Don’t Be a Captured Pawn

It’s not a love letter, it’s a chess move.

Muriel C.W. Boulton, The Chess Problem, 1906. Oil on canvas, 80.8 x 65 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo: NGC

In my twenties, when I was trying to figure out what sort of life God was calling me to, I tried to imagine myself as a religious sister. It occurred to me that there would be something freeing about taking a vow of obedience. I would be told when to rise, and when to go to bed, what to read and for how long, even much of my diet would be decided. But even more compelling, my job—what I did with the talents God gave me—would be determined by Mother Superior. And if I wasn’t up to snuff, it would be her problem. She would have to find another role that fit my abilities. Or find a way to bring my abilities up to snuff.

Making decisions, at that time of life, seemed so weighty. What was the best move for me? Do I stay in this job and in this location hoping to meet my husband here? Do I go online and maybe meet someone in another location? Do I move back near family in case I don’t ever meet my husband? There was so much pressure, and it seemed easier to give that job away to a superior who would take that on. And I would be safe in a role that would be a fairly sure path to heaven, if I just put a little effort into my spiritual life. At least, that is what I thought at the time.

However, God had another path for me. I had to decide where to live and whom to marry. I had to work with my husband on how best to raise our kids, manage our household, our money, our food, our parish life. AND work on that spiritual life part. In many ways, it is a weighty life—especially for someone who struggles with decisions.

All this went through my head as I read some of the Catholic commenters on X (Twitter) who have declared they cannot vote in this election since neither candidate holds their same views on the pro-life question. Both candidates are wrong. Neither has the full picture. So, they say to themselves, I can’t support either candidate. I must not vote (or write in some appropriately saintly candidate).

In many ways, that is the easy path—especially for someone who struggles with difficult decisions. It is much safer and easier to say “I just won’t vote—I won’t play the game, I will leave my piece off the board—then I am not complicit”.

But is that true? When your grandkids ask you what did you do to stem the tide of the culture of death in our government—what will you say? Of course you don’t have much power in the political game. You don’t have any powerful moves to make to influence the federal government. Or the state for that matter. You might have a little influence locally, but not much. You can talk with your friends about the sanctity of life. You can surround yourself with people who agree.

Ultimately, you are just a pawn in the game of politics and governance.

Then again, even a pawn is a playing piece. Although you have very little power in what happens in your government, you do wield one playing piece.  Aside from whatever influence you have among your friends (in real life or on the internet), you have one single piece on the board.

That is your vote.

You can keep your piece on the sidelines, refuse to play it and walk away. Or you can step into the very serious game of democratic politics and spend some effort to decide how best to use your playing piece on the board, the best strategy to move towards truth.

Your one chess move.

I am no chess genius, but I have heard it said that the pawn is the “soul of chess”. Interestingly, there are all sorts of strategies to use your pawns in chess—and most of it involves how the pawns work together.

We all feel like pawns in the game of politics—we hear the politician make a promise and then forget it when he gets in office. We watch them make incomprehensible decisions with no apparent thought to the regular American and what he most needs from his government. We watch them all fall under the influence of special interests, corporations and criminal cartels.

We really are the proverbial pawn.

But even a pawn has a move to make. The decision to move forward or not seems very limited, but when the pawn works with other pawns, his one move can be truly powerful.

“Individually, pawns are weaker than the pieces. However, together they create a force that is roughly equal in strength to the queen!”

It is true that there may be times when the best strategy is to withhold our vote—to not make a move. I would venture to say that is rarely a wise chess move. Even so, in order to decide if it is the best move, we need to think through the consequences of each candidate’s victory.

Since many online seem to be stuck on the pro-life issue, lets take that as our example. When in the history of this country have we had a presidential candidate that has openly supported abortion through all nine months of pregnancy…and beyond? That party is clear about their intentions. However, the other candidate finds late term abortion abhorrent.

One party intends to make abortion legal for nine months in all fifty states. The other candidate wants the states to battle it out—supporting the pro-life laws already in existence and allowing pro-life advocates to fight for those laws in the states where they don’t exist.

But that isn’t the only issue at stake. Also on the table is World War III (or avoiding it), government censorship, parental rights (especially concerning gender disphoria), the pharmaceutical stranglehold on food and medicine, etc.

Hard decision? Maybe, maybe not.

Just as we are called as parents to make the hard decisions of running our households and raising our children—decisions that often come with downside or compromise—we are called as citizens to make the hard decisions of our local, state and  national household.

You are a pawn. A powerful pawn with one move.

The easy path is to sit it all out. The difficult path is make the best prudential decision that you can in wielding your one playing piece on the game board on behalf of truth.

Remember, your vote is not a love letter, or an offer of friendship. It is a chess move.

Make your move…or you are just a captured pawn, standing off of the board watching the collapse.

These statements made about God and his Church have not been evaluated by Heaven or The Catholic Church. They are not guaranteed to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any spiritual condition or disease, nor are they guaranteed to be worded in the best and most accurate way. Please consult with your own priest, the Catechism, or God himself regarding the statements and analogies made in this article.