Acton University, a week-long series of lectures dedicated to, inter alia, spreading the illusion that authentic Christianity, which is the Catholic Faith, is compatible with social, political, and economic liberalism literally began under a dark cloud yesterday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In order to spread the message of liberty (libertarianism) beyond the walls of the DeVos Place Convention Center, Acton University established its own Twitter feed and hashtag, #ActonU, which is displayed on its website. While a bulk of #ActonU tweets are from enthralled attendees gushing about the latest bromide they heard from the mouths of Judge Andrew Napolitano or Michael Novak, a few Catholics, concerned with the message of markets, markets, markets and liberty, liberty, liberty being trumpeted at Acton offered some quotes of our own from the likes of Ss. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Thomas Aquinas. Some of us, including yours truly, questioned Acton’s privileging of freedom as an end in itself, which spilled over into a discussion of art and blasphemy with Acton Institute Senior Editor Joe Carter. Here are the relevant parts of the exchange:
@ActonInstitute @joecarter You know Art Prize and the Festival of Arts also take place in GR…every…single…year. #ActonU #NoHumility
— Modestinus (@OpusPublicum) June 18, 2014
@OpusPublicum@ActonInstitute Because promotion of freedom makes freedom of artistic expression possible.
— Joe Carter (@joecarter) June 18, 2014
@joecarter@ActonInstitute Like this kind of artistic expression? http://t.co/83KgxIqCeN#ActonU
— Modestinus (@OpusPublicum) June 18, 2014
At that point I had directed Carter’s attention to the Wikipedia article on “Piss Christ,” Andres Serrano’s infamous photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine. At first, the Acton Institute’s official Twitter account expressed righteous indignation:
@OpusPublicum what exactly is “artistic” here? Shock and disrespect do not equal art, beauty.
— Acton Institute (@ActonInstitute) June 18, 2014
@ActonInstitute I agree 100%, but if freedom is the end, then attendant to that is the freedom to shock and disrespect while calling it art.
— Modestinus (@OpusPublicum) June 18, 2014
@OpusPublicum Duh. And informed viewers of art make for greater artistic experiences.
— Acton Institute (@ActonInstitute) June 18, 2014
The second, more surprising, lines came from Carter. I have also included some sharp responses to Carter by one Elliot Milco.
@OpusPublicum @RepCom1140 I think Serrano has the right to create blasphemous trash. What’s most offensive is calling that work “art.”
— Joe Carter (@joecarter) June 18, 2014
@RepCom1140@OpusPublicum@ActonInstitute I believe in “ordered liberty,” not liberty as idolatrous license for libertinism.
— Joe Carter (@joecarter) June 18, 2014
@joecarter@opuspublicum@repcom1140 There is never a right to blaspheme. The notion itself is blasphemy.
— Elliot Milco (@EMMilco) June 18, 2014
@EMMilco @opuspublicum @repcom1140 God himself is the one who gives us freedom to blaspheme. He also will dish out the consequences for it.
— Joe Carter (@joecarter) June 18, 2014
@OpusPublicum @RepCom1140 @ActonInstitute He [Serrano] has the freedom to do so [commit blasphemy]. And we have the freedom to condemn it as blasphemous trash.
— Joe Carter (@joecarter) June 18, 2014
@joecarter@opuspublicum@repcom1140 Yes, we are free to act wrongly, but we don’t thereby have a right to act wrongly.
— Elliot Milco (@EMMilco) June 18, 2014
This exchange really gets to the heart of where faithful Catholics disagree with the Acton Institute’s brand of libertarianism. For Actonites, freedom is an end in itself and no authority on earth should curtail this freedom except, perhaps, to protect property rights and maintain the peace. When it comes to the law of God and the social rights of Christ the King, Acton is, unsurprisingly, silent. People, even so-called artists, should, according to Carter, have the “right” to produce works which mock the salvific death of Jesus Christ and we, as Christians, have the “right” not to go see it. But our refusal to see and support blasphemous works of “art” does not mean they won’t be made, nor does it mean that others, bent on mocking God and denigrating the Catholic Faith, won’t use whatever means are at their disposal to disseminate their slime in order to scandalize some and mislead others. Carter, and his Acton conferees, can contemplate a good and just society which allows for that sort of “freedom” because he remains, at the end of the day, agnostic on what God Almighty has given us freedom for.
