THE FACTS ANSWER

AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN THINKING: SPARKED BY AN OPEN HEART
REAL LIFE–FROM WAR TO ABORTION–CANNOT BE FACED WITH EASY FORMULAS. A BROADENING OF REASON IS REQUIRED IN FRONT OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS AND MYSTERIES.

BY JOHN WATERS

I have noticed that people describing themselves as Christians often seem to regard themselves as belonging to an ideology that requires them to think and behave in certain fixed ways. I have also noticed, however, that, while some elements of this Christian ideology are universal, such responses tend to have culture-specific aspects. Many Christians in the USA tend to be identifiable by what are deemed "right-wing" responses–say, on abortion or gun laws–whereas in the UK and Ireland Christians tend to be of what is called the "soft" left, taking a "liberal" position on, say, procreation issues and declaring themselves implacably opposed to war.
In a more narrowly political sense, Christians often seem to think that, as voters, they have a Christian duty to support candidates who tick the "right" boxes on a certain menu of issues.
But this desire to turn Christianity into a way of explaining and defining everything according to rules seems to exclude and oppose the most beautiful aspect of Christianity: freedom. It places Christianity unhelpfully within the narrow framework of ideology, reducing it to a limited range of often mutually contradictory opinions.
During the recent Irish elections, I noticed that some of my Christian friends seemed to be looking for an easy formula with which to approach the question of whom to vote for. Because of the continuing poor economic situation, and because there were limited policy alternatives on offer, people seemed to be approaching the conundrum by asking: What would Christ do?
For me, it is both more simple and more complicated. Christianity is not something I need to "understand" in terms of a received set of prescriptions. There really is only one prescription: engage the full capacity of my reason and face reality as it really is. This does not immediately answer any question but opens up every single one in a clear and total manner.
The gaze Christianity invites me to bring to public affairs is the same as the gaze it enables me to bring to my friendships every day. This emerges from a search within myself for openness to reality and the mysteries arising from man's nature. It requires from me something unequivocal and yet incapable of being coded or reduced: that I be alive every moment to the possibility of the Event that will change everything. If I am "opposed to war" on what I insist is a "principle," there is as much chance that I will become closed off to this possibility as if I am bellicose. Preconception is the enemy of the truly penetrating gaze.
When it comes to voting, I like to keep it very simple: when the noise of the public babble has died down, I look into my heart and ask: Which of these listed human beings seems to correspond most truly to my desire for exceptionality? Who attracts me, in the largest sense? Whom do I "like"? You could, for want of a better word, call it instinct: the ultimate human response to another human being, the spark out of which a relationship might grow into love.