Pro neque Donald Trump neque Hillaria Clinton Censui

Donald Trump
President-Elect of the United States

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

As long time readers already know, I voted for neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton. Instead, I cast my vote for Ben Carson during the Republican Primary Election in my home state, and then for Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party in the General Election. I reviewed the platforms of the major parties: Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green and Constitution. I voted based on which platform I thought was closest to the teaching of Holy Mother Church. I did not vote based on which candidate was most popular or most likely to win. I also did not vote based on empty promises to serve either economic prosperity and national security, or social justice, the common good and planetary peace. The primary non-negotiable issues were these:

• No abortion
• No homosexual marriage
• No embryonic stem cell research
• No euthanasia
• No human cloning

Promises that politicians make to improve society so as to obviate the need of abortion or other such heinous crime meant nothing to me. Righteous and holiness, conversion and repentance come before, not after health and prosperity. Accusations of racism and homophobia and misogyny likewise meant nothing to me.

• My wife is Filipino and I Caucasian; we are both members of the human race. Differences in the melanin of our skin cells are accidents of birth, and differences in culture are accidents of where we were raised as children. 
• Some of my closest friends in the past and one roommate were homosexual. Several co-workers were likewise homosexual. My friendship with them has nothing to do with their sexual preference, nor does that change the fact that homosexual activity is as sinful as adultery and fornication.
• Feminism and being accused of misogyny likewise meant nothing to me; my favorite heroines include Judith of Biblical fame who decapitated evil Holofernes and St. Joan of Arc; the difference between femininity - true womanhood - and the androgyny of feminism is quite clear. I love women for I am married to one. 

Basically I tried to bear in mind what Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Sacramentum Caritatis:

Here it is important to consider what the Synod Fathers described as eucharistic consistency, a quality which our lives are objectively called to embody. Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms (230). These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature (231). There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29). Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them (232)....

...As I have had occasion to say, it is not the proper task of the Church to engage in the political work of bringing about the most just society possible; nonetheless she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the struggle for justice. The Church "has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper.

In a 2002 Doctrinal Note approved by Pope John Paul II called The Participation of Catholics in Political Life, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.” He explained:

When political activity comes up against moral principles that do not admit of exception, compromise or derogation, the Catholic commitment becomes more evident and laden with responsibility. In the face of fundamental and inalienable ethical demands, Christians must recognize that what is at stake is the essence of the moral law, which concerns the integral good of the human person. This is the case with laws concerning abortion and euthanasia (not to be confused with the decision to forgo extraordinary treatments, which is morally legitimate). Such laws must defend the basic right to life from conception to natural death. In the same way, it is necessary to recall the duty to respect and protect the rights of the human embryo. Analogously, the family needs to be safeguarded and promoted, based on monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, and protected in its unity and stability in the face of modern laws on divorce: in no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such. The same is true for the freedom of parents regarding the education of their children; it is an inalienable right recognized also by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. In the same way, one must consider society’s protection of minors and freedom from modern forms of slavery (drug abuse and prostitution, for example). In addition, there is the right to religious freedom and the development of an economy that is at the service of the human person and of the common good, with respect for social justice, the principles of human solidarity and subsidiarity, according to which “the rights of all individuals, families, and organizations and their practical implementation must be acknowledged”. Finally, the question of peace must be mentioned. Certain pacifistic and ideological visions tend at times to secularize the value of peace, while, in other cases, there is the problem of summary ethical judgments which forget the complexity of the issues involved. Peace is always “the work of justice and the effect of charity”. It demands the absolute and radical rejection of violence and terrorism and requires a constant and vigilant commitment on the part of all political leaders.

Therefore, having read these and other things, it became clear that voting for the candidates of a political party which advocates the sanctification of homosexual relations as marriage and the legality of the infanticide of the unborn cannot be supported. That eliminated the Democratic, Libertarian and Green Party candidates. Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein all openly supported intrinsic moral evils. That left Donald Trump and Darrell Castle. Of the two, I did not trust Trump's newfound conservatism to be authentic, and I was distrustful of RINOs - Republicans in Name Only. So I vote for Darrell Castle (whom I knew would lose).

Now on election night my wife and I stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning watching the returns on Fox News. When it became apparent that Trump won, I did breathe a sigh of relief because while my chosen candidate did not win, I knew that at least we would not have a continuation of the past eight years where Christians are marginalized and sued in the public square, heinous sins like abortion and homosexuality are lauded and paraded about, and borders are opened for terrorists to enter the country in the stream of illegal aliens.

Nevertheless, let me be clear:

• I believe in freedom of religion for Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Shintoists or whatever in the public square. I also believe in leaving homosexuals to live their lives in peace. But nowhere in that is it right to force Christians to violate their consciences.
• I also believe in the sanctity of life. A baby's body is not a woman's body. If a woman and the man who wants to have conjugal relations with her do NOT want a baby, then they need to refrain from sexual intercourse. What are we? Wild baboons given to the lust of our passions, having to titillate our genitals and then abdicate our responsibility and evade our accountability for the resulting pregnancy? If we are so logical and scientific and rational, then why are we so incapable of using the brains that God gave us? 
• And lastly I believe in welcoming the alien. I took two Filipina immigrants into my apartment free of charge before I married and provided for their needs without government reimbursement. But they were LEGAL immigrants and therein lies the difference.

So now Donald Trump is President, and I did not chose him. In response young millennials in large cities like Seattle, Portland, LA, NYC, etc. did not just protest but destroyed property, threatened and harmed police, and attacked those on the right of the political spectrum. Then came the excuses about why the left lost the election:

• Jim Comey's re-opening of Hillary's email sever scandal ruined her chances
• Fake news from right wing sources cause Hillary's loss
• The Electoral College caused her loss
• The Russians hacking into DNC email servers did it

Excuse after excuse was offered up, and an end-run to intimidate the Electoral College was made. Now we have cries, "Trump - not my President." Imagine if the right had done that with Barack Obama. St. Paul however tells us what the truth of the matter is in Romans 13:1-7:

Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil.b Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it, for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer. Therefore, it is necessary to be subject not only because of the wrath but also because of conscience. This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

That means that like it or not, the authority of Donald Trump as President is established by God. We know this to be true because of the precedence established by what the prophet Isaiah said regarding pagan King Cyrus of Persia in Isaiah 45:1-2:

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
Subduing nations before him,
stripping kings of their strength,
Opening doors before him,
leaving the gates unbarred:

I will go before you
and level the mountains;
Bronze doors I will shatter,
iron bars I will snap.

Even our first Pope, St. Peter, writes in 1st Peter 2:13-17 the following:

Be subject to every human institution for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme
or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the approval of those who do good.
For it is the will of God that by doing good you may silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Be free, yet without using freedom as a pretext for evil, but as slaves of God.
Give honor to all, love the community, fear God, honor the king.

And David before he became king acted in this way. King Saul had been chasing him throughout the countryside to kill him, and when David has a chance to retaliate, he said in 1st Samuel 24:7:

The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to lay a hand on him, for he is the LORD’s anointed.

Therefore, whether I like him or not, Donald Trump IS our President and as Catholic Christians we are required to respect him and pray for him. Speaking of which, at every Mass at Our Lady of Grace Father Kirby always includes a prayer for the President and the President-Elect. Furthermore, the 1928 Anglican Book of Common Prayer has an excellent prayer for those in authority. It would do well for us to remember this, especially considering that both St. Paul and St. Peter lived in a time when evil Roman Emperors persecuted Christians and yet required Christian obedience to Roman authority.

ALMIGHTY God, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite; Have mercy upon this whole land; and so rule the hearts of thy servants THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, The Governor of this State, and all others in authority, that they, knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek thy honour and glory; and that we and all the People, duly considering whose authority they bear, may faithfully and obediently honour them, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. Amen.