Non-Negotiable: Essential Principles of a Just Society and Humane Culture - Hardcover

Liaugminas, Sheila

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 158617794X ISBN 13: 9781586177942

Publisher: Ignatius Press, 2014

Synopsis

What gave Abraham Lincoln the authority to declare the freedom and choice to own slaves as immoral? After all, the law of the land allowed it. What gave Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King the authority to lead a whole movement calling civil laws immoral and demanding new civil rights laws that recognized the equal dignity and worth of all God's children without exception? After all, segregation was legal. What gave the United Nations the moral authority to claim and designate absolute human rights in an international declaration, though some member nations were already violating them? Principles. First principles. In their founding documents, the United States and the United Nations recognized the principles that all men have inherent dignity and that they deserve equal rights. They both have declared those principles the conditions fundamental to freedom, justice, and peace. Yet both the United States and the United Nations have within them powerful political forces passing laws or resolutions that violate first principles and put at risk the most vulnerable populations. This book goes beyond the politics of pragmatism and cultural relativism to reacquaint the reader with first principles. It demonstrates what the Church has to say about the most important issues of our time and why. It anticipates the questions readers will ask and provides the answers they will need in the struggle to restore respect for human dignity.

About this title

About the Author:

Sheila Liaugminas is an Emmy Award-winning Chicago-based journalist in print and broadcast media. She reported for Time magazine in its Midwest Bureau for over 20 years, and co-hosted the Chicago television program YOU. She has appeared on Fox Chicago News and the BBC. Liaugminas is an established contributor to MercatorNet.com, and has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business, Crisis, National Catholic Register, and National Review Online. She currently hosts the daily radio program A Closer Look on Relevant Radio.

Review:

Sheila Liaugminas is an articulate voice of the New Evangelization and as she demonstrates in this powerful book, being seriously Catholic today means being part of a culture-reforming counterculture. --George Weigel, Author, Evangelical Catholicism

Combining the passion of personal conscience and the convictions of reason and faith, Sheila Liaugminas analyzes conflicted points in our culture in the light of first principles. It's a good tool in skilled hands. --Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. Archbishop of Chicago

Sheila Liaugminas stresses in her fine book that 'Complacency is not an option,' and she hammers home that point with brilliant insight into the past, present and future of all the so-called 'social issues' that continue to divide America. This book is a must-read for every person of faith who understands that action is needed -now- if we ever hope to build a free, just and humane society. --Dr. Alveda King, Director of African-American Outreach, Priests for Life

Combining the passion of personal conscience and the convictions of reason and faith, Sheila Liaugminas analyzes conflicted points in our culture in the light of first principles. It's a good tool in skilled hands. --Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. Archbishop of Chicago

Sheila Liaugminas stresses in her fine book that 'Complacency is not an option,' and she hammers home that point with brilliant insight into the past, present and future of all the so-called 'social issues' that continue to divide America. This book is a must-read for every person of faith who understands that action is needed -now- if we ever hope to build a free, just and humane society. --Dr. Alveda King, Director of African-American Outreach, Priests for Life

About this edition

• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 158617794X
• ISBN 13: 9781586177942
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160