Posted on 05/19/2007 3:25:34 AM PDT by Gamecock
I don't think Mexicans had much to do with the supreme court raising the killing of children for reasons of convenience and unrestrained sexual license to the status of a constitutional right, no.
I also don't think Mexicans had much to do with ending prayer in public schools. It seems to me that "Madalyn Murray O'Hair" is not a Mexican name.
There would be far fewer Mexicans in this country if our birth rates were not at abysmally low levels, and our birthrates would be higher if all of the Protestant churches hadn't abandoned traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception in marriage, beginning with the Anglicans in 1930.
Unrestrained immigration is the logical consequence of a culture which is greedy and needs cheap labor to exploit, and too greedy about satisfying its own appetites today to bother with raising the next generation. Fix the greed and you'll fix the immigration. Warning: the greed stems directly from an individualism that is out of control.
Finally, I'd like to point out that historically, Mexico has been one of the most anti-Catholic countries in the world. They were shooting priests in Mexico within the lifetimes of my parents, simply for saying Mass and hearing confessions. I have a relic of one such priest, Bl. Miguel Pro.
OTOH I am more optimistic about the future of the Republic.
Generally speaking, the Catholic Church put up a higher degree of resistance to the Nazi regime than did the Evangelical Church of Germany.
Don't get me started. I'm a lifelong Californian.
On the other hand, my Mom is "culturally Catholic" (100% Irish), yet she is a hardcore conservative Republican who would seal off the border with flamethrowers if it were in her power. (Part of that may be due to the constant sexual harassment she received as a blue-eyed blonde from Mexican men -- whenever there was no white man nearby -- until she was well into old age.)
Another part of it is that she's culturally assimilated to the Anglo-Puritan culture that built the country, even though by blood and faith she's neither. Ditto for my Polish/Italian in-laws. I guess the explanation is that from the 1620s to the 1960's, new immigrants assimilated to the historic Anglo-Puritan culture, whatever their actual background, but now they no longer do that.
Why can’t I have both?
Try a Conservative Anglican Church.
“Protestant Germany”.
There is a significant minority of Catholcs in Germany. Hitler himself was a Confimed Catholic.
Yes, all of that will come in real handy when God calls him to account for his life: "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Luke 12:18-21
Antibiblical churches with their hierarchical leadership and heretical doctrines are no place to look for the Truth, and these preachers of prosperity have forgotten that the Words of Jesus in Matthew 8:20 "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Consider the council of the Apostile Peter. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." II Peter 1:2-4
Yes, I am reminded of this. No doubt too Catholic over there and the Lord punished them with Hegel, Nietsche, Heidegger, Sartre and Rousseau.
The “Postivist” philosophy is one of two unique American contributions to Christianity (the other is Mormonism). From Christian Science to Norman Vincent Peale to Robert Schuller, the American can-do spirit is the undercurrent in all those positivist churches who profess that anything is possible through God. Maybe it’s something in our psyche, maybe it was because we had so much land and resources to conquer but these movements seem uniquely American. Add our national attraction to charismatic personalities, the excitement of the revival tent, the power of television, and the opporunity to spread their thoughts in print because of our high literacy rates and you can see why positive-thinking ministers always will be part of our religious landscape. Olsteen is just part of a long continuum. Not all have been snake-oil salesmen and many have had philosophies of enduring value. One thing is for sure, there will be more.
You seem to be confusing positivism with positive thinking. I’d check it out.
The business of identifying evil with a particular denomination is wrong. In my initial reply to P-Marlowe, I had hoped to get across the understanding that no denomination has a monopoly on innocence. There are vices and virtues particular to individualism and the body politic.
And, I might add, when He was on Earth in the flesh, he was the one who wandered without owning a home, the one who depended on the generosity of others for his subsistence, and the one who washed the feet of those who were there to learn from him.
I have deep respect for the historic virtues of the Anglican church. They gave us CS Lewis after all.
Yet, I'm sorry to say, what I see in the Anglican church now is just sickening. Honestly, swimming the Tiber is the lesser of 2 evils at this point. At least the Catholic church is trying, however feebly, to get RID of the sodomite clergy, even as the Anglicans are openly recuiting them.
Unfortunately, I live in the archdiocese of Roger Mahoney, patron and protector of child molesters and illegal invaders. Between him and Gene Robinson, I'm forced to say "neither!"
I've thought the same thing. A short list -- The Orthodox took the beauty of worship (the Russian Orth. service I visited many years ago was the most beautiful I've ever seen). The Reformation took the Scriptures and ran with them (and ran the printing presses day and night to give everyone a copy, often at the cost of blood). And the Catholics kept the fundamental moral unity on stuff like contraception, divorce/remarriage, etc. If only there were some way to have it all.
Never, ever confuse “religion” with “relationship”.
I think we keep praying with our Lord that we all may be one. That's #1.
But also in addition (NOT instead of) I think RC's, converts like me and if I read you correctly, retreads like you, need to be scrupulous in exploring our own (in my case adopted) tradition. There are unexpected evangelical riches.
Let me put it like this: as a vaguely anti-French, innerleckshual and aesthetic Episcopalian, and one committed to all the study of the Fathers that my ADHD problem would permit, I am astonished (but tearfully glad) to report that I am now praying regularly for the intercession of St. Catherine Laboure. This is one of the last kinds of piety I would ever have expected of myself -- I who thought of the 19th century as the nadir of clean theological thought and a cess-pool of romantic sentimentality!
May I give you a blessed miraculous medal? It would make me very happy to do so, and I happen to have a spare (and I mean to go on having a spare until I run out of money.)
I mention this not only because I mean it but as an example of the unexpected riches of the Church. Here is this very ordinary looking peach, but when you bite, I tell you, you will be amazed at the delicious and complex flavors. There is something here for every holy hunger.
Don't settle for anything less. Both are part of the faith that comes to us from the Apostles.
Just to be clear, I have not (yet?) recrossed the Tiber. I'm still in the Evangelical camp.
Well then! All the MORE need for a miraculous medal, huh?
:-)
The offer still stands.
I am so blessed in the current rotation of Dominicans at our parish. And the first priest with whom I dealt as a convert was steeped in the Fathers and he and I shared many a good conversation. The guy was a pinko, but not a theological pinko.
And the Dominicans I mentioned are NOT pinkos and are really strong on Scripture AND great counsellors on personal "piety" and such. They understand when you're talking about the love between you and Jesus and you choke up.
So God has been very gentle with me and made it easy to see what you might call the evangelical side of Catholicism. During Lent, while I can't remember the particulars, I did turn to my wife after a sermon and say, "If I'm not mistaken, I think that was an altar call."
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