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Edited on Wed Aug-02-06 02:10 PM by kenny blankenship
a bit dour in my judgements. And since these are my people that I'm talking about, I feel free/bound to tell what I know about them. As an adult I have never been a practicing believing adherent of any church, so I'm not bashing Protestantism to extol the virtues of Catholicism. Catholicism has had its own tendencies towards radical inegalitarianism, which manifest themselves in history and also maybe in your modern day Falangist acquaintances, but the dominant doctrinal tradition of Catholicism still maintains the equality of souls in the eyes of God, and the availability of salvation to all. These twin foundational concepts were rejected by Calvinism. (They can creep back in and do, but the assertion is a general assertion about Calvinist Protestantism's dominant traits and origins). It would be impossible for there not to be serious broad-stroke implications for a society founded on these rejections.
Good stuff has been written on this general subject of Protestantism-capitalism-American-politics in books ranging from Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism first published in 1905, to Kevin Phillips' latest title, American Theocracy. (confession: Neither one of which have I really read) Weber's book is one of those works that can be legitimately referred to as a "tome". It's big and heavy going. His aim was to explain the origins of capitalism in a non-Marxist way: whereas Marxists would explain the traits of Protestantism as outgrowths of evolving economic relations and pressures--the effect of the radical selfishness of capitalism-- Weber sought to explain the habits and practices of early capitalists as the outgrowth of new Protestant teachings about the spiritual value of worldly activities. Phillips' book deals (i gather from hearing him interviewed about it) mainly with the consequences of the settlement in the American south of certain cultural groups from British Isles (religious-ethnic strains of Britons not from the dominant class or religion). And he relates the current political map of the United States to the diaspora of southerners, bearing their particular religious heritage, to the territories of the plains and Rockies. Not having read his book, I can't say how much he investigates the implications of the doctrines of Calvinist sects, but I know he's aware of the powerful contrast between the politics of "heartland" states carved out the old Missouri Territory where the white settlement is characterized by Protestant southerners, and the politics of those states and counties where the white settlement is characterized more by German Catholics and Lutherans and Scandinavian Protestants and Catholics. The former group are reliable as Republicans, almost as uniform as the states of the Confederacy, while the latter group are the only "heartland" states and counties where people still vote for Democrats.
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