I got news for you. Even if President Barak Obama should lose his bid for re-election, this nation has a lot of work to do in future months (not years, but months). For a U.S. president to demonstrate a wanton disregard for human life in (and outside) the womb, religious liberty and national security (Benghazi and Fast and Furious) and yet still be competitive in the 2012 presidential race, is an alarming indicator on how a significant percentage of U.S. voters have strayed from both Christian and America’s founding principles. Such an indicator suggests that human rights and freedom- both civic and religious –could be very well be endangered if the wrong people are put into office.Naturally, many Americans are worried about the 2012 presidential election. So many of them are anxiously biting their finger nails; hoping for a favorable outcome. Among these hopefuls are Catholic clergy and laity whose mission it is to advance the New Evangelization. Yet, not enough is being said about why many believe America is on the brink with this election. How is it that we got to this point?
Etienne Gilson, a Catholic philosopher, gives the reason why, in large part, every election is “the most important election;” that is, why every election can either spell ruin for freedom and prosperity or save it. Writing for the Vanguard Press in 1951, he wrote an article that was prophetic. In the article, The Breakdown of Morals and Christian Education, he writes,
"To the full extent that it educates, the State educates in view of itself…The only conceivable end of a State-owned education is the State itself. States themselves may not know it. They may sincerely believe that nothing is more foreign to their honest intentions; yet, to put it bluntly, the only reason why a State may not want children to be educated in view of God is that it wants them to be educated in view of itself. Totalitarian education does nothing more than go the whole way along the same line. The result is what we know: political, economic, intellectual and spiritual slavery."
State-run education is not the only reason but it is one very important reason why every presidential election is now turning about to the "most important election."
