Be Strong and Courageous: Our Post-Midterms Charge

Results from the midterm elections have several states now providing legal safe haven for the gruesome act of abortion. The response of Catholics and other pro-life Americans must not be despair, nor should we become despondent. Instead, we can draw on our 2,000-year tradition of mobilizing as a community of believers and unite the Church and our country. 

Let me tell you how my six-year-old son, of all people, is helping to clarify my thoughts. 

With his first-grade classmates, he is memorizing a Biblical passage that offers good counsel. 

"Joshua 1:6-9. Be strong and courageous," I hear in the minivan on the way to and from school. Simple but incredibly powerful words that give us insight. 

Many of our public servants are already showing strong models of strength and courage in action. Take, for example, those Supreme Court justices who voted in the majority to overturn Roe v. Wade this past summer. They face grotesque pro-abortion protests in front of their homes weekly. Justice Amy Coney Barrett was also targeted recently by an online open letter which asks Penguin Random House to take back its offer to publish a book she is writing. Yet each justice persists in their work undeterred.

"Only be strong and very courageous," my child reminds me as he recites Joshua 1, verse 7. 

Big abortion isn't the only bully public servants and private citizens face. Gender ideologues within our governments pressure Catholic hospitals and medical professionals to perform "reassignment surgeries" and hormonal therapies despite their objections on medical and conscientious grounds.

These and other ideological demands of many progressive groups are increasingly backed by the government. Take, for example, Lorie Smith, a Christian website designer in Colorado, who faces the prospect of being forced to use her expressive talents in ways that conflict with her Christian beliefs.

Now, practicing Catholics and other Christians should be ready to reject progressivism's turn to the left. We don't embrace the push for unrestricted abortion. We don't embrace gender ideology's rejection of nature. We defend the rights of conscience.

But what about the temptation to turn to the right? 

That passage from Joshua cautions: "Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left."  

We must also be on guard for problematic proposals from certain movements on the right to dismantle our existing government, only to replace it with one that brazenly extends power and control over others. 

So where does that leave us? We have a lot of thinking to do. But extremes imposed by intellectual elitists of the left or right on the American people are not the answer.  

Rather Catholics and other people of goodwill must continue to play the long game. It's one that has been passed down to us from prior generations. We participate as citizens consistent with our faith. We advance policies that promote the common goods of the Church and of society. We are patient and kind (even on social media). We respect the freedom God has given to every person to know, love, and serve him, and we are committed to doing the hard work of sharing the Good News about Him.

This approach won't make headlines. It does nothing to prevent us from being maligned. But sweet consolation is found in verse 9 of Joshua 1: "Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."