I saw about two dozen of these
Great Falls Montana is only a short drive from my city in Canada. I can be there in a few hours. I drove down there the morning of the fourth and happened to see more fireworks than I have in my life a hundred times over. I was thoroughly impressed. American patriotism is something that I’ve never seen rivaled.
America is 20-25% Catholic based on most polls. However, America wasn’t founded on Catholic values. America is the ultimate enlightenment state, which is founded on the principles of John Locke and other enlightenment thinkers.
Many people don’t know this but there is a heresy in the Catholic Church called Americanism. If this sounds humorous and you don’t believe me, here’s the wiki article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanism_(heresy)
Since America is the ultimate enlightenment state, Americanism is the heresy of trying to take the founding documents of the American republic and wed them with Catholicism. The Separation of Church and state in the post-enlightenment sense(not in the Pope Gregory VII sense) is flat out condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus or Errors which was promulgated in 1864.
Now, amongst traditional Catholics, we find the most obvious example of Americanism is George Weigel. He has openly denounced the Kingship of Christ, promoted the separation of Church and state, and condemned Pope Pius IX in his book Evangelical Catholicism.
There are non-Catholic examples of Americanism as well. Ex-Catholic turned Eastern Orthodox Rod Dreher is definitely Americanist. A good example, though he’s a Jew is Dennis Prager. Prager often repeats the statement that he has two grandfathers, Abraham and Washington. I can’t imagine putting any Biblical figure alongside any founder of America.
In the last few months, I’ve take a liking to the TnT podcast which includes American Catholics Taylor Marshall and Timothy Gordon. Timothy Gordon has a book out called Catholic Republic. I must admit that I’ve never read this book but from what I’ve heard, he tries to say that the principles that America was built on are Catholic principles. If this is true, I would be interested in how he tries to defend it. Here is an interview with Gordon and Faith Goldy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRDzAPE6Kq8
I haven’t read the book so I won’t comment. I do plan on reading it in the near future though so expect a review on this website.
American patriotism is impressive. It’s like no other country that I’ve ever seen. Although I don’t believe that America was founded on Christian principles, I do believe that America is far closer to Christianity than a lot of countries out there. America gives Catholics an opportunity to share the Gospel. I pray that America will become a Catholic republic one day. Imagine all the good that will come. Let’s all pray for it.
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