“We will not stand for any attacks against Judge Barrett’s faith,” said Donald Trump at the recent Al Smith Dinner. He told his hearers that “Judge Barrett is a “proud graduate of the University of Notre Dame [Our Lady] Law School,” and described attacks on her faith as “anti-Catholic bigotry.” The President went to state that our nation is strong, because of Catholics and people of all faiths.
Coming from the President, none of this is surprising or even particularly disappointing. Donald Trump is not himself a Christian, so it’s to be expected that he would not understand that the Roman Catholic Church-State, far from being a source of American strength, has worked for over 200 years to undermine our Protestant republic. Given the sorry state of America in 2020, it appears that Rome’s efforts have largely succeeded.
In truth, it was the Biblical, Protestant faith of the American colonists that would go on to shape the political institutions of the United States, which from its inception was a constitutional capitalist republic. “Constitutional capitalism,” as John Robbins correctly noted in Ecclesiastical Megalomania, “is a social consequence of the theology of the Reformers.” Contra President Trump, it was not “people of all faiths” that made America strong. To the degree “people of all faiths” follow the teachings of their religious traditions and reject what the Bible teaches about politics and economics – the politics of the Bible is limited, constitutional government; the economics of Scripture is free market capitalism – to that degree they are a source of weakness, not strength.
The Roman Catholic Church-State, as the largest religious organization in the United States, is the source of a great deal of anti-Christian political thought and action in this country. To say this is not, as the President states, “anti-Catholic” bigotry, but a necessary conclusion drawn from the study of Scripture.
In 1884, Presbyterian minister and Civil War veteran Dr. Samuel D. Burchard famously called the Democrats the party of “rum, Romanism and rebellion.” He was right then, and he is right today. Indeed, the Democratic party has been one of the primary mechanisms Rome has used to advance its anti-Christian Social Teaching in the United States.
Given Rome’s deep philosophical opposition to our republican institutions, it would be foolish for any American Protestant to put aside his concerns about putting Roman Catholics in positions of political authority. This is not to say that a Roman Catholic magistrate cannot faithfully execute the American law, but Rome’s hostility to republican government and claims of ultimate political, religious and moral authority means that a Roman Catholic official will, of necessity, find himself constantly having to choose between two masters, the Constitution and the pope.
In last week’s post, we looked at this problem in some detail. This week let us look further at Amy Coney Barrett’s religious affiliation, this time with an ecumenical charismatic group called People of Praise.
Lux Lucet 