Steve,
Hi, just a note to suggest the reading of Novac's book on this topic. Many of our founding fathers were Deists and didn't believe in the divinity of Christ. Yes, the 10 Commandments were stressed and used for the moral principles in our “Judeo” Christian country. (Let us not forget the Jewish heritage of our country.) I think that some of your excellent articles are rather biased to emphasize the Catholic side of things. I know you are a Catholic website but I prefer the whole picture presented, not just the part that favors the Catholic Christian side. Thank you for your great articles, but sometimes it is good to allow us to figure out some ideas by stating unbiased facts. We need to come to conclusions ourselves rather than having info neatly packaged for us to fit the Catholic ideal. I bet you discovered the truth of our faith by reading and investigating and searching and not by being told “this is how it is”. Truth will always win out and serve to clarify.
Thank you,
Julie
P.S. Direct quotes of our founders are good straight info, but we must include other comments that reflect all sides of their beliefs, don't you think?
Steve Kellmeyer replies:
As Catholics, we can never forget the Jewish heritage of our country or our Faith. Of all people, God revealed Himself to the Chosen People alone. He revealed Himself in part through the Old Testament and the prophets, He revealed Himself completely in Jesus Christ. Since God is the Way, the Truth and the Life, all truth is found only in the Jewish faith, for only Jews have the total Truth, who is God.
That is why the Catholic viewpoint is critical. After all, Catholicism is Judaism. As Pope Pius XI pointed out, we are all spiritually Semites. Any Gentile who is baptized into salvation is grafted onto the tree of which Judaism is the root. The root is Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and all the prophets, the full flowering tree is Christ Himself. Thus Catholicism is the fullness of Judaism. In this sense, the phrase “Judeo-Christian” is rather redundant. Any Christian who is truly Christian is necessarily fully Jewish, fully Jewish in a way that no Orthodox, conservative or liberal Jew who does not know Christ can be.
This fact also addresses your second point. In order to present the full truth, we must necessarily present the Catholic side of things. If we did anything less, we would not be presenting the full truth. By definition, facts presented in the light of Catholic Faith, that is, in the full light of God's self-revelation, are unbiased truths. As you note, and as any Catholic serious about truth will readily attest, the fullness of truth which is Catholicism is only found through investigation, searching, by refusing to accept the media, or the government or the culture's command to accept their version of “how it is.”
This is the attitude we must have when any secular source attempts to tell us the vision of America's founders. Whether our founders were deist or not (some were, some weren't), is not really relevant to the issue. The issue is whether America, from the beginning, always saw itself as bound by Christian Scripture and the Christian way of life. Christianity's worst critics cannot contest the fact that even men like Thomas Jefferson, who attempted to re-write the New Testament by slicing out all the miracles, did not throw out the book. Rather, even the most heretical Christian among the founders, men such as Paine and Jefferson, recognized the necessity of being bound by the morality and religious life common to Christian belief. They may have been deists, but they were not Buddhists, Hindus, followers of Islam, agnostics or atheists. In that sense, though some of them had not the God-given wisdom to be Catholic, all of them had the wisdom to recognize Truth lay in a specific direction and no other, that Truth was ultimately found in a specific set of sacred writings and no other.
To sum up, the only unbiased truth is Catholic, the only source of truth is Catholicism, the only way to the Truth is through Christ. If we want the scales to fall from our eyes and look on Truth revealed and Beauty unvarnished, then we, like Peter, have no where else to turn.
Steve Kellmeyer
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Dear CE:
I am appalled that Catholic Exchange would print an article praising Arnold Schwarzenegger. If this pro-abortion, pro-“gay rights” agenda, pro-materialism world view, anti-woman politician was a Democrat, would Catholic Exchange have printed such a supportive article? Since when do Catholics care only about political corruption and budgets, to the neglect of the unborn, the family, and all else we hold dear? Is this the mind of our Holy Father, of Christ Himself? What about the Catechism, which teaches us that we may not support abortion — when we vote for Arnold over McClintock, that is indeed what we have done!! More damage has been done to the pro-life cause and family preservation and sexual morality with the election of Arnold, because he threatens the very pro-life, pro-family platform of the Republican party itself. You mislead people into thinking it is okay, as Catholics, to support pro-abortion politicians. I am considering leaving the Republican party, and Catholic exchange as well.
Kathleen Cervantes
Dear CE:
I started going to the Catholic Exchange web site after a friend of mine told me about it. I am not sure why you have the political articles. They have nothing to do with the Catholic faith. This article about Arnold is amazing. He is in favor of gay marriages, he believes abortion should be legal and it goes on from there. The Edge is only political and has nothing to do with being Catholic. What is the point of these articles?
Bob Huss
Dear Kathleen and Bob:
Thank you for allowing us the chance to explain. First of all, it would be clear to any regular reader of this site that if we could be said to have supported any candidate in the California governor recall election, it would be McClintock.
Further, the article by Michael Barone to which you objected represents exactly the kind of political analysis which must be understood by Catholics if we are to exercise intelligently our political muscle to thwart the pro-abortion forces largely aligned with the Democrats, but (as Ms. Cervantes noted) insidious within the ranks of Republicans as well. The article was not “supportive” of Arnold Schwartznagger; it was merely analytical about the implications of his victory. To note his political skill and reasons for his popularity is not an endorsement. We must be savvy and realistic about the political acumen of those with whom we disagree. Whether damage has been or will be done to the pro-life, pro-family platform of the Republican party by his election remains to be seen. But if people with the strong pro-life convictions of Ms. Cervantes leave the party because of this, they will be abandoning political power to the pro-aborts at a very critical time.
As for Mr. Huss' objections about the political bent of the Edge feature having nothing to do with the Catholic faith, please note that our tagline is “Your Faith. Your Life. Your World.” Politics has been rightly called “the art of the possible.” Our Holy Father has enjoined us to hope that one thing possible is the building of a “civilization of love” to counter the culture of death. Like it or not, the building of any civilization requires, among other things, the attention of the best people to politics. Too many Catholics and other Christians have for too long thought they could delicately avoid getting their hands dirty in this arena. The result is that we have allowed our country to come under the domination of black-robed tyrants who have shoved abortion and are shoving same-sex “marriage” down our throats. Its time to wake up while a political solution still remains (possibly) possible.
Mrs. Mary Kochan
Contributing Editor, Catholic Exchange
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