{"id":946,"date":"2012-11-06T10:16:11","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T15:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/?p=946"},"modified":"2017-03-09T17:09:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T22:09:01","slug":"johnny-foreigner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/2012\/11\/johnny-foreigner.html","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Foreigner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Today is election day. I feel a little nauseous about the whole thing, honestly, and am mostly trying to avoid political posts\/news\/facebook opinions. It isn\u2019t that I\u2019m not interested in who wins\u2026on the contrary, I\u2019m very much hoping for a certain outcome. It\u2019s just that over the course of this election cycle I have found myself increasingly out of step with all things political. I\u2019ve felt, for the first time, that not only do my political ideologies not<\/em> align with one party or the other, but also that the fervor and occasional fanaticism that accompanies politics in America isn\u2019t a thing that I can throw myself into, anymore.<\/p>\n

For a long time, perhaps for the entirety of the past year, I\u2019ve thought that I am just suffering from disenchantment, from disgust at the way people on either side of the political spectrum treat each other. But in the past few weeks I\u2019ve stayed silent on all things political, reading posts from friends here at Patheos <\/a>and elsewhere in the blogosphere<\/a>, ruminating over just what it is that has been gnawing at me. Last week I was catching up on Season 3 of Downton Abbey and something Lord Grantham said crystallized my present unease with all things political.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be something of the Johnny Foreigner about Catholics.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I paused the show at that point to try and untangle why this line struck me as so insightful. It seemed to me the truest thing I have ever heard said about Catholics, and suddenly lots of things fell into place at once.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This? Not so much.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had read once, before I converted, that there was a great debate over John F. Kennedy\u2019s bid for the presidency, because so many Americans doubted that a Catholic could ever be a suitable president. At the time I dismissed it with a chuckle as a remnant of the stoic Puritan strain that much of our country was founded on. But now, I think that there is great wisdom to that question.<\/p>\n

I grew up an Evangelical in the Bible Belt, and as a child I didn\u2019t know any Democrats, because all the people I knew were Christians. In the Protestant South, politics and faith are inextricably intertwined in a way they haven\u2019t been in decades past. It\u2019s one of the reasons Santorum got such a surge from the Evangelical movement in the South. I heard it said that \u201ceven though he\u2019s a Catholic, he must\u00a0 be a Christian, because he\u2019s such a solid Republican.\u201d (Overlooking, of course, that sticky issue of birth control that deeply divides Protestant from Catholic.) Likewise, it\u2019s very unusual to find a Democrat in the South (at least where and when I grew up) who does much more than pay lip service to a belief in God. Certainly someone who votes Democrat could never be considered to be \u201csaved.\u201d<\/p>\n

That strange and sacred marriage of politics and faith is one of the (many) reasons Catholics are looked at askance in the South. We don\u2019t fit in anywhere. We\u2019re against abortion, but also against birth control, which even to the most conservative of Protestants is positively medieval. We\u2019re generally also against the death penalty, or at least favor serious reform in its use. We\u2019re extremely pro social charity, but are deeply divided on whether that should be facilitated by the Church and private institutions or the government. We\u2019re generally in favor of relaxed immigration laws, or at least the cessation of deporting established illegal immigrants. And yet we spend plenty of time fighting among ourselves about those issues, publicly and privately, and even, most unfortunately, we accuse each other of not being \u201ctruly Catholic\u201d if disagreements arise that we think cannot be overcome.<\/p>\n

But this is where the meaning of the word \u201cCatholic\u201d resonates. Catholicism is universal\u2026it\u2019s for all of us, not just the socially conservative or the social justice advocates. No matter what our political views, our highest loyalty will never lie here, in this land. We will never call ourselves Americans first. We will always be Catholics first, and our loyalty will be to the Church, to our Papa Benedict across the Atlantic, to Christ. We are bound together by something much greater than politics, something much greater than religion, even. We\u2019re bound together by the Eucharist, and the graces therein are what allows us to come together every Sunday and worship with each other in spite of our great and sometimes overwhelming differences. It\u2019s what allows me to disagree with Mark Shea<\/a>, who believes that a vote for a lesser evil is still a vote for evil, and still call him my friend and my brother in Christ. It\u2019s what allows me to disagree with Leila <\/a>occasionally and still respect her, love her, and call her my sister in Christ. It\u2019s what allows me to disagree with Jackie <\/a>on almost everything and still think that if we were to ever meet in real life, we\u2019d have a grand time, because she\u2019s sweet and funny and my sister in Christ. It\u2019s what gives me hope in the end, on this election day. No matter how the race ends tonight, my allegiance will always lie elsewhere, with Christ\u2019s unshakeable Church, and with her motley collection of sinners and heretics who have graciously and lovingly welcomed me, a sinner and heretic. We will always be Johnny Foreigner, no matter which country we reside in. And honestly, knowing that gives me more peace about politics than I\u2019ve had in ages.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is election day. I feel a little nauseous about the whole thing, honestly, and am mostly trying to avoid political posts\/news\/facebook opinions. It isn\u2019t that I\u2019m not interested in who wins\u2026on the contrary, I\u2019m very much hoping for a certain outcome. It\u2019s just that over the course of this election cycle I have found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,44],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-church","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nJohnny Foreigner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today is election day. I feel a little nauseous about the whole thing, honestly, and am mostly trying to avoid political posts\/news\/facebook opinions. 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