What he does. . .

Those of you who know me know that I hate to be political especially in an election year.  That said, there is something worth our attention as we consider people both in secular office and in the life of the Church.  It is the difference, perhaps distinction, between rhetoric and actions, between words and deeds.  

Over the last four years or more we have heard many words from Democrats about the centrality of the family and bringing America together over the political divide and working together across the aisle.  But in actions we have witnessed a profound shift to the left from Biden and Harris.  On the other hand, Trump seems always to find a way to embarrass us with his bravado, ego, and insensitivity but his actions as President were profoundly friendly to the cause of religious freedom and to the cause of life.  Sometimes you have to look past what people say to what they have done.  I think it is true for most conservatives that this is the only way we can support a man like Trump.  On the other hand, those on the left are in a similar predicament.  Harris keeps reminding people that she has a gun even though she is decidedly on the other side of the second amendment most of the time.  People who want to strip the people of their firearms are willing to look past the words of Candidate Harris to see what she does with it all.  

The interesting thing here is neither Trump nor Harris.  They are both old news in a sense.  What I find most intriguing is how this same idea relates to a guy like Pope Francis.  His words have been sometimes a comfort to people who take the Christian faith seriously but his actions have been shockingly liberal.  He appoints people to leadership positions in the Roman Catholic Church who have challenged and even ridiculed the faith the Catechism of that body confesses.  Prime is the example of the Roman Catholic position on homosexuality and gender identity.  Yet even here Pope Francis is an enigma.  He publicly admits what appear to be his own doubts about the traditional teaching on such matters.  Even when his words have been good (on surrogacy, for example) his actions have been downright scary to orthodox Christians of all stripes.  He has appeared to be a breath of fresh air in the sale Vatican and yet he is the most controlling and vindictive of the modern popes and though he speaks of synodality he runs his part of the enterprise with a very heavy and centralized hand.

It is all a reminder that words matter but sometimes what matters even more are what people do.  This is especially true of politics but it is also true of religion.  I fear that this is the wave of the future -- political figures and religious leaders whose words and actions are not at all in the same vein.  If that is the case, we are in trouble.  We have little to judge our politicos by except their words and, when elected, their actions.  We have little to judge our religious leaders by except their words and, as we can see them, their actions.  It is a tragedy that our leaders in church and in state seem to say one thing and do another.  Even when the doing is better than their words, it leaves us more cynical than ever and more apt to disengage from both religion and politics.  And that is a bad thing!

It is time for us to take off the masks and to be who we are.  This would better serve the political process but it would also better serve our trust in people and institutions all around us.  Consistency is what we are looking for.  Without it we continually feel that we have been mocked, deceived, and bulldozed and have nothing to show for us except the scars.  There was a time when politicos were fairly reliable and consistent, when governing and religion were defined by principles and when a handshake actually meant something.