I tried to find JPII’s comments about appreciating that which is noble in all cultures ... we also have a tradition in America of keeping what is of value and disregarding the rest ... and every time, for example, someone speaks of John Winthrop’s “City upon a Hill”, we don’t need to be reminded that the Puritan’s ... were a fanatical group engaged in terrorism.
#14
... and this nation owes it's earliest colonial beginnings to Protestants fleeing terror at the hands of ... whom?
Catholics.
There was one of those colonies, however, that was founded by and for Catholics, and that would be Maryland. There were wars between Maryland and Rhode Island, the so-called Puritan Wars.
Then, that lovely state institution that superceded the previous, Catholic state institution, known as the Church of England, established itself in a few of the colonies, and began the cycle anew, forcing any number of humble Christian sects to flee again, to the near-frontier of NC, GA or the wild back country west of the Appalachians.
The myopia on these threads is maddening at times. Just be glad that the end result of it all is a nation that does not allow a state religion, and permits you to harangue others about the motes in their eyes, while ignoring the log in your own.