Amy Coney Barrett: Building the Kingdom of God

law

You may have seen this going around on social media:

Al Qaeda & ISIS just issued a statement saying their end goal is to end separation of church and state & build a ‘Kingdom of God’ in the United States.                             Oh, my bad, that was Amy Coney Barrett, the judge at the top of Trump’s list to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

There is a shortened version of this. Often it starts with somebody saying Judge Barrett cannot separate her beliefs from her job. When I and others ask, “Show us what you mean,” they do not talk about court decisions. Instead, they quote her as saying this:

Your legal career is but a means to an end, and…that end is building the kingdom of God.

She spoke those words in a commencement speech at Notre Dame as an associate professor. Much to my surprise, there have been heated exchanges about it. Most people say this single sentence proves Barrett will force her beliefs on others. The result will be some kind of “Handmaiden’s Tale” world.  Thejustice.org says this: “Thus, Barrett is saying that law should be used to advance faith.”

Is that what she is really saying, though? You can find the entire speech online. She begins her speech expressing that Notre Dame graduates “will fulfill the promise of being a different kind of lawyer.” Then she speaks those infamous words:

And that is this: that you will always keep in mind that your legal career is but a means to an end, and as Father Jenkins told you this morning, that end is building the kingdom of God.

Next, she explains herself. Barret tells the graduates, “But if you can keep in mind that your fundamental purpose in life is not to be a lawyer, but to know, love, and serve God, you truly will be a different kind of lawyer.”

She offers suggestions “for ways in which you might go about being a different kind of lawyer, one who treats his or her career as a means to the end of serving God rather than an end in itself.” First, she says, pray before accepting a job, asking God how to best serve Him. Secondly, she recommends tithing. This will help them remember their earnings should be used in the service of God. Finally, she suggests graduates become active in parishes and develop relationships there. This is important because:

It’s only when you’re an independent operator that your career takes over. When your life is placed firmly within a web of relationships, it is much easier to keep your career in its proper place.

None of this sounds like anything out of the ordinary. Certainly, this is no cause for alarm. It sounds to me as if she is ultimately saying, “Remember who you are.”

What does it mean to build the kingdom of God? This is what the Catholic News Agency has to say about it:

Theology professor Jacob Wood of the Franciscan University of Steubenville said that Barrett was not talking about any theocratic political project, but “was simply restating the teaching of Vatican II that the Kingdom of God is built up any time Catholics join with fellow citizens of any faith or none to work for the common good of our society.”

The article elaborates:

Barrett’s comments, Wood told CNA, speak to the power of God’s grace in human affairs–and to the tragedy of Catholics in public life who do not bring their faith into the public square.

Grace, he said, “presupposes, perfects, and empowers what we do as individuals and a society, by healing all of our cultural and political endeavors from sins that make them less than human, less than fair, and less than just, and restoring them to the basic goodness that God intended for them from the beginning.”

Wood is right to call it a tragedy when Catholics do not bring their faith into the public square. We need to bring it into everything we do. That does not mean we have to loudly announce “I am Catholic and you should be, too.” It does not mean forcing our beliefs on others. It means living our beliefs.

If building the kingdom results in restoring the basic goodness God intended for us, how do we do it? The Prologue of the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. (CCC 1).

This goes back to what Amy Coney Barret said. If God wants us to know Him, love Him, and seek Him, then that is the way to build His kingdom.

A surprising number of people express that we need a judge who is not influenced by beliefs. Is that even possible? Conservative judges tend to vote one way. Liberals vote another. People become conservative or liberal based on beliefs, whether they come from religion or some other source. As it applies to SCOTUS, beliefs even make a difference in how you view and interpret our constitution. There is no getting around that.

Many of those who are concerned with Judge Barrett’s Catholicism ultimately express the fear that she will manage to get rid of Roe v Wade or dismantle Obergefell v Hodges. They express that this is why they are against a judge who believes in Catholic teachings. Many have made it clear that they want an impartial judge, but impartial to them means standing where they do on those issues.

Professor Wood puts it like this:

That is why some people are worried about a faithful Catholic judge like Amy Barrett: not because she would impose her religious beliefs on our nation, but because they know that she would stand up against the political pressure to impose theirs.

To bring our faith into the public square can be intimidating. Living our faith means treating people with fairness and justice. It means helping those in need. It does not, however, mean never expressing your views of right and wrong. Sometimes we need to speak out. Yet in these divided times, people tend to respond with vile, threatening language if they do not agree with you.

It is rare to see people on opposing sides talking to each other, trying to persuade each other. This makes it more difficult to know when to speak out and when to stay silent. Intimidating language does, indeed, have the effect of keeping the opposition quiet. If you are called to speak out and are greeted with wrath, the Christian response is to avoid responding in kind. Instead, respond with love and facts. You might not affect the person you’re talking to, but there are always outside observers.

When Senator Dianne Feinstein said of Barrett, “The conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you“, it was expressed as a concern. I loved how most of my Catholic friends responded. They want the t-shirt. More importantly, they want to qualify for the t-shirt.

To qualify, take Barrett’s advice. Let everything you do be “a means to the end of serving God rather than an end in itself”.  I pray that I live every day influenced by my beliefs. I want the courage to earn the phrase, “The dogma lives loudly.

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13 thoughts on “Amy Coney Barrett: Building the Kingdom of God”

  1. Thomas Francis Clougher

    Laws are made to prevent a tort, a wrong, a harm to another’s rights. If there is no harm, one is free to act. Sandra Day O’Connor was right saying, “OK, OK, but darn well do something before 17 weeks.” Even after that, a heartbeat (redistribution of foetal material) or a muscle twitch, for most people does not constitute “consciousness”. And besides Margaret Higgins (Irish Catholic) Sanger was looking for birth control (“like them rich people use,” according to one of her patients). Abortion was tricky business. But Comstock did not want the “right people” not having children and Cardinal Hayes did not want to stop populating the Kingdom of God. She was a public health nurse tired of seeing dead mothers and confused orphans. How did Catholic orphanages get enough money from poor immigrants?

  2. There is a difference, though, between intervening to stop other people from doing something (such as banning same gender couples from marrying) and leaving options to individuals. The former is a form of imposing one’s own beliefs (“you will not do what my religion says you cannot do”) while the later leaves individual choices as a matter of conscience.

    1. Thomas F Clougher

      And Pope Francis said, according to one site, that “abortion is akin to murder.” Lateran IV, according to Laurence Tribe, condemned abortion as murder but the University of Paris said it was “serious matter” (we all know what that is), akin to murder, in that it could be mortal sin if there was awareness of its seriousness and freedom from duress. Missing Mass on Sunday without excuse is a mortal sin, akin to murder. But if a teenager says there is nothing grabbing his conscience, that there is nothing there except an ordinance of the bishop, no sin. Just tell him to go when he felt like it, according to Marc Oraison, MD, a doctor and a priest who wrote that in a pamphlet with an Imprimatur and a Nihil Obstat called Love or Compulsion? He also wrote other books.

  3. The Kingdom of God is not an improved secular society built by various co-operating groups. The Kingdom is the church, and only the church. If Vatican 2 said otherwise, then Vatican 2 is mistaken.

  4. You are not a Christian if Jesus Christ is not your king. If He is your king you want him to rule your life and everything you do. He is the prince of peace. His rule is non-violent, non-coercive. The subjects of the Kingdom freely choose to enter it. Civil government by its nature is coercive it uses military and police power to protect its citizens against irrational aggression foreign and domestic. A christian can be a functionary of the civil government and simultaneously work for the extension of the social reign of Christ and protection citizens under the civil law. This of course means that government should be limited, non-violent and non-coercive with its own citizens.

  5. Even when I was a child I would occasionally hear statements of those who said Christianity would force its religion on all of us.
    There are such forceful people … however they should read “the book.”

    Christianity is built on VOLUNTARY individual decisions.
    A voluntaty decision is not allowed on the same table as a forced decision.
    The USSR tried it as have many, but it does not work.

    1. Thomas Francis Clougher

      William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony and ally of William Brewster, at age 12, realized that the Church (Ecclesia, the gathering) was “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them”. And the Pilgrims (not the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony) are still admired by the Wampanoag of Plymouth for getting along with their neighbors no matter their customs or beliefs. The Pilgrims fell prey to land lust and lost any Indian allies around 1676. And still hate the Indians.

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  8. “Yet in these divided times, people tend to respond with vile, threatening language if they do not agree with you.”
    Not all “people” do this. Usually only militantly anti-Christian atheists (including nominally “Christian” ones trying to white-ant the Church from inside).

    1. You tell it brother!
      Well said!
      “Save Your people, O Lord and bless Your inheritance. Grant victory to Your Church over her enemies and by the power of Your cross save Your people!”.
      -Universal Elevation of the precious and life giving Cross, Horologion, Menaion Sept. 14

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