Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation.
Question of Faith
Is Voting Third Party a Waste of a Vote?
Is voting third party a wasted effort, or does it hold the potential to reshape the political landscape? Join us as we navigate this perennial debate on Election Day, where one of us casted his vote for Peter Sonsky from the American Solidarity Party, sparking a lively discussion on third-party voting.
We consider how these votes can spotlight alternative policies and challenge the overpowering factions of the present political landscape. Through the lens of Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative, we question if voting your conscience could lead to a more diverse political arena. Despite differing viewpoints, there's a shared acknowledgment of the hurdles the two-party system and monetary influence present in American politics.
St. Hillary's in Fairlawn is this week's Church Search.
Readings for the 32nd Sunday in OT are here.
With gratitude for our country and optimism for its future, we wrap up with a reminder of the enduring sovereign presence of Jesus Christ, regardless of who leads politically.
On today's Question of Faith. Is voting third party a waste of a vote? Hey there everybody. This is Question of Faith. I am Deacon Mike Hayes. I'm the Director of the M Adult Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2:And I'm Father Damian Ferencz, the Vicar for Evangelization. Happy Election Day everyone.
Speaker 1:Happy Election Day. Recording this on Election Day, I'd like to make one prediction about Election Day Go. The world will not end, no matter what happens today.
Speaker 2:And Jesus Christ will still reign as king Right, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's true, we should have hope, no matter what happens here, no matter which side of the aisle comes out victorious.
Speaker 2:Did you see the question I sent for the staff for lunch today, for Together Tuesday?
Speaker 1:I don't think I did.
Speaker 2:Okay so.
Speaker 1:I was driving in, I think, when you sent it.
Speaker 2:Every Tuesday we gather together with our whole Parish Life staff. There's about there's over 20 that are on our staff. Not all 20 can make it every week, but we always have a question of the day that just gets things going. And then we pray and then we eat lunch together for an hour. It's the one day during the week where we all gather for lunch. So the question of the day is do you think we'll know who the new president is by midnight?
Speaker 1:Ah, oh yeah, I did see that, yes.
Speaker 2:No, oh, you're not supposed to answer yet.
Speaker 1:You can answer later.
Speaker 2:So yeah, well, they'll hear this later, so that's fine. Yeah, yeah, um, yeah, that's, that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wonder, I bet you will be evenly split on that too, and I think about it, we'll see, we'll see. Yeah, exactly, my friend john thinks it'll be over by 10 45 see, there you go.
Speaker 2:So some people think I don't know yeah I do not think that all right. So the question uh was actually submitted by me. I submitted it, you did, Because I am voting third party. I'm voting for a guy named Peter Sonsky who is the candidate for the American Solidarity Party, and some people say what the heck is the American Solidarity Party? You can look them up online it's solidarity-partyorg. Yeah, and actually this is not my first time voting third party, but I get this all the time People will say you are wasting your vote.
Speaker 1:So what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:They're right, but however, I will say this I don't think it's wrong to vote third party if you've started, if that party has actually a chance of winning, right, you know, I mean, my one of my friends argues this with me all the time and she says, well, third party, it's important to vote third party because then that's how those people get known, that's how people kind of kind of you know, you kind of right, bring attention to those things. And I was like, well, okay, that's a good point, I said. But you know, at this point, know, shouldn't we have been paying attention to them already, you know? And if we didn't, then do they have a reasonable chance of winning? I guess would be my question there.
Speaker 2:Well, that is a good question, and perhaps not in this election, but perhaps down the line. The more attention that a third party gets, the more possible it could be that America could move from a two-party system where I feel like well, let me put it this way, this is the first principle for the American Solidarity Party sanctity of life. Human life is sacred from conception to natural death. We thus oppose abortion, euthanasia, any direct and intentional attacks on innocent human life. We oppose the death penalty as an unnecessary measure to protect human life.
Speaker 1:Neither the GOP or the.
Speaker 2:DNC are on board with that.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:Both candidates of the major parties are not on board with that particular item and so if you go through the platform, the American Solidarity Party is committed to the betterment of our nation and world through a prudent policies guided by our Christian democratic values, and you can go through and see how that is. I don't feel dirty when I vote, for I don't like having to choose between two evils. Why choose between two evils when you can actually choose something that's good?
Speaker 1:Well, that's a good point. I like that. Yeah, yeah, you can actually choose something that's good. Well, that's a good point, I like that. Yeah, all right, maybe I'll turn around on this for you. You don't have to turn around.
Speaker 2:I'm just arguing that it is certainly not a waste of a vote, and although I'm not a huge Kantian, I like some of what Immanuel Kant does. But one of the questions he asks us to ask ourselves when we do something, whatever the human action is, one of the ways that you know it's good, according to his categorical imperative is what if this act was universalized? So what if everyone did what I do? Would that be better or would that be worse? And I would argue if and this is, you don't have to agree with me, but I am voting according to my conscience, of course, I think this is the best thing for me to do and you can disagree with that and others have disagreed with that, yeah, I might argue it would have been the best thing for you to do a year ago.
Speaker 2:I couldn't have done it a year ago. We vote every four years on the president.
Speaker 1:No, no, but I mean to get that candidate more widely known. I mean, what did you do up until now to get Sonsky's name?
Speaker 2:out there Talk to people. I don't have a lot of money. This is the problem. Why do we have two parties? Because there's a lot of money behind all this Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's really the case.
Speaker 2:Isn't that right, yeah, you know, yeah, right, exactly.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, no, it's going to be interesting, you know it's. It's funny. You know, I was, you know, just driving around in various areas of the city and seeing all the political signs that are out now, you know all around, you know both the east side, west side of cleveland.
Speaker 1:It's just interesting to see how polarized we are yeah, you know it's true and yeah, I think you've made this point before is that you know we can't, we, it seems like we can't really elect someone in the center anymore, where you and I are firmly all the time. I mean, you know, I might be a little left to center, you might be a little right to center, but at the same point, at the same time we're in the center and it doesn't seem like any of our candidates are ever there anymore. You know, it's like I, I can't really go down a checklist anymore and say, oh yeah, that guy, you know that guy's kind of reasonable, you know, reasonable as usual. Or that woman is kind of reasonable to even go on that side yeah, I, I read a book by jean twangy.
Speaker 2:She wrote that book called uh, the I generation no, yeah, that's right, I was it, I gen, it was called I gen, and her most recent book I think at least the most recent book I've read is called generations, and so she covers the silent generation, baby boomers, gen x, which is us, millennials, zoomers, and then the generation born after 2012 is known as the alpha generation or the polar generation, and one of the reasons they're called the polar generation is because the world is more polarized than it ever has been. So this is where we find ourselves. I texted you. I saw this quote on.
Speaker 2:Dante today and I thought it would be good to mention because, again, sometimes people will quote Dante. So the darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. I think that's right, but I don't think voting a third party means you've maintained moral neutrality. I certainly know what my morals are and I'm not satisfied with either party's platform in supporting what I find to be best for the world, and the country in particular, but also the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah, I would agree with that. I would say that you know what Dante is saying is not like like you're copping out, you know.
Speaker 2:Right, he was not part of a democracy either. No, he was not, you know, so yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, speaking of third party, here's a race for you to take a look at today as the results come in. You might want to take a look at the Senate race in Nebraska, where Dan Osborne is running.
Speaker 2:He is an actual independent candidate.
Speaker 1:Okay, and his platform? Generally speaking, he's a Navy vet, wants to raise the federal minimum wage. He wants a lower tax rate for small business, wants to secure the border, increase legal immigration, decrease illegal immigration. Unfortunately he's for abortion, so you know I'd probably not vote for him just for that reason alone.
Speaker 1:And increased border security as well. So he actually wants to build the wall, but also within the reasonable limits of what immigration should do for our country. So he's kind of playing both sides of the coin. I'm just saying it would be interesting if he won, yeah, you know, to see if a third party really could have legs, at least in an election like that. And apparently he's. He's gained in traction.
Speaker 2:Well, it would be on a more local level that this would have to start. There's no, and again, I don't think Sonsky has a chance of winning this year. But I do think the more attention that is given to a third party could make for better opportunities down the line. And I'm thinking here in terms of long view, because you'd also have to figure out who you're going to work with. How could you work with the House or the Senate when it's just two parties, with the exception of very few independents? So that would be my hope. I think we lock ourselves in. I don't think we're creative or imaginative enough in the way that we think about who we can be politically, and as a Catholic, you really are a political orphan. It's not like you'd say this party suits me or this party suits me perfectly to any degree. And I know people can argue oh well, this party certainly is more, or this party is certainly less. Okay, well, I'm going to vote for Sonsky.
Speaker 1:Some of the young adults have said that about me. Right, they've said you know like you're interesting. You know you're kind of too liberal for the conservatives, but you're too conservative for the liberals, and I mean the extremes of those two things.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm far left and I certainly don't think I'm far right, but if ever that was a call, that's what I really think we need today is that we need the more centrist voices to kind of come together. Last year we did this faith and science conference that we started last year, and one of the questions that we looked at last year was the environment, and we had a professor from Ohio State who came up and one of the things that he had said in our discussion was he said you know, we need more conservative voices in the environmental movement because, it's not like.
Speaker 1:it's not like the liberal side have figured all that out. Yeah, and in fact some of their, their methods are like way too extreme for most people in America. And he was like, yeah, especially if they're against having children.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, exactly, you know all those kinds of things, and so he's like. You know we need these kinds of voices. I say all the time, what we really need are people who are willing to work for consensus, not people who are willing to work for majority, because you know, in the majority you have 49 people who are all mad. But if you work for consensus, unfortunately that takes longer. But is there a way that we can all kind of come together and say, okay, is this a decision we can live with, that meets with all of our, with this side's moral judgments that we can kind of give a little bit to, and maybe this side's more economic freedom that maybe we want to live with on whatever issue it might be.
Speaker 1:It's hard to do. I mean, it's how I try to manage in some ways, and when I've been managers of departments and things like that, I try to work for consensus. Is this a decision we can all live with and get behind? And so we can? Well then, let's keep talking. Status quo is going to remain for a little while.
Speaker 2:And, again, we are part of a governmental system that is representative, but that doesn't mean that you're off the hook. Like you vote these people in to do your work, you're supposed to be doing your own work locally and being active in your own communities too, so all that matters and that doesn't stop depending upon who's elected you. You, you do good work for the common good and be active in your communities. So, yeah, I, I, um, I'm interested to see where this thing goes and how, cause, you know, half the country is going to be disappointed, as happens every four years. Um, but Christ is king, he is Lord. We serve him. I don't serve a president. The president and the government are supposed to serve us. So well, we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how are you going to spend Election Day? Have you voted already, by the way?
Speaker 2:No, because I had to be at the seminary this morning and Father Eric texted me and said do you want to go down and vote? Now we vote at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, so I want to go down there and do that, which I think is very cool. So I'll do it after lunch, I think, because I don't have any time before then and the lines did look long this morning. I hope they're long. That's a really good sign. I mean, this is our civic duty to get out there and vote.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So that's the plan and then tonight I think we'll probably watch the results. I'm actually going out to dinner with Garris tonight and then we'll watch the results in the rectory. I think the guys will get together and see what happens. See if your buddy's right by 1045.
Speaker 2:I mean it could very well be weeks, depending upon the mail-in votes and everything else that happens. So we'll see. I think if it was decided easily and quickly, that would be best for the country, because then there wouldn't be the debate and the fights like there have been in the past, in 2000 and 2020 and all that. So well, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:God bless America, yeah, exactly. Well, we'll see what happens. I can remember God bless America, yeah, exactly I remember, I covered the race in 2000, when I was on radio because it was mostly a political talk station I was working for the Bob Grant Show, which was kind of a conservative talk program, and I can remember the arguments just among the staff during that time the election's over? No, it's not. They haven't finished counting it's over. No, it's not, they haven't finished counting it's over. No it's not, they haven't finished counting.
Speaker 2:And that was the hanging chads and all that.
Speaker 1:All that stuff and I was like, could we just pick somebody at this point?
Speaker 2:It's 24 years ago now.
Speaker 1:The other day for morning prayer, I highlighted this. Lord, you have renewed the face of the earth. Your church throughout the world sings you a new song announcing your wonders to all. Through a virgin, you have brought forth new birth in our world Through your miracles, a new power, through your suffering, a new patience. In your resurrection a new hope and in your ascension a new majesty.
Speaker 2:All things will be new.
Speaker 1:Yes, all things will be new Right. So pray for our candidates, pray for those. By the way, I voted, I didn't say that I voted two weeks ago. I think you said that a little while back. Yeah, probably on another program. I didn't say it today. So get out and vote. It's most important that you vote.
Speaker 2:You didn't get your sticker, though I did jacket. Oh, I see, I see, yeah, I didn't. Actually I didn't wear the jacket. People make fun of me, but I, I like this, I like stickers. I mean, don't send me stickers please, but it's nice, you get a little sticker.
Speaker 1:Send all your stickers no, don't, no, no. Diocese of cleveland, nope 1404, east ninth nope wrong address all right, anyway, um church. Yeah, so I was at St Hillary's oh in Fairlawn I had not been before in Fairlawn. Actually, I had been there for a meeting, but I had not been in the worship space before, and so after the Faith and Science Conference we brought people up to St Hillary's from Canton.
Speaker 1:We were at the MAPS Air Museum in Canton for the conference and we brought people up to Fairlawn for Mass and then Father Cam Poppock was the presider at St Hillary's and it's a big campus in general, it's huge. Yeah, it's right in.
Speaker 2:Fairlawn off 18. Yes, and it's a more modern church, probably built in the 60s, 70s?
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of from the less is more era, yeah, but with lots of different little prisms of light that shine in all around, which? I thought was nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Father Michael Garvin had his first Mass of Thanksgiving there. That was the last time I was there. It was really beautiful Big school. Yes, father Steve Bronowski is the pastor. Yep, he's a twin. His brother is Father Michael Bronowski who is? A Benedictine Got it. Yeah, and their dad.
Speaker 1:I just put that together now Was good friends with my dad.
Speaker 2:They were both really proud Slovaks, yeah, and he grew up. Steve Bronowski grew up at St Columkill and Father Krisner was his chaplain and youth group going up, who was my high school chaplain. So, yeah, a lot of Slovak connections there. It's a nice church.
Speaker 1:It is, yeah, and good folks I get to talk to a lot of I preached, so it was an opportunity for me to preach in a different space, which I don't always get to do which was nice.
Speaker 2:It's not in. I mean it's not in the round, but it definitely fans out a little bit Because the ones that are in the round are harder to. I mean, it's a good idea, everyone feels close, but it's harder to preach there because you're craning your neck.
Speaker 1:Even the four aisles there I found kind of harder Reach that fourth side and I have a tendency to Because I preach from the center. I've been told I have a tendency to go left. I always say you know you can't go right Because I tend to move my left more often than I move to my right if I move around a little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I preached at the seminary yesterday for Charles Bormeo Day and I wrote out my whole homily. So that's one style I have where I write out everything, and then I'll be there again Thursday for R&R. I forget what that stands for, but it's their 7pm Mass and then I won't have any notes and I'll just preach right from the text. So, yeah, I think preachers, you have different styles. You have to know your audience and then you go according to what's needed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I usually write it all out and then run through it once, just reading it out loud to myself, and then do that a few times and then I think I have it down and then sometimes I eliminate things, sometimes I add things, depending on how it feels to me and what I'm responding to in my own prayer, and say, oh, I don't need to say that, but I need to say this.
Speaker 1:And then on my morning walks I'll try to memorize it. As I go through my morning walks, my drives in, I'll try to memorize it and say it out loud in the car a couple times and then, when I think I've got it, I've got it.
Speaker 1:I see, and I generally don't use the notes. I generally preach just from the center, no notes. If you ever see me preaching from the Ambo, I probably did not have enough time to memorize the homily or had trouble memorizing. Sometimes I have trouble with memory. So I'm like nah, I can't memorize that this time.
Speaker 2:I'm at the point where I don't memorize the homily. I just I basically know my, I've got moves in my head and it's like I could just preach this thing and I leave enough room for the Holy Spirit. But there are times, like yesterday, where I knew everything I wanted to say and I had the words to say it. Plus, it's a seminary audience. These guys do pay attention and I wrote it in such a way that it would be fun to hear, so it wasn't like it wasn't boring or cold, but every word mattered and I wrote it that way and that is one way to preach too. I mean the popes preach way.
Speaker 2:Yes, true, and a lot of the church fathers did Not all the time, but some did so. Anyway, you do what works.
Speaker 1:I often have four to six topic sentences. If I could remember the six topic sentences I could remember the whole homily. That's cool, easy to do it that way. So St Hillary's Church, fairlawn, ohio, very nice Akron suburb.
Speaker 2:Check it out the traffic stinks around there, ohio, very nice Akron suburb, check it out. Check it out the great Krista.
Speaker 1:The traffic stinks around there, though Kind of yeah, you're right, so make some time, don't be late to match. Yeah, the great Krista Alberta, part of that parish. Yeah, that's where she's from. Yeah, now the campus minister at Akron.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw she, and Father Zaruka dressed up old cheerleading characters. Oh, that's very funny For their Halloween party down at Akron, which is a riot. That's great.
Speaker 1:I didn't see that. Yeah, it was pretty good. All right. So readings for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, the widow's mite. This week the poor widow came put in two small coins worth a few cents, calling his disciples to himself, jesus said to them Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury, for they have contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. I thought back to the rich young man. The rich young man is asked to go and sell what you have and give to the poor. It was fine for him to obey all the commandments, but to give away everything and depend on God alone, that was a bridge too far. But then there's. I preach on the rich young man, and one of the things I talked about was there was this episode of a TV show. I don't know if you've heard of the Sports Night. It's an Aaron Sorkin TV show. You would probably like it actually.
Speaker 2:I know Aaron.
Speaker 1:Sorkin. It's like an ESPN-type show and it's about the cast and crew. It's on there. It's very well done. But there was a vagrant that wandered into the office and this guy ran into him and he saw that the guy wasn't going to do him any harm. He didn't call security and he offered to share a sandwich with him and he puts a sandwich down the table and this guy brandishes a switchblade and starts to move toward him and he starts to panic like whoa man, what's going on? But then the vagrant just cuts the sandwich in half and hands him the other half of the sandwich on the tip of the blade and, um, I said that guy gets it. That guy can even give away what little he has to be in relationship with somebody else. And I said that's sort of like the widow's mic. She can even give away what little she has and depend on God's grace alone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was at the Catholic Imagination Conference at University of Notre Dame this weekend and I actually part of my paper. I included that section because I was going through Mark's gospel and my paper was on handling serpents and drinking poison, which Jesus says to the apostles that they can do. But you can only do that if you're rooted in him. And I kind of went through Mark's gospel and did some highlights and when I got to this section, I argue that this is Jesus giving his apostles a preview of what he's going to do on the cross.
Speaker 2:Oh, very nice, and that is everything he has. He gives away, he holds nothing back, which is what he'll do in the Eucharist, which is what he'll do on the cross. And it's only in the complete gift of self that we actually find ourselves and love, Because love is everything you have. It's complete trust, it's complete surrender and giving everything away, which this widow does. So Jesus holds her up as a model, and that's nice. You know to compare her to the rich young man who was unable to do that because it was too much and he didn't trust that Jesus would provide for him or that God would take care of him. She did so. It's a good lesson to us. It's hard to do too.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah it's hard, but it's the only way to happiness. Yeah, scary at times, but if you could let go, you let go. I also talked about working in a hospice when I was in college. I said that at the end of people's lives, it was very easy to give away the car keys. It's very easy to give away the bank account numbers, easy to give away the deed to the property and lean into the fact that it's really just them and God, even their relationships. In the end they have to say goodbye.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and you've got to trust that you'll see people again on the other side in heaven. That's why you want friends with the Lord and you can let them go and then reunite in promised land. So yeah, it's a lot of trust. It's always that. It's the Paschal Mystery, it's at the heart of everything.
Speaker 1:All right. So Election Day, make sure to vote, vote, Get out and vote and remember Jesus is Lord Absolutely. Have hope in the future as we continue to go on down the road here in this great old country of ours Wouldn't want to live anywhere else Could tell you that right now We'll have this and a whole lot more next time with new people in power in the United States. You're on Question of Faith. We'll see you next time.
