In this episode, Chris is joined by Prof. Jack Gist, a humanities professor and contributor to Catholic World Report, Crisis, The Imaginative Conservative, New Oxford Review, Academic Questions, and St. Austin Review. They discuss what St. Thomas Aquinas called “disputatio” — a dispute in the healthiest sense of the word, in that through the rational argumentation it entails, persons come to know the truth. At least they should, if, as Josef Pieper observed, they are more interested in clarifying their opponents arguments than they are in creating a “sensation.” Professor Gist describes why the abandonment of disputatio through so-called academic curriculum such as the 1619 Project has led to forming citizens in falsehoods about the American experiment. This erasure of cultural memory, Professor Gist explains, can be understood in light of what Pope Benedict described as the “dictatorship of relativism.” Chris points out similar ideological projects can be observed in public universities in the region; for example, in widespread instruction of college students in critical gender theory.
Faith & Politics
F&P Episode 115: South Dakota’s Pivotal Moment on Abortion
South Dakota’s 2023 legislative session marked the first time that state lawmakers had gathered since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its June 24, 2022 decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and restored to the states the ability to set their own public policy on abortion. Host Michael Pauley is joined by Dale Bartscher, the Executive Director of South Dakota Right to Life, for a discussion on how state lawmakers responded to the Dobbs decision, and how South Dakota’s pro-life community is responding to a citizen-initiated amendment that proposes to create an unlimited right to abortion in the state constitution.