Comments for Strangers in a Strange Land at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 41 out of 20 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Wed, 22 May 2013 00:20:16 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14640 hi Subvet - I feel your angst. I'm just sorry I did not have more children. The Lord needs more on his side. The mindless masses are cranking them out and submitting them to the public schools and major media to be conditioned as useful idiots. Where do you think all those who voted for Obama came from? More people of faith should consider home schooling. It was daunting for my wife and I, at first, but we eventually realized its rewards. And yes, some "parochial" schools could be as damaging as the local public school, so, beware? Good luck and God Bless! - Stan J Sat, 01 Dec 2012 13:07:42 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14575 I've felt like an outsider in American culture for the last thirty-five years but always believed the culture could be re-won. Now, I'm not so sure. - CoastRanger Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:03:07 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14573 I'm a 60 yr. old man with three small children. While I wish these things had come at an earlier time in my life, I pray that God's will be done. I also pray daily for the safety and wellbeing of my children, articles such as this one drive those prayers. - Subvet Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:41:49 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14533 Ugh, Toronto street cars! How I hated them. And their effing short-turn... - Hilary White Sat, 24 Nov 2012 10:53:41 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14524 Blame lies squarely on one organization. The Catholic Church, including Pope Benedict (who gave President Obama his photo op). The one organization that can fight this satanic battle has given up and gone home. Until the Pope decides to rule as the Lord's Prime Minister, things will go from worse to worst. The answer lies with the Pope, and he will not act. He can start by consecrating Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart with all of the Bishop's of the world. - JamesD Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:48:32 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14517 @Mike, You are comparing apples with oranges. Institutionalized racism and "widespread sex discrimination" (whatever that's supposed to mean) existed alongside with the respect for Christian values and a better social order. America in the 1960s wasn't an utopia (for which you seem to ask) but, generally, it was a better place to live than America of today. - Mariusz Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:59:17 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14510 Interesting you should use the year 1960 to compare with today. Firstly, I don't think there's any particular reason to believe that people would be any less reluctant to stand-up against a bus driver back then compared with today. After all, don't many older people bemoan the lack respect for authority today compared with back in the days of their youth? On a bus, the driver is the authority figure, and from what little I can remember as a young child in the 60s, I doubt the scenario would have played out much differently. Secondly, consider if the passengers were black people trying to board the bus in many parts of the American South -- areas where Biblical Christianity was the order of the day. The driver wouldn't need any excuse to order them off his bus, and there wouldn't have been a darned thing anyone could have done about it. That's the problem when you yearn for days past in a nation like America -- the myth of Golden Age of Christian values runs headlong into the reality of institutionalized racism and widespread sex discrimination to boot. - Mike Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:45:56 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14503 I do not accept the media's brain-washing that this was a complete defeat of the good. Obama won by a very SMALL percentage. The media is part of the Democratic Party and they would like to convince us all that everyone is on-board with socialism, redistribution of goods, gay glorification, and hatred of the Catholic Church. Don't let yourself be brainwashed by their lies. - Marianne Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:45:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14502 "Jedem das Seine" or, "You get what you deserve." The motto above the little main gate of Buchenwald concentration camp. Weeping for my country. - Ralph W. Davis Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:06:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14497 Kumar, once you start calling others bigots because you cannot refute what they say, you have no standing. - Dennis Sinclair Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:21:14 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14494 @Laura, Here is a publication that can help you decide: International Living. It's not religious, but you can find all the particulars of a country. Me, I think either Uruguay or Panama would be the place. - Roadie Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:02:33 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14493 Well said, Mr. Warren! I first read this post a couple of days ago, and have been mulling it over since then. Like some of the other earlier commentors, I was immediately struck by how exactly this piece echoed my own feelings since the election. It is as though we have been on a sputtering airplane that was barely managing to stay aloft, and now we've entered the tailspin... How fortunate that our hope is not in any political structure or economic system, but in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified! - Br. Daniel Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:48:28 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14489 @david warren I have observed the same change....Roman Catholic used to be a religion that was manifested in daily life and a firm set of beliefs. Now, we seem to have joined our elder brothers in faith, the Jews, in becoming a mere cultural or familial designation, not a faith. (My numbers may not be correct, but I read that only about 20% of the population in Israel are "religious Jews", and that the rest are atheists who call themselves "Jews".) I don't know what the answer to this issue is....we can hardly issue Vatican-stamped ID cards to "real" Catholics, but we need some way to note those who beleive in and are practising their faith, and those who find it an historial marker. - Pattie, RN Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:06:28 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14485 Soul of the Apostolate revolutionized my Christian perspective. I guess I was a pelagiun without realizing it. Talk to Him about men before you talk to men about Him. It is Christ in us, not us with a side of Him! - Jeff Job Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:17:25 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14484 How grand it would be if ONLY all your claims that the US is irredeemably lost to bigots like you are TRUE!!!!!! - Kumar Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:18:18 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14481 Great post! Indeed, I have seemingly awoken from a great spleep over the course of th past year. I now see that we have very few friends in politics, or in the public square. As you say, the schocking thing was that so many voted for Obama after 4 year of it! Almost as though they are zombies. What I also realized, as did you, that the pesecution is coming. I understand now that we are a very small minority and the way we do not see things is not even slightly close to how the majority of people around us perceive the world. The odds would be against us if it was not for the Lord! Lately the Lord has been reminding me that our apostolic efforts must come from a deep spiritual life. If we do not take the time for mental / contemplative prayer, we have already forfeited, for the battle is the Lord’s. Without the deep life of the Spirit, we have no weapons for which to win this battle. Eventhough it seems we mut take up arms and run forth into to battle at this moment, that we have wasted too much time already, I would suggest that this is the moment we should retreat into prayer, so that, strengthened by the Lord we will be able to sustain the long fight that is coming; that illumined by His light we may see clearly the way forward. As a side note, may I reccomend the ‘Soul of the Apostolate?’ An excellent book for these times. - Blake Helgoth Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:14:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14480 I am glad (well, sort of) to see that there are more people sharing my personal sense of a quickening doom. Well, bring it on, as a Catholic I'm not afraid of dying but I certainly would hate to live in the crappy new world. As for the contrast between the States and Canada (I am the citizen of the latter) - the US will end with a bang, Canada with a whimper. That's all. - Mariusz Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:54:27 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14478 @Brother David: Where, outside America, do you live? What has been happening to our country is more than I can bear. I am very afraid for my old age, which I am entering. Is there a country where I can finish my life in peace? You must have found a place that at least has some sanity, if you come here and see the dissonance that has arisen from the destruction of this country. This article perfectly and succinctly sums up exactly the horror of the election. - Laura Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:22:56 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14470 I saw this infantilization in New York in the 80s and 90s and especially in the publishing industry among our elite-educated editors and writers. I believe that the English-speaking peoples as a whole are now a beaten-down populace. From the age of eight I grew up just across the river from Windsor, Ontario and developed an affection for Canada and its people. Now they would dismiss me as a Catholic and a "teabagger." I used to drive to Toronto to see plays available only in New York and London. No more. I watch the National and I see aging men and women talking as if it were still 1968 and they still had hair. Canadian radio and TV are simply unbearable. Except for the classical station and a wonderful Sunday morning choral music broadcast. God has been virtually eliminated from Canadian public life as far as I can tell. Even on the classical station a host refered to a series of Agnus Dei recordings as "hymns to the universe." Yikes. It's just another freak show like America and England. Mr. Warren describes precisely what metropolitan Detroit was like the day after the election. Real gloom among the informed. Sunny, giggling childlike obliviousness among everyone else. Today's WSJ front page says it all: investors are backing away from the economy. It was easily predicted. You never know what a two year old will do next and they're just getting out of the way of our man-child American life. - Graham Combs Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:10:33 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/strangers-in-a-strange-land.html#comment-14458 Up here in the Great White North, I have found that lapsed Roman Catholics may take great umbrage at the employment of such terms as "nominal," "cafeteria," even "lapsed." Several have condemned me as a "mere convert" when I have taken some doctrine or other "too literally." They, who apparently go back many generations, will not be told what's what by some upstart or arriviste. In thinking about this I have come to realize that we are using the term "Catholic" in quite different senses. For me it refers to something like a religion. For them, however, it is a tribal thing, an ethnicity: often qualified for precision as, "Irish Catholic," "Polish Catholic," "Italian Catholic," "French Canadian," &c. That is what makes them "authentic" & therefore qualified to speak on behalf of Catholics generally -- in the same way as, for instance, only women may speak about women, or only blacks may speak about blacks. Thanks to their "feelings" they are able to apprehend Catholicism from the inside. Some do consider Catholicism to be a religion, however; or at least, some kind of brainwashing cult; & they self-identify as "Recovering Catholics," omitting the ethnic tags. - David Warren Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:58:24 +0100