Universal Civil and Social Rights (Matt)

The Christian faith is often considered controversial for its doctrines and their political applications.

To supplement that, the Christian faith is very divided between its many denominations, which each describe its own set of beliefs. These multiple sets of beliefs, as a whole religion, encompass nearly every viewpoint available, which leads to its dispute: how can one faith have so many beliefs?

Catholicism

Derived from millennia of tradition, the Catholic Church has a long history based on fundamentals dotted with tribulations. Its history begins with the early Christian community following the teachings and fulfilled prophecies of Christ himself.

Since then, the church has assumed very powerful positions sprinkled with evil and corruption, but equally love and compassion.

Emperor Constantine’s decision to expand Christianity to the Roman Empire around A.D. 300 (Matthews, “Constantine I…”) catalyzed the Catholic Empowerment, which made the Pope one of the highest political officials in the world. He has held this position with much influence until the 1800s when political powers began to be reserved for national officials instead of religious sovereigns.

This power, though thought to offer a conduit to worldwide evangelization, has corrupted the church in many instances (Miller, “Power Struggles of…”). Such escapades as the Crusades, the Inquisition, tithing, and indulgences turned the Pope into a sort of political authoritarian.

The Church’s excuse for these was the name of God and His desire to convert the entire world to Catholicism—I believe such oppression is a disgrace to Christ’s ministry.

But, learning from that, the Church’s recent popes have grown its mission into one that is based on love and compassion for all. This liberalized mission of the church has attracted socially conscious millennials as well as formerly non-believing atheists (Fradd, “15 Surprising Things…”).

Beginning with Pope John Paul II’s call for social justice and continuing with radical changes under Pope Francis, Catholics all around the world are facing a new, progressive church that might just bring the Christian world together.

Episcopalianism

My personal faith-walk has left me with the Episcopal Church, which was either amazing luck or extraordinary grace from God.

I was baptized into the Episcopal faith on the day of the Epiphany, just a few months after I was born. In the Episcopal Church, Confirmation isn’t solely reserved for young adulthood so I received it when I was only twelve.

Despite this (and regretfully), I never really understood what my faith professed until my senior year of high school. Regardless, I was lucky to have it happen to me with the Episcopal Church because it almost exactly matches my political stance on a variety of issues.

Both it and I deductively apply a simple set of fundamental beliefs to all political matters.

For example, we believe in protecting and nurturing the rights and dignity of every human being on earth. This basic belief can apply to political positions such as abortion, gay marriage, and poverty.

The Episcopal Church stands for the rights of the unborn child as well as the rights of the pregnant woman. The choice side of our pro-choice stance is to choose to prevent a conception—and thus the need for abortion—with contraceptives, birth control, and simple family planning. We say that the question is not “Is abortion ok?” but rather “How do we make abortion unnecessary?”

The abortion process is permitted “in cases of rape or incest, cases in which a mother’s physical or mental health is at risk, or cases involving fetal abnormalities,” but not “as a means of bi