"Christianity" includes flavors such as Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestant sects, etc, etc.
While many of those were steps on the path to the success of the USA, those flavors were NOT the keys to the success of the USA--WASPism was the key. NOT just "Christianity."
If you substitute WASPism for "Christianity" in the essay, most of the questions go away. Hispanic Catholics are NOT WASP. Congolese Presbyterians are NOT WASP. Questions answered.
That said, I did not read the whole thing--he lost me in the opening!
Meh waspness was the first step to liberalism. IMO to really restore a society with organic wholeness where everyone has a place and a purpose it should be modeled on either the medieval European Catholic society or the pre conquest Byzantine empire under Orthodox Christianity. These are the last vestiges of the "west" before it was destroyed by nominalism and the mercantile class overpowering the clergy and aristocracy. Once you get usury and social mobility it is only a matter of time before you liberalism and decadence.
So WASPism was the key to the creation of pre-PC-Prog American peak culture.
But....WASPism also had a poison pill inside it, that led to the destruction of American culture. In addition to the Protestant work ethic, the Puritanical busy-body, cancel culture just needed new software to replace the 10 commandments, and voila--destruction instead of steady advancement.
Catholicism? Orthodoxy? Sure? That culture was a step on the way, but devolved into corrupt, hierarchical cultures that rested on their laurels, resisted innovation, and dragged down entire countries--see Latin America, Italy, Greece, Spain, etc, etc., AND all their former colonies.
WASPism was the engine that created exceptional America, now destroyed--NOT vanilla "Christianity". WASPism also contains the key non-religious components of Anglo-Saxon culture--the slow evolution of individual liberty, freedom, individualism, which flowered in 20th century America. Which are all sort of anti-thetical to pretty much ALL Christian belief systems, but especially to Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Protestantism is mostly about you taking charge of your soul, with a direct line upstairs. Freedom, individuality, liberty, in other words. The priestly flavors of Christianity are all about individuals kow-towing to the priest class, who have the only direct line to God. Shut up and do as you're told, we're talking to God, peon! That does not lead to "Western" excellence. That system leads to corruption. More quickly than WASPism did, at least!
You taking charge of your soul is exactly the problem, there is a direct line from that to you can can construct your own morality which is at the root of all decadence.
Meh America from the beginning was already in the possession of what we now call classical liberals and the mercantile class, they traded an organic social order with a place for everyone, patronage of the high arts buildings that would stand for a thousand years like cathedrals, and firm moral boundaries for usry, socially mobility, continuous moral transgressions, and "prosperity," for the new "middle class," it was a bad trade IMO
How this contradict what article say?
"Christianity" includes flavors such as Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestant sects, etc, etc.
While many of those were steps on the path to the success of the USA, those flavors were NOT the keys to the success of the USA--WASPism was the key. NOT just "Christianity."
If you substitute WASPism for "Christianity" in the essay, most of the questions go away. Hispanic Catholics are NOT WASP. Congolese Presbyterians are NOT WASP. Questions answered.
That said, I did not read the whole thing--he lost me in the opening!
Meh waspness was the first step to liberalism. IMO to really restore a society with organic wholeness where everyone has a place and a purpose it should be modeled on either the medieval European Catholic society or the pre conquest Byzantine empire under Orthodox Christianity. These are the last vestiges of the "west" before it was destroyed by nominalism and the mercantile class overpowering the clergy and aristocracy. Once you get usury and social mobility it is only a matter of time before you liberalism and decadence.
So WASPism was the key to the creation of pre-PC-Prog American peak culture.
But....WASPism also had a poison pill inside it, that led to the destruction of American culture. In addition to the Protestant work ethic, the Puritanical busy-body, cancel culture just needed new software to replace the 10 commandments, and voila--destruction instead of steady advancement.
Catholicism? Orthodoxy? Sure? That culture was a step on the way, but devolved into corrupt, hierarchical cultures that rested on their laurels, resisted innovation, and dragged down entire countries--see Latin America, Italy, Greece, Spain, etc, etc., AND all their former colonies.
WASPism was the engine that created exceptional America, now destroyed--NOT vanilla "Christianity". WASPism also contains the key non-religious components of Anglo-Saxon culture--the slow evolution of individual liberty, freedom, individualism, which flowered in 20th century America. Which are all sort of anti-thetical to pretty much ALL Christian belief systems, but especially to Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Protestantism is mostly about you taking charge of your soul, with a direct line upstairs. Freedom, individuality, liberty, in other words. The priestly flavors of Christianity are all about individuals kow-towing to the priest class, who have the only direct line to God. Shut up and do as you're told, we're talking to God, peon! That does not lead to "Western" excellence. That system leads to corruption. More quickly than WASPism did, at least!
You taking charge of your soul is exactly the problem, there is a direct line from that to you can can construct your own morality which is at the root of all decadence.
Meh America from the beginning was already in the possession of what we now call classical liberals and the mercantile class, they traded an organic social order with a place for everyone, patronage of the high arts buildings that would stand for a thousand years like cathedrals, and firm moral boundaries for usry, socially mobility, continuous moral transgressions, and "prosperity," for the new "middle class," it was a bad trade IMO
People shouldn't comment on articles they do not read.
Tell that to Kent he is the one who proclaimed not reading the article.