Posted on 04/27/2002 4:53:28 AM PDT by Siamese Princess
Protestant America by Joseph Sobran
Today I write in an unaccustomed vein. I speak as a member of a minority group, though maybe not in the usual aggrieved style of minority group members.
I am a Catholic in a Protestant country. Even if Protestants are no longer a numerical majority, they have made this country what it is, and its culture remains thoroughly Protestant. What does it feel like to be a Catholic in Protestant America?
It feels wonderful. On the whole, Protestants must be among the world’s most decent people. I feel grateful to live among them, and it’s time someone said this. They are too nice to defend themselves even when they’re smeared, as they often are.
I have serious differences with them, because I take religion seriously. I know everything that has been said against them. I know their sins, their errors, their prejudices, their dark side – even their silly side. I can criticize them too. I have criticized them in the past, and I will so in the future.
Yet sharp criticism is a far cry from vague bad-mouthing, and when I hear some malcontent running down this Protestant country as “bigoted” or “racist” I feel a mild impulse to suggest that he shut the hell up. I want to say gently, “Well, I’d sure hate to live in a country where your kind were the majority, pal.” (Vivid examples may be found on the front page of today’s paper.)
In fact one of the chief faults of Protestants is that they are too nice for their own good. They have little instinct for self-preservation. They are slow to recognize deadly enemies, because they assume that others are as decent as they are. Your typical Protestant is like Shakespeare’s Edgar in King Lear, “whose nature is so far from doing harms that he suspects none.” And this amiable but tragic defect may yet prove the ruin of this great country.
The word Protestant covers a lot of ground, from the strictest fundamentalist to the laxest liberal. Yet there is, if not a creedal common denominator, at least a specific common style – a homespun gentility shared by every sort of Protestant, an ethos of simple friendliness, a love of honest plainness, even a certain aversion to elegance (expressed in disdain for the “fancy”).
This makes nearly all Protestants fatally easy to impose on, easy to take advantage of. The self-effacing Protestant style is even a topic of a special kind of comedy: think of Mary Tyler Moore, Garrison Keillor, or Bob Newhart. All three are Midwesterners; Newhart is a Catholic, but all Midwesterners are virtual Protestants in this respect. Protestants are supposed to be humorless, but there is a very definite Protestant humor, dry and subtle, and the world could use more of it. If only Osama bin Laden had been raised in Indiana! He is open to criticism on several grounds, but basically I think he just needs to lighten up a little.
A Protestant might almost be defined as a man who has to be warned against his own virtues. He is nothing if not tolerant. It wasn’t always so: once upon a time Protestants could persecute heretics with the best of them. But even then they were exercising that peculiar sincerity which they have seldom lost.
At times American Protestants were suspicious of immigrants, and though their suspicions have become notorious, they were not without reason. At any rate, the suspicions were quickly abandoned, and the immigrants were welcomed as fellow Americans. Today the immigrants are glorified and the natives disparaged, as if the immigrants were the originators, rather than the beneficiaries, of tolerance.
It might be suggested that so gracious a majority deserves more grateful minorities than it has received. Nobody thanks a Protestant. His virtues are taken for granted, like the elements of nature. He doesn’t even think of asking for thanks. “Don’t mention it,” he is apt to say. Maybe more of us should insist on mentioning it, even if it embarrasses him a little. Protestants are so unassuming that even the Pope hasn’t apologized to them.
All this may help explain why President Bush is so completely at sea in the Middle East. He is learning, to his confusion and dismay, that Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat are definitely not Protestants. As a cynical son of the old Catholic Europe, with the blood of the Borgias coursing in my veins, I could have warned him; but he didn’t ask me.
Anyway, it isn’t my purpose to glorify the Protestants; today I merely want to thank them.
John Murray Cuddihy has dealt with the issues Sobran brings up in his "No Offense - Civil Religion and Protestant Taste." His views would certainly arouse controversy here. Refering to the late 20th century American Protestant ethos, Cuddihy writes:
"Self-definitions predicated on being 'the one true church' or 'the chosen people' are experienced in America as an unseemly ostentation, as vulgar boasting, puffing, as ridiculous even. Good taste, like St. Paul's 'charity,' flaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own."
Sobran, who's quoted Cuddihy in the past, seems to be of two minds about this Protestant civility. He recognizes its value in preserving peace in society, but also is attracted by absolutist and particularist claims which oppose the civil religion of Protestant taste. I suspect this is natural. Universalism and particularism are hard to separate, since every universalism appears circumscribed and particularist to those who reject it, and every particularism can take on a universal dimension for those who truly believe in it. Moreover, the desire for civil peace is always limited and overturned by the hunger for "identity" and for truth. Maybe it's best when such ideas remain in tension, and none has the upper hand completely.
It's hard to find a common denominator among Protestants, but he did a pretty good job of it. If he had added to the description an innate aversion to public rudeness or making a public spectacle of oneself, the picture would be complete.
Oh puh-leease. This haughty back-handed "compliment" speaks volumes. Sobran takes his "religion" seriously, while Christians take the teachings of God seriously. Presumably, that is the "serious difference" of which he speaks.
His offer of "thanks" in this article is delivered with a patronizing pat-on-the-head condescension. He cannot offer simple "thanks" (as if it should go to us anyway?) without interweaving within it his obvious anti-Christian leanings; he values his "religion" too much. Typical rubbish.
Well this non-mid-Western Christian is not afraid to tell him to keep his phony and condescending "thanks." Give the thanks to God, who sent our Christian forefathers here by instilling within them enough strength and courage to escape the murderous, controlling and, most importantly, "religious" people they left in Europe, wallowing in the cesspool of their own self-serving, invented, pseudo-Christian "religion."
Speaking as a Mormon, "Thanks Protestants!"
As you can see from some of the comments in this forum, there's also a bit of left-over animus against Catholics among some conservative Protestants. But I think that's changing, since loyal Catholics and loyal Protestants have more in common these days, fighting against the Culture of Death, than they have reasons to fight among themselves.
Sobran typifies the same thing he admits we detest.
Count me in as one more Protestant who wishes Joe would stop shoveling and just shove it.
I grew up in the Midwest and there was only one Catholic church in my town. I remember begging my dad to convert to Catholicism. After all, it took them 45 minutes to do whatever it was they did. After all, we were Penecostals and we had church for 4 hours. If the Super Bowl was on, he'd make sure that everyone got out of there by 2. Which was an hour and a half after the usual dismissal. And, if the Holy Spirit was moving...we'd never get out.LOL!!Also, my grandpa was a Methodist and he was always worried that the Presbyterians were going to get to lunch before he was. The Lutherans in my town were always considered the "Liberals" and if anything ever "Liberal" happened in town..it was always the Lutherans that started it. (According to the Powers In The Know of the town...you guessed it...The women at the beauty salon)LOL! Anyways, I love being a Protestant. I believe there are many wonderful values that Catholics and Protestants share together. While Catholics have an admirable man in the Pope, I'll just stick with Jesus. He will never disappoint. He doesn't require tradition, common language, fancy clothing, television deals, nice materialistic things, or any other worldly stuff that gets mixed into our society. Anyways, thanks for posting the article! It was wonderful!!
One more thing, President Bush, like many Christians, believe in Israel. I'd hate to be a politician in his shoes right now. On the one hand, as a true believer in Christ he understands the importance of Israel to all of us. On the other hand, as a politician you have to walk a tightrope. I will continue to pray for him and for the Catholic Church. I've been hard on them recently, but I'm hoping that they will whether yet another storm to grow even stronger. God Bless all the true believers around the world. No matter their denomination!
Not until Sobran piddled in my Post Toasties. And BTW, you shouldn't take posts so personally. The comment I made was neither about, nor directed towards you -- I made it about Sobran's comments. Forgive me, but I was under the impression that this forum provided a place for us to comment on the articles/writers, but not to carp at or insult fellow FReepers.
Please allow me try and explain this one more time. Sobran writes for public consumption; therefore, he must expect both praise and criticism in the public forum. This time, mine was criticism. If he continues to write such patronizing rubbish, I shall continue to criticise him. You wasted no time in branding me with insults -- one of which was insinuating that my point was "invalid" or "less valid" than yours, but you seem quite content to neglect to acknowledge the condescension and derision that prompted my response in the first place. It sounds like the Left-wing justification method used to condemn the the Israelis in the current conflict -- blame the Israelis for retaliating! (Don't worry - I wont ask you if you happen to be an Arafat/Palistinian supporter!)
"the world would know and despise us Christians as those who love one another."
After reading some of Sobran's pieces, I would be rather hesitant to call us "one anothers." But even if I did (at the moment, I don't know enough about him), would that leave him exempt from criticism? Search the Scriptures again, my dear! While it is true that we are supposed to love everyone (sigh -- even our enemies -- this is the difficult one!), you'll find scores of examples of Jesus and the apostles criticising both Believers and "religious" hypocrites.
Just as an example; remember those who ambled about pretentiously, with the "bells 'n' whistles" type, external and ostentatious displays of "religion" while seeming to almost deliberately neglect the simplicity of the teachings of God? They were excoriated by Jesus and the apostles -- remember? Do you not believe that it's possible for people to "love each other" while justly criticising (as opposed to random insults) some of the things done/said by other loved ones? Look at any close relationship for examples: parent/child, husband/wife, etc.
So -- once again -- don't take posts so personally. Otherwise, you'll be firing-off angry e-mails to fellow FReepers all day. Instead, just go and unravel the Y-fronts (or rough equivalent) and get yourself outside into this beautiful day. I'm heading out there again, myself.
God bless, and have a great day.
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