Background Briefing: October 7, 2020
A Former Catholic Theologian’s Open Letter to Amy Coney Barrett
We begin with Trump’s decision to abandon any hope of a stimulus for struggling businesses and unemployment benefits for millions of Americans afflicted by the pandemic which today Trump described as a “blessing from god” to instead focus on getting a sixth conservative judge on the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. A former Catholic theologian, the Reverend Dr. Matthew Fox, now an Episcopal priest and an activist for gender justice and eco-justice, joins us. The author of 37 books including The Pope’s War and the forthcoming Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic – And Beyond, we discuss his open letter to Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett in Tikkun magazine. We go over the questions that should be asked of this replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg the Republicans are rushing to confirm, by Democratic senators and possibly some Republicans, to make it clear how Judge Barrett’s views are so far out of the mainstream of religious thought and diversity within the Catholic faith, not to mention the country as a whole.
Reimagining, Not Restoring a New Post-Trump Liberal International Order