Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Protestors Seek Truth

Why do I write?  I write because I feel called to write.  I write because I seek to reveal the truth.  I write because I cherish the truth.  

I protest because I value the truth.  In the film "Paul VI," Pope Paul VI is about to meet with a discontented young man who is politically disenchanted.  Someone asks the pope, "Why are you meeting with him?"  The pope replies, "He who protests seeks the truth."  

In protesting as a Catholic Worker, I am supported by a nationwide community of other Catholic Workers who also protest.  We seek to reveal the truth, to call attention to the truth, and to cry out with loud disapproval, that injustices are occurring.  

People protest because injustices occur.  When injustice occurs, the perpetrators deny the truth that all human beings were created by God with certain rights which may not be denied to them.  God created us to love and adore Him and to love and respect each other: He created us to glorify Him and praise Him and serve Him and love our neighbor.  We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.*  Thus all persons deserve to be treated with respect, so that we all may flourish and grow as individuals.  When people protest, they object to people being denied such basic rights.  

When the leader of a nation mocks a disabled reporter whose job is to report the truth, we are not encouraged to value the truth.  When the chief executive of a country speaks about being able to grab women's genitalia, women are treated as if they were objects.  When people are demeaned in these ways, the truth of each person's dignity is trampled.  Since an injustice against one person is a violation against everyone, protestors take to the streets to demand respect for people's basic human rights.  

I have been distressed at how someone elected to lead a country has deemed it acceptable to debase others in such flagrant ways.  However, I find it far more disturbing that so many people implicitly approve of such degrading behavior.  

Yet we have been long encouraged to lower our standards for who is fit to run our country.  We live in a country in which it has become increasingly evident that our leaders do not value honesty.  We also live in a country in which it is apparently acceptable for our leaders to drift further and further from the truth.  When our leaders lie to us, we are shown that they do not honor the truth.  Years later, when government officials counter the truth with what are then called "alternative facts," we see that we are governed by people who do not value the truth.  

We live under people in power who implicitly encourage us to ignore the truth that all people deserve to be treated with dignity.  And so protestors take to the streets.  We march and we protest to witness to the truth that all human beings must be accorded their basic human rights, that all persons are to be treated with respect.  

And in such circumstances, how are we to treat the duly elected leader of our country?  We are told, "Honor the king."**  If someone was elected to run the country, we acknowledge that that person was indeed elected to that office.  

Furthermore, we are called to repay disrespect with love.  Jesus directed us, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."***  For if we do otherwise, we become what we despise.  

Jesus instructed us, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."****  What belongs to God?  We owe God our allegiance to the truth.  We must be willing to defend the truth.  We must defend all of the truth.  If we defend only part of the truth, then we are defending a half truth.  Since we are not defending all of what we know to be true, we are not being true to ourselves.  We are being half of ourselves.  Then we fail to love either ourselves or our neighbor as ourselves.  

Would we cry out at injustice done to ourselves?  Then we must cry out at injustices committed against others.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  

Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
** 1 Peter 2:17 
*** Matthew 5:44 
**** Mark 12:17 

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