A Catholic Approach Could Return Civility to Politics

+ Enlarge

The normally lackluster midterm elections have been uncharacteristically exciting this year. While the choices for voters have included numerous important initiatives and races, the increasing rise of strident voices inciting growing levels of incivility has rapidly become a cause for concern as words are translated into violent actions.

Listening to all sides of a battle blame the other for the deteriorating tone of debate can be depressing. Feeling helpless to change the narrative, watching the partisan divide willingly widened by politicians seeking to gain votes through bullying rather than sound policies is frustrating at best. Fortunately, Catholics have a different leader upon whom to model our actions. None of us needs to wait for an elected individual to lead the charge back to civility. Now, as always, we voters of faith have the ability and responsibility to model Christ-like behavior in the public square. We must not rely on politicians to show us how; we learn how every Sunday.

Step one requires that we regularly study Church teaching, steeped as it is in Gospel values that inform our daily lives. When we truly understand Church teaching on the dignity and sanctity of every life, for example, not only do we discover that no party platform truly represents our beliefs, we also find that we cannot tolerate partisan mudslinging that denigrates any human being based on their political views, immigration status, economic circumstances, race, gender or sexual orientation. We don’t have to agree with everything the person may say or believe, but we must still treat him or her with respect.

Step two involves each of us carefully guarding against allowing our politics to become our religion. Examples abound on all sides of the aisles of instances where people will share their political views in a manner disturbingly similar to how they would espouse a Gospel truth. I suspect each of us has been guilty of it at some point in our lives. The question is whether we are able and willing to really ask ourselves hard questions about the extent to which our political points of view truly reflect our faith. This is a huge first step, not to be taken lightly, and one that can force us to look critically at our traditional political positions and send us into unfamiliar territory.

Step three is taking our beliefs public. This doesn’t mean we go out proselytizing; it does mean we not only strive to model Christ in how we view others who reach different voting decisions from us, we also actively demand a higher level of response to disagreement than name-calling or dehumanizing the other person.

As part of our efforts to raise civility, we must be discerning consumers of information as well. Infotainment sites, such as MSNBC and Fox News, social media and any of the other hundreds of sources of political news can provide some good information, but may also have clear political agendas that do not reflect Catholic teaching in many core areas. One sure sign that a program/site/source may not be the most reliable for Catholics is news anchors, hosts or account holders who encourage the kind of mocking behavior that dehumanizes others.

The Catholic approach to politics could go a long way to restoring some level of mutual respect in political engagement. We need not lament the negative tactics of politicians. Instead, we can set the example of Christ by spending our time learning the social doctrine of our Church as presented through the Gospels, papal encyclicals, and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; and putting that doctrine into daily practice in our votes and in our example of respecting each person’s God-given dignity, no matter how strongly we oppose their politics.

Jean Hill is director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Peace and Justice Commission.