Damned if you do, unelected if you don’t

Only in America do you find people who tell you it’s a terrible thing to harm innocent unborn babies, but you should fry all the convicts you can. But this is exactly the rural Republican platform, and it is how Jerry Kilgore would like to lay down the law.

On the other side of the playing field we have Tim Kaine, a fella who calls himself a Catholic, so he’s personally against killing the babies and the murderous rats, which seems to be a problem if he wants to get elected. It is not good to be merciful in American politics. Jerry Kilgore can vouch for that – just check out his 30 some-odd ads on TV.

Only in America do you find people who tell you it’s a terrible thing to harm innocent unborn babies, but you should fry all the convicts you can.

When Tim Kaine was a younger lad, he took a few years off his strenuous schedule at Harvard Law School to do some soul-searching. He was raised Catholic in suburban Missouri and was of a working-class heritage. He was about to venture on a path that would no doubt take him to a world where religion was seen as backwards and money was the true God.

I guess he found that a little scary, so he ended up in Honduras teaching peasants how to weld metal, a trick his father taught him and did for most of his life to make a living. This trade that Kaine was selflessly teaching would spare dozens of young and old men in Honduras from a life that is worse than the one they now probably lead, living and working in a Third World country, but this time, with a job molding aluminum to be sold for pennies to the First World at a nice and cheap free-trade price. Nonetheless, the most valuable gifts given were the friendships and bonds formed between missionaries like Kaine and these Third World survivors, who maybe now don’t see all gringos as so elitist.

Kaine came back from Central America as Catholic as ever and ended up settling in the Richmond area with his wife who was from the great River City. He was destined to go into politics no matter where he lived, and so he ended up being a city council member and then mayor of this city. Fast forward a few years, and this Catholic is running for governor of a Bible Belt state that never had a Catholic governor and is only second to the country of Texas in executions conducted by the government.

See, Catholics believe killing a convicted criminal is wrong because there are other ways in modern society to prevent this criminal from harming others, i.e. high security prisons. We don’t need to kill a man to hold him back from any dangerous activities he has been known to do. The government has criminals tried and sentenced for their crimes supposedly to protect society from their ill-natured ways. Punishment and revenge should not be part of the process. Only God can judge and hand out such things.

Deterrence, another reason many in Virginia believe in the death penalty, should be out of the question because studies show the most violent cities are all in the South, which are the top states for executions. So there is no logical reason, then, to kill a man after he finished his crime and is in no danger of committing it again. Not only does it seem hypocritical, (murder being against the law for everyone but government officials) but it is also immoral. If that’s not enough, does it not make you think something is up when all of the European Union has banned capital punishment? (I know, those Euro pansies do a lot of stupid things, but this one they got right, okay?)

So, this is what Catholics believe (or should, if they are good Catholics). And Tim Kaine is a Catholic. So why does he have to defend himself from these immature attacks carried out by the Republican guy who likes to fry people and promises to increase the number of electrocuted and lethally injected individuals in Virginia if he is elected? Why can’t Tim Kaine simply say, “Yeah, I am Catholic, and I am against the death penalty”? And why does Tim Kaine have to promise his fellow Democrats to continue carrying on the killings of the innocent unborn? Why can’t Tim Kaine simply say, “Yeah, I am Catholic, and I’m against abortion”?

Why does he have to put in the clarifiers? Why does he always have to say something like, “I am personally against the death penalty and I am personally against abortion, but as governor, I will see to it that my personal beliefs don’t deter me from doing my job to carry out the law”? Why does he say in an ad in response to Kilgore’s heartless ones using family members of murdered victims, “I will carry out Virginia’s death sentences. Because, that is the law”?

Being a Catholic, Tim Kaine should have read up on St. Thomas Aquinas, and he should know the difference between man-made laws (which can be flawed, and thus we can change them or rebel against them) and God’s laws, which are supreme.

Politicians are human beings like everyone else. Thus, they should be entitled to live their personal beliefs like everyone else. If their personal beliefs don’t match yours, and it ticks you off enough, then don’t vote for them – vote for the other guy or don’t vote at all. Politicians should be allowed to proudly say they have a religion that gives them guidance in life. Why do they have to shun this in the public sphere?

It seems this is especially the case with Catholic politicians. Remember the Roberts Supreme Court nomination? He said the same stuff Kaine is saying now, only directed towards Congress. They grilled him like crazy because he is a Catholic and he disagrees with abortion on moral grounds. His answer was nearly identical to Kaine’s. He personally believed it was wrong. But he would carry out his constitutional oath to uphold the law. Because, that is the law. (Duh.)

See, it just ain’t fair. When it comes to politics, evangelicals have their fan base and don’t need to hide from their religion that seems to allow capital punishment but forbid abortion. Catholics are in a tricky scenario of being half right, half wrong in conservative Protestants’ eyes. So they can’t team up with these Republicans and their conservative ways all the time.

Not to mention, we as Catholics have a calling for social justice (seeing to it that there is equal opportunity for all people on earth, e.g. fair trade). We also have a calling for helping immigrants and refugees, among other political endeavors. We have all these things to consider when we vote for a political candidate. And, as you can guess, in America, seldom do you find one who lives up to all of these high ideals.

In Virginia, we almost might have had one, but he had to deny his faith for the sake of votes. But can you blame him?

Alex Marra may be reached at chemarrini@yahoo.com