I am very open about the fact that I am a conservative Republican. Virtually everyone who knows me is aware of this, as I am not afraid of the controversy that comes with those monikers. I know many people who are afraid of the reprisal that comes with sharing such opinions or identifying with those labels, but not me.
Over the summer, I decided to post on my Instagram story, “I’m a proud Conservative and Republican. Ask me anything!” It seemed to me that conservatives were openly being flogged in the marketplace of ideas, and I felt called to be a torchbearer for what I believe are true and correct principles by which to organize our individual, political, and cultural lives. One question I received is worthy of consideration here: “Why should Catholics be conservative?”
I did not want to buy into the frame of the question, as it assumes that Catholics should be conservative. Intellectual freedom is important, and implicitly, the question suggests that Catholics who aren’t conservative cannot be Catholic–I hardly find that true. There has not been a political consensus among Catholics arguably ever, and so the question assumed too much. However, that’s not to say it is a bad question; quite the contrary, in my opinion.
At its core, Christianity is oriented around a set of fundamental truths: God is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and He sent down His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a Cross for our sins, that we might inherit eternal life. We believe in certain moral truths that are universal, objective, and transcendent: murder is wrong, we must honor our fathers and mothers, we must live chastely, etc. From this foundation, there are a few things that follow with respect to other beliefs one cannot hold.
One cannot be a Christian and a relativist. How could one argue, as the relativists do, that there is no universal set of truths or standards, and simultaneously believe that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God? It is a contradiction. How can one hold that life is sacred, or that murder and rape are instrinsically wrong, if they also reject the notion that there is any objective standard of right and wrong? It’s impossible.
I contend that one could not be a Christian and a Marxist, as Marx famously called religion the “opiate of the people.” He famously hated religion, and his entire sociological, economic, and political ideology all follow from his atheism. Marx misunderstood the human person, and to accept his views while rejecting his atheism would put one in a fundamental conflict with Christian teaching. That’s apart from the contradiction of affirming the consequent while rejecting the antecedent, which would be like pulling the foundation out from under a house and expecting it to stay standing.
Before I was Catholic, I used to be a libertarian. However, libertarianism is political relativism, which is incompatible with Christianity. There is no view of the Common Good in libertarianism. Likewise, progressivism is another form of political relativism, one which seeks to relativize all historical periods, and with it, all moral norms and traditions. Socialism and communism also conflict with Christian teaching; Pope Leo XIII’s repudiation of socialism was quite clear in Rerum Novarum.
On the other hand, Christian values and conservative values often align. I believe in respecting the dignity of all human life from conception until natural death, protection of individual rights granted to us by God, a communitarian understanding of the Common Good, a desire to protect the family, a belief in freedom for human excellence, and the promotion of moral traditionalism. And, of course, a current of metaphysical objectivity runs through all of those beliefs. The agreement between Catholicism and conservatism is not perfect; in my opinion, Republicans need to focus more on stewardship of the earth, and too many Republicans on the national level believe in the death penalty. However, those are policy disputes, rather than substantively conflicting worldviews.
I am Catholic and conservative because I believe that they go hand-in-hand, but it is my Catholic values that inform my conservative positions, not the other way around. It is the fundamental organizing principle of universal truth that informs both Catholicism and conservatism, and reason compels me to believe both.
Tom is a senior in the Lynch School, where he is studying Secondary Education, History, and Philosophy, with a minor in Restorative Justice. He is President of the Boston College Republicans, and President emeritus of the St. Thomas More Society. When not taking too many classes or writing for The Torch or The Free Press, Tom loves to watch sports, listen to metal music, and defend Leo Strauss against (unfair) accusations of Gnosticism.
- Freedom, Responsibility, Belonging, and Farewell - April 29, 2022
- The Conjuring Universe: Not for the Faint of Heart, Good for the Weak of Faith - April 29, 2022
- Incipient Political Catholicism - March 27, 2022
Interesting