‘Yankee Ingenuity’ Is Killing Us

The latest ensample:  A study of the effects of radiation from cell phone towers.

(NaturalNews) Exposure to cell phone towers alters brain function in alarming ways, causing a lack of concentration, irritability, difficulty sleeping and lack of appetite. That's the conclusion of a new study just published by the British Medical Journal.(1)

The study, authored by Professor Enrique A Navarro, concluded that the severity of such symptoms directly correlated to cell tower exposure levels. In other words, the closer a person lives to a cell tower, the greater the severity of their symptoms. This was true regardless of race, income level and other demographics.

Cell towers, of course, broadcast and receive electromagnetic switching signals. Human biology -- and the brain in particular -- relies on electro-biochemical pathways for healthy function. Many scientists have long suspected that chronic exposure to low levels of EMF pollution (electropollution) may interfere with healthy functioning of the brain and body. This latest research adds yet more support to that alarming idea.

. . .

Source:  Mike Adams, http://www.naturalnews.com/044464_cell_towers_EMF_pollution_mental_confusion.html, posted 26 March 2014, accessed 31 March 2014

What the Godless Transhumanists Want . . .

. . . the saints of the Orthodox Church have already attained:

"He wandered for forty years without ever lying down to sleep, and he spent all of forty days and forty nights standing wide awake in a thorn bush. One winter's day, he was walking through a village when he came upon a dead man. Without hesitation, he took off his own coat and covered the body. A little further on, he gave his tunic to a poor man who was shivering in the cold. An army officer, who happened to be passing, saw the naked ascetic and wanted to know who had stripped him of his clothing. 'He did!' replied Bessarion, holding up the Gospel Book. On another occasion, he met with a poor man and, having nothing to give him in alms, he hurried to the market in order to sell his Gospel Book. On his disciple's asking him where the Book was, he replied cheerfully, 'I have sold it in obedience to the words which I never cease to hear: God, sell what you possess and give to the poor (Matt. 19:21).
 "Through this  evangelic way of life he became a chosen vessel of Grace, and God wrought many miracles through him. One day, for example, he made sea water sweet through the sign of the Cross, to quench his disciple's thirst. When the latter wanted to keep some for the remainder of the journey, he prevented him, saying, 'God is here, God is everywhere!' At another time, having stood for two weeks in prayer with hands raised to heaven, he brought about rain enough to fill a thirsty brother's coat. Then there was the time when he stopped the sun from setting until he reached the cell of an elder whom he wished to meet; and the time when he walked across the waters of a river. Through these and many other wonders wrought by the Saint, God showed, as He did with Moses, Joshua and Elias, that He grants His servants mastery even over natural phenomena. Through the power of Christ, he raised a paralytic, drove out demons and showed himself truly to be a 'god' upon the earth.

Source:  Entry for 20 February, ‘St Bessarion the Great, wonder-worker of Egypt (466)’, at http://www.abbamoses.com/months/february.html, accessed 28 March 2014 

May the Lord have mercy on us all, good and evil alike, that we may obtain the salvation of our souls and bodies.

Becoming gods

This is our goal as human beings, to be attained through God’s grace and our efforts.  Yet since the beginning, mankind has tried to become ‘a new creation’ through his efforts alone or with help from the dark powers - through magic, science, technology, demonic/Satanic rites, and such as these.

The evil pride inherent in the latter efforts is on display yet again in a recent report on creepy transhumanism and ‘synthetic biology’:

Synthetic biology goes well beyond engineering our food. Geneticist Craig Venter is a pioneer in the field of synthetic biology. In 2010 the media hailed his team’s success in creating “the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer.”

Currently, companies cannot patent naturally occuring DNA. Synthetic biology will allow syn-bio companies a loophole through patent laws. “One could theoretically upload a DNA sequence onto a computer, “print out” an exact copy of that DNA sequence, and patent the synthetic DNA sequence as an invention,” Gene Watch reports.

Google founder Larry Page met with Craig Venter in California at the Edge billionaires meeting in 2010. Also present were representatives from the State department, Bill Gates, Anne Wojcicki, Bill Joy and dozens of other tech company CEO’s and scientists.

The Edge Billionaire meetings have discussed the future of genetic engineering, biocomputation and re-designing humanity in a transhumanist era. Physicist Freeman Dyson described the individuals leading this group as having god-like power to create entirely new species on earth in a “New Age of Wonder”. He describes them as:

“…a new generation of artists, writing genomes as fluently as Blake and Byron wrote verses, might create an abundance of new flowers and fruit and trees and birds to enrich the ecology of our planet.”

In the societal divide that will inevitably ensue over the development of these technologies, Fred Charles Ikle, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy under President Reagan, sees a possibility of “Annihilation from Within.” “The prospect is that in the decades ahead, biotechnology – together with other sciences – may fundamentally change the human species and thus pose an elemental threat to democracy, the world order, and indeed to all civilizations,” writes Ikle.

The technological elite are engaged in a mission to attain full spectrum dominance over life and its complex processes, and in the process re-write the genetic code of the planet.

Source:  http://www.infowars.com/new-form-of-gmo-sneaking-into-food-supply-this-year/, posted 17 March 2014, accessed 27 March 2014

But this is not the path of salvation, the way to rise above our current fallen, limited condition, to ascend to God.  It is the way to destruction, to torment, to hell.  Ours must be the way of St Gregory Palamas and that of the other Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church who have kept without blemish the Faith given by Christ to His Holy Apostles:

On the second Sunday of Great Lent, there is a great feast in the blessed city of Thessalonika, Greece. It is the feast of St. Gregory Palamas. On this day, the holy relics of the saint are taken from the Church of St. Gregory in a procession throughout the city, escorted by bishops, priests, sailors, policemen, and thousands of faithful. One wonders why his earthly remains are still held in such great veneration. How could his bones remain incorruptible more than six hundred years after his death? Indeed, St. Gregory’s life clearly explains these wondrous facts. It illustrates the inspired words of the apostles that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19) and that we are "partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

. . .

Living the Spiritual Experience of the Church

In Athos, the novice Gregory took as his spiritual guide St. Nicodemos of Vatopedi Monastery. This holy man of prayer guided Gregory on the path of ascetic labor: prayers, vigils, fasting, continuous repentance, and monastic obedience. The young novice Gregory was especially attached to the prayer of the heart, also known as the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (see Luke 18:38).

The experienced practice of the Jesus Prayer, requiring solitude and silence combined with physical exercises and breathing methods, is called "hesychasm" (from the Greek hesychos, meaning inner stillness, peace, or silence). Those practicing it are called "hesychasts." Inner silence of this kind makes us capable of listening to the whispers of the divine within us. "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Therefore, the Jesus Prayer is the prayer of the whole person, involving the human body, mind, soul, and heart.

The hesychasts spoke and wrote about their unique experience. They taught people to pray without ceasing, as the Apostle Paul commands allChristians to do (1 Thessalonians 5:17). They explained that in prayer, man is filled from within with the eternal glory, with the divine light beheld at the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor. The hesychast Gregory explains:

For, on the day of the Transfiguration, that Body, source of the light of grace, was not yet united with our bodies; it illuminated from outside those who worthily approached it, and sent the illumination into the soul by the intermediary of the physical eyes; but now, since it is mingled with us and exists in us, it illuminates the soul from within. (Triads I. 3.38)

The Jesus Prayer is not a mantra, as in Eastern religions, and it cannot be taken as such. The prayer’s call for “mercy” involves inner repentance and change. It is also a prayer practiced within the sacramental life of the Church, a prayer combined with Holy Communion, confession, reading the Word of God, fasting, loving one’s neighbor, and so forth. Finally, it is not a prayer using “vain repetitions” or babble, but a prayer recited again and again, in persistence (Luke 18:1), from the inner heart of man reaching the divine heights of glory, confessing Christ as the Lord and Savior, in sincerity, humility, and faith.

    

For that prayer (the Jesus Prayer) is true and perfect. It fills the soul with Divine grace and spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the heart, abounds the more in Divine grace. . . . By this prayer the dew of the Holy Spirit is brought down upon the heart, as Elijah brought down rain on Mount Carmel. This mental prayer reaches to the very throne of God and is preserved in golden vials. . . . This mental prayer is the light which illumines man's soul and inflames his heart with the fire of love of God. It is the chain linking God with man and man with God. (Palamas, “Homily on how all Christians in general must pray without ceasing,” in E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer, Early Fathers of the Philokalia, London: Faber and Faber, 1981, pp. 412–415)

Such prayer was practiced from the early Christian period. The hesychasts were drawn by God's unconditional graceful love (Romans 5:15) to fill a certain human need around them. Many hesychasts abandoned their solitude to serve their brothers, “since he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:21). Some cared for the sick in hospitals, like St. Basil the Great in Caesarea; others helped the poor, like St. John the Almsgiver in Alexandria; and yet others welcomed the faithful for confession. Nevertheless, they did not abandon the Jesus Prayer and their inner silence. In this sense, all Christians are called to follow this hesychast way leading to salvation.

Let no one think, my brother Christians, that it is the duty only of priests and monks to pray without ceasing, and not of laymen. No, no; it is the duty of all of us Christians to remain always in prayer . . . every Christian in general should strive to pray always, and to pray without ceasing . . . this very name of our Lord Jesus Christ, constantly invoked by you, will help you to overcome all difficulties, and in the course of time you will become used to this practice and will taste how sweet is the name of the Lord. . . . For when we sit down to work with our hands, when we walk, when we eat, when we drink we can always pray mentally and practice this mental prayer—the true prayer pleasing to God. (“Homily on how all Christians in general must pray without ceasing”)

In addition to his spiritual practice and daily scriptural readings, St. Gregory studied the works of the great Fathers, theologians, and ascetics of the Church. Just as a scientist builds on the evidence and data provided to him by his predecessors, Gregory made a fascinating synthesis of the scriptural and patristic teaching on the prayer of the heart, combined with his personal experience.

Although the monk Gregory in his youth had diligently studied Greek philosophy, he was not influenced by its views on matter. Ancient Greek philosophy believes that the body imprisons the soul, and thus it detests matter. Christians respect the body, since Christ made the flesh a source of sanctification, and matter (water, oil, etc.) a channel of divine grace. In his writings, St. Gregory affirmed that man, united in body and soul, is sanctified by Jesus Christ, who took a human body at the Incarnation. “When God is said to have made man according to His image,” wrote St. Gregory, “the word man means neither the soul by itself nor the body by itself, but the two together.” In another place, he added:

Thus the Word of God took up His dwelling in the Theotokos in an inexpressible manner and proceeded from her, bearing flesh. He appeared upon the earth and lived among men, deifying our nature and granting us, after the words of the divine Apostle, “things which angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12). (A Homily on the Dormition of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary)

. . .

The Presence of God in Prayer

In his Triads, Palamas interpreted the experience of the Church by presenting logical arguments, based on the Scripture and the writings of the Fathers. Addressing the question of how it is possible for humans to have knowledge of a transcendent and unknowable God, he drew a distinction between knowing God in His essence, or nature, and knowing God in His energies, actions, or the means by which He acts.

    

To elaborate more, he made a comparison between God and the sun. The sun has its rays, God has His energies (among them, grace and light). By His energies, God creates, sustains, and governs the universe. By His energies, He transforms creation and deifies it, that is, He fills the new creation with His energies as water fills a sponge. These actions or energies of God are the true revelation of God Himself to humanity. So God is incomprehensible and unknowable in His nature or essence, but knowable in His energies. It is through His actions out of His love to the whole creation that God enters into a direct and immediate relationship with mankind, a personal confrontation between creature and Creator.

Towards the year 1340 the Athonite ascetics, with St. Gregory’s assistance, compiled a general reply to the attacks of Barlaam, the so-called Hagiorite Tome. Since the heated arguments flared everywhere in the churches, a general council was held at Constantinople in the year 1341. In front of hundreds of bishops and monastics, St. Gregory Palamas held an open debate with Barlaam in the halls of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia. On May 27, 1341, the council accepted the position of St. Gregory Palamas that God, unapproachable in His essence, reveals Himself through His energies, which are directed towards the world and are able to be perceived, like the light of Tabor, but which are neither material nor created. The teachings of Barlaam were condemned as heresy, and he himself was anathematized and returned to Calabria.

Source:  http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/69170.htm, posted 16 March 2014, accessed 27 March 2014

But let no one be deceived:  This grace that transforms us, as St Gregory says above, is not something apart from God or other than God, as Catholics and Protestants maintain.  It is God Himself, His uncreated energies.  Salvation for man is union with God:

The statement by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, "The Son of God became man, that we might become god", [the second g is always lowercase since man can never become a God] indicates the concept beautifully. II Peter 1:4 says that we have become " . . . partakers of divine nature." Athanasius amplifies the meaning of this verse when he says theosis is "becoming by grace what God is by nature" (De Incarnatione, I). What would otherwise seem absurd, that fallen, sinful man may become holy as God is holy, has been made possible through Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. Naturally, the crucial Christian assertion, that God is One, sets an absolute limit on the meaning of theosis - it is not possible for any created being to become, ontologically, God or even another god.

Source:  http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis, accessed 27 March 2014

In all love and humility, we encourage our friends in the churches of the West, Protestant and Catholic, to explore what grace really is and how to attain it, that we all might have ‘a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ’ (from ‘The Petitions’ of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, http://www.goarch.org/chapel/liturgical_texts/liturgy_hchc, accessed 27 March 2014).

Secession Movements Growing in Europe

Dr Tom Woods, in some of his later Nullify Now speeches, said something to this effect:  ‘We don’t need to just think outside the box.  We need to stomp on the box, tear it up, and light it on fire’ - ‘the box’ referring here to the bounds of allowable political debate in this (forced) Union of States.

It is astonishing to see Europe taking this advice to heart as secession movements blossom from west to east, while we in the States (including far too many in the South) mindlessly repeat the insane mantra, ‘When our party wins the national elections in the year 20XX, it will fix everything!’  (Maybe it will happen that way, but it is very doubtful.)

Take note, ye who cherish local life, and learn a lesson or two from Europe, if ye be humble enough.  We know of Scotland, Catalonia, and the Crimea, but here are other lesser known peoples seeking a bit more freedom for themselves.

-Two regions seek to secede from Moldova:

http://www.infowars.com/u-s-moves-to-squash-eu-resistance-in-eastern-europe/

-Sardinia from Italy:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/23/italy-separatist-sardinian-swiss-canton-marittimo

-Venice has voted overwhelmingly (89%) in a week-long referendum to leave Italy:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101511134

From this CNBC story (posted 21 March 2014, accessed 24 March 2014):

"Although history never repeats itself, we are now experiencing a strong return of little nations, small and prosperous countries,able to interact among each other in the global world," he told CNBC.

"Venetian people realized that we are a nation (worthy of) self-rule and openly oppressed, and the entire world is moving towards fragmentation - a positive fragmentation - where local traditions mingle with global exchanges."

It is this fierce pride in their cultural heritage that unites the states striving for autonomy – and could lead to more independence bids in the future.

"Catalonia, Scotland, the Basque Country, Wales and Flanders are distinct nations with a long history behind and a strong will to govern themselves," Xavier Solano, former representative of the Catalan Government in the U.K., told CNBC.

"Perhaps not all of them will bid for independence, however it seems reasonable to believe that some of them may think that their future would be better in their own hands. I am convinced that EU internal borders will be re-shaped by the democratic will of the people."

Note also where future independence movements are shaping up:  the Basque country in Spain, Wales, and Flanders.  But all these peoples, autonomous or not, need to secede from the EU as well if they want to be free from distant, burdensome, faceless deskmen.

Do the people of the united States have enough humility to seek a restoration of local autonomy of this kind, to be content with a quiet life at home in our own States and counties/parishes and villages, free of the harassment of the federal government?  Or are we so drunk with Puritan dreams of bringing forth a godless, worldly Millennium that spans the Earth, through the military power of Washington City, that we are willing to trample the beauty of the small, of natural limits, under our feet?

Kings and Constitutions

Among the other interesting ideas presented by Michael Davis in his essay ‘Why I’m a Monarchist’, there is this, which all those who profess deep devotion to written constitutions ought to consider:

 . . . Truly, we have nothing that can contend with Monarchy. We have no body in government whose authority is exercised purely in the interest of making our lives more rich and humane. We have no such living vehicle of the wisdom passed down to us by our ancestors. We have the Constitution, yes, and it’s undeniably an essential feature of American civil society. But what does the Constitution do to ensure our people are represented with dignity abroad? Where is its guarantor in the halls of government, prepared to stand against the tide of partisanism in defense of the core virtues it enlists?

The Constitution is meant to embody the spirit of our laws, our liberties, and our political order. Yet it’s a body without arms, without legs, without a voice, without a conscience. It has no will of its own, and so can be employed in the service of whoever can mumble its contents—not as a shield to defend us, the people, but as a sword for those who would call themselves our governors.

Monarchy is, most simply, the rule of law and the spirit of a people incarnate. It’s the avatar of a nation, the vessel for its ancient spirit. Our Founders decided to handle the spirit only, to do away with the body and accept what Hannan calls the most sublime form of English common law. But it seems this ideal is so sublime as to be imperceptible: as soon as it appeared, it was gone. So often we need that intermediary, someone to devote himself entirely to what we cannot do casually. Order, law, liberty, dignity, beauty—the whole organism of tradition—none of these are best served by television debates and twelve hours of voting once every couple of years. They must have their constant minister. . . .

Source:  http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/03/im-monarchist.html, posted 3 March 2014, accessed 14 March 2014

And on this same topic of kings, Mike Church had this exchange with Srdja Trifkovic in a radio interview:

Mike: I have been enjoying your writing for years at Chronicles, including your ruminations about our modern demonization of monarchy and how you’re trying to figure out: How did this greatest and oldest form of government get to the station in life where it’s regarded as something that is the equivalent of Satan himself?  I know that’s not our subject today, but I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been reading it with great interest.  Keep writing about it because I find it fascinating.

Trifkovic: Well, some of the most stable democracies in the world are monarchies, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. If you have a head of state, it’s far better to have someone with established credentials that transcend the volatile barometer of daily politics. Of course, the optimum form would be an absolute monarchy with a benevolent Christian ruler, but we’re a little bit beyond that, I’m afraid.

Mike: Yes, that is something that perhaps we can revive. . . .

Source:  https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-putin-and-crimea-but-were-afraid-to-ask/, posted 18 March 2014, accessed 19 March 2014

Yes, and perhaps the South can help in that revival.  Though professing a devotion for republican ideals like political equality and liberty, she has (thankfully) respected the  hierarchy seen and heard and felt a bit more than these abstract, ungrounded, disembodied principles of the airy realms of the mind.  Furthermore, there has been a pronounced friendliness toward kingship since her beginning.  She was founded by royalists, and king-friends continually show forth throughout her history, from Patrick Henry to the gentry after the War of Northern Aggression to the 20^th century Agrarian writer Andrew Lytle.

May we be a good ensample to the world by working to restore a Christian king here in the Southland (which also means working hard to restore the Orthodox Christian Faith of our forefathers here as well).

What to Plant for an Anticancer (and More) Garden

To name just a few of the more potent choices out there:

--Milk Thistle:

http://naturalsociety.com/milk-thistle-benefits-health-cancer-liver/

--Onion:

http://www.naturalnews.com/044318_onion_extract_colon_cancer_chemotherapy_drug.html

--Garlic:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/03/bill-sardi/garlic-as-a-natural-remedy/

A Heart-Warming Sight for a Southerner

The Crimea is now an independent nation after more than 95% of her citizens voted peacefully to leave the gangster government imposed violently on the Ukraine by agents of the American Empire and the European Union:

http://rt.com/news/crimea-referendum-results-official-250/

Predictably, President Obama and other leaders of the so-called ‘free world’, who are behind the turmoil in the Ukraine, are having alternating fits of rage and of hypocrisy as their plan to surround, isolate, and conquer Russia falls apart:

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/17/290757432/obama-says-u-s-will-never-recognize-crimeas-secession-vote

May we in the States of the South have enough manly courage to follow the Crimea’s path, and that of our kinfolk in Ireland, who separated themselves from the British Empire in the early 20^th century - an event brought to mind as we honor the memory of the blessed and holy St Patrick of Ireland, who enlightened our Irish forefathers with the Christian faith in the 5^th century:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/03/17/100821-st-patrick-the-bishop-of-armagh-and-enlightener-of-ireland

--Father Andrew has a good commentary on the Crimea’s secession here:

http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/free-ukrainians-reject-western-colonialist-junta-in-kiev/

Two Nineteenth Century Prophets Condemn Today’s 'Conservatives'

Some may be familiar with these remarks of the Reverend Robert Lewis Dabney on American conservatives:

This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is to-day one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will to-morrow be forced upon its timidity, and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom’ (‘Women’s Rights Women’, Discussions: Vol. IV, Secular, p. 496, available free at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7lvsb1aafgtuw4x/-8isso14X9/Books%20by%20Chapter/Discussions%20V4, accessed 15 March 2014).

This Southern farmer, theologian, philosopher, and soldier was not alone in condemning the conservatives of our age.  Mark Hackard has found that the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky in his novel The Possessed (also known as The Devils or Demons) was much in agreement with him.  Mr Hackard begins:

Fyodor Dostoevsky has rightly been called a prophet of the modern age. With a depth of vision unrivalled, he saw that cultural, political, and economic disorder have their main source in a crisis of the spirit. Dostoevsky then foresaw how man’s rebellion against the Transcendent would progressively accelerate into full-blown anarchy. This idea became a central theme of The Possessed, his great counter-revolutionary novel. Within the book particular attention was drawn to the spiritual corruption of the ruling class, the so-called conservative elements of society.

Dostoevsky wrote about Russia, but he was also deeply sensitive to the West’s descent into secularism. By the 19^th century “enlightened” European man had hurtled headlong into apostasy, abandoning Christ for the worship of self; his first act of regicide was the murder of God within his heart. Without sacral authority, power was said to derive from the perfect will of “We, The People,” guided by moneyed manipulators and their technocrats. Parties like the GOP and the Tories have done nothing to arrest the decline of our societies because they ultimately share the same radical, anti-traditional principles of the Left. For evidence, look no further than Britain’s rapid transformation into a crime-ridden, multicultural surveillance state, where the ruling Conservatives advance homosexual “marriage” as a matter of moral legitimacy.

The ideals of modernity, manifested in progress, equality, democracy, total individual autonomy, etc. form a counterfeit religion. So long as the self-proclaimed Right holds fast to any of these fantasies, opposition to liberalism is meaningless and purely cosmetic. . . .

Source:  ‘Dostoevsky on Conservatism’, http://souloftheeast.org/2013/02/01/dostoevsky-on-modern-conservatism/, posted 1 Feb. 2013, accessed 15 March 2014

The entire essay, which isn’t long, is very much recommended, as is Rev Dabney’s ‘Women’s Rights Women’.

Soviet Resurgence?

Lately Rush Limbaugh has become fond of claiming that President Putin is attempting to ‘reassemble the Soviet Union’.  While in a geographical and political sense there may be some limited truth to this (voluntary partnerships being formed with - not forced takeovers of - Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other neighboring countries), in a spiritual sense it is absolutely false.

For what is the essence of a Soviet society?  A religion of godless materialism, and a people governed by a godless bureaucracy, who are themselves controlled by godless elites.

Where are such societies today?  In Russia?  No, not in Russia but in Western Europe and the united States.  Soviet Communism was in fact the furthest development yet of Western thought, and had nothing whatsoever to do with traditional Russian life. 

To admit that the spiritual essence of Communist rule in Russia is, in a special manner, the reflected ideological essence of Europe’s new era is to make an assertion that is empirically founded to a high degree. (Here we must consider the following: the origin of Russian atheism in the ideas of the European Enlightenment; the importation of socialist ideas into Russia from the West; the connection of Russian Communist “methodology” with the ideas of French Syndicalists; and the significance and “cult” of Marx in Russia.)

Source:  Pyotr Savitsky, ‘Eurasianism’, http://souloftheeast.org/2014/02/22/the-eurasianist-worldview/, trans. Mark Hackard, posted 22 Feb. 2014, accessed 10 March 2014

Soviet Communism’s destructive reign was a punishment for the Russian people for their apostasy from the Orthodox Christian Faith.  Russia is still recovering from this nightmare, but she is moving in a different direction spiritually than the West.  She is moving toward God, while the West is moving away from Him, toward the Soviet model of life.  Here are just some of the unnecessarily burdensome rules and regulations the European Union bureaucrats (whose deification of their institution is implied in these types of rulings) have imposed on member countries:

In case the reader may be unaware, the unaccountable, unelected Brussels eurocracts have repeatedly stirred outrage with ludicrous mandates and prosecutions on the most trivial and arcane of matters, such as banning bent cucumbers (EU Regulation No 1677/88 specified that cucumbers must be “reasonably well shaped and practically straight” with a maximum height of the arc being “10 mm per 10 cm of the length of cucumber”) and bent bananas; mandating the size of cigarette packages (down to the millimeter); defining marmalades and jams and how they may be packaged; banning olive oil cruets on restaurant tables; ordering children to be restricted to car seats until age 12; prosecuting U.K. street vendors and grocers (the “Metric Martyrs”) for using traditional Imperial weights and measures instead of metric; regulating the width of tractor seats; and on and on.

These untold thousands of EU regulations on minutiae are complemented by Brussels’ usurpation of authority over national fisheries, energy policy, taxation, and many other “big ticket” items — items such as freedom of speech. The EU’s Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia infamously has defined opposition to the European single currency as “monetary xenophobia.” An even more notorious attack on freedom of expression came from the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Advocate General Dámaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer, who charged, in 2001, that British economist Bernard Connolly’s critique of the euro and the EU’s monetary integration was akin to “blasphemy,” and therefore not protected speech. The ECJ ruled in the Connolly case that the European Commission could restrict dissent and punish individuals who “damaged the institution’s image and reputation.” The European Court of Human Rights has, among other outrages, overturned the British ban on homosexuals in the armed forces and ordered crucifixes removed from all public school classrooms in Italy.

Source:  William Jasper, ‘EU/U.S. – Transatlantic Convergence’, http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/16348-eu-u-s-transatlantic-convergence, posted 20 Aug. 2013, accessed 20 Jan. 2014

And, similarly, let us not forget the tens of thousands of regulations in Washington City’s Federal Register:

https://www.federalregister.gov/uploads/2013/05/FR-Pages-published.pdf

or the various sinful rulings and laws that have been passed regarding homosexual marriage, abortion and health care, euthanasia, etc. by federal, state, and local governments in the u.S.

If Mr Limbaugh truly fears the return of Sovietism in the world, he had better stop grandstanding over Russia and instead get into the trenches to deliver the Union of States he says he loves out from the bondage of the Kingdom of Man and into the glorious freedom of the Kingdom of God.

A Couple of Votes Are All It Takes

--The Crimean parliament has voted to secede from the European Union/American Empire puppet government in the Ukraine.  Citizens in the Crimea will have their say on 16 March.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304554004579422624182460570

This is all it takes, Southron (with thanks to the League of the South for the idea):  a vote or two in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, or any other State, and Obamacare, the IRS, NSA/FBI/CIA spying, education standards imposed from Washington City, Homeland Security arming to the teeth, endless and brutal foreign wars and occupations, and all the rest of the 150 year nightmare will be behind us (though the difficult work of true spiritual growth would then begin in earnest, if we are wise). 

--In response to the usual gnashing of teeth by the globalist centralizers over secession, these two short articles are helpful:

On Crimea as already an autonomous republic within the Ukraine:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/status-of-crimea-under-existing-constitution-of-ukraine/

For a bit of humor (Crimeans as neo-Confederates) as well as more serious news (anti-Jewish/Nazi sympathizers who are now in power in Kiev):

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/neo-confederates-in-the-crimea/

--A related question some in the Chosen Nation of ‘America’ might ask themselves (like Sens McCain & Rubio, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, the U.S. House members who voted to send $1 billion in loans to the Kiev government, etc.):  When did the Ukraine become the 51^st State of the Union, so that what happens there is of such dire importance to Washington City?  This is Yankee Puritan busybody meddling at its worst.

Forms of Government and Antichrist - II

Previously we saw that the Orthodox Church views Christian kings as the bulwark guarding against Antichrist’s final appearance in the world.  Today we see how she views other forms of government - democracies and republics - as articulated mainly by the great theologian and hierarch Archbishop Averky Taushev (reposed in 1976).  The most directly related portions have been highlighted, but much surrounding material has also been included to allow the reader to see the larger context in which they ought to be viewed.

            . . . About his preceptor, Fr. Seraphim wrote:  “Archbishop Averky’s view of the contemporary world was sober, precise, and entirely inspired by the Sacred Scripture and Holy Fathers of the Church:  He taught that we live in the age of the Apostasy, the falling away from true Christianity, when the ‘mystery of iniquity’ has entered its final stage of preparation for the ‘man of sin,’ Antichrist.”

Like Fr. Seraphim, Archbishop Averky had made an extensive study of the philosophical roots of the apostasy.  As Fr. Seraphim noted:  “Archbishop Averky traced the development of this Apostasy in particular from the time of the schism of the Church of Rome (1054), through the era of Humanism, the Renaissance and Reformation, the French Revolution, nineteenth-century materialism and Communism, culminating in the Russian Revolution of 1917, which removed the last great barrier to the working of the mystery of iniquity and the coming of Antichrist.”

As we have seen, Archbishop Averky was in the direct spiritual line of the nineteenth-century Russian prophet St. Theophan the Recluse, whose prophecies—like those of his contemporary St. Ignatius Brianchaninov—he saw unmistakably being fulfilled around him.  St. Theophan had prophesied the fall of the Orthodox Tsar and its terrible aftermath, which he said must come as a punishment for the faithlessness, freethinking, amorality, and blasphemy among his countrymen.  “When royal authority falls,” Theophan had said, “and the people everywhere institute self-government (republics, democracies), then there will be room for the Antichrist to act.  It will not be hard for Satan to prepare voices in favor of renouncing Christ, as experience showed during the French Revolution.  There will be no one to pronounce the authoritative veto.  And so when such regimes, suitable for disclosing the Antichrist’s aspirations, are instituted everywhere, then the Antichrist will appear.”

            This was exactly what Archbishop Averky saw happening in the contemporary world.  “The fundamental task of the servants of the coming Antichrist,” he wrote, “is to destroy the old world with its former concepts and ‘prejudices,’ in order to build in its place a new world suitable for receiving its approaching ‘new owner,’ who will take the place of Christ for people and give them on earth that which Christ did not give them.”  In the words of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, “The Antichrist will be the logical, just, and natural result of the general moral and spiritual direction of mankind.”

            Like his beloved St. John of Kronstadt, Archbishop Averky found that the most difficult thing to endure as an Orthodox pastor was to witness the apparent triumph of evil in the world.  He saw Christians of all different denominations “keeping step with the times,” unconsciously collaborating with the servants of the coming Antichrist by preaching humanistic, chiliastic ideas of “world progress” and earthly blessedness—ideas which appear motivated by “Christian love,” but which are in reality profoundly foreign to true Christianity.  “Bearing one’s cross is the natural way of every true Christian,” Archbishop Averky affirmed, “without which there is no Christianity.”

            Archbishop Averky was especially wounded at heart when he saw Orthodox leaders trying to keep up with these apostate trends for the sake of “ecumenical” progress, thus contributing to the “new Christianity” of the Antichrist—a “Christianity without the Cross” (Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, 3rd ed., Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2010, pgs. 734-5, bold emphasis added).

Afterword:  This should not be understood to mean that the Orthodox Church forbids democracies, republics, and other forms of elected government (e.g., her own local church councils are highly democratic, and democratic village governments, etc. have always co-existed with Orthodox kings); but rather that the final decision, the final authority, in matters of government ought to rest with a Christian king, if a nation is blessed enough to have one, and not with ‘the people’, a supreme court, and so on.

Forms of Government and Antichrist - I

In the West, thoughts about the best form of government tend to focus on the abstract - liberty, rights, and so on.  With the Church it should be otherwise, and it has been.  For instance, in a homily preached in 1956, St John (Maximovitch) the Wonderworker discussed how government relates to the coming of Antichrist:

First of all, the forces preparing for his coming fight against lawful monarchical rule. The holy Apostle Paul says that the Antichrist cannot appear until "the one who restraineth" is put aside. John Chrysostom explains that the "one who restraineth" refers to a lawful, pious regime. Such a power struggles with evil. "The mystery" working in the world does not want this, does not want the struggle against evil by the power of a pious ruler — quite the opposite. It wants the rule of lawlessness, and when it achieves this, nothing more will stop the appearance of the Antichrist (‘Cheese-fare Sunday, 1956, The Sunday of the Dread Judgment’, http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/sermons_john_maximovich.htm#_Toc100019506, accessed 3 March 2014).

The entire sermon is a good discourse on the Book of Revelation, but for present purposes it is important to note that kings - and not democratically elected representatives, presidents, or other magistrates - are the rulers who restrain the appearance of Antichrist.  And what has mankind foolishly been trying to pull down for the last two hundred years and more?  Kingship.  The mystery of iniquity truly doth already work (II Thessalonians 2:7).

We must repent of the sin of revolution against true, God-given authority while there is still time.