“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.
Ah, OK. Of course not. You asked about the essential criteria and I gave them to you. West Europe is not far behind, and there is much good in America and among individual Europeans and Americans. But the direction of our culture is toward barbarity. The pro-abort laws and the culture of death are a fact of life in America. If the Tea Party and the Pro-Life movement get anywhere during the rest of the current presidency, that would be welcome news, because that is about the last chance we as a nation get to redeem ourselves. If not -- we'll have to be chastised further before we turn to the light.
I did not predict that America will be exclusively Catholic. There is always error that needs to be dealt with charitably. I did predict that if America is to avoid a fall into barbarity it is to do what the Catholic Church teaches: respect life, stop prosperity worship, bring Christ into the public square.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.