Grandinetti Makes Religious Change 'After' Election
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| Church of the Good Shepherd |
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| Kristen Grandinetti has changed her religion, she annoucned on FAcebook. |
Niagara Falls Council Member Kristen Grandinetti has changed her religion.
She has left the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Episcopal Church.
How do we know this?
We know it because of the “social media” site known as Facebook.
That wondrous site where people unhesitatingly, and often without the cool light of time or the wise eye of counsel, post personal information about themselves, and their opinions regarding divorce, marriage, politics, sexual orientation, career and religion.
Grandinetti is a public figure.
What she writes is not merely personal but for the people.
On Nov. 10, 1013, the councilwoman wrote: “Though it saddens me to leave the Catholic Church after more than 50 years... I'm a proud Episcopalian.”
And on Nov. 13, she added: “You have a better chance with this Pope, too much politics from the pulpit at my old church.”
Kristen Grandinetti was re-elected to the city council in November.
She has, of course, every right to practice any religion or no religion at all.
This is a right she has according to the U. S. Constitution.
And, in a day and age when the individual personal, internal search for truth is often sadly lacking, Grandinetti warrants praise for being a seeker. She left one church and took to another.
But, it is interesting that Grandinetti chose to time the announcement of her religious change, just five days after the general election, an election that returned her to the city council for four more years.
A casual observer might praise her for her political savvy.
After all, Niagara Falls is an aging city with a large number of conservative Roman Catholics rooted in Italian, Irish and Polish cultures. The city’s population has shrunk and Catholic parishes have closed and consolidated, but that core of Catholic voters is still very much alive.
Grandinetti crafted her exit from the Catholic Church to occur after she secured her seat on the council.
In doing this, she would not offend any of the city’s Catholic voters, many of whom have made it a lifetime quest to be faithful to the church.
This was a politically wise.
The Catholic-sensitive issue of abortion also reared its head during the council election.
From a political point of view, Grandinetti ignored it. She never issued a campaign statement about the conflict between her religious affiliation of 50 years, and her work for pro-choice, or the right to have an abortion, through Planned Parenthood.
While she did not hide her pro-choice activities, she did not makeit part of her campaign platform.
Would it have made a difference?
How would she have fared had she announced during the election that there’s “too much politics at my old church” as she wrote on Facebook?
Would this have alienated Catholic voters of her former parish?
A sincere stroke of honesty, a single stroke, before the election, to boldly announce she was leaving the Catholic Church to go to the Episcopalians, and why she did it, would have been religious indeed.
She waited instead to announce her departure until after the election, a politically prudent course.
The Catholic Church has been in existence, according to its doctrine and tradition, since the 1st century AD, when it was founded by Jesus Christ in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire.
It is the oldest Christian church and, not that this matters, also the largest, with an estimated 1.2 billion members.
A religious institution that is at odds with the core of one's beliefs must be abandoned. Grandinetti did.
A church must not abandon its principles to conform with the ever- changing whims and fads of a society of people who live and breathe and fail to breathe and die, a whole generation come and gone, living and dying in under a century. No living church should be dictated by such as these.
Kristen Grandinetti chose to join the Episcopalians less than one week after a heated city council election.
Unlike religion, in politics timing is everything.
For religions, truth is eternal.
It appears that there is much truth in both those sayings.