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In one of the stranger developments of the past week, Vice President JD Vance set off an impassioned discussion about a theological concept popularized by a fourth-century saint and how it relates to immigration today. Who had an argument over the true meaning of ordo amoris on their 2025 Bingo card?
The Latin phrase, which means “order of loves,” surfaced after Vance, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, talked about the idea that people should focus most of their love and attention on their family first, then their neighbors, community, fellow countrymen and then the rest of the world, in that order.
“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that,” Vance said. “They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to run a society,” he added, before launching into a defense of President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies.
Vance, a former atheist who became a Catholic in 2019, has said he was influenced in college by the writings of Augustine of Hippo, the Catholic saint who describes ordo amoris in his classic work “The City of God.”
As the writer Austin Hoffman explains the concept simply: “Augustine describes virtue as not merely loving the right objects but loving them in the right order. Thus, the ordo amoris. This is difficult because we use the word ‘love’ too much. We can love pizza, our dog, our football team, our spouse, or our children, yet we recognize instinctively that these loves are not equal. We are flawed if we love pizza more than our children or our football team more than our spouse.”
Abigail Dodds explained it even more pithily on X, writing, “Everyone wants to save the world but no one wants to help mom with the dishes.”
These are all variations of the maxim “Charity begins at home,” widely attributed to 17th century physician Thomas Browne, who wrote “Religio Medici” (meaning ”The Religion of a Doctor.”) But this is just the anteroom of the rabbit hole into which theological Twitter fell, as some people supported what Vance said and others argued that the vice president misconstrues a medieval concept.
Writing for Compact, First Things editor R.R. Reno acknowledged that Jesus said we must love our neighbor as ourselves. But because our capacity to express love is finite, a hierarchy emerges and, according to Augustine, “our obligation to love is proportionate to the sin committed in acting against that love,” Reno wrote.
“Let me put this in concrete terms: Christ-like love encourages concern for victims of fires in other states, regions, or countries. But all the more so does Christ-like love compel us to come to the aid of neighbors whose houses down the street are burning.”
This is the sort of conversation that can engage divinity school students for hours, so it was fascinating to watch it unfold on social media, which is designed for hot takes, not weighty theological debates, and also to see the debate cross the Atlantic. Binary, hyperpolitical debates are rarely helpful in the public square, but anything that causes us to think more deeply about an issue is to be applauded. As Southern Baptist theologian Andrew T. Walker wrote: “Public theology matters.”
The Greatest Show on Earth, New Orleans edition
Maybe P.T. Barnum’s circus used to be “the greatest show on Earth,” as the showman advertised it, but now it’s arguably the Super Bowl, especially since this weekend’s game will feature two of the world’s biggest celebrities under one roof: Taylor Swift and President Donald Trump.
Trump will be the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl, prompting New York Magazine’s Intelligencer to groan that it’s because “because we can’t have a moment’s peace.”
Margaret Harttman wrote for Intelligencer, “So whether you’re a Super Bowl ticket holder attempting to enter the stadium, a football fan trying to focus on what’s happening on the field, or a Swiftie who wants to catch a few cute Taylor-and-Travis moments without arguing about ‘childless cat ladies,’ Trump’s presence is going to make your Sunday significantly more annoying.”
Of course, Taylor Swift has made Sundays significantly more annoying for a large number of NFL fans since the start of her romance with Travis Kelce, so this seems fair.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see whether requests from Louisiana legislators for halftime performer Kendrick Lamar to keep the show family friendly will mean anything. As Kelsey Dallas wrote for Deseret News, the lawmakers requested that the performers respect the state’s community decency standards. It seems a reasonable ask, but also unlikely one to be honored, given the Super Bowl’s history of halftime entertainment. Then again, the Federal Communications Commission has a new chairman, appointed by Trump, and some news organizations are already publicizing where people can file a complaint. If you find the halftime show to violate standards of decency, you can file a complaint here. Or, conversely, you can use the period of time between the second and third quarters to catch up on your Augustinian theology.
The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will take place Sunday, Feb. 9, at 4:30 p.m. MST and air on Fox.
Recommended Reading
Naomi Schaefer Riley says that cultural acceptance of cannabis has led to a rise in tragic consequences: “Not only is cannabis use interfering with adults’ ability to parent, but kids themselves are using in order to self-medicate for anxiety, depression and a variety of other mental health challenges. They have gotten the idea that cannabis may actually be good for them.”
Dr. Tyler Johnson weighs in on the issue of U.S. aid to foreign countries, particularly with regard to treatment of HIV patients: “It is a haunting truth to recognize that, in terms of access to treatment for HIV, there are still too many places in the world where young and otherwise healthy people with immune systems ravaged by the virus waste away into cachexia and death.”
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2025/02/03/pepfar-hiv-aids-treatment-foreign-aid-trump/
Jim Dalrymple II takes on the online debate over whether young men should shun supposedly “low status” jobs. “We need a better definition of success, one less preoccupied with a small number of prestigious positions and more focused on hard work, drive and living a well-rounded life.”
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2025/01/30/low-status-jobs-success-careers-the-good-life/
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New Year Resolutions, Interrupted
My new year resolution to run at least a mile every day made it past “Quitter’s Day,” the second Friday in January which is said to be the time most people abandon their resolutions. But my resolution collapsed this week after hitting a hard wall comprised of a bad cold, overscheduling and a visit from a daughter who lives out of town. (Related: Meg Morley Walter wrote “Everyone you know is sick. And you probably will be too” — which I can confirm.)
How about you? Are you still holding fast to a new year resolution? If so, what’s helping you persevere? Email me at Jgraham@deseretnews.com. As for me, I’ll start the streak again as soon as I shake this cold. Stay healthy, and thank you for reading.