"I may not be able to align myself with *any* major American political movement in the near future..."

A Facebook friend of mine put up the following status not long ago:

Recently, I've been reexamining some of my deepest political convictions out of a desire to be a more faithful Catholic. The hard truth is, I may not be able to align myself with *any* major American political movement in the near future, as long as those movements continue to conflict, in different ways, with the social teachings of the Catholic Church. I'm not withdrawing from politics, but I don't want to be a "Party man" for the left or the right anymore. I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Libertarian. I'm a Catholic Christian. From what I can see, the teachings of the Church don't fit in very well with virtually *any* current major American political category.

The nomination of Donald Trump by the GOP and the rabid support he's receiving by people I believed at one time I was aligned with from an ideological and even religious perspective has solidified for me something I've been reluctant to say aloud now for some time and it's pretty much what my Facebook friend has said above.

I'm no longer a Republican.  I've never been a Democrat.  I'm certainly not a Libertarian.  I'm not liberal and sadly, I'm coming to grips with the fact that no longer can I call myself conservative... not if the yardstick used to measure conservatives is the one measuring my conservatism on whether or not I'm voting for Trump.

I'm Catholic.  A practicing Catholic, meaning I don't have it down yet and likely never will but what has crystallized for me this election season is that I've shed the conservative label and though some will use that shedding to call me a liberal now (while many a liberal will continue to call me a conservative), the reality has come clearly into focus.

I'm Catholic.

Help me represent Lord.

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Comments

[Tim Chesterton]

Amen. C.S. Lewis said much the same thing - that a consistent Christian is always going to have problems aligning himself or herself with any political party, because they all have some elements in their platform that are inconsistent with Christian teaching.

Me, although I lean to the left, I have some convictions that many would call conservative. May God give to all of us Christians the grace to put our loyalty to Jesus ahead of any earthly political loyalty.