D
djeter
Guest
One of the things I’m guilty of, and lacking in my religious education, is the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism. Yeah I can mumble some stuff about Luther, sola scriptura and justification but I didn’t really see the fundamental differences that I should have. And particularly I didn’t see how Protestantism has formed so much of the American Consciousness.
In the post I have today by Francis Cardinal George I follow his rare gift of being able to view his country as an outsider. Here Cardinal George is able to trace the effects of Protestantism on the United States and to view his own country dispassionately as an object for the evangelization of the gospel by the Catholic Church. I think that is especially helpful to Americans who are not able to see their country in such a critical light.
Sometimes as I debate atheists and others on the Internet I find myself thinking: where do these freaks come from? Of course the answer is right here in my home country. They are my neighbors and yet I feel separated from them by a huge gulf. They make me angry because I don’t really understand them. Anything I can do to reduce that gulf makes me a better spokesman for my faith. Cardinal George just gave me a tremendous gift. Let me pass it on to you.
If you have ever felt this way (remember Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid looking at the posse in their pursuit repeating over and over again “Who are those guys?”), this exposition on the United States will answer some of that question. For the Catholic Church is being pursued, make no mistake about it.
The Church stands in many ways as the only defender of the weakest and most needful members (the elderly, the unborn, the economically unproductive, the mentally and physically disabled) of American society. And the secular left is in full throated opposition to any who express their faith on public issues, claiming it is culturally inappropriate to express “privately held” religious views in the public square.
I thought this was a great formulation of evangelizaton on American soil. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Taken from the Cardinal’s most recent book “The Difference God Makes.” Get it and read it if you haven’t.
You can find the essay here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/01/14/francis-cardinal-george-on-sowing-the-gospel-on-american-soil/
dj
In the post I have today by Francis Cardinal George I follow his rare gift of being able to view his country as an outsider. Here Cardinal George is able to trace the effects of Protestantism on the United States and to view his own country dispassionately as an object for the evangelization of the gospel by the Catholic Church. I think that is especially helpful to Americans who are not able to see their country in such a critical light.
Sometimes as I debate atheists and others on the Internet I find myself thinking: where do these freaks come from? Of course the answer is right here in my home country. They are my neighbors and yet I feel separated from them by a huge gulf. They make me angry because I don’t really understand them. Anything I can do to reduce that gulf makes me a better spokesman for my faith. Cardinal George just gave me a tremendous gift. Let me pass it on to you.
If you have ever felt this way (remember Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid looking at the posse in their pursuit repeating over and over again “Who are those guys?”), this exposition on the United States will answer some of that question. For the Catholic Church is being pursued, make no mistake about it.
The Church stands in many ways as the only defender of the weakest and most needful members (the elderly, the unborn, the economically unproductive, the mentally and physically disabled) of American society. And the secular left is in full throated opposition to any who express their faith on public issues, claiming it is culturally inappropriate to express “privately held” religious views in the public square.
I thought this was a great formulation of evangelizaton on American soil. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Taken from the Cardinal’s most recent book “The Difference God Makes.” Get it and read it if you haven’t.
You can find the essay here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/01/14/francis-cardinal-george-on-sowing-the-gospel-on-american-soil/
dj