Interfaith leadership

[wil]

Don't we wish...

“The American promise is to grant rights to people from a range of backgrounds, come from far-flung nations, speaking different languages, praying to God in different ways — including not praying to God at all — come to this patch of earth to build together a nation,” Patel said. “The American genius flowing from the American promise is that people who are given dignity, who are afforded their rights, will work together to build up a nation.”

http://www.utdailybeacon.com/news/s...cle_0ab75db2-1075-11e8-8891-1bd7c1bbe9a0.html

 

[Thomas]

Yes, reads like spin, to me, narrative mythologising.

For example, the US is not 'the most religiously diverse nation', not by a long margin. According to a Pew Research Center study, the U.S. ranks 68th out of 232.

 

[A Cup Of Tea]

I'm not really informed about this, but I think I have been assuming that equal rights and liberties originally came from when it established it's independence it was without any nobility or aristocracy as opposed from the old world. It seems to me that the US has established it's own class system which it is unwilling to recognize and correct.

 

[wil]

Oh, big time... the trying to the survive vs those who don't care who is trying to survive... And yes, this has been since the formation of the country... We had the elite, the money, lot of which was made by and during the revolutionary war, as we built the industrial military complex we have today, as we supported pirates/privateers, as we took over businesses and plantations owned by the british... That whole puritan ethic which not only made us prudes, but uppity holier than thou prudes, and the if you don't work you don't eat ethic.

 

[Thomas]

Did/does not the Antebellum South consider itself the US aristocracy?

The Brits, of course, assume any display of superiority based on money, political striving, etc., as intrinsically vulgar. Having said that, the Brit aristocracy always had the money anyway (from the days of Henry VIII, 'the dissolution of the monasteries', etc.) Their world was rocked when the Industrial Revolution took off and produced a new class of incredibly wealthy individuals who were decidedly 'infra dig' ( from the Latin infra dignitatem 'beneath (one's) dignity'.) — people who hadn't attended the right schools, the right universities, etc. I mean, some of them were working class, for God's sake! You can't make a silk purse ...

I've looked at some of the above speaker's links. I think he has some good things to say and his heart is in the right place.

As Wil says, 'we wish' ...

 

[wil]

I've looked at some of the above speaker's links. I think he has some good things to say and his heart is in the right place.

I agree, he does have some interesting thoughts...and I was probably wrong to just post the one that I disagreed with the most. I don't disagree with the premise...I disagree that we've ever initiated or achieved such a thing.