Sectarian Conflict V. Liberal Whateverism

Notre Dame Sociology Professor Christian Smith recently wrote a piece for the Huffington Post in which he discusses some of the findings of his research in the sociology of religion among American youth. He contrasts the age of 'sectarian conflict' in the United States, in which differences between religious commitments led to bigotry, with the current age of 'liberal whateverism' in which religion is relegated to a personal and private sphere with no influence on public or communal life.

An excerpt:
"I think we need to reject both sectarian conflict and liberal whateverism and commit ourselves instead to an authentic pluralism. Genuine pluralism fosters a culture that honors rather than isolates and disparages religious difference. It affirms the right of others to believe and practice their faith, not only in their private lives but also in the public square -- while expecting them to allow still others to do the same. Authentic pluralism does not minimize religious differences by saying that "all religions are ultimately the same." That is false and insipid. Pluralism encourages good conversations and arguments across differences, taking them seriously precisely because they are understood to be about important truths, not merely private "opinions." It is possible, authentic pluralism insists, to profoundly disagree with others while at the same time respecting, honoring, and perhaps even loving them. Genuine pluralism suspects the multi-cultural regime's too-easy blanket affirmations of "tolerance" of being patronizing and dismissive. Pluralism, however, also counts atheist Americans as deserving equal public respect, since their beliefs are based as much on a considered faith as are religious views and so should not be automatically denigrated."

Read the full article here, and attend our Annual Fall Conference, where Christian Smith will be one of our invited speakers.

David Brooks highlights Christian Smith's research

New York Times columnist David Brooks' most recent opinion piece highlighted the research of Dr. Christian Smith, a Notre Dame professor of social science who will be speaking at our annual Fall Conference, "Radical Emancipation: Confronting the Challenge of Secularism," Nov. 10-12. Christian Smith's research focuses on the religious experience of teenagers and young adults in the United States, and on what guides their moral reasoning.

An excerpt:
"Smith and company found an atmosphere of extreme moral individualism — of relativism and nonjudgmentalism. Again, this doesn’t mean that America’s young people are immoral. Far from it. But, Smith and company emphasize, they have not been given the resources — by schools, institutions and families — to cultivate their moral intuitions, to think more broadly about moral obligations, to check behaviors that may be degrading. In this way, the study says more about adult America than youthful America."

Read the full article here.

Dominicans beat Marians in annual Labor Day game

Br. Innocent Smith (ND '08) gives a blow-by-blow account of the annual softball game between the Dominicans and Marians at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., which featured three Notre Dame graduates, all playing for the Dominicans.

An excerpt:
"The MIC time-out gave Br. Raymund the opportunity to confer with fellow Notre Dame alum and long-time Dominican softball veteran, Br. Justin Brophy. Drawing largely on an analogy from Latin grammar, Br. Justin exhorted Br. Raymund to keep his eye on the ball all the way through the point of contact (the idea being that in Latin translation, identification of the proper case endings is necessary for success - or something to that effect). Anyway, Br. Justin's counsel appeared to have the desired effect as Br. Raymund drilled a line drive single deep to left, bringing home two runs and enabling the Friars to take a 9-8 lead over the Marians."

Read more here.

Lack of Sperm Donor Regulation Poses Problems for Offspring

The United State's largely unregulated sperm donation industry poses serious risks for children born through IVF using donated sperm, reports the New York Times. Not only do children often lack half of their medical histories, but there is also a real risk of accidental incest between genetic half-siblings and also an increased risk of spreading genes for rare diseases through the population at an artificially high rate. For these reasons, other countries such as Britain, France, and Sweden limit the number of conceptions permitted for the sperm of any one donor, but the U.S. has no such restrictions.

An excerpt: “We have more rules that go into place when you buy a used car than when you buy sperm,” said Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College and author of “The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception.” “It’s very clear that the dealer can’t sell you a lemon, and there’s information about the history of the car. There are no such rules in the fertility industry right now.”

Read the full article here.

Schmitt Lecturer Yuval Levin on the Health Care Debate

Our fall semester Schmitt lecturer, Yuval Levin, today had a piece published on the Witherspoon Institute's Public Discourse web journal. He addresses the moral and practical issues of the health care debate, the subject of his lecture here coming up on December 7 at 4 p.m. in McKenna Hall, highlighting the social justice principle of subsidiarity. An excerpt:

"Of course, any system of health insurance has to involve decisions about what to cover and pay for—and, in that sense, what to ration. But an underappreciated virtue of the market is that it puts such decisions far closer to the ground, and so to the people involved. Allowing for a wide variety of insurance options means giving people more choices and more power, and therefore also allowing families far greater freedom to choose among treatment options with their doctors. Hard choices will still need to be made, but having more of them made by families and physicians with some power to choose is vastly better than having all of them made by distant bureaucrats with the power to impose.

Believing in equality does not mean pursuing one-size-fits-all public policies. On the contrary, central planning and command-and-control administration too often require a betrayal of equality. Public rationing is not private rationing writ large; it requires an explicit rejection of our most fundamental national premise. Enabling a private market—backed with subsidies to allow those with lesser means to choose among options for themselves—would not only avoid the economic inefficiencies of central planning; it would also reduce the moral enormities of public rationing."

Read the full article here.

World Youth Day begins

Notre Dame class of 2007 valedictorian Michael Rossmann, SJ, reports from Madrid where he is chaperoning a group of young people for World Youth Day. Stuck in a back alley during an enormous celebration of Mass that spanned several city blocks, when it came time for Communion, his student's attitude was:

"Can we receive Jesus? Let's go!"

Read Mike's full report here.

New 'Catholicism' Documentary enthusiastically reviewed

Our Fall Conference this year features Rev. Robert Barron of Word on Fire Ministries for our Thursday night (Nov. 10) keynote address. Fr. Barron has recently produced a book and DVD documentary, "Catholicism," which is being reviewed extraordinarily positively by the Catholic press. It is designed to present a comprehensive introduction to the Catholic faith through a multimedia approach, and by all reports the finished product is masterful. In the first review to be published, by The Catholic Thing, the reviewer says:  

"I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a Catholic film or TV program and commented, “Surely we can do better than this!” Well, Catholicism is better than I ever imagined such a film could be – a feast for eye and ear and soul."

Read more here, and learn more about the Catholicism Project.