On this episode, Chris is joined by Christopher Dodson, J.D., executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference. Christopher unpacks the development of Free Exercise clause cases in the 20th century, culminating in the Smith v. Employment Division decision in 1990. Chris then gives a high-level overview of the recent Fulton v. Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Nick Michels, a Catholic attorney in South Dakota, who is starting a St. Thomas More Society — an organization for Catholic lawyers and politicians. With the feast day of St. Thomas More approaching on June 22, Nick shares how the New Evangelization has Read more…
On this episode, Chris and regular guest Dr. Jon Schaff unpack an economic and social idea known as distributism. Rooted in the social teaching of Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XI, and others, distributism contains critiques of both unfettered capitalism and socialism, and exhorts society to seek widespread (“distributed”) ownership Read more…
Chris Motz is joined by Greg Schleppenbach, the associate director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the USCCB to discuss current threats to the Hyde Amendment, which for 45 years has kept any taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions. Folks can go to NoTaxpayerAbortion.com to sign a Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Doug Wilson, CEO of Catholic Benefits Association, an membership-based organization that facilitates health insurance for Catholic entities. Doug describes the birth of CBA in the wake of several of the Affordable Care Act’s (Obamacare) coercive provisions — such as forcing Catholic nuns to Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Grace Melton, author of a recent article titled How Surrogacy Harms Women and Children, published at the National Interest. After Chris recaps the recent history of surrogacy in South Dakota politics, Grace makes the case for why the political and cultural discourse on surrogacy is Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Dan Denis, a Catholic father and farmer from the Saskatchewan prairie. Inspired by the social teaching of the Church, including Laudato Si’, several years ago Dan felt a call to go “back to the land,” as he puts it, and began farming the land Read more…
On this episode Chris is joined by Prof. Joe Rutten, director of the Benedictine Leadership Institute at Mount Marty University. Chris and Joe discuss faith and reason, talking about hard topics with our fellow citizens, the necessity of citizens and politicians to have formation in reason, and good philosophy as Read more…
Chris is joined on this episode by Mary Rice Hasson, the Kate O’Beirne Fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Mary also directs the Catholic Women’s Forum, a network of Catholic professional women and scholars seeking to amplify the voice of Catholic women in support Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined again by Dr. Jon Schaff, professor of political science at Northern State University. Chris and Dr. Schaff discuss race and racism, a topic on the minds of many Americans during the last year. They discuss the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged Read more…
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Bishop Donald DeGrood joins us in studio to talk about some of the woundedness that the church has and still experiences.
On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Christopher Thompson, professor of theology at St. Paul Seminary, to talk about his book, The Joyful Mystery: Field Notes Toward a Green Thomism. Dr. Thompson touches on papal encyclical Laudato Si‘, Church teaching on integral ecology, an ethics of lower creation, what Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Andrew Sodergren, a Catholic clinical psychologist with experience with gender dysphoria. Dr. Sodergren unpacks the Theology of the Body, gender dysphoria, gender ideology, and offers some thoughts on the path ahead for Christians in the present culture. The topic is timely for Read more…
This episode contains content on loan from the podcast Leedom to Life. The host of that show, Emily Leedom, interviews Faith & Politics host Chris Motz on the meaning of freedom and the substance of the Equality Act, a particularly concerning piece of legislation currently under consideration by the Congress.
As the 2021 South Dakota legislative session winds down, Chris Motz is joined by SD Right to Life Executive Director Dale Bartscher. Chris and Dale run through the list of pro-life legislation considered by the legislature this year, including Governor Noem’s significant Down Syndrome diagnosis abortion ban bill, which is Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Americans United for Life Government Relations Counsel, Katie Glenn. Katie recently testified in support of South Dakota House Bill 1247, known as the Medical Conscience Protection Act. Chris and Katie discuss new threats to the pro-life cause at the federal level, and the Read more…
The South Dakota Catholic Conference opposes SB 190, a bill that introduces the concepts “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “Two-Spirit” as statutory categories into South Dakota’s employment, business, education, and public accommodations laws. SB 190 does not propose to define this terminology. Every single human person, based on his or her innate dignity as a Read more…
Chris is joined once more by political science professor, Dr. Jon Schaff. On this episode, they tackle the legal background of religious freedom in the United States, and the ways in which religious freedom is under attack today. They trace the legal standards articulated by courts, discuss a hugely-popular act Read more…
The South Dakota Catholic Conference supports the passage of HB 1247, a bill to safeguard fundamental rights of conscience for healthcare providers. No medical practitioner should be forced to choose between their conscience and their vocation to heal and care. As Pope John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), “to Read more…
The South Dakota Catholic Conference supports the passage of HB 1248, a bill that requires facilities to report to the state department of health the total numbers of embryos created, stored, and destroyed each year. At the moment of conception, a new human life exists. Each life is an unrepeatable wonder, Read more…