Joe Biden's Fervent Wish to be Damned Will be Granted

Politicians Must Publicly Repent of Their Evil Positions to Entertain Any Hope of Salvation

While some might recoil at the headline for this post, this truth needs to be spoken. There are many people, as shocking and surprising as it may seem, who know the truth about God and His moral commands, and simply refuse to obey Him. They know that refusal to obey God will send them to Hell, and they still willingly choose it. In fact, this is the choice that everyone who ends up in Hell makes. No one is sent to Hell by accident. No one is sent to Hell by God for a capricious reason or sent there because they violated a command of God out of ignorance. Everyone who is sent to Hell is sent there because they willingly chose to go there. (This topic is discussed more in the post about Pride as the first sin and beginning of all sin)

Pride Was the Very First Sin

This post isn’t actually about Joe Biden individually, but about those politicians who promote grave and mortal evils in their offices, thereby corrupting society and encouraging others to sin and corruption as well.

Those in the public sphere who have authority over others have a greater responsibility and culpability for those actions they take that have an impact on society. This applies especially to those like politicians who are vested with special authority over society and our culture. They will be judged on those actions and since they have a greater impact on all people under their influence, those politicians will be judged by God harshly for those actions which harm others or encourage them into sin.

Take for example a politician who makes legalizing abortion, and promotes the funding of abortion, one of the official positions they support. Whether they are successful or not in implementing these positions doesn’t change the fact that they have already, by officially promoting these positions, committed mortal sin. Publicly encouraging or promoting such grave evils is evil itself. Whether you are successful or not, you are committing the grave sin of scandal and encouraging others to hold these sinful views, which is also a grave sin.

For those politicians who are actually successful in implementing such mortal sins, they are also guilty of participation in those grave evils and are guilty of the mortal sins committed by those whom are affected by their policies. A politician cannot claim they are innocent of abortion (even if they personally may have never been involved in one) while they have advocated for making/keeping abortion legal and/or funding it. Every abortion that occurs because of their public acts is an abortion they are guilty of, and each one is a mortal sin upon their soul.

Now the positions being described here are those that are objectively grave evils that cannot be excused away by claiming there is a case of prudential judgment that might be at play. Humans can disagree on the proper level of taxation, and disagree on whether the government should provide certain benefits or welfare programs. This comes down to a prudential judgment that each man must make, and this judgment must be made through the use of his conscience. (One critical caveat to this: the conscience must be properly formed by Church teaching. One cannot claim that their conscience allows for grave evils because this means that their conscience is malformed and this person refuses to form their conscience properly in line with the morality of God.)

There is also prudential judgment that must be exercised in which vices are allowed under human law, because human laws cannot outlaw every vice. If society attempted to do so, even greater evil would blossom. Fallen men would then run afoul of the law at every turn. St Thomas Aquinas discusses this in detail in the Summa about the judgment that must be exercised and specifically which evils must be made illegal and which are under prudential judgment.

Summa Theologiae, II-II, Q.10, A.11: Now human law is framed for a number of human beings, the majority of whom are not perfect in virtue. Wherefore human laws do not forbid all vices, from which the virtuous abstain, but only the more grievous vices, from which it is possible for the majority to abstain; and chiefly those that are to the hurt of others, without the prohibition of which human society could not be maintained: thus human law prohibits murder, theft and such like.

Reply to Objection 1. Audacity seems to refer to the assailing of others. Consequently it belongs to those sins chiefly whereby one's neighbor is injured: and these sins are forbidden by human law, as stated.

As you can see in this passage from the Summa, the sins which injure others and those which destroy the society must be made illegal. There is no prudential judgment on these sins. So sins like abortion and same-sex “marriage” must be made illegal because they directly harm others (abortion) or they destroy society (same-sex “marriage”). See my post about marriage and society here:

The Catholic, and Correct, View on Marriage, Family & Society

So politicians which currently or have in the past espoused such views and promoted such grave evils publicly, have a responsibility to renounce these mortal sins. They must turn away from their evil and they must attempt to correct the damage they have inflicted on others and society.

One argument that is attempted when discussing the damnation of politicians who promote these grave evils is that we do not know if they have been to Confession and we do not know if they have repented privately of their sins. While this is true of private individuals, for politicians this excuse does not fly. For a person to receive forgiveness of their sins and to be freed from their mortal sins, they must have a firm purpose to amend their lives and avoid sin in the future. Jesus wasn’t kidding when He told us that we must repent of our ways.

Matthew 13:5 I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

Anyone wishing for Christ to forgive their sins must repent. He must change his ways (or at least honestly begin to change his ways). This doesn’t mean that we will never sin again, but you must make a firm act of the will to turn away from sin and work to avoid it in the near future. For a private person, they can do this privately and work to change their lives. But for politicians who have publicly promoted heinous sins, they must PUBLICLY change their ways. It is not enough to attempt to personally change but still promote mortal sin in their public offices. They must change their official public actions and words to conform to the moral law of God. There is no such thing as being personally opposed to mortal sin but publicly promoting mortal sin. There is no such thing as being privately against abortion but publicly pro-choice. That’s not how this works. A politician’s actions and words must be in conformity to God’s moral law.

So if a politician has a change of heart and it is sincere, they must turn away from the evils they have publicly promoted and openly condemn those evil views they once pushed for and endorsed. Literally the only instance where this does not apply is for a politician who is on their death bed and finally repents of their evil and asks for Confession. They can be granted absolution if their repentance is genuine. But if they survive the death bed, they must publicly renounce those evils or their Confession was invalid and they are guilty of their sins. Just as Jesus warns in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, the Father will re-institute our guilt and debts if we refuse to amend our lives once He has forgiven us:

Matthew 18:32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; 33 and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

So to bring this entire post back around to the beginning, politicians like Joe Biden, who actively, willfully and obstinately promote the multitude of grave mortal sins such as abortion and same-sex “marriage” are guilty and continue to be guilty of those sins that they have committed and all the sins that their public acts have assisted in being committed by every person under their influence and authority. They will be sent to Hell as an absolute certainty unless they repent of their evil, go to Confession, and then PUBLICLY renounce their positions they once held which promoted mortal sin.

(Now just wait until we discuss how this same principles apply to Catholic bishops…)