Some weeks ago, Peter Bell interviewed me for a second time, primarily on the subject of my second book, We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God, along with several related phenomena, including Catholic and Reformed Christian social teachings, Christian nationalism, and the perennial temptation to use unjust means for desired ends. You can see the entire interview below. This is part of the second season of Bell's series, Sons of Patriarchy.
In my youth I cut my political teeth on the Watergate scandal, which nearly paralyzed the country of my birth for the two years between 1972 and 74. Although my family generally voted Republican when I was growing up, I began to have doubts about Richard Nixon’s presidency after the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters. As Nixon was implicated in the cover-up, many Americans were increasingly persuaded that he had abused his office, putting his own political fortunes ahead of the Constitution. Three years after his resignation, Nixon admitted in an interview with David Frost that “when the president does [something], that means that it is not illegal.”
Beginning in the 20th century, however, both systems came to be described as democracies without qualification. In Canada, the powers of the nondemocratic institutions, especially the governor general (representing the monarch) and the Senate (appointed by the governor general on the prime minister’s advice), effectively atrophied, with the prime minister gaining more power—all in the name of democracy.
Thirty years ago, Catholics made up 82.9% of Brazil’s population but now account for just over half, 56.7%, according to the 2022 census – whose results on religion were only released on Friday.
Meanwhile, the number of evangelicals has continued to grow, rising from 9% of the population to 26.9% over the past three decades.
Although the growth rate has slowed slightly – rising by 6.5 percentage points between 2000 and 2010, and 5.3 since – the new data shows that, for the first time, at least one in four Brazilians identifies as evangelical . . . .
After John Diefenbaker’s Conservative government was defeated by Lester Pearson’s Liberals in 1963, [George Parkin] Grant was convinced that Canada’s days as a distinct nation were numbered. Diefenbaker’s reluctance to accept American nuclear weapons on Canadian soil had irked the “ruling class,” whose members determined that he had to go. But Grant believed that Diefenbaker’s only offence was his conviction that Canadian defence policies should be made in Ottawa and not Washington.
I couldn’t help recalling Grant’s Lament as we have been subjected to Donald Trump’s repeated trolling comments about Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States. Grant would express anger at this, of course, but it’s far from clear that he would have rallied the (literal and metaphorical) troops in opposition. His professed purpose in his book was not to make “practical proposals for our survival as a nation,” but simply to lament – to grieve the loss of those traditions that had once made Canada distinctive.
For more than two decades I had my students reading Grant's Lament and writing a paper on it. But at some point I put it aside because of the author's tendency to underestimate the importance of political factors in human motivations. I explain this more fully in something I wrote for Comment just over two decades ago: George Grant and the Primacy of Economics.
Citizenship is not at odds with being a Christian. For Koyzis, the reverse is the case: To be a good Christian, one must also be a good citizen. He references the parable of the Good Samaritan and other examples from scripture on taking care of your neighbor and, by extension, your community. This message is important and bears repeating in the months to come, so Koyzis’ encouragement is welcome.
While the book thoroughly covers the idea and issues of citizenship, it is not exhaustive. Koyzis stops short of going into the weeds of political culture and the nation-state superstructure. He focuses on defining conservative and progressive movements, not just in the United States but in Canadian politics as well.
U.S. Catholic is a publication of the Claretian Missionaries USA-Canada Province, "a global Roman Catholic congregation of priests and brothers who tend to the religious and pastoral needs of vulnerable communities."
