Faith & Politics is a podcast of the South Dakota Catholic Conference. Join Executive Director Chris Motz, Esq. as he and his guests explore a variety of contemporary civic issues through the lens of a classical Catholic moral and ethical framework. Winsome and robust, Faith & Politics ranges from the soul to the state as it seeks to cultivate thoughtful criteria for governing well in the 21st century.
Chris Motz gives a news round-up (SD education policy, federal “Women’s Health Protection Act,” and call to prayer on the Dobbs case) and shares “Doing the Truth,” an excerpt on the virtue of prudence from the Josef Pieper book being read by the SDCC study group.
On this episode, Chris is joined by Dr. Paul Kengor, Senior Director and Chief Academic Fellow for The Institute for Faith & Freedom and Professor of Political Science at Grove City College. They discuss his recent book, “The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration”, Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by thinker and writer Jack Gist (ft. on Ep. 25, Disputatio and the 1619 Project) to discuss a new essay from Jack, “Individualism, relativism, and the most extreme form of idolatry.” Jack unpacks the thought of Nietzsche and Duns Scotus, and helps us understand Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined once again by Dr. Jon Schaff, professor of political science at Northern State University. Dr. Schaff unpacks the traditional teaching on the conditions for a just war, first articulated by St. Augustine. He walks through jus ad bellum (justice before making war) and jus Read more…
Jessica Kramer joins the show to discuss a recent article she authored on politics and family formation. After briefly sharing her conversion story, she shares her observations from a recent policy conference she reported on, and describes several pro-family policies concerning pornography, contraception, a one-income family wage, and more. In Read more…
Cameo Anders a graduate of the Ave Maria School of Law, has a Masters in Theology and a certificate in Bioethics, joins us this week to take on this hot topic of religious exemptions surrounding the growing concern of COVID vaccine mandates with employers. To read the statement from our Read more…
Chris is joined on this episode by David Trimble, Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Center for Religious Freedom Education at the Religious Freedom Institute. David breaks down the 9-0 Supreme Court decision in Fulton v. Philadelphia, and then shares some religious freedom concerns with the infrastructure Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Fr. Justin Brophy, O.P., professor of political science at Providence College, Rhode Island. In a short diagnosis of our present moment as Americans, Fr. Brophy points to (among other points not discussed) a tension between Lockean individualism and a Puritan ethic, and a Read more…
On this episode, Chris is joined by Kat Talalas, the associate director for communications at the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the USCCB. For those who haven’t been closely following the debate over the Hyde Amendment, and its enormously significant consequences even at the state level, Kat brings us all Read more…
Chris is joined by Dale Bartscher, executive director of South Dakota Right to Life, to discuss the state Department of Health’s annual abortion report, published on July 1. They also recap the 2020 pro-life bills that went into effect on July 1, talk about potential future legislation, and preview SDRTL’s fall convention, which commemorates Read more…
Chris is joined by Jeff Wald, a Minnesota-based lawyer and writer (but who is quick to tell us he’s a North Dakotan). Jeff shares about his and his wife Jackie’s journey with adoption and foster parenting, the result of a call they discerned together to give of themselves to the Read more…
Host Chris Motz is joined this week by Dr. Chad Pecknold, professor of theology at Catholic University of America (and prolific tweeter — @ccpecknold). Chris tosses a listener question to the good professor: What, according to the Church, is the purpose of government? What’s it’s aim, its end, its goal? Also, what are the Read more…
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…