Us vs. them is a human condition, not a particularly American affliction. It was rooted in basic survival of the species but is now used to create divisions and diversions, as both of you point out.
Did I miss something in her comment? Her first point was that TW is just an American and then she brings up the issue of her perception of the Baptists condemning Roman Catholics today. She setup the point, I just reminded her of the plight of the founders and the little remembered last five words of the 1st amendment.
There are fools, idiots and just plain nasty people who reside on the edges just to stir up trouble, always will be. But to give them credence by castigating ALL members of one side or the other does nothing to resolve the divisions just as it does with the racial upheavals we are experiencing today. It was a totally unnecessary point to make, period.
I don’t deny her the right to express it, I just exercised my right to let her know I think she was totally out of place to bring it up in the way she did. I would think that EVERYONE who wants to have a discussion about the friction between those parties, needs to do a lot of reading and research before castigating everyone of any particular Christian sect of belief. It was the action of a particular sect that drove our founders to look for a new place to go to have the freedom to worship as they pleased without being ostracized and downright persecuted even to being burned at the stake.
The founders came to this country overwhelmingly with what is called the 1599 Geneva Bible as the version of choice. Just that translation alone was the reason that the monarchy of King James (1603-1625) and beyond persecuted those who chose to use it for their own personal enlightenment of God’s words rather than be beholden to the interpretation of the King’s Bishops. The King James version was created by a King for his own gains of his collective and not those of the individual. The history of his predecessor, Queen Elizabeth I, and the upheavals before and during her reign are a prime example of what she and the faiths went through around that time to include attempted genocide. Through all of this, the Roman Catholic church at the time was not a clean hands player along with all the rest.
So enough of my rant. Just EVERYONE please educate yourself before casting dispersions because remember, when pointing a finger at anyone, there are three more pointing back a you.