Sinful not to be Patriotic?

[Beryllos]

Now for a little peace and quiet.

 

[phil19034]

True. But I always seem to fall into the “elitist” “intellectual” error that Pope Francis warned about closing the Synod. Which is odd because most of the world errors the opposite way, especially most people my age, but I always seem to be a Pharisee.

Ialsop - I’ve been reading your comments, and I would like to make a few comments:

The United States is very different from the rest of the world for several reasons. For one, we are traditionally a nation of hard workers. We have/had people from all of the world (even today) coming to America because they want to work hard and make a life for themselves and their families. Very few nations around the world have the work ethic as the United States.

Also, as bad as the United States has gotten in the last few decades, we are still in a much better place than the rest of First World Nations from the West. Unfortunately, Europe is almost spiritually dead. Canada is also in shambles. Read the below quote from Archbishop Chaput about Quebec:

I’ve always had an affection for French Canada. My father’s family began there. When I was growing up in Kansas in the 1950s, Quebec was deeply Catholic; one of the most profoundly Catholic cultures in the world. The province had 90 percent church attendance. Catholic education, health care and social services pervaded daily life.

I mention this for a reason. A young Catholic friend recently moved to Quebec from Washington, D.C., with her husband. And when she asked some of her new friends if they’d like to join her for Mass, the answer she got was: “What is a Mass?”

In 2014, barely 6 percent of Quebeckers attend Sunday services. Only 9 percent of high-school age young people identify as Catholic. About 38 abortions occur for every 100 live births. Nearly half of newborn children go unbaptized. And many of those who are baptized will grow up without seeing the inside of a church. In just 50 years since Quebec’s “Quiet Revolution” of the 1960s, an entire Catholic culture has collapsed.

I highly recommend reading the Archbishop’s speech at catholicphilly.com/2014/10/think-tank/homilies-speeches/strangers-in-a-strange-land/ or watching it at firstthings.com/events/2014-erasmus-lecture

It’s very scary to see how Church attendance went from 90% to 9%.

Instead of giving up on America, we Catholics need to figure out how to fix America. America still is a land of hope and opportunity. Let’s keep in mind that all of the sinful acts in our nation (Abortion, Same-Sex marriage, etc) are due to misplaced and misguided mercy (and the activists). But we are way behind Europe in the fall from Grace.

Belgium, a historic Catholic nation, has legalized Euthanasia. France, a historic Catholic nation, has a publicly admitted atheist as their President.

We won the Cold War against Communism , but now Socialism is winning in the West and starting to make wins in the United States. Socialism is almost as bad as Communism and spiritually, might actually be worse.

America might not be the land it once was, but it’s still a heck of a lot better than other places. AND it’s NOT TOO LATE to fix this nation.

We Catholics in America need to come together. We need to start doing what the Protestants feared we would do… vote as a block for Catholic morals & values.

May The Lord help Americans see the Truth of the Catholic Church and bring this nation closer to God’s will. Amen.

 

[Sarcelle]

Also…
Without America, no Roe vs. Wade
Without America, porn industry gets waaayyy smaller.
Without America, the schools on this continent get way better spiritually and morally.
Without America, the Middle East wouldnt be in such chaos and ISIS would not be an issue.
Without America, no Patriot Act.
Without America, no ACA
Without America, no Call to Action…
Without America, no Church of Satan.
Without America, no LDS
Without America, not so many people killed in Civil War, Vietnam War, Korean War, OIF, OEF…

Have you lived anywhere else in the world?

I have and guess what there are problems in other countries too. That’s because nations like any other human institutions are composed of fallen humans.

If the US is as bad as you say it is what are you doing to make it better? You have a keen insight into what ails this country. What are you doing to make it better?

 

[Tigg]

Well…but I am not even “Patriotic” in a healthy way…

I do NOT feel patriotic about my nation at all. It has committed horrible crimes, I dont agree with the “Deist enlightenment” philosophies in which it was founded on, nor the current liberalism that rules it. I do not like the fact that it openly allows and encourages pornography, vulgarity, abortion, violence, war as a means to an end, torture as “enhanced interrogation”, NSA spying, prejudice to immigrants, sexism, racism, and oligarchical treatment of celebrities, or how the poor and homeless have super hard times in this country. I detest the immorality, redefinition of marriage, and relativism. And the hostility towards religion and extreme, bitter secularization. And how the media gets people to believe anything. I detest this culture, and frankly I find it hard to salute my flag…the stripes and the stars have no special attraction to me. On Independence Day I dream of a peaceful revolution against this system rather than celebrating it. I hate the attitude of eating competitions while the world is starving, crying on Patriot Day and cheering when we reduce a whole city to dust. ASL Ice bucket challenge while Iraqi christians die of thirst. Abusing drugs and corrupt medical industry when people are dying of ebola.

On the other hand, I am EXTREMELY patriotic to the Church. I hail the Church’s flag, want the re-institution of Christian Europe, and support the Church and it’s mission completely.

Is it a sin to detest one’s nation? Is my complete lack of attraction to my country and embarrassment at being called “american” a sin? Thats a more specific question with an explanation.

Obviously, you were not taught by the Sisters of Charity who instilled in us the *Christian *virtue of patriotism, which is not at all about the culture and immorality you describe, but rather the God-given principles of freedom, individual liberty and constitutional rights. When those are cherished, the result produces virtues such as honesty, integrity and courage. The sisters were so good at what they did, I still, to this day, sob when I hear “America, the Beautiful.” Seeing the disintegration of a country makes that song all the more poignant.

I would suggest reading the summary of the Federalist Papers, but I warn you, in this age of far left politics, they are quite unpopular as more and more socialist ideology is accepted.

Amazing how arrogant America is. As if America never makes any mistakes and the rest of the world is horrible and so America needs to fix it.

Yea, that idea was advanced by a former president and his administration who shall remain un-named but caused me to drop my party affiliation and change to Independent. However, that’s all beside the point.

You are attributing hubris to a nation, which is misplaced. It is the politicians, mainly the POTUS, past and present, WHOM we ourselves have elected and given free rein to surreptitiously change the ideals of the founding fathers. Blame me, blame yourself, blame your neighbor for falling asleep at the helm and allowing such a disintegration not only of a political nature, but of a spiritual one as well. We have, purely by apathy allowed the destruction of a government, which has been described by the following:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

~John Adams ~

 

[oldcatholicguy]

You are attributing hubris to a nation, which is misplaced. It is the politicians, mainly the POTUS, past and present, WHOM we ourselves have elected and given free rein to surreptitiously change the ideals of the founding fathers. Blame me, blame yourself, blame your neighbor for falling asleep at the helm and allowing such a disintegration not only of a political nature, but of a spiritual one as well. We have, purely by apathy allowed the destruction of a government, which has been described by the following:

Don’t blame “We the People,” just blame those people we voluntarily placed in charge of our government and have the ability to remove from office for American arrogance? That sounds like passing the buck to me.

 

[Tigg]

Don’t blame “We the People,” just blame those people we voluntarily placed in charge of our government and have the ability to remove from office for American arrogance? That sounds like passing the buck to me.

Was my post so vague that you misunderstood? I am blaming “We the People” for not being involved enough in civic affairs - by turning a blind eye even though we saw warning signs years ago - by our indifference on so many levels and reluctance to fight the very things we are now enslaved by. Lots 'o luck changing these things now - the net has dropped and if we are naïve to believe we still have “free” elections in this country…well…

 

[ialsop]

Was my post so vague that you misunderstood? I am blaming “We the People” for not being involved enough in civic affairs - by turning a blind eye even though we saw warning signs years ago - by our indifference on so many levels and reluctance to fight the very things we are now enslaved by. Lots 'o luck changing these things now - the net has dropped and if we are naïve to believe we still have “free” elections in this country…well…

Exactly! I agree.

 

[Sarcelle]

To live? Switzerland is nice…has lots of liberty, neutral in almost all wars, very nice country.

To work? Who knows. I want to help the poor churches in places where they are forced underground.

Wherever it is, may God bless your future endeavors.

 

[ialsop]

Wherever it is, may God bless your future endeavors.

Thank you.
PAX

 

[Hobbes42]

Thank you.
PAX

Good luck.

I have suffered the same disillusion that you have. I checked into missionary orgs, the Peace Corps is something to be wary of, I am looking into it, but as an American program, it probably entails spreading the evils of abortion and contraception everywhere it goes.

By the way, have you ever read the book “The Limits of Power” by Andrew Bacevich? He addresses the American soft empire and the implications of how military force is used to maintain its economic empire. It is a good read.

 

[ialsop]

Good luck.

I have suffered the same disillusion that you have. I checked into missionary orgs, the Peace Corps is something to be wary of, I am looking into it, but as an American program, it probably entails spreading the evils of abortion and contraception everywhere it goes.

By the way, have you ever read the book “The Limits of Power” by Andrew Bacevich? He addresses the American soft empire and the implications of how military force is used to maintain its economic empire. It is a good read.

No, but that actually sounds like a really good book! ill check it out!