Why do you American Catholic give so much importance to the founding fathers and the texts they wrote?

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Why do you American Catholic give so much importance to the founding fathers and the texts they wrote? It is not like quoting council fathers.
What is going on? As a non-american I get confused.
 
This is really more an American thing than a specifically American Catholic thing, so a Catholic doing it is more a sign of their cultural identity than it is anything about being Catholic.
 
Yes, I knew that. I just don’t see why Catholics give that much importance to something that is not from a church council.
 
Because we still need to obey the laws of the country. And the laws are based on Judeo-Christian beliefs. So why wouldn’t we give them importance? I am not really sure what you are asking.

And just for the record, saying “you Americans” the way you did, doesn’t come across as a compliment.
 
Because that is part of our history. Why shouldn’t we be informed about the founding of our country?
 
“You Americans” refer to people I don’t understand.
 
I don’t know much about the founding of Sweden. Our history is more complicated.
I never really here anyone here mentioning any text written by any founder.
This is why I am not used to the American way of looking at some founding fathers.
What I don’t understand why people see the founding fathers as being filled with the Holy Spirit. I thought that was more of a thing that only happened at a Church Council.
You may think that I ask a weird question but I am not used to such a thinking. I hear this way of thinking on EWTN but I found this TV channel often filled with too much American Catholicism instead of Catholicism. It works for Americans I suppose. I guess I am Sweden centered or what you call it. I watch or listen to some of the shows that is more about Catholicism in general. “God bless, America” is not my style. I mean, if we see it as imperative, like a prayer then I am into it. Let’s pray for the whole world.
I understand that in Law you must talk about amendment rights and so on. We don’t want anarchy. We can’t just refer to the Bible or Philosophy. This is why we refer to texts dealing with the law but…Americans give much importance to old texts like if they have some kind of status of being more than just a text dealing with law.
Such thinking is very American, I guess.
Or maybe Law is not my subject.
 
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jesusmademe said:
I don’t know much about the founding of Sweden. Our history is more complicated.
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There’s your answer 🙂
Because our country is only a couple hundred years old, and built “intentionally”, as it were. We put a higher emphasis on our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
It’s a cultural thing.
 
jesusmademe said:
I just don’t see why Catholics give that much importance to something that is not from a church council.
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Because they’re American. That’s part of our law, culture, etc.

Granted, if they’re citing it on moral grounds beyond the need to respect law, then it is bizarre. Unfortunately, I have seen a bit of that even among some Catholics.

For matters of law, history, and culture, though, it is really important.
 
jesusmademe said:
What I don’t understand why people see the founding fathers as being filled with the Holy Spirit. I thought that was more of a thing that only happened at a Church Council.
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I don’t think I know a single American Catholic who claims the Founding Fathers were filled with the Holy Spirit when writing the Constitution, and/or Declaration of Independence, myself included.
jesusmademe said:
You may think that I ask a weird question but I am not used to such a thinking. I hear this way of thinking on EWTN but I found this TV channel often filled with too much American Catholicism instead of Catholicism.
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Because EWTN was created by an American nun in the United States. Their headquarters is in Alabama.
jesusmademe said:
but…Americans give much importance to old texts like if they have some kind of status of being more than just a text dealing with law.
Such thinking is very American, I guess.
Or maybe Law is not my subject.
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Because the Constitution is the basis of every single law in the United States: it is called “The Supreme Law of the Land”. No law can violate it. Our inviolable legal rights are defined in it. Even the state’s rights are to an extent defined in it. The structure of the government is defined in it. So yes, from a legal perspective, it is extremely important to Americans. Historically, we fought a war against what was considered to be the strongest nation in the world to secure the ability to even make that document, the first revolution of its kind if I’m not mistaken.
 
jesusmademe said:
Why do you American Catholic give so much importance to the founding fathers and the texts they wrote?
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The civil law and the setup of our country to allow freedom to practice religion were very original for the time and provide a lot of legal protections for us even today. That’s why they’re important, because otherwise many religions including Catholics would probably have just been hounded out of existence here like they were in Europe for centuries.

You’d probably need to read some US history to understand this situation. Since you’re not American, I don’t expect you to know the history of our country, but if you don’t know anything about it then you probably shouldn’t criticize it.

As Irishmom said, we need to live in this country and abide by its laws too and many of us are proud American Patriots. We believe this country has offered us a lot of opportunities, including the opportunity to practice our faith without being persecuted and killed, a problem that my ancestors definitely had in Ireland and England before they moved here. Your remark did come off as very uncomplimentary and rude. Do you ignore the laws of your own country because they didn’t “come from a Church council”?
 
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Remember the Americans you meet on Catholic Answers forums may not be representative of the overall whole. If that were the case we would all go to Latin mass and vote Republican.

(Promise I am not mocking)
 
If I am correct both the Republicans and Democrats are on the right side politically.
Is this true? I actually hear “left” being mentioned in American politics but none of these two major party are on the left side of politics as far as I know.
Or it could be that Americans have their own definition of “left”.
Does “left” in USA mean something else than in eg Sweden or Germany?
The stereotype has been: poor people:Socialdemokraterna, rich people: Moderaterna.
I mean it is just a stereotype. We have more than two parties .
 
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jesusmademe said:
If I am correct both the Republicans and Democrats are on the right side politically.
Is this true? I actually hear “left” being mentioned in American politics but none of these two major party are on the left side of politics as far as I know.
Or it could be that Americans have their own definition of “left”.
Does “left” in USA mean something else than in eg Sweden or Germany?
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From a European perspective, both the Republicans and Democrats are on the right. The difference between American and European liberalism is that American liberalism is generally not as extreme. On the other hand, American conservatism is generally more extreme than European conservatism.
 
Chesterton wrote the America is the only nation founded on a creed. The founding documents have been often cited by people from other countries, liberals and conservatives. Many crucial things implied in other countries are explicitly referred to here. This is useful, for instance, with the Bill of Rights, which slows down destruction of liberties.

The Declaration of Independence was written mostly by Jefferson, who had little definite Christian faith, but incorporates the Natural Law.

As America gets increasingly secular, the founding documents have less and less authority anyway. The founders, who were not perfect men, did conscientiously try to prevent Tyranny. They never foresaw the power of concentrated Mass media, coordinating with secularized higher education.

But they succeeded for about two centuries to build a free nation compatible with Christianity. They should have eliminated slavery, they should have done other things too. But what they did, was good. For a long time.
 
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