Non-Negotiable: Essential Principles of a Just Society and Humane Culture. By Sheila
Liaugminas. Ignatius Press, 2014.
Sheila Liaugminas is a broadcaster and journalist, whose coverage often specializes in religious
issues. She is a host on Relevant Radio, and her new book, Non-Negotiable: Essential Principles
of a Just Society and Humane Culture is an attempt to explain Catholic social teachings and how
they apply to everyday life and the most controversial issues facing American society today.
Towards the beginning of Liaugminas’s book, she declares that this book is meant to explain
why certain principles are held by nations and religions, and that being a member of a social
group such as a country or a faith requires an understanding as to why that group holds the ethics
that it does. She writes:
“How does a nation, or any large community of peoples, determine what is true, right, and good
in structuring its governing documents? To what authority to drafters of those guiding
principles refer, and to what end?
The Declaration of Independence appealed to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” in its
opening statement, “to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station” to
which God entitles them. The very next line claims and orders that entitlement: ‘We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.’” (pp. 12-13).
Liaugminas flatly dismisses the common belief in moral relativism that states that one
perspective is just as good as any other, and that new perceived rights trump older rights. The
heart of Non-Negotiable is a clash of principles, an older set of morals and values being
challenged by a newer one that holds the older ways in contempt and seeks to marginalize or
obliterate such perspectives from the public sphere. This is not a particularly angry or polemical
book. On the contrary, it is generally light on emotion, although at times it seems as if
Liaugminas finds it challenging to limit her annoyance at other people’s obtuseness or bullying
tactics. Liaugminas writes that she is not pleased with the current political, intellectual, and
moral climates of the country and the world, writing that:
“The United States as a nation and the United Nations as a body of global representatives have
within them powerful forces passing laws and advancing agenda that totally violates a number of
the principles established in both declarations.
How did this happen? How can a ruling class so boldly disregard “self-evident truths” and
return to having “disregard and contempt for human rights,” ignoring declarations that should
ground their every action? How can they have constructed a new set of priorities that violate
their founding principles, and advance them under the language of “rights” based on nothing
more than shifting cultural relativism?” (p. 14).
Non-Negotiable addresses numerous topics. Debating the notion of what constitutes dignity, life
and death, marriage and the family, the role of personal conscience in daily life, and the role that
religion ought to play in society are all discussed in this book, and particular stress is played on
how each subject affects all of society and the world when principles (or a lack of principles) are
put into practice.
“As Pope Benedict XVI also said often, we live in a culture unmoored from its Judeo-Christian
roots, an increasingly secular culture unmoored from its Judeo-Christian roots, an increasingly
secular culture with no reference to God. In this environment, he warned, tolerance has
degenerated into indifference toward permanent values. But even though Christians are
reluctant to make a public witness to faith in this prevailing secular culture, he also warned that
resigning ourselves to public indifference to truth was the heart of the crisis of the West. If truth
does not exist, Benedict said many times, then mankind cannot distinguish between good and
evil.
That seems self-evident. But so did the truths declared by the Founding Fathers. They no longer
are.” (p. 16).
Liaugminas generally gives the impression that this book is not really about her, but rather about
the ideas and principles that control the direction that society takes. Still, at times there are
instances where her personality– or perhaps her conscience– manifests itself in her work.
Throughout the book, there is a very strong sense that Liaugminas is motivated by an incredibly
strong and unshakeable moral compass, where certain actions are indefensible and others are
unquestionably right. Non-Negotiable is possibly the culmination of a lifetime of following her
conscience. She recounts the following anecdote, writing:
“Decades ago, a little girl accompanied her father on his only business trip to the deep South,
her first time to leave their Midwestern town. Besides the new and different and “strange”
sights, there was the ominous, the different way people reacted to each other. They were in a
drugstore in Alabama, and she saw a fountain with the sign “No Coloreds Allowed,” and she
was outraged. In the loud voice of an indignant child who doesn’t think of or care about the
setting or context but only the boiling need to cry out, she shouted, “Dad! They can’t do that!
They can’t treat people that way! That’s not right!”
That was her initiation into “social activism.” She didn’t know much about John F. Kennedy but
was glad a Catholic was elected president and that he emphasized service. She followed Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and admired his peaceful protests and soaring sermons and addresses.
And his noble dignity. That impression left an imprint on this little girl’s conscience.
True story. That little girl was me.
I continued to work for peace and social justice through the Church and the profession of
journalism. I landed in adulthood during a turbulent time when social morals and values,
bedrock principles, and Gospel truths about human dignity and equality got contorted out of
recognition. Why are we seemingly closer to world war than world peace, after the lessons of
the twentieth century should have been so obvious that we could not repeat its mistakes?” (pp.
16-17).
Non-Negotiable will serve as a particularly useful resource for people who need help
understanding the Catholic Church’s teachings on certain issues and who need explanations and
justifications for why the Church requires its members to behave a certain way, both publicly and
privately. Liaugminas draws upon religious and historical arguments to advance her points, and
she does a very strong job of explaining why certain positions are promoted by the Church and
why others are rejected.
While Non-Negotiable is bound to be a useful guide and reference for individuals who are
sympathetic to what the Church teaches, it may not prove an effective means of changing the
minds of the people who are fiercely opposed to these arguments. Liaugminas’s work is based on
defining the Church’s perspectives and providing additional reasons why the Church is right and
others are wrong. There are few rhetorical flourishes or catch slogans of the kind that tend to be
so prevalent in today’s discourse. If someone is looking for a book that will convert people who
previously were hostile to the Church’s teachings, this book may not provoke a reversal of such
views, but Liaugminas might be able to help explain issues to people who are confused about
Church doctrine, and to give the faithful some additional help in a debate.
–Chris Chan