Special to the Catholic Business Journal— NAPA, CA – Syndicated columnist, NBC News Vatican analyst, and Catholic Theologian, George Weigel, spoke to an overflow crowd on “The Next Great Awakening?” at the 2017 Annual Napa Institute.
Weigel began by noting that the vulgarity of today’s political culture has been on full display since the beginning of the 2016 election cycle. And he gave a reason for it.
“Our political culture is in crisis as a result of a public moral crisis,” said Weigel. “This moral crisis is due to a false notion of freedom, which is in turn based on a false notion of who we are and to what we aspire as humans.”
The Supreme Court has “dumbed down our concept of the human person. Liberty has become a right in which one can define his/her own concept of the human person, the universe, and the purpose of life (in the words of Justice Kennedy).” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy, in another decision, went on to expand on this assertion by proclaiming that “our desires are our rights.”
Weigel, critical of these decisions, said that the Supreme Court, deficient in anthropology, has reduced humans to the sum total of our desires; otherwise known simply as “the pleasure principle.” [Catholic Business Journal editor would add this is also due to a radical deficiency in basic natural philosophy—in a clear and reality-based understanding of who and what man is as a human creature—as revealed so efficiently, accurately and logically in the de Anima of Aristotle, and to the radical denial of any sense of “objective truth.”]
This has led to “a demeaning view of the human person. This view is not confined to the cultural left, it can also be found in the libertarian right.”
In summary, we are now facing a collision of “your truth vs my truth, with various interest groups wanting to impose their truths on our truths….with the help of government…We now have a fractured moral community…a situation that is lethal to democracy.”
The time is ripe for “The Next Great Awakening” in America.
The first great awakening in America, Weigel explained, was the period leading up to the American Revolution. The second was the period leading up to the Civil War. The next one will be different. It will emerge from a group of believers and non-believers living in truth. Truth can heal a deeply divided political culture. It encompasses the truth that:
Each of us, from conception through death, has an inherent dignity that is built into us that is unalienable. This is objectively true. This inherent dignity of the human person does not come from the government.
There are built-in principles of human action that stem from the nature of man—that is, they are clear and evident and are based on the very nature of the human creature, who is by definition is “a rational animal.” This is objectively true, regardless of what this or that person “feels” about it.
Living according to these built-in principles of human nature result in actions that befit and elevate the human soul. These define and require certain moral obligations – e.g., the common good and living in solidarity with others.
Humans are not bundles of pleasures – this understanding is self-destructive. Living according to this understanding of the human person results in actions that demean and ultimately ravage the human soul — e.g., every man for himself, if I want what you have I should have it, suicide, etc.
The good life is measured in spiritual and moral terms. Vulgar popular culture will produce a vulgar political culture where base instincts will be realized and even sought-after.
“These truths are inscribed in human nature and nature’s God. We need to return to God to learn about ourselves,” said Weigel.
“The Catholic contribution will be the ‘new evangelization,’” Weigel continued. “We need to own our own baptism and become an active agent of change [for the good]. St. John Paul II showed us how to be an agent of change and how one person can bend the course of the world to love.
“Our mission territory is our kitchen, our family table, our job, our customers. We are in mission territory every day. We can measure our effectiveness at the end of the day by how we have shared this gift we have been given. The more you offer it, the more it grows on you.”
Weigel closed by reminding us that Christ sent out the Apostles saying the “Kingdom of God is at hand.” This responsibility is now ours.
The Napa Institute was inspired by a 2010 essay, “The Next America,” (First Things) by Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput and resembles the Aspen Institute with provocative talks given by leading Catholic clergy, authors, and laypeople. The Institute which celebrated its seventh year was co-founded by the Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J., former president of Gonzaga University and Tim Busch, a successful lawyer and entrepreneur in the hospitality business. The aim of the Institute is to better equip Catholic leaders to face the challenges of the “next America.” Over 550 people from all over the world attended this year’s four day conference which was held in July.
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Thomas M. Loarie is the CEO of BryoLogyx, a rotating host of THE MENTORS RADIO show, and a senior editorial advisor and columnist for Catholic Business Journal. For a more robust bio click here. He may be reached at TLoarie@CatholicBusinessJournal.biz