Why is Japan better than the US?

[Resha Caner]

I see no issue with calling "Christian communities living in the U.S." the American Church.

The focus for my MA was the intersection of church & educational history in the U.S. and how that affects cultural identity. So, I'm a little picky on this topic. Part of that is due to a recent rethinking among historians about what it means to teach "World History", "Western Civilization", and "American History".

You can't cover everything, so you have to limit the scope of what you're studying, but when doing so good practice is to address the variation within your study group. If the variation is too much, the validity of the study is in question. And though no partition is strictly invalid, some can be a poor choice. It would be a little odd to do a study on Madrid, Iowa and Madrid, Spain called simply "Madrid", where no attempt is made to address the differences between the two locations.

Many historians would now say "United States", though a valid partition for some studies (maybe political structure), is arbitrary and invalid for other studies. Religious history comes close. Those who are only familiar with mainstream American Puritanism probably don't realize how diverse the Christian communities are in the U.S.

What if one community is "healthy" (whatever that means) and another is "unhealthy"? What good does it do to smear them all together and say the U.S. is average?

 

[Resha Caner]

The US is, essentially, a distant province of the Roman Empire. You can discern that merely by examining an American one dollar bill, if not listening to our speech or examining the roots of our government.

Personally, I think it would be a good thing for Americans to read some 19th century history. The near worship of Rome & Greece in some of those histories is appalling.

 

[Resha Caner]

I have claimed that the US Constitution is a unique work in its totality, construction, duration, and effect; an obvious work of God.

You think the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired?

 

[RDKirk]

Personally, I think it would be a good thing for Americans to read some 19th century history. The near worship of Rome & Greece in some of those histories is appalling.

There is a reason so much 19th century American government architecture in general and southern plantation architecture in particularly takes its cues from ancient Greece. The South's serious major thrust was to re-create classical Greece society, right down to the slavery.

 

[AACJ]

You think the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired?

I am not sure what you mean by "inspired." Do I believe it represents divine perfection in the sense that it is the very words of God to a nation. No. Do I believe that its creation and ratification was a miracle. Yes. Divine guidance/intervention was absolutely necessary for ts creation and ratification. Certain men were eyewitnesses and apparently believed something very similar:

It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the delegates from so many different states (which states you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well-founded objections.

(Washington, Letter from Washington to Lafayette, 7 Feb. 1788).


I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament were the effects of a Divine power."

(Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush,Vol. I, p. 475)

 

[Resha Caner]

Divine guidance/intervention was absolutely necessary for ts creation and ratification.

I believe God is active in the world, so I have no problem thinking he guided some people during the American Revolution. Who he guided and his purposes for doing so are not as clear. I'm not inclined to interpret Washington's words as you do ... people refer to miracles all the time and give the word many different meanings. Nor do I think of Benjamin Rush as a prophet. People claim divine inspiration for their national governments all the time.

You seem to think God's purpose was clear, though. So what do you think that purpose was?

 

[helmut]

For example, even if it is true that there are unsaved persons in the Trump administration ...

Are there saved persons in the Trump administration?

If you define "administration" broad enough, e.g. including all persons that had to suffer under the last shutdown, there are certainly saved person among them. But as to the inner circle ...

 

[AACJ]

Are there saved persons in the Trump administration?

If you define "administration" broad enough, e.g. including all persons that had to suffer under the last shutdown, there are certainly saved person among them. But as to the inner circle ...

Sorry for any misunderstanding. The quote you referenced was used as a rhetorical device; it was not meant to suggest that it is not possible that there are unsaved persons in the Trump administration.

 

[helmut]

Sorry for any misunderstanding. The quote you referenced was used as a rhetorical device; it was not meant to suggest that it is not possible that there are unsaved persons in the Trump administration.

Oh, there was no misunderstanding on my side. I really questioned whether there are saved persons in the Trump administration - or to put it the other way: How broad must "Trump administration" be taken to find a saved one in there?

 

[Francis Drake]

Or that has retained its constitution as long as the US?

As a Brit, but long time friend of the US, I agree with the general sentiment of your post, except of course the above.

Your US constitution borrows from the English Magna Carta which is 800 years old, a tad older that the USA's very existence.

However, I would add that for many decades in both countries, governments have been doing their best to dispose of the very rights that document grants to the people.

This decline is hopefully being arrested by Trump in the USA. Unfortunately the UK government is still doing its best to betray the people's demand to exit the EU and return the country to a sovereign nation once again.

 

[helmut]

Your US constitution borrows from the English Magna Carta which is 800 years old, a tad older that the USA's very existence.

This borrowing is limited. The Magna Carta has no equal right to vote for everybody (this has Britain bought from the US, France or maybe even Germany), there is no parliament which has the right to pass laws (AFAIK this was intruduced by Thomas Cromwell), and other important parts of the GB constitution (e.g. habeas corpus) are also younger than the Magna Carta.

Compared to the changes in GB, the amendments in the US were rather minor.

This decline is hopefully being arrested by Trump in the USA.

A person who calls those who don't agree as enemies of the people is undermining the very essence of modern democracy, a British invention in 1688: The existence of a legal opposition.

I know of no other US politician who can stronger be combined with the decline of democracy than Trump. You have to look into other countries to find persons like Erdoghan or Orban, which may compared to Trump but surpass him in that respect.

EDIT: It was not by purpose that Trump was written without capital letter (I've corrected that).

 

[AACJ]

As a Brit, but long time friend of the US, I agree with the general sentiment of your post, except of course the above.

Your US constitution borrows from the English Magna Carta which is 800 years old, a tad older that the USA's very existence.

However, I would add that for many decades in both countries, governments have been doing their best to dispose of the very rights that document grants to the people.

This decline is hopefully being arrested by Trump in the USA. Unfortunately the UK government is still doing its best to betray the people's demand to exit the EU and return the country to a sovereign nation once again.

HI. I am praying for Great Britain. Ahh, mighty Britannia. Once such a mighty and enduring light to the world. So many great leaders, so many upheld and disseminated truths. Praying for the John Wesleys to arise again in the once mighty nation. Praying the Lord Jesus will raise up a mighty prayer army in Great Britain.

I am not sure what you are disagreeing with. the Statement you quoted is absolutely true. As I have previously pointed out on this thread, although the US Constitution has borrowed ideas and principles from other nations, it certainly is not just an amalgamation of such borrowed elements. It contains unique elements as well.

 

[SkyWriting]

Japan is dying by failing to reproduce. So while Japan has some indication of being 'better', there is something profoundly wrong there when childless people die and nobody knows until the stench of the rotting body becomes so overwhelming that the police are called to break down the door of their apartment. Japan is not particularly blessed.

Demography is destiny, and Japan may already have reached the cliff where their population will not be able to recover from population collapse. The future there does not look bright at all. Maybe that 2% of the population has a different attitude about reproduction and will do what they can about it.

As a former apartment manager, I can assure you that we use the same method for finding the deceased in the US.

 

[SkyWriting]

People often talk about the US getting a special blessing from God and this is because of their Christian heritage, past and present.

Yes. It might not seem like it but our legal system has sealed our place on the top of the world permanently. Productivity is more like a measurement of efficient slave owning.

 

[DamianWarS]

Yes. It might not seem like it but our legal system has sealed our place on the top of the world permanently. Productivity is more like a measurement of efficient slave owning.

but that's the point, it's not on top, it's just close to the top. some measures put countries like Japan higher up than the US.

 

[trophy33]

but that's the point, it's not on top, it's just close to the top. some measures put countries like Japan higher up than the US.

Why are you concentrating on Japan so much? For example many EU nations are ranked higher than Japan or USA... Even Canada is higher. From Asian countries, I think that South Korea is higher than Japan, depends on the statistics.

USA are not as good as you might think (for living), in a global scale.

 

[DamianWarS]

Why are you concentrating on Japan so much? For example many EU nations are ranked higher than Japan or USA... Even Canada is higher. From Asian countries, I think that South Korea is higher than Japan, depends on the statistics.

USA are not as good as you might think, in a global scale.

Because Japan is not a Christian nation, quite far from it actually. Something like 2% Christian so it tends to be the exception to this idea that Christian nations only get blessings.

 

[FireDragon76]

Personally, I think it would be a good thing for Americans to read some 19th century history. The near worship of Rome & Greece in some of those histories is appalling.

That's all they understood of high culture, I guess they lacked confidence in their own?

 

[FireDragon76]

There is a reason so much 19th century American government architecture in general and southern plantation architecture in particularly takes its cues from ancient Greece. The South's serious major thrust was to re-create classical Greece society, right down to the slavery.

The racial policies in the South were very much colored by Aristoltle all the way up to the anti-miscegination laws in the 60's. That is why they were so hostile to abolitionists, besides the obvious economic reasons: the North with its modern attitude towards religion and dynamic, egalitarian way of life represented an existential threat to their worldview based on hierarchy and order. And it's also why churches tended to split along north and south lines, something that persists to this day. (Disciples of Christ/Church of Christ ,American Baptists / Southern Baptists, etc.).

 

[Resha Caner]

That's all they understood of high culture, I guess they lacked confidence in their own?

Maybe some did. History is never a single narrative, but a confusing mix of many narratives. I was thinking more of the mashup of the Positivist/Hegelian/Marxist belief that history inevitably progresses toward perfection (often expressed as "god", which many Christians then misinterpret to mean the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation).

In that narrative, the U.S. is seen as the successor of the Roman Empire, which was in turn the successor of the Greek Empire, etc. Given that belief, those cultures were the ones to be admired and studied because they held the key to where we were going.

The blatant example I was referring to was Ellwood Patterson Cubberley’s "History of Education". I came across it when preparing a paper for my history of education class on the role of Lutheran parochial schools in the formation of cultural identity. In that book Cubberley unabashedly holds up Greece and Rome as examples of perfect cultures, and claims the U.S. as their successor. He then warns that German-American parochial schools are part of an attempt to undermine the grand destiny of the U.S. and subvert it to the tyrannical, imperialist goals of the German Empire ... a continuation of all those Goths and Vandals who took down Rome.