On this episode, Chris is joined by Joe Rutten, faculty member in the humanities department at Mount Marty University and Executive Director of the Catholic Men’s Business Fraternity. Drawing on the Vatican document, “The Vocation of a the Business Leader,” Joe and Chris explore the dignity of work as the “original vocation.” Joe then describes four key principles of Catholic social teaching — human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity — and articulates how these provide an orientation towards freedom and creativity, a healthy market economy, and, ultimately, human flourishing. Chris and Joe also take another look at the virtue of prudence, what St. Thomas Aquinas called “the mother of the virtues,” a virtue indispensable to both business and political leaders.
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.