming that this is their right; that this is what the people in their states want.
But is this true? As somebody who used to vote Republican and who believes life starts at conception, this is not what I want. I do not want to live in a community where people are incentivized to turn against one another.
Every single one of these laws relies on a regular citizen snooping on their brother or sister or mother or father or friend or neighbor. Every single law relies on the people in the community turning against one another.
That is not good governing.
That is not what it means to be Christian.
In the Catholic Church, we are taught to recognize pain and do everything in our power to be the healers God asks us to be. We are taught that every single person, simply because they exist, is worthy of love. Love looks like listening and understanding. Love looks like support and care. Love is NOT turning in a friend for financial gain. Judas taught us that.
As a Catholic Christian, these leaders can no longer claim to speak for me. I have no desire to live in a country that intentionally turns its people against one another. We have enough divisiveness already.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)
god forever tries 