For those who don’t know him, and for anyone looking for a bit of economic and Christian sanity, and, even more so, anyone likely to be taken in by the Tea Party rhetoric, you would do well to read Father Ernesto Obregon’s blog, and especially his last post The witheld wages cry out to the Lord of hosts.
I don’t intend entering North American* debates, the details of which I neither know nor plan to spend much time on, but they do unfortunately have consequences for the rest of the world. And reading Father Ernesto’s posts – and some of the discussions after them – make me grateful that not all Americans live on another planet…
*My apologies to Canadians, but I don’t know what the appropriate adjective is for citizens of the U.S.A.
A vow of conversation 
April 5, 2011 at 7:16 pm
I don’t know what the appropriate adjective is for citizens of the U.S.A.
As far as I know, the appropriate term would be “United States citizen” or “U.S. citizen.” Unfortunately, there isn’t a ‘real’ adjective to describe us, so the name of the country has to function as an adjective, not just in this context but in others (e.g., one must speak of “U.S.-Canadian relations”).
Of course, there has long been a custom of using “American” to refer specifically to people or things particular to the United States, ignoring the fact that the Americas are a much broader reality. This usage seems to be gradually declining – and fortunately so – though the adjectival use of “United States” that is replacing it is, to say the least, linguistically awkward.
As an aside, I do often use “North American” to refer to the cultural entity that includes both the U.S. and Canada, in much the same way “European” is often used. I’ll admit to a certain polemical intent, i.e. trying to get U.S. citizens and Canadians I come into contact to see how we’re bound together and to try to build a greater sense of solidarity among us.
On a completely unrelated matter, speaking as a U.S. citizen who was once very politically active and still follows politics with a detached interest, the Tea Party is nothing but a flash in the pan – it’s an amorphous and disorganized group of people with different interests and priorities, and (despite all the attention it has been getting from the media in the U.S. and abroad) I doubt it will have much political staying power. Short-lived populist movements of both the left and right are a cyclic feature of U.S. political culture, and I expect this one to wither away just as the others have – I hope you can take some consolation from that!
April 5, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Thanks Joe. I admit that I was being slightly tongue-in-cheeck in pointing to the lack of a suitable adjective. But I remember a Canadian abbot who got irritated when people used the word “American” to refer to the USA.
I hope that you are right about the Tea Party. Populism is frightening wherever it happens – and we have enough of it here too, although of a rather different kind. But I have also been rather horrified at seeing how some Orthodox Christians, including clergy, echo some of its ideology and so was rather relieved at seeing Father Ernesto’s posts and wanted to point people to them. Reading his last one, I realise that I do rather miss having the social teaching of the Catholic Church (Rerum Novarum and following) as authoratative teaching! Of course we do have Scripture and the Fathers and that ought to be enough…
April 5, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Thanks for the link! I left a comment on Fr Ernesto’s blog!
In Christ,
+FrG
April 6, 2011 at 5:10 am
You’re welcome Father Gregory.