Thank you! There have been posters here who have accused all us Catholics as being not worthy of being called American. These are probably the same folks who say this about Jews..
You're quite welcome. (Same to Annalex.)
I have major problems with Roman Catholic doctrine. That's not the same as saying Roman Catholics can't be good American citizens.
To cite a parallel where there actually **IS** formal endorsement of a religion on a national level, I support Israel for biblical reasons but that's not the same as saying I support everything Orthodox Jewish rabbis say.
If the secular and religious leaders of the state of Israel are willing to welcome the support of evangelical Christians like myself, despite being in a formally and officially Jewish state, it seems very inconsistent for evangelical Christians in a nation like the United States, which has **NOT** formally and officially endorsed any form of Christianity, to argue that Roman Catholics cannot be good Americans.
Make no mistake, I have major problems with Roman Catholicism. But without a formal amendment to the United States Constitution, I have no legal ground to object to people professing doctrinal beliefs with which I disagree — and in the current political climate, just about the last thing I want our federal government doing is establishing a “Bureau of Religious Affairs” to decide what doctrines are acceptable for Americans to believe. We've got enough problems already with government intrusion into things that are none of the government's business without opening up that can of worms.