My latest column: “Color Politics An Impediment To Faith”

 October 13, 2022

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and it corrupts the souls of those who harbor racist or prejudicial thoughts. The persistence of the evil of racism is why we are writing this letter now.”

The fight against racism in the Church, however, overlaps with an abuse of concerns about racial interrelations in society by means of malevolent political movements such as BLM. The color politics that do not promote equality and justice, but serve only to fan the flames of the injustices they claim to oppose, roil the Church and society as a distraction from, and an obstacle to, faith. For we of faith nothing replaces the Gospel.

Thank the Lord many people today are, as they should be, colorblind. Is it possible that some may harbor tendencies to discriminate based on appearances? Most likely more people than we may ever know struggle daily to overcome their unjust reactions to race, creed, sex, or other factors that make others different from themselves.

The reason for discrimination of any kind, however, is sin. Yes, racism is a sin. Discrimination of any kind is unjust because a violation of the dignity that belongs to every human person, simply because they are human and thus bear God’s image and likeness. It is a faith-informed truth that charity excludes no creature from its Godly embrace. To get to the root of racism or any form of discrimination we have to go to the source, which is sin. Politics cannot help us. Politics too often uses racism to increase division. Only God’s love has the power to combat injustices.

Faith is the practice of God’s love. The conversion to the ways of faith is the means of rooting out any and all injustice or discrimination. Pastors who focus on God’s love first, seeking first the Kingdom, can effectively combat all forms of injustice to include racism.

Why do some pastors and religious leaders focus on racism, however? Why do they headline it with banners on church grounds and regular comments about it in homilies and writings? And when they do, why don’t we hear any disparaging comments about the fact that it is inappropriate to focus continuously on one sin, potentially making any group which is being addressed feel, perhaps unfairly, that they are being unjustly accused? If it were any other moral issue I believe that would be the reaction as experience has shown.

Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/color-politics-an-impediment-to-faith/