JUDGE ROBERTS and THE CHRISTIAN MIND

Thoughts expressed to promote better thoughts by others

It so happens that I have been re-reading the book, The Christian Mind (1963) by Harry Blamires, at the same time as listening with great care to the Senate hearings with respect to the Presidential nominee for Chief Justice, Judge Roberts. And the question that I could not avoid facing was this: Does Judge Roberts, the Roman Catholic layman, reveal a Christian mind in his answers to the many questions put to him over 6 hours or so on Tuesday, September 13? [It may be suggested that this question is most appropriate because the political “Christian right” is spending millions of dollars supporting his nomination since he is reckoned to be a conservative and Christian judge.]

I am using the expression, “the Christian mind,” as Mr. Blamires uses it. That is, a mind whose thinking, structure and basis is formed by the sure facts of the Christian Faith, that is from the Divine Revelation recorded in the Bible and affirmed in Tradition. In other words, a mind that it not secularized (conditioned by this- worldly realities) but that sees everything in terms of the living God, the Creator, Judge and Redeemer, of heaven and hell as ultimate and final realities, of the salvation given through and in Jesus Christ, of the Church of Jesus Christ against which hell cannot prevail, and of this world and its norms as an evil age and under the just judgment of God.

Mr. Blamires recognized and lamented (back in 1963) that the Christian mind as such seemed not to exist, since Christians in public life tended to think and act in secular terms. He wrote: “As a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion – its morality, its worship, its spiritual character; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, the view that relates all human problems – social, political, cultural – to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith, the view that sees all things here below in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness, in terms of heaven and hell.”

Now we turn to John Roberts, aged 50, a Judge and a fine legal mind. It is difficult to dislike him for he is so well mannered and pleasant; and it is easy to admire him for in all areas, of intellect and speech, for example, he is attractive as a human being. The professional associations of lawyers speak very highly of him and his track record as a lawyer is first class. I would vote for him, if I were a Senator!

Judge Roberts makes it clear that he is a Christian, a Catholic Christian. Thus we may regard him as a possible test case to see whether the Christian mind is present in a Christian lawyer, who is strongly supported for very high position by many who profess to be Christians, evangelicals and R C’s, in the USA.

Let it be said first of all, that there is every reason to believe that in his private life and the way he relates to his wife and two adopted children he acts as a Christian. The same observation may surely also be made of how he relates to his neighbors and colleagues and friends, and to the poor. He gives the impression of being not only a decent man but also a genuine Christian man.

Now, back to Harry Blamires for a moment. He accepted that thousands of people he knew in the USA and England had a Christian ethic, piety, morality and spirituality; but, he also argued with abundant examples to make his case that in most Christian persons the Christian mind or mindset (as different from a Christian ethic, piety and spirituality) is missing.

Now let us return to Judge Roberts. In the Senate hearings he made it absolutely clear that the Christian Faith (the Catholic Faith) would have no bearing on his work at all as a Justice, as the Chief Justice, on the Supreme Court. He said that he would look to the Constitution, to the tradition of interpretations of the Constitution, to precedence, to the arguments presented by the lawyers appearing before the Court, to reason, and so on, but he would not allow the tenets and revealed facts of his Christian Faith to be any part of any decision-making or judging.

In Mr. Blamires terms, if I understand his argument right, here is an example of a Christian who has decided that in the workplace, and here it is in the Supreme Court, the Christian Faith has no part or place in the thinking of the Justices. Judge Roberts does not intend to bring a Christian mind to bear on the Judging in which he will be intensely involved. This may be called in American terms “separation of church and state.” But for Mr. Blamires it is a clear example of a conservative secularism, in contrast to the progressive secularism of his Democratic questioners and of four or so of the Justices on the Court now.

Perhaps the argument will be made that the Constitution is a Christian document and so to interpret the Constitution aright is to have a Christian mind and perform a Christian duty. If so then “Christian” is being used in terms of the Deism of the eighteenth century Enlightenment which was religiously held by many in the USA in the period from 1760-1800. It is hardly being used in terms of how the R C Church in its recent Catechism defines Christianity.

The relation of Christianity to the “Public Square” through the presence therein of the Christian mind in action is a major and important topic. I have merely commented on a small part of it.

Peter Toon Sept 13 2005.