The Central and South American cultures were equal to or more advanced than their old-world counterparts in many ways when the Spanish arrived, but were un prepared for the fury of the conquistadores.

The next 50 to 100 years should be interesting, as global warming shifts “the money zone” into southern Canada, and Brazil takes over as the worlds food-producing superpower.

But also marriage

I would qualify the “Christianity” cause by noting that Protestantism is very much at the root of what makes the Anglosphere so great; just as the rise of Protestantism helped lift Europe out of the dark squalor it imposed upon itself under the general rule of Papal doctrine.

Note, this is not a Catholic-bash. I am just observing history.

Protestanism is what allowed the Christian mind to eventually free itself from the chains of monarchical rule and the absolutist thought process. Protestantism allowed for questioning and experimentation, with an aim to practical application, both in materialist realms of the everyday world, and in higher realms of moral and spiritual quest.

Obviously, the Protestant genesis was a long and occasionally bloody one. And what events in particular made English/British history different from that of, say, Germany, where Protestantism had its Continental roots, is a subject so complex I am not sure any of us can truly understand it.

But the proof is in the pudding. Protestant Christianity is intertwined with the rise of the British Empire and, in turn, the birthing of the Anglo republic in North America. It informs great whacks of our society, even now, in our overly secularized and vulgar era.

1.As Christians, we believe in God’s omnipotence so I follow your thinking. Indeed every ruler who assumes rule, so long as we assume that God is in control of the universe, is appointed by Him. However there is a distinct difference between one knowing this or holding such a view versus a leader taking the initiative to articulate such views in his platform. In the continuum you cited (All rulers, from Ceasar to Idi Amin and all points in between or around) I am quite sure there are more than a few leaders who did not articulate their rule with regard to God as part of their platform, nor would they frame it as such if they could comment on their rule.

2.I agree that our founding documents were quite promising documents for those designated as “persons”, but not quite as promising for those designated as chattel or property. To say that our founding fathers were so forward thinking that they foresaw or envisioned their world without free labor, when it at the time it was a financial staple of colonial economy; I think give them to much credit. Slavery was necessary for the lives they were living and to say that they

3.Actually, the position of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church remained; quite strong during the Dirge (when the facists took over) and the period after the Dirge (I forgot what it is called, but still a Communist regime).

4.I am a little weary of this line of argument that says missionaries brought “the light” into “the darkness” of Africa, more and more scholars are learning that much of what missionaries and “explorers” wrote about the continent of Africa was colored by their biases and misunderstanding and misinterpretation (sometimes deliberately) of the cultures and languages of the people in the areas they were “developing”.
As more thorough scholarship is done with regard to the continent and the cultures, languages and peoples there, we are discovering that some of the same creation myths that we hold so dear as original articles in our faith directly mirror creation myths that predated them on the continent of Africa (and I am not talking about this reactionary, Egypt focused Afrocentrism). To simply say that Africa is better off is very arrogant of us, particularly in light of the fact that Africa throughout history has been continually been misunderstood and misinterpreted, often deliberately for justification of ill-treatment or misuse of its beauty, natural and human resources.

5.I made no reference to crops. Maybe I misunderstood your use of the word “productive”, I did not think you were using it with regard to agriculture. I was speaking in more general terms of leading a “productive” life. In the case of agriculture, yes I agree it hard to be at work in a field that doubles as a battleground (although it has been done). My comments were directed at all of the words (or phrases) you used “dodge bullets, oppression, and terror”. My point was that some people have thrived and continue to thrive under such conditions and go on to lead “productive” lives and some of these same people may actually frequent this website. I would be interested in what your definition of hardship is, and it relationship to motivating survival. That a part of your comments sounded kind of Darwinian.

6.Actually, no I am not attempting to associate the Klan with other believers (I am a believer), when I said “all of its arms” I was referring to all of the other “white supremacist” and other tiype of organizations that fall specifically under the “Christian Identity/ British Israelism” banner and how the FBI, classifies such groups as “Christian Identity movement (outlined in their Meddigo Report).
My point in referencing this group specifically was simply to note that simply combining Mead’s analysis with Christianity to substantiate “why Anglo’s lead” was a very dangerous assumption, because it taken together sounds like the same rhetoric of “Christian Identity” movement, the tenets of which obviously no one on this site subscribe to, or least I would hope not, but if they do I guess that is what makes America great n’est pas?

1)All rulers, from Ceasar to Idi Amin and all points in between/around, are by God’s POV appointed by Him. What they do with that power is of their own free will and judged accordingly. So yes, Bush was “appointed” by God and had it been Al Gored instead, it still would have been by God’s appointement. Why? Cause it says so in the Bible in many places, even by Christ himself. “Give unto Caesar…”

2) The fact that slavery exists is a condition of Man’s imperfection. If slavery must exist, then so be it, but even so, God outlined how they must be treated in such cases. There are a lot of things that God would rather us not do, but if we must, He has a roadmap. To wit divorce, polygamy, political leadership etc. Prior to King Saul, the Jews were ruled by clergy & judges. But the people felt inadequate because other nations had kings & they didn’t — a royal envy.

As pointed out by others, our nation was founded by forward looking fathers. So even while slavery was very much in existence — be releastic there was not much they could have done to stop it, right then and there — they were looking ahead to the day when that blight would pass. That is plain enough from the structure of our founding documents.

3) I don’t think the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was always or ever as strong as you seem to give credit imply. Right now it is but in single digits as a population stat and centered around a relatively small region.

4) Dare I say, depending on the type of colonialism? Some countries were notorious for ransacking everything, others tried to develop the region. We can debate the outcomes, nevertheless the intent was there. Furthermore, you can’t be serious to think that Africa would have been better off if left to their animist superstitions. Missionaries indeed brought light into the dark jungles where heretofore, Satan ruled the hearts & minds of man.

Missionaries for the most part carried out the great commission from God to spread the Gospel unto the ends of the earth, not the “World” as they knew it at the time. As a result, the Book of Life contains the names of a lot more folks, much to Satan’s frustration.

5) With reference to dodging bullets, I think you misconstrued my point. All of these famines (Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Zimbabwe, etc, etc) in recent decades were the direct result of wars and corrupt governance, not nature. Raising crops doesn’t happen autonomously or by magic. Crops are intensely TLC dependent. When crops don’t get it, they will whither away, get eaten by animals or what have you. What’s left is unsustainable.

That of course has no bearing on whether a person is “productive” or not — especially when removed from the hardships — it is a matter of survival.

6) Actually, I understood your introducing the Klan to be an attempt to associate them with other “Christian” believers, be they Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant — guilt by association. Nevermind that the Klan also hated the Catholic, the Irish and later the Italians. If that wasn’t, then your mentioning them would really be pointless to the topic at hand, n’est pas? It is a fact of life, human nature actually, that no matter the cause, there will always be unsavory elements that attempt to hitch a ride under the banner.

We also made the best music. (That’s past tense, since rock is dying, rap never should’ve been born, and Middle Eastern music remains largely undiscovered).

Finally, because we’re a melting pot we have the best food. China, Italy, and Mexico aren’t doing much on their own.

He believed that all the aspects of any civilization arise out of a people’s religion.

Also he mentions Greek government (first democracies and all that) as an example to our founding fathers on how NOT to do it.

1. It’s called the “Protestant work ethic” for historical reasons having to do with the time of Cromwell and the Roundheads, and the fact that it was an outgrowth of the protestant/reformation society of the times. If renaming it the “Anglo work ethic” is less confusing for you, go for it. Because Germany may be technically Protestant, but you can’t get anything done when you’re taking SIX-week vacations on the north coast or in Italy.

2. The reason some people don’t see how Protestant Christianity has affected our national zeitgeist is because they are either too close to the trees to see the forest, or they just didn’t pay attention in school. I don’t give a rip how agnostic or atheistic you are; if you cannot see that substituting Odin and the Norse panthenon would result in a radically different country, you’re blind.

“The reason we are a world leader is because anytime we think another country might be thinking about stepping up for even a second, we attack them. We are the global equivalent to the school bully…”

is either willful ignorance or just plain stupidity, I’m not sure which. Afghanistan was attacked because it was the personal training ground of Osama Bin Laden, and the Taliban refused our requests to turn him over after the events of September 11, 2001. Iraq was attacked because it was wrongly(?) believed to have WMDs and it had violated seventeen UN resolutions since 1991, including some that threatened the use of force.

Even if you keep up with current events by only watching The Daily Show, you will know that there are all sorts of countries all over the world that are “stepping up” against us every day and we have not attacked them. (I feel like I’m explaining this to a first grader.) Germany and France explicitly denounced our invasion of Iraq. We didn’t attack them. Russia did, too. No attack. Every single Arab state and all the non-Arab Muslim nations were strongly opposed. No attack from us. Our NATO ally, Turkey, refused to let us invade from their territory, upending our war-fighting strategy. No attack. Iran has directly supported terrorist attacks against us since the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon. We have never done anything about that, except to lead the world in imposing sanction. Hugo Chavez is turning Venezuela into another Cuba (you probably see Cuba as a shining example of social justice), and we haven’t attacked, nor will we.

We have trade disputes with Canada over lumber and wheat exports, but we aren’t going to attack. Japan almost wiped out our auto industry in the 1980s, and may yet do so, but we won’t attack. I could fill pages with examples of other countries who have disagreed with us, actively opposed us, and lent material support to our enemies, and we never attacked them.

You can make any number of valid criticisms of this country and its foreign and domestic policies, its culture, and maybe even its political philosophy, but if you want to score some points, it would help if you would stop being an imbecile.

fred, your point about the Coptics is fine to a point, but did their Christian roots ever translate to public policy/governance?

Actually , like our own president many leaders, prior to Haile Selassie saw them selves as rulers sent by God. Your point is taken that such sentiments did not “officially” find their way into the rhetoric and founding documents of the country (as far as I know , I am not an expert of Ethiopia), but I then must seriously question if the sentinments of said Christian roots had truely found their way in to the hearts of our Founding Fathers, given the existence and brutality of slavery at the time our founding documents were drafted.

Furthermore, Ethiopia was launched into a cycle of poverty ever since Haile Selassie was run out by the Marxists and beset by continued wars and rumors of wars.

Point taken, however the presence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has still remained rather powerful as a cultural and social force, in spite of regime change.

One could even say their troubles went as far back to the days of Italian colonialism.

Absolutely, many countries on the continent of Africa, suffer from the effect of colonialism.

People can’t be productive when they have to dodge bullets, oppression and terror.

Actually, I beg to differ. I know many people who grew up in environments like this and have been very productive, some of them may actually frequent this website.

But this doesn’t have to be a permanent situation. And I have to go back to my “money quote” mentioned in my earlier post.

At one time, Ethiopia was very much the jewel of East Africa and for a long time at that — going all the way back to the age of Sheba.

Finally, the Klan is NOT the largest Christian identity movement to date and never was. It is/was the largest Democratic party movement dressed up in pseudo-christian psycho-babble for the express purpose of holding back the non-white man.

Much as it could be argued that the Aryan Nation is the largest right-wing pseudo-christian bunch of bigots for the express purpose of holding back the non-whites.

If the Klan (and all of it arms) is not the largest Christian Identity movement in America (I changed the scope of the statement for the sake of discussion, I thought this was understood in my earlier statement, excuse my omission) than not I would like to know what is. I am not trying to politicize this discussion, but I don’t think anyone (Dem or Rep) has a monopoly on “pseudo-christian psycho babble”, both sides use it fairly well when needed. Furthermore I don’t think that such babble, would hold me or any other “non-white man” back.

The information I got as to the Klan being the largest CI movement came from the FBI’s Meddigo report, I think they still have info on it on there website. The other group I cited, World Church of God comes. They said it not me.

Just because someone goes around quoting scriptures don’t make them Godly. Even Satan knows the Bible inside out and can quote it to suit his purposes.

This is true, let’s just not forgot this when our favorite elected officials use rhetoric that may imply a statement of belief, but their behavior may not always come so correct.

Repectfully,
fred

I think Christianity has not played and will never play a part in our status as a world leader, but it has played a part in the future fall of the U.S. The majority of Christians voted to elect and then re-elect the president who has done, I think, far more harm to our country’s worldwide reputation than any other president in history.

Not quite, but it’s a common mistake. There is no year Zero: 1 BC was followed by AD 1. Also note that correct usage is that BC is a suffix and AD is a prefix to the year – this makes sense if you remember AD stands for Anno Domini, literally, “in the Year of our Lord”. Calendars are surprisingly fascinating, a good reference site for the basics is http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/calendars.html .

One interesting thing about calendars: everything has changed over the years except the week (for instance, New Year’s day was March 25th in English-speaking countries until 1752, which was also the year when Sept. 2 was followed by Sept. 14, as England finally adopted the Gregorian calendar that had been in use by most other western countries for a century or more.) The week, though, has always been seven days, in uninterrupted sequence since that very first week of Creation…