Catholics Are Needed At the TEA Parties

If These Sisters Can Show Up To A TEA Party - So Can YOU!

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I've blogged on this before, and I'll blog on it again. Faithful orthodox Catholics are needed at the TEA Parties. As Catholic Americans it is incumbent upon us to show up in our nation's time of need. America is in peril, and the very survival of our republic is at stake. If you won't do this for yourself, than at least do it for your children. For if we don't act now, our children will pay an unimaginable price as America falls. The TEA Parties are a grassroots movement, (not a political party), that protests the expansion of big government, wasteful deficit spending and oppressive taxation on the middle class. They are family-friendly events, which usually involve mothers and children, as well as their fathers and elders. Their intention is good, but they lack clear direction. The problem with the TEA Parties is lack of participation by faithful practicing Catholics who are vocal about orthodox Catholic Social Teaching. The National Review Institute and McLaughlin & Associates conducted a survey of the TEA Parties and found that only 28% of participants are Catholic in comparison to some 60% Protestant. That needs to change. When you consider the strong social teachings of the Catholic Church, and the nature of the TEA Party rallies, there is no excuse for Catholics to make up any less than 35%-40% of the TEA Party participants.

Thus the TEA Parties have lacked a clear direction of reform. Tea Party demonstrators have thus far relied on the message of the nation's founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. That's nice to a certain extent, but these men are not necessarily the kind of role models we want our children to emulate. Their message of limited government was mixed with Masonic Deism and civil disobedience. We Catholics are called to a much higher standard, and a good number of Evangelical Christians would agree.

The message of the TEA Parties is a good one, but it's not clear. It needs to be tweaked just a little, to bring people back to a proper understanding of limited government from a truly Christian perspective. Therefore, I'm calling upon all of my readers to show up at the next TEA Party in your area with a large bright yellow home-made sign with one single word written on it. That word in capital letters should read...

S U B S I D I A R I T Y

Have your sign in one hand, and rosary in the other, then stand where everyone can see it and pray. With any luck, others will soon join you. You might want to bring some printed copies of this text, should anyone ask what "subsidiarity" means. That way you can easily just hand it to them. Simply click here and then print 25 to 50 copies for the event. Of course, if you have a good understanding of subsidiarity, you could always just explain it yourself.

Bring the family. Teach your children what real Christian solidarity is, the kind advocated by Pope John Paul II. Come on! Do it for your kids! It's their future we're fighting for.

If you don't know when or where the next TEA Party in your area is going to be, visit this link here and sign up for email updates. Please share this article with others by using the "share" icons below.

UPDATE 11/9/2010.....

Already Catholics from around the nation are beginning to rally to the call of The Catholic Knight above.  They are constructing the signs I suggested in their own creative ways and preparing to show up to the next wave of TEA Parties.  One creative version comes to us from Steve Mueller and family...

Materials and paint cost less than $10.

As requested above, these faithful Catholics have created bright yellow signs with the word "SUBSIDIARITY" written across it.  In my original post above, I imagined hand written signs on yellow construction paper.  Mr. Mueller has taken this to a whole new level.  Using discarded window blinds he cut them into the shape of submarines, spray painted them yellow, and stenciled the word SUBsidiarity across them.  The catch phrase being: "Sink communism, save the family!"  You gotta love it!  There is a deep symbol of irony to all of this.  I'll let you amateur historians figure it out.

So let the Catholic SUBmarines sail out of port this coming year, and let "phase two" of the Second American Revolution begin.  You thought last year's TEA Parties were a spectacle?  Just wait until the Catholics come out.  You haven't seen anything yet!