Pray. Vote. Pray. Work. Pray More.

One can see more clearly that we’re not going to vote for a saint but for someone—and realistically an entire administration—that might do us less harm than another. Don’t expect too much more.

By: Christopher Bell, originally published October 7, 2024, Crisis Magazine

During political turmoil, listen to St. Augustine of Hippo, who lived through and wrote about the fall of the Roman Empire “…what are kingdoms (or nations) but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs, but petty kingdoms?”

That doesn’t make any government look too good. “A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention,” he wrote in his masterful work The City of God. 

History tells us that many of our Founding Fathers had such a crooked-eye view of human nature. Some would say realistic. My spiritual guide and friend Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., of happy memory, would say, “slightly pessimistic. You have to believe in the Doctrine of Original Sin.” He’d add with a Jersey City accent, “If you don’t believe in Original Sin, walk through Times Square sometime and it’s all around you.”

Through this lens, one can see more clearly that you’re not going to vote for a saint but for someone—and realistically an entire administration—that might do you less harm than another. Don’t expect too much more.

Again, we elect imperfect people to work in an imperfect government, but we hope for some peace in our nation and in the world. We hope our elected officials will protect us and our neighbors and allow others to act fairly with each other. 

Now, what’s the best you can hope for?

Please don’t sit out this election.

Our nation needs you.

Especially, our nation needs the votes of those who are moral and religious, as John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Morality and virtue are the foundation of our republic and necessary for a society to be free.

With great sadness—and truly, heartbreak—I see how the Democrats, as a whole institution, succumbed to a “language of justice and moderation while practicing iniquity and extravagance.” 

It is incredibly hard for me now to imagine the lesser of two evils being the one group that tells me “reproductive rights” means destroying the child in the womb. That freedom of religion means forcing religious sisters to promote contraceptives. That parents should be happy that their child is secretly encouraged to go against their own mother or father. The list goes on. 

The Democrats wholeheartedly are committed to using your tax dollars to fund abortion on demand without limits. This party is actively attacking—on national, state, and cities-wide levels—people and organizations like me who help women choose life for their children. This party is putting peaceful protesters, like my wife, Joan, in jail for trying to stop late-term abortionists.   

That’s not the only reason not to vote for a Democrat for any level of government.

Criminals who are destroying property, attacking police officers, and committing murder are being let out of jail or given little or no jail time when found guilty. Maybe the pendulum swung to the harsh side before, but it is way, way too lenient now. And do you know who is harmed mostly by these actions? The poor in their own neighborhoods. The Democratic Party is behind all these efforts to lessen penalties for offenders. 

In the last three years, around the globe we are seeing the whole world on fire. Are we on the brink of another World War? You see in Europe and the Middle East hot wars. China is daily harassing neighbors in the Pacific. 

Our nation is still the mightiest nation on the planet. When we have such power and influence and don’t use it wisely, other nations will attack their neighbors—neighbors whom we have pledged to help and support. But how much can we continue to help and support when the whole world is on fire? 

Republican leaders are absolutely not perfect. I am deeply saddened and horrified by their willingness to let abortion go on unchecked right now. But compared to Democrats who have absolutely no limit on when an abortion can happen and want to use our tax dollars to pay for everyone’s abortion, the Republicans look sane.

I can at least call Republicans and rationally discuss how to help mothers and babies before and after birth. Democrats don’t want to talk with me.

Also, Democrats and those who think like them pretend to be oblivious to any woman who says she’s suffering after an abortion. Never is there a word that maybe the father or any relatives suffer silently—like that brother or sister, grandfather or grandmother. I know many suffer because I’ve been working with such relatives for nearly 40 years. I also know many faith-based groups are helping men, women, and siblings daily find healing and hope after an abortion. 

We always vote for an imperfect person. I’d rather an imperfect person who has some sense of justice for the most vulnerable and a desire to use American economic force and military might wisely than one who totally does not. 

Lastly, as the grandson of immigrants and someone who has worked most of my adult life to help young immigrants become citizens and find educational paths and work, I know what can be done.

That’s not what any Democratic administration has done in this century. The real tragedy at the border is the slave trade. Not only adults but children are being brought into the country illegally and worked as slaves to pay off those who brought them in. This happens when there are little or no controls at a border to a nation such as ours which allows for tremendous freedoms luring people who do not know how to find legitimate paths toward education and work. That’s the benefit of having controls at the border: truly, to give people legitimate opportunities to get proper help, not to be taken advantage of by scammers.  

If you’re not voting for Donald Trump and Republicans to help defend life, create order, and stop at least some of the tremendous injustices in our nation and throughout the world, then please don’t encourage the other party to continue on this path which is decidedly hurting our neighbor, both at home and abroad, and attacking those of us who are acting on our faith to defend life.

Please pray with me that this very blessed nation of ours will once again defend and protect life from conception; defend and protect life justly on both sides of our border; defend and protect life by ending wars justly.

Christopher Bell is blessed to be a cradle Catholic. He was born in New York and is the husband of jailed pro-lifer Joan Bell. He is the father of 7 and grandfather of 8.