I read this quote on an internet site. “I see it so clearly in the commentaries of Luther, Huss, wycliffe, Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Webster, wilberforce, etc etc — all of these men distilled their radical concepts of human liberty and freedom from the new testament which is a lightning rod against the divine right of human kings model.” I don’t seen in the New Testament our Lord teaching about “human liberty and freedom.” Any comments?
To me, this is all very complicated.
Evangelicals/Protestants of conservative/fundamentalistic stripe in the U.S.A. have a very unique way of reading history.
Our best Catholic historians would have much to disagree with in their interpretations.
Also, the very best of the fair and neutral secular historians constantly show the historical facts and views of these Evangelicals/Protestants to be very faulty.
You could read a lot about all this, but do you really have time for that?
If you are Catholic and want to remain Catholic, why not study the Catholic doctrines pertaining to religious liberty, human dignity, human rights, social doctrine (which include principles of moral economic systems), liberty in general, and forms of government in general.
Evangelicals/Protestants of conservative/fundamentalistic stripe in the U.S.A. have made a sort of cult and idol out of “Liberty.”
Ever notice that our national symbol is “Lady Liberty,” and how THAT lady is not the Blessed Virgin Mary? The designer of the Statue of Liberty was a French man who was a Freemason. In those days, Freemasons were fiercely anti-Catholic (perhaps they still are). France in those days was engulfed in the spirit of the French Revolution (perhaps they still are), which was diabolically anti-Catholic. The lady who is depicted in the Status of Liberty, though unnamed, is clearly modeled on the pagan goddesses of ancient Rome and Greece (Diana, Athena, etc.). If America had been a Catholic country, we would never have put up a statue dedicated to “Liberty” in the first place, but rather to God, or Jesus, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, or to Righteousness, or Holiness, or Virtue, or Charity, or Our Lady of Guadalupe, Empress of the Americas.
Sadly, Evangelicals/Protestants of conservative/fundamentalistic stripe in the U.S.A. are more paganized than they realize.
They imagine that the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are Christian documents. But any critical reading of them shows how that view simply doesn’t hold up, for a whole variety of reasons.
Here’s just one bit of evidence: A year or two after the Declaration of Independence was issued, the new government of the USA adopted an official government seal, and picked, as the two phrases on that seal two quotes from the Latin pagan author named Virgil. Those two phrases appear today on the back of every one dollar bill. Note that they did not pick Bible verses or even “In God we trust” to put on the official seal. The Founders conceived themselves are creating a government similar to the ancient pagan Roman Republic/Empire. They did take as their model either Christian governments of Europe (existing at that time, or earlier), or the ancient Hebrew governments.
In general, I feel that the path of the Evangelicals/Protestants of conservative/fundamentalistic stripe in the U.S.A. is a dark alley leading just to more darkness. They are everywhere. On TV, on the radio, on the Internet, in national organizations acting for change. A Catholic can’t avoid hearing their views. They seem to be very sure of their righteousness and their correctness in their views. They lead people to think that to be a true American Patriot you also have to be an Evangelical/Protestant of conservative/fundamentalistic stripe. They can be very persuasive. They are a force to be reckoned with. But, in my view, their way is NOT CHRIST’S WAY. We have a way. We have the Holy Church. I recommend not straying off the ranch to sample enticing fruits in foreign lands. Remember what happened in the Garden of Eden!
