Anchoress Called On To “retract” Support For Rudy

I got a very nice email from Nate Nelson, who runs deuteronomy3019 and has recently put together Catholic Rudy Watch. Nate is calling on me both publicly and privately to retract my support for Rudy Giuliani, should hizzoner decide to run for the White House.

Well, as I wrote to Nate, I’m not gonna do it. Not right now, anyway!

I am never comfortable writing about other bloggers or their blog content unless I can do so in a positive manner. I’m not into “blog-wars” and I’d just as soon ignore someone who wants to waste his or her energy attacking me, because I don’t intend to waste my (always limited) energy defending myself.

This time, I’m not being “attacked,” but I can’t ignore being “called out,” so to speak. I feel a little like someone is standing on my front lawn spitting in both hands and dancing around like a boxer saying, “come on out, ye varmint and we’ll settle this like men!”

Or, at least, like Christians. One hopes! :-)

As of this moment, I am not going to retract my support of Giuliani, because I see no one else “in the running” whom I trust to carry forth the war on terror as it needs to be carried.

I think sometimes we think these candidates are not human, and are not touched by the same circumstances as the rest of us, that somehow we peons “grow” in grace and are capable of change while politicians and celebrities do not grow, are not capable of change. But God raises up whom He will, and very often He uses the most flawed material to do His bidding. Ask St. Augustine. Ask Moses.

Is Giuliani the perfect man? No. Will be he a perfect president? Hell no, no such creature can exist. But I do trust him to bring us strict constitutionalist SCOTUS judges. I trust that he’ll say issues like gay marriage and abortion, etc, belong to the states, which they do. I frankly think overall he will be a better president than anyone currently on the scene.

Would I prefer that Giuliani’s leadership skills fell completely in line with my creed and my own values? Of course I would. But you know, I go to church every Sunday and see huge lines of people receiving Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, and I know that most of them haven’t been to confession in ages. Some Catholics have fits about that – “how dare they consume the Flesh and Blood of Christ unworthily,” they gasp. While it would be nice to know that every Catholic is receiving Holy Communion only while in a state of grace – which is the ideal – I am aware that perhaps the only way some souls may ever be touched by grace at all is via the reception of Christ in the Eucharist, consumed unworthily (who among us is truly worthy), but by that act given intimate access. The less-than-perfect avenue can still be the opening in which Christ imparts His grace.

God works as God will, regardless of our sensibilities. I believe that God is not done with Rudy Giuliani, just as he is not done with you or me or Mel Gibson. As my Li’l Bro Thom says to me: Grace builds on nature. And all those high-falutin’ social issues won’t matter diddly squat once Iran is armed and aiming its big guns at the West, demanding we convert or die.

If someone better than Rudy Giuliani comes along, I’ll be open to looking at him or her, but right now, I don’t see it. Right now the entire world under siege and that siege must urgently be put down. If we are not safe, all the rest of our concerns will never be addressed, because we’ll be too busy fighting for our lives (and frankly, for our faith, because once the “convert or die” Islamofascists have managed to level a few cities and terrify too many Americans into acquiescence, their next step will be to put us under the burka, or under the sword.)

In which case, actually, Nate and the rest of you who are “shocked, shocked” by my support of Giuliani won’t have to worry about “abortion and gay marriage” because our Islamofascist overlords will take care of those issue for us. If your daughter procures an abortion, she’ll be buried to her waist in sand, and then stoned to death. If your son is gay? Well…he’ll be hung by the neck, or decapitated, quickly enough.

Difficult times demand of us difficult choices. From where I sit, it doesn’t appear that endorsing someone who strictly adheres to orthodox Catholicism will necessarily get the job done that needs doing, to defeat the larger and more ominous forces that are threatening our nation, Western Civilization and, yes, our faith. Can you show me the conservative Christian/Catholic candidate who is electable (yes, that matters) and who would take a strong enough stand in favor of America, and in opposition to appeasement? The ideal does not exist.

There are no accidents, and it was not an accident that Rudy Giuliani was the Mayor of NYC on 9/11. Just think, had he not been diagnosed with prostate cancer and forced to withdraw from the 2000 senate race, he might well have been in Washington during that attack – gathered in the Captial Rotunda, (with United 93 bearing down upon him) – along with everyone else in DC (except, oddly, Hillary Clinton) for a big hoo-hah event focusing on Education.

Giuliani would not have been in the middle of NYC, and that city would have died under the ministrations of the ineffectual Mark Greene. There is a reason why Giuliani was there that day – perhaps we were meant to see him in action, in that role, on a global stage.

Giuliani showed me who he was ‘way back when he was refusing Yassar Arafat access to NYC, at a time when the whole world was lauding the monster and kissing his backside. He showed who he was when we were attacked and he managed to reassure the whole nation that capable, adult people were in charge. He showed me who he was when he attended scores of funerals, comforted hundreds of families, walked a bride down the aisle because there were no men left in her “firefighting” family. He showed me who he was when he returned a “relief check” for ten million dollars to a Saudi Prince, because the money came with a denunciation of Israel and of the Jews and US Policy. We need this unshakable and intrepid man, who is incapable of dithering, in these times. (H/T on that first-person funeral account to mputtre).

We know this man, Giuliani, and he is a man-in-full. I would rather have one faulty, imperfect man-in-full in office, (one who is willing to be unpopular, if that’s what it takes) and dealing with our devils, than a dozen “more perfect and palatable” types who either can’t get elected or are too distracted by the demands of “the base” to do what needs doing.

And so, no…I won’t be withdrawing my support for Rudy Giuliani at this time. I’m not into throwing people away as “lost causes,” simply because they don’t “fall in line,” and who would want someone who does that, anyway? That sounds a lot like Hillary saying, “you don’t have to fall in love, just fall in line…”

Perhaps if you want Giuliani to be an even better man than he is, a holier man, a “more perfect” sort of Christian, so you can feel alright about voting for him…you should pray for him, rather than merely “watching” and excoriating. That’s good advice for all of us, all the time, anyway!

UPDATE I: Nate has a very gracious response and we will agree to disagree for a while and see how things develop! :-)

UPDATE II: Take a look at this videotape linked to by GatewayPundit. See the young girl who bumps into the terrorist as he is prepping his bomb? Yes, innocent as a babe, in her own way. And deserving of leadership that will not faint or falter, or look the other way.

UPDATE III: John Hawkins writes up what is wrong with Rudy and – very disappointingly – joins those who seem to think that because Rudy dressed up in drag for a skit or two that’s a big deal. As to the rest of it, well…we’ll keep an eye on things. It’s two years til the election and clearly Rudy will have to be making some new statements about certain issues…we’ll see how that goes. Clearly, for some on the right, no matter how center/right he moves, they will object.

WELCOME: Instapundit. While you’re here, please look around. Today we’re taking Ben Stein’s bad medicine. Then, to cheer ourselves up, we’re laughing at the people who laugh at President Bush for reading, and we’re talking about The New Orleans Police Chief who admits exaggerating the post-flood crime. We’re also watching an old Operaman clip that praises Giuliani and Derek Jeter (not that I’m trying to wound my Boston readers, or anything) and a fun video of Bryn and Rocky hamming it up and we are mourning the Death-by-Political Correctness of Tom and Jerry. I haven’t yet written my huge review of trashy romance novels that I had promised some days ago, but it’s proving to be a heavy task…check back later for that! :-)

Anchoress called on to “retract” support for Rudy