You Know Nothing
Recently, his Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, called out Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump out on his xenophobic rant on immigration, essentially calling him a “Know Nothing”. I personally want to thank his Eminence for pointing out the obvious for all to see, for the name seems quite appropriate when it comes to Mr. Trump – he literally knows nothing.
Know Nothing Campaign poster.
What is a Know Nothing? Well, there is the political definition, which is based on the political party that called themselves the “Know Nothing” party, as in “they know nothing other than the country.” Nothing means no God, even. They turn out to be someone who tries to undermine the Constitution of the United States by enacting laws that prohibit Catholics living their faith in the public square. In the 19th century, these were people who tried to prevent Catholics from entering the country, voting, and running for political office. They passed laws that only allowed students to read from the King James Bible in the public schools – and when Catholics protested by opening up their own parochial schools – they tried to enact laws that would prohibit these schools from opening up.
Now, why did they do this? Oh, the Pope or something. Apparently, they felt threatened by people who would uphold the teachings of the Vicar of Christ. What teachings they were trying to uphold remains a mystery, which is why they knew nothing. Some things never change.
But why stop at Trump? Let’s call out all the Know Nothings, starting with the Know Nothing in Chief, Barack Obama. There isn’t enough ink in the world to lay out all the ways that Obama knows nothing, but let’s start with the most glaring – his war against the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Little Sisters of the Poor are a religious order that cares for the elderly who are poor. Why do they do this? Oh, Jesus Christ… or something. See, as nuns, they are married to Jesus and they take their vows seriously – they are faithful. Obama wants them to cheat on their husband and worship a false god. Apparently, our president and those other know nothings are too stupid to realize that worshipping at the altar of Planned Parenthood is akin to praising the death camps of the twentieth century, whether Nazi, Soviet, or Maoist. But God has a way of making the stone that the builders rejected a cornerstone. Obama was stubborn with the HHS mandate, believing that contraception was a no brainer. That’s because Obama has no brain for the things of God. He knows nothing of God. [see Professor Rice on this point] It was contraception that started the ball rolling with the sexual revolution, and it will be contraception that will be its undoing (and perhaps their own).
But there are also plenty of Know Nothings that claim to be within the Church, too. Since we are talking politics, we might want to give honorable mention to Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Robert Casey Jr., and Jerry Brown. There are plenty more, but you get the idea.
But there are also Know Nothings in Catholic academia. Instead of listing them all, let’s just say they can be found in the halls of just about every Catholic College in the country, especially at Georgetown, Fordham University, and Notre Dame. Some of them are writing for Catholic periodicals, some of them are in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, some of them are in our parishes.
St. John’s Gospel tells us:
“So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” John 11:47-52
The truth is that unless we willing to die to self, take up our crosses daily and follow Jesus Christ, we are all Know Nothings.
See also Professor Rice, Obama’s “Accommodation”
This article, You Know Nothing is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/you-know-nothing/
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