Catholics - Support America's TEA Parties!

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Long time readers of this blog know The Catholic Knight is a TEA Party supporter. I support the TEA Parties because they are safe family-friendly events that are the embodiment of our First Amendment right to peacefully assemble and demand a redress for grievances.  Mark my words, if ever a day comes when the TEA Parties are no longer allowed to exist, then America is OVER - period.

In recent days the TEA Parties have come under considerable attack from the extreme radical Left wing in this country.  When I say "Left wing," I am referring to the Marxist element of American politics.  Yes, the same Marxist element Our Lady of Fatima warned us about nearly 100 years ago. The most recent pawn of the Left, the NAACP, has just accused the TEA Parties of being racist.  (Funny how everything always breaks down to race for the Left.)  Of course the accusation is pure poppycock, as there are many people of various ethnic groups who participate in the TEA Parties.  Some of the nations biggest advocates of the TEA Parties are Black and Hispanic.   It's ridiculous of course, bat that's how the Left works.  That's how Marxists have always worked for the last 100 years.

Blacks Frequently Help Lead TEA Parties

Let me tell you what the TEA Parties are primarily about.  More than anything, they're not any kind of partisan protest against any one candidate or political party.  The first TEA Parties were organized under the Bush administration believe it or not, in protest of the Bush financial bailout of 2008.  As Obama and the Democrats swept into office, the TEA Parties began to focus on them, and mark my words, should future Republicans fail to heed the message of the TEA Parties, they too will find themselves the target of protest.  That's because the TEA Parties are not about partisan politics.  In many ways, they are a protest of the two-party political system that has led this country to ruin over the last fifty years.  Yet so far, the TEA Party is not a political party in itself.  It fields no candidates, and has no defined platform.

So what are the TEA Parties, and what are they about?  Socially, they are a protest of big government and the elite ruling class of politicians who think themselves above the law.  They are a protest of the nanny state mentality, in which is found the notion that government is God, government knows best and government should be involved in every aspect of our personal lives.  They are a protest of reckless government spending, which increases the national debt, produces inflation, robs the little people of their meager earnings, and enslaves us all to the welfare programs of the almighty government.  Politically, the TEA Parties are about local control, bringing the government back home, state's rights, decentralization, and shrinking the size and power of the federal government.  To put it in Catholic terms - SUBSIDIARITY.

Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which "a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co- ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good."

- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1883

Subsidiarity in American terms is called "Federalism" or in the more pure sense "Antifederalism."  The Founding Fathers of the United States were divided primarily into two political camps - the Federalists and the Antifederalists.  Both camps believed in a centralized national government.  They just disagreed on how much power it should have.  The Federalists proposed a strong centralized government that the states would delegate more power to, so as to make it stronger than the states.  Their dream was realized in the ratification of the Constitution of the United States.  The Antifederalists opposed the ratification of the Constitution, and preferred instead to keep the United States under the Articles of Confederation.  This earlier form of American government embodied the Antifederalist view that the power of the central government should be the same (or weaker) than that of the states.  In other words, the Antifederalists believed in keeping power closer to home, to the states, where it could be kept in better check by the people.  In their rebuttal to the Constitution proposal, the Antifederalists wrote blistering warnings (called the Antifederalist Papers) of the dire consequences associated with making the central government a more powerful Federalist system.  Sadly, every single one of their warnings has come true with near prophetic accuracy.

Now the TEA Parties cannot be accurately characterized as Antifederalist.  In fact, I would say most TEA Party supporters are Federalists at heart, and most of them are staunch supporters of the U.S. Constitution.  However, in their demonstrations we see the recognition of the warnings given by the Antifederalists, and a growing desire among the American people to return to a smaller and simpler form of national government.  Some have characterized the TEA Parties as the "Second American Revolution" and indeed they very well may be.

As Catholics, we need to stay focused.  Probably the best way to characterize our political struggle in a religious sense is the threefold battle cry of: LIFE, FAMILY & SUBSIDIARITY!  However, that being our struggle, I believe we have finally reached a convergence with American politics.  As we've seen in recent decades, the local state governments have done far more to protect and honor these principles than the centralized federal government.  In fact, many of our state governments have valiantly fought against the federal government on these issues, only to lose to federal judicial fiat or congressional legislation.  So in that sense, the TEA Party struggle is our struggle.  It is one in the same, because only in returning power to the states can we ever hope to undo the damage of legalized abortion, gay marriage and Secularism.

The TEA Parties are precisely the same kind of demonstrations Pope John Paul II endorsed during the Solidarity Movement in Poland.  They are peaceful, law-abiding and clean.  Not a single window is broken.  There are no riots, no violence, and if any trouble-makers come in, the TEA Party leaders distance themselves immediately from them and request that security have them removed.  They are protests by an oppressed people under the thumb of a government that everyday becomes increasingly tyrannical.  It's the closest thing to Solidarity the American people will ever come to.  This is it!  If we don't take a stand now, there will be NO SECOND CHANCE.  This is our LAST STAND as a free and peaceful people.  If this fails, America will undoubtedly fall into chaos.  God help us.

For this reason, The Catholic Knight, now encourages every single Catholic American reading this blog to get involved in the TEA Party movement.  You can start by showing up to the TEA Parties, bringing your rosaries and start praying for this country publicly.  That's something we need to see a bit more of at these TEA Parties - public prayer. Then if you're not registered to vote, get registered post-haste, and find the candidates that best represent our Catholic values of LIFE, FAMILY & SUBSIDIARITY!

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

-- 2nd Chronicles 7:14

Joining a TEA Party is as easy as showing up to one, but if you would like to keep informed as to when and where they will be organized, that's easy enough too. Just visit THIS WEBSITE, bookmark it, and sign up for regular email updates.

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