1. GOVERNMENT

2. PATIENCE FOR POLITICS • Power Grabs “A mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw sired by a Virginia mulatto father.” - John Adams on Thomas Jefferson

3. PATIENCE FOR POLITICS • Power Grabs “A hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force & firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” - Thomas Jefferson on John Adams

4. PATIENCE FOR POLITICS • Power Grabs • Posturing • Plots & Ploys • Political Poise & Patience

5. PATIENCE FOR POLITICS • Stop Listening to Fear & Hate • Reevaluate Facebook activity • Pray for Politicians “I urge that entreaties and prayers … be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority.” - 1 Timothy 2:1-2

6. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • Primary Question • 3 Possible Approaches • No Distinction w/ Competition • Full Distinction w/ Faith Irrelevant

7. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION “I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who happens also to be Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters – and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President – on …

8. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION “… birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject – I will make my decision … without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates.” - John F. Kennedy

9. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • Primary Question • 3 Possible Approaches • No Distinction w/ Competition • Full Distinction w/ Faith Irrelevant

10. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION “Because [many] do not consider beliefs informed by theology as belonging to a knowledge tradition, they feel justified in dismissing theo-logically informed policy proposals as de facto inferior to so-called secular ones [that] answer precisely the same questions.” - Francis Beckwith

11. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • Primary Question • 3 Possible Approaches • No Distinction w/ Competition • Full Distinction w/ Faith Irrelevant • Some Distinction & Complementary

12. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • What are the things of Caesar? • Rule with Authority • Promote Righteousness • Punish Evil & Wickedness • Collect Taxes • Protect the Poor & Oppressed • Aren’t these the things of God?

13. STATECRAFT IS SOULCRAFT “[Aristotle] meant by this that the state or government, by its policies, procedures and actions, places moral ideas in the social and legal fabric of a political regime, and that these ideas serve to shape the quality of its citizens’ character.” - Francis Beckwith

14. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • Implications of this Approach • C & S “Separation” = Too Wide • National Conscience = Important • Removing God is Catastrophic “The liberties we cherish … depend on a natural moral law … best explained by the existence of God.” - Beckwith

15. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION • Applications of this Approach: • Be Informed & Vote • Argue for “Common Good” • Pursue Vocation in Politics? • Place Hope in Returning King

16. GOVERNMENT