Judge
Roy Moore of Alabama has been center-stage politically in the States, but one
thing he said recently (9 Nov.) has gone by largely unnoticed:
I believe you and I have a
duty to stand up and fight back against the forces of evil waging an all-out
war on our conservative values!
Our nation is at a crossroads right now — both spiritually and politically.
Our nation is at a crossroads right now — both spiritually and politically.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/09/roy-moore-says-forces-evil-behind-report-sexual-contact-with-14-year-old.html,
opened 18 Nov. 2017
Mr
Moore has taken it upon himself to lead a moral crusade upon evil in the nation,
intent on wiping it out in Washington City, and presumably in the other States
as well using the power of a ‘regenerate’ federal government.
But
‘the nation’ is none of Mr Moore’s business.
It doesn’t even exist. It is a
fanciful, but dangerous, daydream of the Puritan Yankees, a fair bit of whose
ideology has infected Southerners like Judge Moore. Since there is no single, monolithic nation,
but rather a voluntary union of sovereign States/nations, each with its own
unique history and folkways, neither Mr Moore, nor Hillary Clinton, etc. may
rampage across State borders with impunity to implement their plans for moral
renewal and such like.
The
South has always had a different view of moral crusading than the North. Henry Hughes of Mississippi states it this
way:
Charity ought to begin at
home. As long as it can find there, anything to do; it ought to stay and do it.
It may travel when its work is done; it may use its feet, when its hands are
idle. The whole power of the society, ought to be applied to its ends. After
they are perfectly realized it may help other societies. It must not be
generous to others; while unjust to itself. It must perfect itself, before it
perfects others. There is little room for charity abroad; if there is much room
for charity at home. Home duties are highest. If one community tries to better
another before it betters itself; it worsts both. It does a wrong. It wrongs
those who are nearer and dearer. That wrong is atrocious. If our state or
family are not perfect; they need our means. They must have preference. If
there is any giving or helping; it must be for them. Everything must go to
them. If they have no needs, the surplus may go to others; but the first needs
must be first answered.
. . . Progress deliberates. It must be
patient. It is slow. Agents must be habituated, before actions can be habitual.
Hurry disorders: it is not wise: haste is anarchy. Progress does not sweat; it
does not run; it walks with a lame heel, and handles with a sore hand. It
hastens slowly.
Henry Hughes, Treatise on Sociology (1854), Book I,
pgs. 74-5, https://archive.org/stream/treatiseonsocio00hughgoog/treatiseonsocio00hughgoog_djvu.txt,
opened 18 Nov. 2017
Is
Alabama perfect? Is she even well enough
that Mr Moore can ride off to Washington with righteous fervor to heal those he
sees as being sick?
Are
6,642 abortions performed in Alabama in 2016 proof of her wholeness?
Or
748 suicides in 2015?
The
third highest obesity rate amongst the States?
The
highest opioid prescription numbers amongst the States (5.8 million
prescriptions in 2015)?
It
would appear that there is still some work to be done in Alabama. Mr Moore and the other Yankee-style moral
crusaders in the South would do well to follow the older Southern tradition
articulated by Mr Hughes and tend to the people of their own States before they
go bossing others around.
‘Physician, heal thyself’
(St Luke 4:23).
A
last thought on this for now: If Mr
Moore et al. feel that being in the Union is having a bad effect on the souls
of the citizens of their States, wouldn’t it be a better show of manners (and a
quicker and more effective remedy) for their States to leave the Union than to
force all the other States to submit to their views?
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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