CC#34--Living Our Faith in Challenging Times: The Foundation of Religious Freedom

0:00 For the last decade, we in the United States have been without any notion of religious freedom. Let's talk about it on this Catholic Corner. Here is our Savior, our God, who we are to all O Son of God in excelsis.

0:41 Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser. Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Catholic Corner. Welcome back to another Catholic Corner. You know that segment and episode we offer here at the Theory to Action podcast, where we pull our Catholic and Christian faith from the corner of the room and we drag it, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the middle of that room to ensure it is part and parcel of the center of our lives.

1:31 After all, our faith cannot be a decorative piece of furniture, so to speak, that we keep just in the corner of our lives only to notice it on Sundays or whenever it suits us to be just fine. It must be in the center of our lives, most especially because we are in a war. We are always in a war, we are in a spiritual war, and because of our faith isn't a following of a thing or a notion, or a philosophy. It is a following of a person, namely Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And our Lord tells us in John 8, 32, that the truth will make you free. So it is with that same spirit that we seek the truth in all things, and with that same seeking we see the notion of religious freedoms infringed upon by this current administration with a tenacity almost never seen before in the history of our country.

2:28 We in the United States are often confused with authentic freedom, as with license. License is the ability to do anything we want just because we can do it. That was not our Lord's definition of liberty or freedom. Our Lord's definition was rooted in seeking the truth, to have freedom and liberty to seek the truth mainly to love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your soul. And you, as an individual made in the image of likeness of God, should direct your actions and movements towards that truth out of love of God, and our state and country should not and ought not get in the way of that movement or action.

3:21 That is religious freedom at its core. So today we're going to cover the book Heart on Fire by the great Archbishop Charles Chaput. Who is this archbishop, this prelate of Charles Joseph Chaput of the Order of Friars Minors? Well, he is, as I said, an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He's known for his significant contributions as a bishop and archbishop. He was born in September 26, 1944, in Concordia, kansas. He is a member of the Prairie Band Pottawami tribe and he was the first Native American archbishop in the United States.

4:07 His career highlights are he joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in 1965, he was ordained a priest in 1970. He was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Rapid City, south Dakota, in 1988. In 1997, john Paul II tapped him as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Denver, colorado, where he served until 2011. Then, from 2011 to 2022, archbishop Shepu served as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, one of the most important dioceses around the United States.

4:51 He became the ninth Archbishop of that seat and the first in 100 years Not to be named a cardinal, which is significant. Archbishop Pugh is known for his doctrinal orthodoxy and intellectual engagement. He's a vocal advocate for religious freedom and has written extensively on the role of Catholic beliefs in public life, which we surely appreciate. His leadership in leadership in. His other notable works are Render Unto Caesar, serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Public Life, in Strangers in a Strange Land, living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World.

5:36 All of these books we should be and will be covering in the podcast coming up soon enough Now. Archbishop Chaput has been influential in the US Bishops Conference and has served on the US Commission of International Relations Freedom. His pastoral approach emphasizes collaboration with lay orner and ordained members of the church, and he's been recognized for his efforts to engage with diverse communities and spiritual movements within the church. Today's book is an e-book written in 2012. Again, it's Hearts on Fire, written by Archbishop Chaput, and for that let's go to our first poll quote.

6:21 In Render on to Caesar, published in 2008, I talked about the importance of Catholics witnessing their faith vigorously in public life, not simply as a matter of good citizenship, but also an obligation of the gospel. That duty is even more urgent today, as the mistakes and ambiguities of the past half century of American Catholic experience come to harvest. Our national leadership in 2012 seems deaf to matters of religious freedom abroad and unreceptive, or, frankly, hostile, to religious engagement and public affairs here at home and public affairs here at home.

7:04 This marks a break with most of American history, and we're likely to see more of the same in the years ahead. The irony is that, despite our stated ideals, religious freedom will be one of the key issues facing Christians in the coming decade, not just globally, but right here at home. Pope Benedict XVI, among others, has voiced his concern on the worldwide spread of persecution, discrimination and terrible acts of violence and religious intoleration. We face a global crisis in religious liberty. Christian minorities in Africa and Asia bear the brunt of religious violence, but Christians are not the only victims.

7:53 Nearly 70% of the world's people now live in nations where religious freedom is gravely restricted, and even in developed democracies, religious freedom is increasingly under pressure. And again, this book was written in 2012, so we are a decade further into history. We are now sitting here as we record in 2024, some 12 years later after this book is written. So when Pope Benedict resigns the chair of St Peter and Pope Francis is elected in 2013, over a decade or more so ago, you can see religious freedom being undermined at every turn, from China to Australia, to Europe, to South America and finally to our home grown persecution of faithful Christians and Catholics here in the United States.

8:52 Going back to the book we read later on this quote Nothing guarantees that America's experiment in religious freedom as we traditionally know it will survive here in the United States, let alone serve as a model for other countries in the future. The Constitution is a great achievement in ordered liberty, but it's just another elegant scrap of paper unless people keep it alive with their convictions and lived witness In government, the media, academia, in the business community and in the wider culture. Many of our leaders no longer seem to regard religious faith as a healthy force.

9:38 We can see this in the current administration's tepid response to violations of religious liberty across the globe to violations of religious liberty across the globe. We can see it in the inadequacy and disinterest of many of our news media and reporting on religious freedom issues. And we can see it in the indifference of too many ordinary American citizens. But we cannot understand the framework of American institutions or the values that these institutions are meant to promote and defend if we do not acknowledge that they grow out of a predominantly religious worldview.

10:18 Amen, and certainly, being a decade or more removed from when this book was written, we can see that that worldview has only deteriorated more and more. We are certainly deep into probably a quarter of a century of post-Christian world, and that predominantly religious worldview has gone. Askance gone, askance. Now a Christian or, furthermore, a coherent Catholic worldview is what is needed most in our world and especially in our culture. If there's one thing this current administration should suffer the wrath of historians over the coming decades when their history is written, it's the absolute undermining of religious faith of all kinds.

11:12 Joe Biden has been the worst president in terms of faith or in the virtue of piety, perhaps ever in the history of our culture or the history of our country too. If we look back at the previous 46 US presidents, just take the top three, the top three most non-religious presidents. There are some arguments around the periphery, but for the most part the top three are Thomas Jefferson, andrew Johnson and William Howard Taft. Jefferson was raised in the Anglican Church, but he rejected most of the christians dogmas and doctrines, and he created what was known as the jefferson bible, which excludes the miracles and supernatural events mainly concerning jesus christ.

12:01 You could almost hear jefferson saying nowadays jesus was a great philosopher, but he was certainly not the son of God. Almost heretical, in fact, is heretical for any Christian to even utter, let alone think Now. Andrew Johnson, who, along with Joe Biden, is considered one of the worst presidents in the history of our country, was not affiliated with any church. He was known for. His secular approach to governance Probably didn't help him in his public life. And William Howard Taft was a Unitarian, a denomination that was widely known for its liberalism and was less dogmatic than mainstream Christianity, and that was way back at the turn of the 20th century.

12:49 Taft at the time was known for his reason and his ethics over traditional doctrines. Now Joe Biden will slide right into this cadre and category of the worst of the worst by all accounts, especially because he has bastardized the Catholic faith at almost every turn. History should not and cannot be kind to Joe Biden. Can't wait for a real historian in political science to write the truth, write the book on the faith of Joe Biden for his 50 years of service to this country, because that faith has been undermined at almost every turn.

13:36 That history should read like a Greek tragedy. So what is America's true history in the area of religious freedom? What did the founders believe? Going back to the book, in the vision of the American founders our rights come from God, not from the state. Government is justified only insofar as it secures those natural rights, promotes them and defends them. Nearly all the men who drew upon our founding documents held this belief. Who drew upon our founding documents held this belief. In his Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments in 1785, james Madison argued that man's duty of honoring God is precedent, both in order of time and degree of obligation to the claims of civil society, before any man can be considered as a member of civil society.

14:31 He must be considered as a subject of the governor of the universe. That is why religious freedom is humanity's first and most important freedom. Our first governor is God, our creator, the governor of the universe. We are created for a religious purpose. We have a religious destiny. Our right to pursue this destiny precedes the state, any attempt to restrict our right to worship, preach, teach, practice, organize and peacefully engage society, because our verbal belief in God is in attack not only on the cornerstone of human dignity but also on the identity of the American experiment.

15:19 So every time you hear Joe Biden rant and rave about that's who we are, that's who we are as Americans. Most times you can just figure out what he just said and know it's a lie. He's been a perpetual liar all of his life, no matter the subject, no matter the context, no matter what his objective is. If he says, listen to me, that's the truth, no joke. Or that's who we are as Americans, whatever he just said is a lie Proof, positive. So let me go back and repeat this whole paragraph again on why religious freedom is important.

16:03 Going back to the book quote that is why religious freedom is humanity's first and most important freedom. Our first governor is God, our creator, the governor of the universe. We are created for a religious purpose. We have a religious destiny. Our right to pursue this destiny precedes the state. You can insert country every time. It says state. Any attempt to restrict our right to worship, preach, teach, practice, organize and peacefully engage society because of our belief in God is an attack not only on the cornerstone of human dignity but also on the identity of the American experiment.

16:52 So you can sum all that up and put that on one side of the ledger and launch into all the different examples on how Joe Biden has undermined that very definition in a short three and a half years. So in today's Catholic Corner, as good Christians and Catholics in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, we must pursue the truth with all the more vigor. We must give good example to our fellow neighbors and our families. Christians and Catholics must actively defend our religious rights, because God knows they won't be defended at a state or national level.

17:41 We must defend our religious rights and live out our faith authentically and genuinely in the public square. As one of the great Jewish religious leaders and scholars the world had ever seen, hillier the Elder once taught the world if not us, who? And if not now, when? Let us follow the words of that great Jewish scholar and, as good Christians and Catholics, let us actively defend our religious rights and live out our faiths authentically and genuinely in that public square, knowing full well we are on the path of a flourishing life.

18:22 Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast.

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