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America, America, God mend thine every flaw!
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law!
Our Father’s God to thee
Authory of liberty
To thee, we sing
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light
Protect by Thy might
Great God, our King!
Well met, friend. Happy 4th.
Likewise
Don’t forget the fourth verse of the Star Spangled Banner:
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
(Believe it or not, it actually has 4 verses.)
Source:. Wikipedia article.
Somehow, I don’t think that you’ll see anyone wrecking the fourth verse at sports games. Most people don’t even know that it has four verses.
Wishing everyone a happy Independence Day.
I actually did know it had four verses but only because my high school JROTC unit’s color guard presented the colors at an event at a church in which the entire Anthem was sung. I was going to reference this verse in my original post but couldn’t remember the exact words.
Wow! That must have been awesome – seeing the entire national anthem surg.
By the way, re your post below:. Who are the Planting Fathers? I’ve never heard that term.
I sadly was not there. I was involved in other activities of the unit, not our color guard.
The Planting Fathers (a term I’ve never heard before) is used in one of the books the below commentator references to refer to the Puritans and Separatists who first came to America in hopes of establishing a society where they could practice their faith in peace, while not allowing anyone else (particularly Catholics) to do likewise.
Thank you for the clarification.
– The Secret Founding Of America And Why It Matters Today [http://www.activistpost.com/2013/07/the-secret-founding-of-america-and-why.html]
– The Declaration of Independence (U.S.): Riddled with Error [https://thewarourtime.com/2015/07/04/the-declaration-of-independence-us-riddled-with-error/]
Even if the Founding Fathers were as evil as the book that you linked claimed, they were hardly an improvement from the rabidly anti-Catholic Planting Fathers.
A measure of any people, government, or nation is whether they are for God or against God. Jesus also told his disciples that there would be those who would persecute them thinking they were doing a work of God (e.g. Saul). For the fate of nations forgetful of God, cf. Ps 9.
So the Puritans, who actively persecuted the Church of Christ, are better in your mind than those who left us alone?
O how mistaken you are thinking they have left us alone. And their way is even more insidious. For example, did they not enshrine in the United States Constitution the prohibition of ‘making of any law […] impeding the free exercise of religion’? Where are we now in this regard and where are we headed?
That free exercise clause allowed American Catholics to practice their faith without the oppression that they faced in England and other Catholic confessional states turned Protestant. That right is being taken away but so are many rights that are protected by the Constitution because our government leaders think it expedient to deprive us of our rights in order to get stuff done
Theirs is a long term conspiracy but a conspiracy nonetheless.
Remember, when you fire up your barbecues and light your bottle rockets this “Independence” Day:
What are you celebrating?
A nation that did not acknowledge the Triune God Almighty in its Constitution, but which rather made passing reference to a demiurgic, impersonal, deistic ‘creator’ that serves merely to ‘endow’ men with Masonic, libertine ‘rights?’
A nation that enshrined the damnable, hell-spawned Masonic error of religious ‘liberty’ (i.e., indifferentism) into its founding documents?
A nation whose revered chief architect – namely, Jefferson – was a blaspheming infidel who dismissed St. John’s Apocalypse as ‘the ravings of a maniac’ and compared the miracles of Our Lord to a ‘dung heap?’
A nation that refused repeatedly to amend its Constitution to acknowledge itself as a Christian nation as early as 1863, when the nation was torn in two and was more in need of God’s grace than ever?
A nation that handed its entire currency over illegally to international zionist bankers in 1913?
A nation that went into action immediately at the behest of its zionist masters by waging two wicked world wars that destroyed effectively what was left of Old Europe, turning Christendom over to zionists and their communist lackeys?
A nation that has fought numerous costly and immoral wars in service of the satanic, illegitimate zionist state of ‘Israel?’
A nation that has ever failed to defend the sanctity of marriage by permitting states to legalize divorce?
A nation that made murder of unborn babies a ‘right’ in 1973, leading to the wholesale legal slaughter of hundreds of millions of innocent children, robbed not only of life on earth but life in Heaven as well?
A nation that classifies blasphemy and soul-destroying pornography as ‘freedom of expression?’
A nation that elevates the sin of Sodom to the level of Holy Matrimony?
To you deluded Americanist fools who parrot the lie that ‘America was founded on Christian principles’: WAKE UP, YOU ZOMBIES! Get the needle out of your arm, the pipe out of your mouth, the blinders off your eyes. Patriotism is a virtue, yes – a minor virtue. And being a true patriot means praying for and working for the America that ought to be, not glorying stupidly in the wicked, non-Christian, godless, Masonic republic that America has ever been and still is to this day. America did not ‘fall’ from God’s grace; America was born bereft of His grace. Now we have seen the fruits of that unholy birth.
I certainly hope you don’t live here. If you don’t, though, please let us know where we can find the utopia you’re now residing in. We’d all love to go.
He is a bit over the top, but much of what he says is true. America was never founded on Catholic consistent values. It is devolving as expected based on the constitution. Very unsettling and painful to acknowledge I know. We do not have to celebrate the Masonic principals on which this country was founded. We might be good, moral citizens but not celebrate Deism.
America was never founded on Catholic consistent values.
Obviously not. But what country that now exists was founded on those values? At least here, we held out a bit longer on allowing Catholics to worship as they see fit. Arguing that America is still probably the best place in the world to live isn’t the same thing as arguing that it’s perfect.
We do not have to celebrate the Masonic principals on which this country was founded.
Celebrating Masonic principles because they are Masonic is one thing; being grateful for religious liberty and free speech in a hostile, secular world is another. These are not Catholic ideals, no, but Catholic ideals are predicated upon a Catholic society, and one does not exist; not here, not anywhere.
In the absence of an ideal government, a limited government will have to do. And that’s why many Catholics advocate for the principles of the founders, knowing that it’s better than where we’re headed.
We might be good, moral citizens but not celebrate Deism.
This seems self-evident. (See what I did there?) But I’ll take deism over anti-theism or Islamism or socialism any day.
I’m in no way advocating that Catholics not have ideals, nor seek to understand the Church’s social doctrines as pertains to governance. But pie-in-the-sky idealism in a world that wants nothing to do with our beliefs just makes for cranky comment box banter. Those of us who live in America are watching a good thing crumble, no doubt, and I’ve even written in the past about the futility of celebrating our independence when our government is more draconian that King George ever was.
That said, I look around me and see unlimited prosperity. I see the kind of wealth and opportunity my great-grandparents could have only dreamed of. And here I am, running a staunchly-Catholic website, hosted on good ol’ American servers, in a country where nobody is coming to hunt me down for saying so. Maybe some day in the near future there’ll be an arrest warrant because I condemn Islam, or sodomy, or whatever…but that day isn’t here yet.
Today, I’m fed, clothed, sheltered, working for a living, and free enough that I feel like being happy about it. I’m not blind to the problems, but neither am I going to throw the whole thing under the bus while enjoying all the benefits it has offered me.
You are so right in some ways. I thank God for all the gifts He has bestowed. I had to be born somewhere. Material wealth is not the way to heaven necessarily. In fact, it may be a stumbling block.
I think this country is deeply decadent. Sorry. I think it can be traced to the concept of liberty it was founded on. Who was it that said the American experiment will only succeed if people are moral. Well, most Americans are not moral. Many still are, but most are not. Pornography, divorce, abortion, birth control, sodomy, transgrnderism are enshrined by the majority. I blame it on Protestantism–morality is relative.
When I didn’t know better I was charmed by the red, white and blue, Uncle Sam, etc. Live your life, thank God for the good in your life, but don’t celebrate this evil government. Yes, evil. Truly so when by government decree 60 million of the most innocent have been slaughtered in 43 years.
One day there will be one Catholic Confessional state. Right? Why would I want to celebrate something so contrary to that?
Mr. Gabriel Sanchez reinforces Scanner’s point(albeit Charitably and Prudently); “The annual Fortnight for Freedom (FFF)—sponsored by the American Catholic Church—has come and gone, and just like in previous years, the event has nothing to show for itself. It has been several years since I attended any FFF events, and the ones I did go to were only worth attending because some wise men I know decided to drop the gloves by giving frank explications of the vacuous nature of America’s concept of “religious freedom.” Over the years, U.S. Catholics have been forced to watch in horror as the last vestiges of public morality have succumbed to the zeitgeist and those holding to orthodox Christian beliefs are forced to undergo the process of public ostracism. The few remaining culture warriors who hoped there was still a way to pushback against the country’s moral revolution which sanctions abominations too ghastly to speak about are officially a defeated lot. Whatever comes next, whatever there is to be done, cannot be accomplished on the secularists’ terms. And that is the great, pathetic error of the FFF. After everything we have seen for half-a-century, the “elites” running Catholic America are still desperate to play ball with the powers that be—and for what? In days gone by it used to be for a seat at the discussion table; now they’re just elated if their restroom privileges aren’t revoked. Trust me, if the FFF had any force, influence, or widespread support, “mainstream America” would have taken notice and mocked this sorry spectacle some time ago. May this be the last year we cling so desperately to what matters not. (I am not holding my breath, however.)”
https://opuspublicum.com/2016/07/04/something-for-the-fourth/
I believe it was John Adams who appears to have been the least Deistic of the Founding Fathers (other than Charles Carroll of course)
The responses against which you argue showcase everything that is wrong with Traditionalism, and why I will never call myself a Traditionalist again. It’s only because of people like you, Steve, that I continue to take my family to the Latin Mass. Because if it weren’t for you and the few others like you, I’d dismiss the whole thing as a gathering of schizophrenics.
Ummm…what is this particular issue you have with him?
I agree. I used to consider Traditionalists to be anti-Semitic nut jobs until studying and finding out the reasons behind Traditionalism and why it’s important. One Peter Five was aided in that
I’ll be bit provocative and suggest that you are taking the Church’s political theology/social doctrine and treating it in the same way that Francis treats the Church’s moral theology on marriage in AL — reducing it to a distant, heroic “ideal” inaccessible to normal political communities.
Yes, there seems to be little evidence of any contemporary political community conforming itself to Church teaching, apart perhaps from the Principality of Lichtenstein or the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Prior to the end of WWI, there were, however, many. Prior to the French Revolution, there were even more.
It was, in fact, between the French Revolution and the end of WWI when the Church most energetically wrestled with the modern heresies that still plague us, such as popular sovereignty (condemned e.g. in Notre Charge Apostolique, Libertas, Diuturnum, and Immortale Dei) with LEO XIII doing most of the heavy lifting.
The problem is that the American Church hierarchy, starting with John Carroll, has much too often thought that our ‘special’ or ‘unique’ constitutional system and ‘exceptional’ political circumstances exempted Americans from the ordinary social doctrine of the universal Church and that American prelates were free to articulate their own ‘American’ social doctrine.
They got a away with this for a long time, because America in 1776 and in 1787 was an insignificant backwater with not more than 30,000 catholics and a few dozen priests. The American bishops were finally lightly (probably too lightly) rebuked by Leo XIII in Testem benevolentiae. Looking back, there is no “golden age” of American Catholicism from which we have fallen. America is in fact one of only two political communities to have a heresy named after it (i.e. the “Americanist heresy”) (the other being perhaps France – ‘Gallicanism”).
Perhaps we don’t need to “throw the whole thing under the bus;” but if we hesitate to do so, it can only be out of prudence. On the other had, we might just start by stopping the celebration. As Christopher Dawson observed in 1961, we no longer have a civilization to celebrate, we have instead a very impressive “technological order resting on a moral vacuum.”
Out of charity, I will not give you a down-vote. I spent thirty years in the US Army, and come from those that founded this great nation. Yes, my relatives remain enrolled in the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution- as do I. I am damn proud to have served my country. The fact that America remains that “Beacon of light” as President Ronald Reagan said, still applies today. The liberal, immoral people of our country hijacked our great US Constitution and Bill of Rights which paved the way for the discrimination of Catholics and Christians. So, I will continue to pray and fight for our great land knowing that God indeed blessed us. Besides, what other country on the face of the earth do people try to come? Well? It sure as hell is not the Middle East. The last time I looked, people continue to enter our country in streams to escape the persecution of their own countries. I agree with Steve below. May God continue to shower us with His graces and favors. With prayer and fasting, perhaps the U.S. will return to her brighter days.
Sorry…you lost me as soon as the word Zionist popped up.
Considering that you also decry us fighting the World Wars and speak of the Zionist’s “communist lackeys,” I can only assume that you would also tell us that the Holocaust never happened.
You wouldn’t happen to be from Germany, would you?
The country was founded by heretics (Deists–a distant and impartial God). As you can see, things are coming to their logical conclusion with homosexual “marriage”, transgenders in the military, massive abortion and the selling of tiny body organs. You all delude yourselves thinking things can be turned around. Get real. Isn’t it a sin not to confront reality when it’s staring you right in the face?
I no longer celebrate the 4th. May the Catholic Confessional state arise from the ashes.
I think serious Catholics should refrain from waving the flag, going to barbecues, blasting off fireworks. There are enough other days to do those things. We are called to be counter-cultural.
Great comment, thank you!!!
Pray much for the USA since the enshrining of mortal sin as law throughout the country will bring extremely severe chastisements from now on.
There really doesn’t seem to be a place for a faithful Catholic to live on this earth anymore and practice his or her faith in society. Maybe one time there was. Maybe one time there will be again.
No. We can all practice our faith in our minds and hearts and souls. We are the light on a hill. The salt that has not lost its savour. We were born in this time and called for this time. Let us rejoice.
So true. I guess I was thinking of the “slightly easier” way to practice in our faith in the past.
I suppose I was also reflecting upon the sense of isolation, possible persecution to come as I pray to remain for God and my Church first.
“The light on the hill….” May God use me according to His will, I pray.
Thank you and God bless.
Slightly easier is right. 🙂 I can only be so joyful because the Lord has shown me my weakness in the last few months. Suffering is a blessing. God bless you back.