While the interview is quite smarmy, there is a good point that is being made. As Christians we claim to be pro-family. As more than one news release from Christian organizations has pointed out, this means more than simply being against abortion. It also means having a pro-family philosophy that extends into areas such as how much time one should spend with their family as a parent. Being a President does not excuse someone from spending time with their family even if this means that one must spend less time with their advisors over issues of policy.
The danger of being a political “animal” is the danger that one may forget the important things in life and may concentrate only on the will to be elected again or to receive a good job review. This is true particularly among those who are supervisors, executives, and political candidates. Often the focus is on nothing more than the thought that an “exempt” supervisor or executive should spend all their time on their job, even if that destroys their family. There are Federal laws that “exempt” those who are “executives” from those regulations that seek to prevent an employer from mistreating and misusing their employees. But these laws are rarely enforced.
Thus, the fact that an USA president is clearly stating that family takes precedence over spending all their time with policy matters should be celebrated by Christians as an important pro-life statement. However, I suspect that it will not be so. Such is the world of modern American radicalized “Christian” politics. Among those whom we oppose, we Christians are unable to publicly recognize those policy decisions that are in full accord with what we support as being pro-family options.
Ellen Minnick Thomas says
I’m afraid his radical pro-abortion stance kind of negates his “pro-family” statements, although it’s nice that he appears to have SOMETHING right.
Fr. Ernesto Obregon says
So, uhm, does the fact that Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan support a budget against which the Roman Catholic Church spoke mean that I may never say a good thing about him? Just recently I posted something that lauded Romney for his commitment to give above the tithing level.