The
dogged stubbornness with which the South has held to its evangelical Christianity
is very admirable in some ways, yet, as we have discussed heretofore, its more
troublesome aspects do manifest themselves from time to time. A case-in-point is seen in this 1890 quote from
Sen John Warwick Daniel, spoken in honor of Pres Jefferson Davis:
Daniel said, “Jefferson Davis never advocated an
idea that did not have its foundation in the Declaration of Independence; that
was not deducible from the Constitution of the United States as the fathers who
made it interpreted its meaning; that had not been rung in his ears and stamped
upon his heart from the hour when his father baptized him in the name of
Jefferson . . . (Source: Brion
McClanahan, ‘Jefferson Davis and the Lame Lion of Lynchburg’, http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/jefferson-davis-and-the-lame-lion-of-lynchburg/,
posted 1 June 2015, accessed 5 June 2015).
Æfter
Western European Christians (Protestant and Roman Catholic) had become so exhausted from fighting wars amongst
themselves over religious doctrine in the seventeenth hundredyear, they decided
that tolerance and pluralism rather than correct doctrine were preferable. Thus, Western Christianity became the concern
of the individual merely. The Church
could no longer be the unifying force for society, that which integrates all
into one body. But man longs for
integration with others, as Richard Weaver says in his book Visions of Order; he longs for a creed
held in common with his fellows. The
Church’s unique, Divine-human characteristic of being a universal brotherhood,
a body in which all kinds of men can be joined together and become one, was therefore
imitated by Western man to the best of his ability in other institutions: in
most cases in the nation-state.
Because
of all this, Southerners usually do not argue much over religious
doctrine. ‘Just believe in Jesus’ is
good enough for most; the other doctrines of Christianity aren’t worth fighting
over,
even though, as St Justin Popovich says, ‘The sacred dogmas are the eternal and
saving divine Truths’ (Orthodox Faith and
Life in Christ, 3rd ed., Belmont, Ma., 2005, p. 201) the
rejection of which leads to our being sundered from God.
However,
ask a Southerner about his view of the [u.] S. Constitution or politics in
general, and one will get an earful. We
are to be gravely concerned about how the ‘fathers of the Constitution’
interpret that document, but to care little for what the Holy Fathers say about
the Holy Scriptures. We may be baptized
in the name of political heroes like Jefferson and Washington, but to speak of
Saints of the Orthodox Church, and how much more so to be baptized with their
names, is silly superstition.
Đe
South, and the Western theods (nations) in general, now define themselves
primarily by politics. Political creeds
trump religious creeds. So when
immigrants come to the [u]nited States they swear loyalty not to the Holy
Trinity or to Jesus Christ or to a Christian denomination but to the Holy
Constitution, which makes of Americans one people regardless of ‘race, color,
or creed’, as it is often said.
But
as history has shown us, politics is thin gruel for the sawl (soul) of
man. How long it will be before
Southrons tire of their daily political bread of talk radio and newspapers we
cannot say. But we pray that they will
soon be enlightened by the prayers of the Holy Mothers and Fathers of their
forebears of France, Scotland, Africa, England, and the rest, and of the Most
Holy Mother of God, the Protectress of the Southland; turn away from the
worship of the Kingdom of Man, whether known or unknown; and become a ghostly
(spiritual) community rooted in the Holy Orthodox Church, which alone can show
us the true God - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - and the way to true union with
Him and with one another.
. . . Enlightened, as was this man:
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