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<\/a><\/p>\nIt was G.K. Chesterton who noted that \u201cThe Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.\u201d I would argue that the main reason why this is true is because Catholicism isn\u2019t a faith that can be compartmentalized.<\/p>\n
Prattle on about separation of church and state all you want, but if you believe you personally can achieve separation of mind and heart, while being faithful to the Two Greatest Commandments<\/a>,and all that stems from them<\/a>, then you are sadly deceived.<\/p>\n Catholics believe that faith and reason are compatible, you see. And the Catholic Church, that world society of souls I am thankful to belong to, knows, and teaches, an integral and solidary humanism<\/a>. You know, the kind that exists as if people really mattered.<\/p>\n Speaking for myself, I\u2019m one of those wacky converts to Catholicism who had enough of tying myelf into knots trying to pretend I was a Christian, when I was really just a self-important, pharisaical, know-nothing with an untrained conscience and a proclivity to put Christ as far away from the center of my life as possible.<\/p>\n But enough about me.<\/p>\n What led me to thinking about this problem of compartmentalizing the faith is the interview responses of Micheal Potter, founder of Eden Foods, when he was questioned by Irin Carmon, who writes at Salon<\/em>. A good look at the interviews with Mr. Potter can be found at the Standing With Eden Foods<\/a> website. Take a look at this snippet,<\/p>\n It\u2019s the reporter we know from before (ed. she recently wrote about the Gosnell trial), Irin Carmon, this time gleeful that her earlier interview with Michael Potter of Eden Foods sparked a \u201clegal analysis\u201d from ThinkProgress<\/em> that expresses doubt over the Eden Foods lawsuit \u2013 not that such an analysis from such a source should surprise anyone.<\/p>\n Another blogger, this one from Slate<\/em>, not to be troubled to do her own reporting, basically spouts the same narrative Carmon is trying to push. But I\u2019d like to look more closely at that narrative expounded in Carmon\u2019s piece.<\/p>\n Carmon claims, citing \u201callegations, made by two sources associated with the company\u201d that Potter\u2019s objection to birth control and artificial contraception isn\u2019t based on his Catholic faith, but instead on his opposition to macrobiotics found in the drugs.<\/p>\n Carmon tries to corner Potter \u2013 who honestly seems flustered in the interview, but in light of all of the liberal fury coming down around him, who can blame him? \u2013 into admitting that this isn\u2019t about his religious belief at all, but rather about other objections: constitutional, philosophical, scientific\/medicinal objections.<\/p>\n Now what strikes me in this is that Carmon embraces the idea of the \u201creligious exemption\u201d to the HHS Mandate in order to try to find a stick to beat Potter and Eden Foods with. Anyone reading her piece must be struck by the irony: as if she\u2019d be okay with Potter having a religious reason for seeking exemption from the mandate, but how dare he reason from secular sources like constitutional principles and political philosophy \u2014 as if, in any other situation, she wouldn\u2019t be saying the exact opposite, telling Potter he shouldn\u2019t be allowed to hide behind religious belief to get away from a secular law, not unless he could provide non-religious reasons for why that law is objectionable. The whole role reversal here is striking and a bit hysterical.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the real point: Potter\u2019s expression of his objections do seem a bit flustered and even confused, I allow \u2014 again, who can blame him? But at the root of Carmon\u2019s problem with Potter is a misunderstanding of the way Catholicism embraces faith and reason, revelation and science, as complementary, indeed intertwined forces, all part of the same \u201creal.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, that Carmon smells a rat in the whiff of scientific reasoning in a discussion she thinks needs to be all about \u201cfaith\u201d and \u201cunseen things\u201d (and she might add \u201cfairies\u201d and \u201cleprechauns\u201d) \u2014 this just shows Carmon\u2019s preconceived prejudicial views toward religious reasoning. It shows that she has made the presumption that religiously reasoned things must be reasoned apart from facts and science and nature and, well, the real world as she knows it: not only just apart from, but (I\u2019m willing to bet, in her conception) perhaps opposed to that world.<\/p>\n Now to anyone who knows Catholic theology, this is hogwash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read the whole piece<\/a> to understand why that idea is \u201chogwash.\u201d Because faithful Catholics, and wannabe faithful Catholics like myself, can\u2019t be pigeon-holed as \u201cright-wing puritans,\u201d or \u201cright-wing fundies\u201d any more than Mother Teresa, or Pope Francis, could be. Nor can Catholics be labeled as left-wing radicals, liberals, communists, etc.<\/p>\n Granted, when looking at a world that is cleaved along these political lines, by tribes and factions thinking only of themselves and their own self-interest, it\u2019s understandable that you might assume everyone else thinks and acts this same way. But that is the opposite of the integral and solidary humanism that the Catholic Church teaches.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be honest and say I have no idea if the founder of Eden Foods is making day to day decisions that are informed by a Catholic worldview like the one set forth in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. But as the author of the article I\u2019ve linked to makes clear, the Catholic view is a holistic view,<\/a> and not one that myopically adheres to simplistic left\/right political worldviews. Therefore it would not surprise me that anyone serious about their faith would act in a manner wherein their beliefs informed their decision making process. How could it not?<\/p>\n For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act\u2014they will be blessed in their doing.<\/p>\n If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n