The Cathedral Close

On Tuesday, November 8th, we will go to the polls in a national and local elections.  I have been repeatedly asked to address the question of the election and the candidates. Up  to today,  I have not done so from the pulpit, but have simply urged you to remember that one doesn’t take off one’s faith at the door of the polling place.  However, simply urging people to “vote their conscience” is neither helpful, nor very brave.  It is merely a lukewarm approach that, in the end, says nothing. After much prayer and thought on the matter, I feel that I must say something more to the parish given the matters at stake in the life of our nation this year.

In 2010, I began to rewrite an old and not well-known book The Kingdom of God and American Life.  One day, it may be completed, if not published. However, I would share with you a portion of a manuscript I pray will be helpful in this mean season.

Our politics for the past several years are a thing few of us in America can be proud of. While one may still cherish faith in American citizenship, the people have become weary of mere politics and “business as usual”. A quickened conscience among many has recognized that, even under democratic forms and methods, there have somehow arisen conditions that are palpably undemocratic, and is manifesting a push in some quarters toward the control of “human well-being”, or at least a particular notion of what may constitute human well-being.

Meanwhile, masses of our people are stirring in vague unrest and striving often aimlessly after they know not what—they know only that something is wrong and they are angry. On the other hand, many persons are only bewildered spectators.

We are wise to face the fact that the social question is ultimately a moral question. It is time to recognize that its solution lies not in biological analogies, not in the exaltation of the State at the expense of the individual, nor again in the destruction of government, but in that Gospel of the Kingdom of God which means the realization of certain ideals through the highest and fullest development of our Christian personality.  There are straightforward answers and approaches open to us.

As traditional Anglican Catholics, our movement was established with, and adheres to, the Affirmation of St. Louis. In 1977 an international congress of nearly 2000 Anglican bishops, clergy, and lay people met in St. Louis, Missouri in response to actions taken by the Episcopal Church (USA), that represented a move away from the apostolic faith as understood within the Anglican tradition. The object of this Congress was to determine the actions necessary to establish an orthodox jurisdiction in which traditional Anglicanism would be maintained. Indeed, we are privileged to have as a member of St Alban’s Dr. Robert Strippy, one of the drafters of the Affirmation. The Anglican Catholic Church, along with other “continuing” Anglican bodies uphold and maintain the belief and practice set out in this important document.

Of particular importance in the upcoming election is Article III of the Affirmation setting forth Principles of Morality.  I, as a priest, can offer you nothing more succinct or useful than to reiterate the language of this section, albeit with some emphasis here and there.

First, “[t] he conscience, as the inherent knowledge of right and wrong, cannot stand alone as a sovereign arbiter of morals. Every Christian is obligated to form his conscience by the Divine Moral Law and the Mind of Christ as revealed in Holy Scriptures, and by the teaching and Tradition of the Church. We hold that when the Christian conscience is thus properly informed and ruled, it must affirm the following moral principles:

Accordingly, from the perspective of individual responsibility, “All people, individually and collectively, are responsible to their Creator for their acts, motives, thoughts and words, since ‘we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ . . .’” This is inescapable truth.

Next, we are to uphold the Sanctity of Human Life. As the Affirmation notes, “Every human being, from the time of his conception, is a creature and child of God, made in His image and likeness, an infinitely precious soul; and that the unjustifiable or inexcusable taking of life is always sinful.”  In this and all other regards, [a]All people are bound by the dictates of the Natural Law and by the revealed Will of God, insofar as they can discern them.” There can be no compromise.

These principles carry over into all aspects of family life, the family being the cornerstone of our community and nation.  There can be nothing clearer than the statement that, “The God-given sacramental bond in marriage between one man and one woman is God’s loving provision for procreation and family life, and sexual activity is to be practiced only within the bonds of Holy Matrimony.” Again, there can be no compromise.

Do we fall short?  Of course we do. “We recognize that man, as inheritor of original sin, is ‘very far gone from original righteousness,’ and as a rebel against God’s authority is liable to His righteous judgment.”  We also recognize, though, “that God loves His children and particularly has shown it forth in the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that man cannot be saved by any effort of his own, but by the Grace of God, through repentance and acceptance of God’s forgiveness.”

Ultimately, it is the Christian’s abiding duty to be moral.  “We believe, therefore, it is the duty of the Church and her members to bear witness to Christian Morality, to follow it in their lives, and to reject the false standards of the world.”

Beloved in Christ, nothing could be more straightforward than this.  Are economic issues of importance?  Of course they are.  However, for far too many years we have, as a nation, been led to focus on the aphorism, “It’s the economy, stupid.”  In fact, it is not.  Rather, “It is the morality.”  Without a good, decent and moral people, there can be no just political and economic system.

Personalities are personalities, and people come ant they go.  That is the nature of the human condition, private and civil.  They cannot, and must not be our guide. I can only urge you to examine the moral principles set forth in the Affirmation, to examine your hearts, and to pray.  We must ask an honest question of any candidate for political office and any political party. Do they stand for or against those principles? Let that be the end of inquiry.

I believe that there are singular and great destinies awaiting our country if, in the face of any and every doubt, difficulty and discouragement, our people return and remain true to the ideals and purposes of the Kingdom of God.

In Christ,

Canon Charles H. Nalls