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To: RFEngineer

Barbarity is absence of laws against murder and theft and lack of interest in civic virtue, religion and arts. We in America have abortion legalized, have divorce and homosexuality normalized, think that religion is a private affair, and have “piss Christ” for art. We are barbarians.


435 posted on 09/23/2010 5:22:39 AM PDT by annalex
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To: annalex

“Barbarity is absence of laws against murder and theft and lack of interest in civic virtue, religion and arts. We in America have abortion legalized, have divorce and homosexuality normalized, think that religion is a private affair, and have “piss Christ” for art. We are barbarians.”

I see your problem. You are unable to separate good individuals from a collective that contains some bad. You are able to separate Protestants (bad) from Catholics (good) in your mind - but are unable to perceive the goodness from individuals (and groups) within Protestantism. How sad.

We’re not in the Old Testament - No more divine collective condemnation, and there will be no collective salvation - simply for being Catholic, or some other religion.

As Americans - that collective means individual liberties and the pursuit of individual happiness, per our founding fathers.

The existence of barbarians among us does not make us all barbarians. To the extent that we don’t want the barbarians among us to prosper we need to show the collective political will to make the changes that will make America a better, more moral place. If you are making that point, I can somewhat agree with you.

But to somehow come to the conclusion that civilization is more barbarous now than it has ever been throughout the history of mankind is folly. To think that a single church and forcing that single dogma upon everyone (and that is the only way to do it - force as Islam knows so well “baptism by blade”) will fix things is to return to a much more barbarous time.

Our founding fathers knew that if political power were consolidated with religious power (as it was for most of Christian history) that we would get the egregious irreconcilable corruption of both politics and religion that we had that spurred the Protestant Reformation.

How can you make some of the charges that we somehow are barbarians as Americans when there is so much good that we exhibit as people - so much human suffering alleviated, so much charity, so much sacrifice for our brother man and so rich and varied a religious landscape that honors God?

You sir, cannot see the good. Because of that you have become the barbarian that you fear for the rest of America.

America is not and will never be a barbarous nation, nor will it ever be exclusively Catholic - or any other religion. If that change came to pass (exclusive religion) it would bring an end to both America and world civilization.


441 posted on 09/23/2010 5:48:24 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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