Could you introduce yourself to our readers. Tell us a bit about your academic background and areas of study.
I am Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Becket is named for St. Thomas Becket, inspired by Dignitatis Humanae, and defends religious liberty for all in civil law. I am also a non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in the Center for Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies. Both my work at AEI and my litigation at the Becket Fund focus on the First Amendment, religious freedom, and its foundations in the Western legal tradition. In that vein, I’ve been honored to represent clients before the U.S. Supreme Court in two key religious liberty cases: Fulton v. Philadelphia involving the Catholic Church and foster care, and Mahmoud v. Taylor involving parental religious liberty and public schools.
Before joining Becket and AEI, I worked as a litigator at two international law firms, clerked for federal judges at the trial and appellate levels, and worked in the Department of Labor. I received my JD cum laude from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, where I was a published member of the Catholic University Law Review and president of the Federalist Society. I received my BA in political science cum laude from American University.
What inspired you to write this book?
Working on Fulton was the spark. In that case, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia almost lost its over 200-year-old foster care ministry when Catholic leaders in city government thought they should use state power to force the Church to not govern her foster care ministry as an arm of the Church. That public, self-identifying Catholics would think they could subordinate the Church, in Pope Leo XIII’s phrase, to the “empire and sway of the state,” got me thinking that the Church’s modern formation problems are at the core of many of her religious liberty problems. And her religious liberty problems are a big reason why the past 25 years of Supreme Court cases on religious liberty don’t involve claims of individual conscience against government authority. Instead, those cases often involve whether a religious organization can independently govern itself against growing government power. This development disproportionately affects the Catholic Church. Just ask the Little Sisters of the Poor, who’ve been in court for over a decade trying to protect their ministry from the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. Those power grabs by the state are increasingly inspiring younger Catholics not to the defense of the Church’s liberty, but instead to think Catholics should capture state power and steer it toward the people they like. This is the project of “integration from within.” The combination of these trends led me to conclude that Catholics are in great need of rediscovering the nature of the Church’s authority and her proper relationship to the state. That conclusion led to Not to Caesar but to Peter.
Who is this book for, and what do you hope readers will gain from it?
This book is especially for the younger Catholic Americans considering “integration from within” as a response to the challenges that modern state power—and internal confusion in the Church—pose to the Church’s liberty. I wrote it especially for them because I take their concerns seriously, agree with some of them, and think they’ve been ill-served by many in leadership roles today. When Catholics know the nature of the Church’s authority, they better protect her liberty. The Church therefore grows as herself, and provides the United States—a country that, in principle, wants authority on religious exercise to transcend state power—a coherent framework for preventing totalitarianism on religion.
Rediscovering the Church’s authority is thus not only a benefit to the Church, but to all Americans. So I think all Americans interested in a stable protection for religious freedom in civil law, especially for religious communities, would benefit from reading Not to Caesar but to Peter. In so doing, they would learn the religious—and frankly, Catholic—roots of keeping religious exercise beyond the state in the West.
What is the central message or argument you most want readers to take away?
That the Catholic Church has been and continues to be indispensable to keeping religious exercise a free response to God’s commands—making the Catholic Church indispensable to any society that desires a genuine, lasting self-government.
What was your research process like?
I read a lot! One of the joys of writing about the Catholic Church is that, for 2,000 years, some of the world’s best thinkers have devoted considerable talent to applying her teachings and self-understanding to myriad circumstances. Entering into that discussion, let alone with an eye toward contributing in that discussion, meant that I had to go back and rediscover a lot of what the Church’s more recent, public presentation tends to obscure. That was a great challenge. But also a great joy. I could not have done that without the support of my employers. Nor could I have done that without many kind and thoughtful scholars who helped me think through every facet of these questions.
Were there any surprising discoveries you made while working on this project?
That the language of the Church as a “perfect society” has essentially dropped out of her vocabulary and public presentation, despite it being alive and well in canon law, carried through substantively in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and being so essential to the Church’s internal logic as her own institution with her own, God-given liberty.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
The editing. Even before getting to Angelico, this manuscript went through many iterations. Part of that is an unfortunate consequence of my writing style. Another part of that is due to all the patient feedback I received from readers. And Angelico itself was incredibly patient with me in editing. It was important for me to get this as right as I could get it for the Church.
How long did completing this book from initial concept to publication take you?
I began developing the ideas for the book around five years ago. I began the research and writing in earnest about three years ago.
What has been the response of early readers and those you have reached out to for endorsements?
Quite positive! I am humbled—and frankly, a little surprised—at how supportive so many readers have been of Not to Caesar but to Peter. Because this book is interdisciplinary, challenges some conventional wisdom, and contends directly with the controversy around “integration from within,” I didn’t know what to expect. But perhaps something in here is what the Church and America need to right our understanding of religious liberty. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.
You have a number of events scheduled for the fall. Could you tell us about some of them.
I am excited and grateful to launch the book officially at the Catholic Information Center in Washington on October 14. I’ll also have some “homecoming” events of sorts at AEI—where I’ll be alongside my friend Tim Carney and the authors of Why Post-Liberalism Failed (James Patterson and Thomas Howes)—and at CUA Law, with my old friends and colleagues Mark Rienzi, Marc DeGirolami, and Father Pius Pietrzyk. I’ll also get to speak about the book at my parish and at Benedictine College. I admire both places as examples of how Catholic institutions become revitalized when they fully remember and embrace their mission for the Church.
What themes do you find yourself repeatedly exploring in your work?
Religious institutions, the role of tradition as a source of legal and political knowledge, and the pre-liberal prerequisites of self-government. Some of these interests are certainly informed by my Catholicism. Some of them are also informed by my Burkean respect for local communities, political prudence, and the inability of grand unified theories to explain the messiness of humans living together. And all of them reflect the gratitude I have to God for showing me in my own life, over and over, that I need to be formed to be truly free.
Where can readers follow your work or learn more?
My litigation work can be followed at: William Haun - Becket, while my AEI events and scholarly writing can be followed at: William Haun | American Enterprise Institute - AEI.
