Evangelical magazine interviews Catholic intellectual

Here is a really interesting interview with Professor Robert George of Princeton University, published in the leading evangelical magazine, Christianity Today.The Phone Book Test – Christianity Today Magazine

What’s your reading of our culture right now?
I’ve argued in my book The Clash of Orthodoxies that the contemporary moment is marked by profound cultural division. We have a clash of two worldviews. On the one side are those who maintain traditional Judeo-Christian principles, such as the principle of the sanctity of human life, the principle that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, the principle that sex is integral to marriage but that sex ought not to be engaged in outside of marriage, and so forth.

On the other side of the cultural divide are people who have abandoned those principles in favor of some alternative ideology. Often it celebrates personal autonomy and freedom from traditional moral constraints, mixed with certain utilitarian elements. Sometimes it manifests itself in radical forms of feminism or quasi-pantheistic forms of environmentalism.

This division runs between elite and popular opinion. If I may borrow a concept from William F. Buckley Jr., consider what the results would be if we were to ask 800 members of the Princeton faculty about their views on abortion or homosexuality or other issues of that sort, and then make the same inquiry of the first 800 people in the Trenton, New Jersey, phone book.

What can those of us in the Judeo-Christian tradition learn from the secular orthodoxy?
Its promoters are our opponents. One might even say, at the risk of misleading, that they are our enemies. And if we do use the term enemies, it has to be holding fully in mind Christ’s command that we love our enemies. We are seeking their conversion of heart, a change of mind. I’m not necessarily speaking about religious conversion. I’m talking about persuading people to adopt a better understanding of justice and the common good. The means that we use must be pure. They must be truthful; they must not be manipulative. We must employ just means in the pursuit of just ends.

I think there is a perception, particularly in minority communities and most especially in the black community, that conservatives are not their friends and that liberals, while they may be widely off-base on some moral and religious questions, nevertheless are more trustworthy when it comes to issues such as decent wages, housing, nondiscrimination, and a societal safety net. That perception needs to be addressed.