A recent post by Paul of Canterbury Atheists really deserves a longer comment that this meagre one I am about to give. But, I think that even if I do no more than exposing this sort of anti-Catholic fear-mongering (which pops up so regularly in history as to follow a predictable pattern), then for now I have done enough.
The irony here is that Western democracy grew from Christian countries. Secularism, likewise, is allowed and supported in those same countries. While as any political system that is largely atheistic (think Communism) is totalitarian in nature and seeks to suppress any system of thought, religious or otherwise, that it deems to be in competition to it.
Have a read of the two articles below to see what has happened historically when non-Catholics start to consider Catholics to be a threat to either their nation or their interests. Many of the arguments used to justify anti-Catholic persecution are very similar to those that Paul, the Canterbury Atheist uses.
German Catholics Under the Iron Fist: Bismarck and the Kulturkampf ~ Matthew E. Bunson, This Rock
Québec and French America: What Might Have Been ~ Gary Potter, Catholicism.org
Related Link: Churches are largely at odds with Western Democracy ~ Canterbury Atheists*
*WARNING: The heading of the blog displays "man-eating sheep". Not recommended for the easily disturbed.
ZenTiger's response: Freedom of Religion
Why should the non-Catholics amongst us, grant special privileges, like a tax-free life-style, to a group that wants to play by its own rules, and rejects the very system we ‘spilled blood’ to keep?
So why does secular society, like here in New Zealand, allow groups in our midst to operate outside the bounds we consider to be fair, for the rest of us?
Allows them to set-up a sepearte schooling system, that selects children on the basis of their parents religion?
The N.Z National Front can’t come-out and say “we don’t want none of them Jews n’ blacks”, without facing state sanction.
Yet, the same state authorities endorse sexism in Churches up and down the country, by taking the default position.
Even if The N.Z Government, made it illegal for Churches to select employees in a non-sexist fashion – the Churches in New Zealand don’t take orders from the state anyway!
Their mandate comes from overseas, exploiting the very freedoms, that they themselves reject outright.
The irony here is that Western democracy grew from Christian countries. Secularism, likewise, is allowed and supported in those same countries. While as any political system that is largely atheistic (think Communism) is totalitarian in nature and seeks to suppress any system of thought, religious or otherwise, that it deems to be in competition to it.
Have a read of the two articles below to see what has happened historically when non-Catholics start to consider Catholics to be a threat to either their nation or their interests. Many of the arguments used to justify anti-Catholic persecution are very similar to those that Paul, the Canterbury Atheist uses.
German Catholics Under the Iron Fist: Bismarck and the Kulturkampf ~ Matthew E. Bunson, This Rock
Québec and French America: What Might Have Been ~ Gary Potter, Catholicism.org
Related Link: Churches are largely at odds with Western Democracy ~ Canterbury Atheists*
*WARNING: The heading of the blog displays "man-eating sheep". Not recommended for the easily disturbed.
ZenTiger's response: Freedom of Religion