Regarding secular reporting, it’s about time the other side is heard. Those of you who are “comfortable” with the media probably don’t even realize the privilege that you experience because reporting is so biased towards your own religious values. Some of us sense relief when reading this article, just like others may feel relief when the news speaks casually about the Pope being connected to a magical Deity (which frustrates those who have not been socialized to believe this is true). Bottom line – if you weren’t raised to think what you think, you most likely wouldn’t think it. This means our beliefs are more often randomly assigned than universal truth. Humans do not behave based on values as much as we as a society believe. There are other social contracts in place through collective behavioral norms and survival instincts that are much stronger than “stated values”. Besides all values are subjectively rationalized anyway (i.e. Salem Witch Trials, and now evil condoms and endorsing wars). Anyway, though we may feel negatively about our differences, we all need each other for a peaceful world to exist (this assumes most religious people want a peaceful world which may be inaccurate for extremists given the story about the end of the world and salvation etc…). We don’t need to separate from one another and let the tension build up. And if we saw each other in a supermarket, we would probably smile and say “excuse me” when passing one another, never the while focusing on our differences. That doesn’t sound so bad to me…but then again neither do condoms.

The same goes for three bells. If you read directly what was said about protestants you would have read that the Catholic church believes that the Protestants share in Jesus’ salvation.

The other things you said about the city and university were so absurd that I do not even choose to address them at this time, seeing how unreliable your info is on Catholic beliefs and documents why would I believe a word you said on anything else?!?

For what it’s worth, Ave Maria is not the first town in the United States built on religious values. One hundred and sixty years ago, Mormons founded Salt Lake City. The difference is that the founders of Salt Lake City were building a religious refuge from scratch while the founder of Ave Maria is imposing his will to build a utopian community that seems to be as much predicated on politics as religion.

A truly interesting question is whether, with a conservative Supreme Court, Ave Maria officials will try to reverse court decisions such as Shelly v. Kraemer (forbidding restrictive real estate covenants), or have cause to get around various prohibitions in The Constitution such as those found in Article IV Section 4 (mandating a republican form of government) and Article VI (barring religious tests for public office).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070722/ap_on_re_eu/pope_peace

I can’t say I’ve witnessed the protestants do much better

Yes, but even the stupid can do tremendous damage if they’re placed carefully. Look at how badly corrupted the DOJ is thanks to the efforts of people like Goodling.

Indeed! Many of the articles I referenced for this post mentioned how Ave Maria would bring new jobs and business to the surrounding area. I worry, however, that the bleak future you forecast will come to pass, as the (mostly) white Christian soldiers of the community are feted and fed by the (mostly) not-white retail/service/trade/unskilled job holders.

A quick check of demographics for the nearby town of Immokalee reveals that well over one-third of families living in the town have incomes below the officially abysimally low povery level. The good news would be if the presence of the new university raised the income level within the town. The bad news would be if, as is the case with several promient Northeastern universities, it became an island of self-serving culture surrounded by a sea of dispair.