At the end of what has been called the “American Century,” there is an understandable pride that comes with living in what is rightly described as the strongest, richest, freest and most generous country on earth.

We are a hardworking, upright people, given to charity, with a government that is open and accountable, and an economy that rewards initiative and creativity.

Our culture highly values freedom of lifestyle, worship and opinion, and there is a deep commitment to family and community. There is an American spirit of caring, self-sacrifice and moral resolve that continues to make this country a refuge for the afflicted and that still leads our men and women to fight and die in far-off places so that others might know the freedom we have.

Yet, as Catholics we are all too aware on this Independence Day of the contradictions in the American soul.

The American commitment to the vulnerable and the rights of men stops fatally short when it comes to the unborn—and, increasingly, the sick, and elderly and the alien find themselves unworthy of welcome among us.

And there is a violent streak that we can never seem to expunge from the heart of the American character; it fills our streets with crime and mayhem; it fires our bottomless appetite for portrayals of violence in our media; it makes it impossible for us to imagine that citizens might be denied access to any type of gun or weaponry.

Heirs to the relentless Protestant work ethic and primitive economic liberalism, we can at times place too much faith in the “free market,” even when the market seems to run roughshod over other families and community values.

In the global theater, our aims are not always so pure. Our humanitarian interventions at times seem chosen to benefit privileged sectors of our society at the expense of those we purport to be helping.

And our chief export—not a raw material but our very own way of life packaged in movies, TV shows and other forms of entertainment—is a soulless commodity that promises material wealth, sensual pleasure and a reckless disregard for the things of  God.

In many ways, we are becoming a land of lone rangers, isolated individuals without a sense of our common obligations. We may be slowly hollowing out the very virtues that made this country the most free and prosperous in human history.

This radical individualism, tied to a growing moral relativism that respects no absolute values of right and wrong, is at the root of some of our most worrisome social issues—abortion, euthanasia, divorce, the fatherless family, a growing entitlement mentality, and the gap between rich and poor. It also helps explain why the most churchgoing people on earth can allow elites in our society to exploit the democratic process to push a radically secularist agenda.

These are all areas where American Catholics should be striving to change the will and the soul of their country. We have been given much, and much will still be required of us. We have to beware of the temptations of the easy extremes, to steer clear of both a blind patriotism that equates American with Christian and a knee-jerk anti-Americanism that masquerades as “prophetic” witness.

What is required of us is to be real believers, committed to living our faith without compromise in the humble circumstances of our daily lives— to be people who believe that the next century doesn’t belong to America or any other group, but belongs to Christ. 

Originally published in Our Sunday Visitor (July 4, 1999)
© David Scott, 2010. All rights reserved.