Interview with Chris Korzen | Sound Authors Radio

December 28, 2008

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. The next guest on the show is Chris Korzen, the co-author of A Nation for All: How the catholic vision of the common good can save America from the politics of division. It couldn’t be a better time of year to talk about this book and this topic. We’re in the thick of the election season. It’s September 12th and we’ve got less than two months to see what happens here. Welcome to the show Chris.

Chris Korzen: Oh, thanks for having me on today, I appreciate it.

Dr. Kent: Tell me a little bit about your opinion on what’s going on in politics right now.

Chris Korzen: Well right now you know we’re seeing a situation in which Americans are desperate to move beyond what we call in the book the politics of division and this is where folks are put into these little boxes called republican, democrat, liberal, or conservative. Instead of uniting behind these challenges as a nation we’re yelling at each other on cable news shows and campaign attack ads. So we think Americans are desperate for new solutions to the problems that we face and need to come together now more than ever.

Dr. Kent: Its just I love Obama’s statement, the silly season. It really is amazing what’s happened the last couple of weeks during this campaign. It’s really out of control it feels like.

Chris Korzen: Yeah, it sure has and that’s really unfortunate, especially considering the important challenges we face and 47 million Americans don’t have healthcare. We’re a nation at war on two fronts; we have this economic crisis that we’re facing and a looming global climate crisis. These are the issues that Americans are concerned about and we desperately need solutions to.

Dr. Kent: Now what does catholic teaching tells us about all of this?

Chris Korzen: Well catholic teaching starts first and foremost by encouraging people of all faiths to realize our common humanity. In a catholic context it means that we’re created equal in the eyes of God and the image of God, but this is also a principle that under girds the founding of our own country and if we believe we are all equal we have to take steps to treat each other in ways that reflect that. For too long we’ve been led to believe as a nation that the highest virtues are taking care of number one and ensure that we have the biggest house, the biggest car and not really concerned about how our neighbors are faring. We think as Catholics that the fundamental measures of society should be how the poor and less fortunate are doing and not CEOs and stock markets.

Dr. Kent: Is there a difference between the candidates that you see? I see a difference of course, but I know this book is written for the general audience. Do you make a distinction between the two campaigns?

Chris Korzen: The organization I direct, Catholics United, and in writing this book, we’re committed to being non-partisan. It’s not necessarily our goal to comment on one candidate or another. One thing though that we have been doing a lot of work around is abortion today. Obviously abortion is very important for Catholics as an issue and its something that most Americans have some degree of concern with. We feel however that for the past 35 years this issue has been framed in ways that are generally unproductive to the kind of solutions that Americans can rally around.

We understand as an organization that the best ways to address this issue are not by focusing on Roe vs. Wade and criminalization but really addressing the root causes. Most women who seek abortion do so because of economic reasons and we studied this for some time and when we have strong supports for families we can actually reduce the abortion rate. So we’re encouraged by how the Obama campaign and the democratic party is addressing the issue right now adopting platform groups that calls for focus on common ground, common good solutions to bring Americans of all political persuasions at the table.

Unfortunately the republican campaign rejected some of the language from their own platform. So that’s probably as far as I’ll go to comment on how these campaigns are matching up but its an issue that’s very important for us and we’d like to see some results.

Dr. Kent: You are the co-founder and executive director of Catholics United. Tell me what’s the goal of the organization, how did you get into it, and how did the group start?

Chris Korzen: We started sort of by serendipity. It was back in 2004. the Catholic Archbishop released a document called Faithful Citizenship ahead of every presidential election and in 2003 as always they issued this wonderful document that called Catholics to consider the range of issues from abortion to poverty or the environment, stem cell research, healthcare, immigration, it goes on and on. We were encouraged by this document and discouraged by what we saw as a blatant partisan attempt by groups on the far right that politicize catholic teaching and use it as a wedge in that election.

Specifically they were going after Senator John Kerry, trying to portray him as a bad catholic and in doing so diminishing the fullness of that document Faithful Citizenship of down to just a handful of issues that worked to support that partisan agenda. So what we did was we started a website as a voting guide, where we took those issues and went out and researched all the positions of both the Bush and Kerry campaigns on those issues and provided that as a resource for Catholics. It got a lot of press and many folks were encouraged by it and we felt that we had a duty to continue it. So we incorporated about a year later, we’re called Catholics United.

We’re ### non-profit, which means we can do lobbying and political work unlike your traditional non-profits. We do a little bit more edgy work, we call it hypocrisy when you see it and we encourage a truthful, honest and productive debate on a number of issues including abortion and things like that.

Dr. Kent: Well here’s my question; now in the primaries when it was Obama against Clinton there was a lot of talk about the Hispanic vote and now of course there is with Obama and McCain. Now Hispanics are Catholics to a great extent. What’s your take on is there a difference between different groups within Catholicism and how do you address all of that?

Chris Korzen: Well there’s tremendous diversity within our church to be racially ethnically even in terms of political ideology and I think it’s a good thing. We’re stronger when we’re more diverse and when we can bring as many different voices to the table as possible. Beyond that though, there is a constant catholic teaching that applies to all Catholics and our challenge as an organization that deals with the intersection between religion and public life is to translate that catholic teaching into policies and proposals and ways of acting in a democratic society that can achieve real results.

So we don’t make those kinds of distinctions in our political work between different constituency groups or different members of the Catholic Church. We’re all one family under God and we’re all facing the same reality in this world right now and the same challenges. It’s up to us to achieve solidarity as human beings and act in ways that can move us all forward as a society in the world.

Dr. Kent: I was listening a couple days ago, it might have been yesterday and Joe Biden came out and spoke about abortion and he said, “Well my personal beliefs as a catholic are this way, but I believe that in public life this is what we should be doing.” What is the take of the Catholic Church on abortion? I mean I know that officially this is not allowed, its whatever, but what is in the case of rape, in the case of things like that, what is the take of the church or your organization on abortion?

Chris Korzen: We follow church teachings to the letter so that would teach in the catholic doctrine it is very clear about abortion and how we feel as Catholics that its morally wrong. Now the question that we face though in dealing with how to translate that into public policy and this is what senator Biden is referring to is what policy proposals, how can we actually implement solutions that can convince the church teaching but in ways that can be acceptable to all Americans. Most Americans have some degree of moral concern about abortion, but most Americans and the polls bear this out time and again are uncomfortable with making abortion illegal. That’s the reality that we live in.

That might not be an ideal situation but its saying that were dealt what we have to work with. I think the challenge for someone like Senator Biden who is a catholic, who has no qualms about expressing the state and how it informs his public policy is to show how we will bear out those church teachings and ways that are consistent with the faith. I believe that one can pursue policies beyond criminalization of abortion that make that teaching present in the world. I think senator Biden might have to do a better job explaining that.

When we start saying things like I believe this but I’m going to do that, it sets off red flags in the minds of voters. He went on to say in that interview that he supports and is inline with his party of comprehensive common ground solutions for abortion, such as making sure families and children have healthcare and essential economic support. I think that the Democratic Party in general should be doing more of that right now.

Dr. Kent: So the common good is what your book is about. A Nation for All: How the catholic vision of the common good can save America from the politics of division. There’s a quote out there from Sister Helen Frejan, someone I admire very much, and she says that it’s something that Americans of all faiths can draw inspiration from. She says, to build a culture or economy in politics where everyone rich and poor has a place at the table and everyone has a voice. That’s such an important message, is that something that people on both sides are responding to?

Chris Korzen: Yes it is and I started by saying I think Americans now more than ever are desperate to move beyond this divisive and acrimonious political debate that we’ve had. Really at the end of the day serving the interests of the few at the expense of the many and we’ve heard this as a theme just in this election in general when folks talk about things like change.

Like the need to move beyond the tired policies of the past and embrace shared solutions to the challenges of the future. This is what we’re talking about when we mean moving beyond the politics of division and embracing the common good. You know and in general I think folks are tired of this sense that we should all be looking out for number one and taking care of ourselves as a virtue. That there is a greater purpose to that, be it as people as Americans are just as human beings in general.

Dr. Kent: Well the book is called A Nation for All, written by Chris Korzen and Alexia Kelley, with a foreword by Senator Robert Casey Jr. It’s called A Nation For All, How The Catholic Vision Of The Common Good Can Save America From The Politics Of Division. It’s been a real honor speaking with you and I’m very excited about the next 60 days. I’ll keep watching and I think we all will.

Chris Korzen: Oh likewise and thanks so much for having me on the show – have a great day!

Dr. Kent: My next guest on the show will be mike Nelson, author of Stop Clutter from Stealing Your Life. It’s a little different than politics but something that’s nevertheless very important to our lives in the fall before winter clamps its hands down on us so come on back for that and we’ll keep talking.

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