Root Causes Of Politics-Related Violence

Many of us are grappling with the recent spate of violence that seems to have spawned as a result of political differences.  We are trying to do so from the vantage point of truth as proclaimed by Jesus Christ through His Roman Catholic Church.  The root causes are obviously spiritual.  There has been wide-spread rebellion against God's immutable moral laws and against His claims to our worship of Him alone.

How often do we see our churches empty on Sundays?  Of those who do go to Mass, how many of them receive Holy Communion while living in mortal sin?  How many participate in the wanton slaughter of babies?  How many defy God's laws regarding marriage?  How many approve of the various perversions of sexuality and even participate in them?

The non-exhaustive list of sins enumerated above are increasing in number and are becoming ensconced in our social and political frameworks.  These are sins that, if not eradicated, will cause God's wrath to fall on us.

A facebook friend rightly states that we need to turn back to God and pray for each other.  No one gainsays that.  The problems of our society are rooted in spiritual malaise.  I do find problems with what she wrote.  I don't think she intended it, but her language implies that all individuals and/or groups in the U.S. are equally at fault for the current climate in this country.  I simply don't think the events of the past few months bear that out.

My blogging colleague at Les Femmes put up a challenge, to show examples of conservative violence.  She listed some liberal violence, but that list is not a complete one.  For instance, I see no mention of the theatrical farce in which an actor portraying Donald Trump was murdered.  At the Congressional Baseball Game (for which House Majority Whip Steven Scalise was practicing when he was shot), President Trump was booed as he walked to the field.  In response to the shooting, a New Jersey Democrat operative tweeted messages to "hunt Republicans".  If Republicans had engaged in this behavior, they would have been pilloried and their careers, if not their lives, would have been ruined.  However, when Democrats do it, they are celebrated by their compatriots.

The fact is that one political party, in its very platform, champions baby-slaughter and the perversion of sexuality and marriage whereas the other party doesn't.  The former is the Democrats and the latter is the GOP.  The Democrats have made in clear to would-be candidates that they must favor the mortal sins listed above if they wish to have a political career with the Dems.

To pretend that all individuals and groups share equal blame for this societal background is to fall into a simplistic blindness.  I can only speculate what the motive for such mental contortions may be but none of them would justify a refusal to embrace the facts as they present themselves.

Such pretensions have strong similarities to a thought-reform technique known as "blaming the victim".  It is used by leaders in cults to keep the partially brainwashed members in line, by causing them to think that their pain is at least self-induced and not attributable to the leaders.  In this case, it could be unconsciously used to justify not rebuking those who do advocate violence.

Let me tie all this up by agreeing with my first friend in that we must pray for widespread conversion.  The Blessed Mother, under various apparitions, said that plainly.  But in the meantime, we must name those who oppose Christianity and defeat them by all moral and legal means at our disposal.