The Anchoress has been "called out" on her support for Rudy Giuliani and challenged to renounce the former mayor of New York City. To "retract" her support. Apparently because Rudy is not perfect in every way on every topic.
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.)
Well, that's all very well reasoned and written, isn't it? But I fear that the Anchoress is dodging the real issue here. Blue Crab Boulevard is immediately calling for a complete and utter renunciation by the Anchoress. She must immediately declare her complete withdrawal of all support for Topo Gigio. We have never trusted him.
Why? We haven't a clue. It just sounded funny.
To clarify, we are not opposing Rudy Giuliani’s possible candidacy because he “is not perfect in every way on every topic.” We obviously hold no utopian delusions about the presidency. However, we would prefer not to have a President who advocates for the following:
1) Abortion, which has killed over 40,000,000 Americans since the first states decriminalized it in 1967;
2) Embryonic stem cell research, which is the savage murder of unborn human beings in some kind of quest to live forever that is straight out of something Orwell should have written;
and 3) Same-sex civil unions, which is the same thing as same-sex marriage, and which violates the natural law and undermines society’s foundations.
Disagree with us if you want, but please don’t pretend that we’re opposing Giuliani’s candidacy because he might not abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent. These are serious issues and the people who care about them are serious voters, and if those serious voters stayed home in any given November any Republican would have one heck of a time getting elected.
Nate – This was meant to be humorous and to make people laugh. Sorry you did not see that.