America was founded as a protesting nation\u2013a refugee nation\u2013a nation of people who had every reason to suspect the powers \u00a0that be. They were a people who had every reason to be cautious and to believe that the powers that be were out to get them, to grab their wealth, smash their religion, quash their freedoms and enslave them.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
I think that fear and distrust of the establishment runs deep in our bloodstream.<\/p>\n
Is it healthy? I think up to a point it is. We should be suspicious of those who hold power.<\/p>\n
But if we\u2019re Christians we should also have a bit more \u00a0trust and confidence in God\u2019s providence. What he is doing is always and everywhere above and beyond the little power plays of people here on earth. Will we be persecuted from time to time? That is what the master promised. Will we be misunderstood, maligned and even martyred? It seems that is part of the deal. Will government powers hate us, wealthy people scorn our values\u00a0and the diabolically controlled despise us? Of course. It they did that to our Master why do we think it will be different for us?<\/p>\n
Conspiracy theories are based in fear. We should grow up and stop being so afraid of the dark.<\/p>\n
We should\u00a0remember the words of Pope St John Paul II who lived through the Nazis AND the Communists, who stepped out on the balcony and said,<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not be afraid!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why do Americans go crazy for a conspiracy? I have a theory. I think it is because of who we are as a people. Look at our history. Most of the immigrants who came here were fleeing some kind of persecution. Protestant settlers came for religious freedom from oppressive state religion regimes. Jews came here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23074","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
Conspiracy Theories and the Assassination of JFK - Fr. Dwight Longenecker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why do Americans go crazy for a conspiracy? I have a theory. I think it is because of who we are as a people. Look at our history. Most of the immigrants\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/conspiracy-theories-assassination-jfk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conspiracy Theories and the Assassination of JFK - Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do Americans go crazy for a conspiracy? I have a theory. I think it is because of who we are as a people. Look at our history. 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