This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Enthroned last September as the archbishop of Phildelphia, Charles Chaput has for a year now found himself forced to deal with the continuing child abuse scandal, with a crisis in church finances, with declining enrollments in parochial schools, and with an intensely hostile local press. He has done so calmly--even serenely--competently, and unflinchingly. And in the midst of these duties, he has somehow found time to speak out on religious freedom.
From "We Have No King but Caesar," a talk Archbishop Chaput delivered earlier this month:
[O]ne of the key assumptions of the modern secular state – in effect, secularism’s creation myth -- is that religion is naturally prone to violence because it’s irrational and divisive. Secular, non-religious authority, on the other hand, is allegedly rational and unitive. Therefore the job of secular authority is peacemaking; in other words, to keep religious fanatics from killing each other and everybody else.
The problem with that line of thought is this: It’s an Enlightenment fantasy....
[A]s scholars like Brad Gregory and William Cavanaugh have shown, based on the historical record, there’s no persuasive evidence that religious belief is any more prone to provoking violence than secular politics and ideologies....Cavanaugh notes that even in the so-called Wars of Religion in the 16th Century, “For the main instigators of the carnage, doctrinal loyalties were at best secondary to their stake in the rise or defeat of the centralized state...." [T]he rise of the sovereign state was a cause, not the solution, of Europe’s religious wars....
What’s really going on in much of today’s hand-wringing about religious extremism and looming theocracy is a pretty straightforward push by America’s secular leadership classes to get religion out of the way. God is a competitor in forming the public will. So God needs to go.
The secular state, engaged in a crude power grab--and a bishop with the courage to say so.
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Comments:
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
If Obama wins, Chaput and other bishops will have to have the courage to go to prison.
Jun '12
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Wonderful article. Thank you for sharing this, Peter.
Nov '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Hear hear....
Aug '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Archbishop Chaput is indeed courageous for saying this, and Prof. Rahe is right to say that believing Christians ought to worry about their beliefs becoming criminalized.
I suspect that Archbishop Chaput would include in his "secular leadership classes" those leaders who profess to be Christian (and may really believe are doing Christ's work) but who actually undermine Christianity—and religion in general. Kathleen Sebelius is at the moment the most obvious example.
Jul '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Thanks for posting!
Jan '11
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
What gives Chaput credibility is that he has been as unsparing in his criticism of his own local church as he is withering with criticism of secular society.
The people know that he defends his church without being blind to its troubles and sinfulness, but he defends it zealously nonetheless.
A refreshing style of leadership, I think.
Contrast this to Obama's "defense" of America ...
Sep '11
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Proud to have had His Excellency as my Archbishop while I was in high school.
Sep '12
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Archbishop Chaput makes this Protestant envious. You Roman Catholics get the best public intellectuals.
Jun '11
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
2 1/2 cheers for the archbishop. Atheists lack the tough-minded to differentiate between religions as though all were equally inclined to violence. By saying 'religion' is in the singular the Archbishop appears to let them get away with this.
May '11
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Paul, what are we Catholics going to do if bishops do go to prison? We cannot just stand by.
Jun '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Recent talk:
Napa Institute 2012 Conference: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. (Between the 1:21:00 and 1:49:00 mark)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupXF79a8To
Jun '12
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Mel Foil: Recent talk:
Napa Institute 2012 Conference: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. (Between the 1:21:00 and 1:49:00 mark)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupXF79a8To · 0 minutes ago
Watching now - thanks!
Apr '12
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Religion is a power to challenge tbe state just as the media should be holding the state accountable.
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Mel Foil: Recent talk:
Napa Institute 2012 Conference: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. (Between the 1:21:00 and 1:49:00 mark)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupXF79a8To · 1 hour ago
Wow. This is very powerful. Thanks for the link, Mel.
Jul '12
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Mel Foil: Recent talk:
Napa Institute 2012 Conference: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. (Between the 1:21:00 and 1:49:00 mark)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupXF79a8To · 1 hour ago
You can link to the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupXF79a8To&t=81m0s
I always forget HOW to do it though.
Thankfully, there is http://youtubetime.com/ to help.
Jun '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
If/when we face true religious persecution in this country, it won't just involve bishops and not only Catholics. Orthodox Christians have countless martyrs from less than a hundred years ago in the Soviet Union, a situation which has been predicted to be repeated in the United States. And, there, hard labor and execution was the sentence.
Pilli
Paul, what are we Catholics going to do if bishops do go to prison? We cannot just stand by. · 38 minutes ago
Jul '12
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Is this mere hyperbole, or do you know something I don't?
May '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Whenever someone tells me there would not be so many wars without religion, I reply that they are mistaking religion for strong belief. The real danger lies in the struggle between strong convictions. And that is a danger we must accept, because to forsake truth and justice in avoidance of conflict leads people to far worse fates than death.
We are all tempted to accept the false peace of weak convictions. Like so many other temptations, it is a vice many portray as a virtue.
Nov '11
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Hear, hear and thanks to all!
Sep '10
Re: This is What It Really Means to Speak Truth to Power
Re Rahe #1 - cardinal George has been particularly eloquent about jail. (sorry I'm not in a place easy for me to search for a link.)