{"id":5548,"date":"2021-12-22T01:01:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T01:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?page_id=5548"},"modified":"2024-11-27T17:09:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:09:57","slug":"values-and-my-native-culture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/about-me\/being-a-catholic-citizen-in-america\/values-and-my-native-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Values and my Native Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20190415ff\/BHG_logo_new_MASTER_Smooth-160.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brian H. Gill's 'BHG' logo.\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve turned my &#8220;About Me&#8221; page into several shorter pages, arranged hierarchically:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/about-me\/\">About Me<\/a>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/about-me\/brilliant-talented-and-on-medication\/\">Brilliant, Talented, and On Medication<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/about-me\/becoming-a-catholic\/\">Becoming a Catholic<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/being-a-catholic-citizen-in-america\/\">Being a Catholic Citizen in America<\/a>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Values and my Native Culture<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/science-in-a-religious-blog\/\">Science? In a &#8216;Religious&#8217; Blog??<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/about-me\/journal\/\">Journal<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/who-are-those-catholics\/\">Who are Those Catholics?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"being\"><\/a>Being Catholic and American<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/happy-saint-patricks-day\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210209ff\/20210317-DSC08994-SaintPatricksDayAndMe--trim-329.JPG?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brian H. Gill. (March 17, 2021)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>My values are somewhat counter-cultural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s partly because I&#8217;m a practicing Catholic who is also an American citizen: not an American whose name shows up in a Catholic parish directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>America has been a Protestant country, with some tolerance for people who don&#8217;t go to the &#8216;right&#8217; church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following my beliefs in a system that isn&#8217;t quite built around them can be challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take &#8216;love thy neighbor,&#8217; for example. As a platitude, it seems sufficiently fluffy. Acting as if I think it matters is where it gets hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a Catholic, I&#8217;m expected to see everyone as my neighbor: a real person, created in the image of God, someone who matters. <strong>Everyone,<\/strong> no exceptions. (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 5:43-44, 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31, 10:25-37; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1789, 2258, 2260)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m also expected to see human life as special, sacred, a gift from God. (Catechism, 2258, 2260)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And as if that doesn&#8217;t make things awkward, I must also see every human being as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A real person, a neighbor, someone who matters: created in the image of God. Someone I should \u2014 must \u2014 love. No exceptions. (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 5:43-44, 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31, 10:25-37; Catechism, 1789, 2258, 2260)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s everyone: even folks who are too young, too old or too sick to deserve life by today&#8217;s standards. And those who have committed serious crimes. On the other hand, defending the lives of innocent people is okay. Even if it means using force. Within reason. (Catechism, 2258-2317)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there&#8217;s social justice. The kind that makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve talked about this sort of thing before, and almost certainly will again. I&#8217;ve tagged these topics as <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/tag\/life-issues\/\">life issues<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/tag\/social-justice\/\">social justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"taking\"><\/a>Taking Freedom Seriously<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/who-is-my-neighbor\/#why\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/696px-Klantreerome-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Branford Clarke's 'This Tree Must Come Down' illustration for Bishop Alma White's 'The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy.' (1925)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>I think the Church is one, holy, catholic (lower case &#8220;c&#8221;) and apostolic. And I&#8217;m obliged to respect folks who practice other faiths. (Catechism, 811-856)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m also obliged to support religious freedom. That&#8217;s religious freedom for everyone, not just me. Within reason. (Catechism, 2104-2109)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I said: challenging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve turned my &#8220;About Me&#8221; page into several shorter pages, arranged hierarchically: Being Catholic and American My values are somewhat counter-cultural. That&#8217;s partly because I&#8217;m a practicing Catholic who is also an American citizen: not an American whose name shows &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/about-me\/being-a-catholic-citizen-in-america\/values-and-my-native-culture\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5546,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"I am an American and a practicing Catholic, living in a country with Protestant traditions: and some tolerance for non-Protestants.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Values and my Native Culture: Loving my Neighbors","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5548","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7Dwtw-1ru","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5548"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8657,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5548\/revisions\/8657"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}