Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Off-Site Post: ‘Long Live the King!’


Monarchy, according to a wide range of sources new and old, is one of the most natural and beneficial forms of government, but you wouldn’t know it by reading history books in the [u]nited States.  There, it is presented as the most contemptible form imaginable.  We have a bit of a difference of opinion, then.  Whose judgment is more sound, the friends of the king or his enemies?

Let us take a look at three of the major religions/civilizations from world history to try to find an answer.

First, the Classical, pre-Christian civilization:

Much of the Classical tradition insists on monarchy as the proper means for the moralization and humanization of the people: e.g., Musonius Rufus:

In the next place it is essential for the king to exercise self-control over himself and demand self-control of his subjects, to the end that with sober rule and seemly submission there shall be no wantonness on the part of either. For the ruin of the ruler and the citizen alike is wantonness. But how would anyone achieve self-control if he did not make an effort to curb his desires, or how could one who is undisciplined make others temperate? One can mention no study except philosophy that develops self-control. Certainly it teaches one to be above pleasure and greed, to admire thrift and to avoid extravagance; it trains one to have a sense of shame, and to control one's tongue, and it produces discipline, order, and courtesy, and in general what is fitting in action and in bearing. In an ordinary man when these qualities are present they give him dignity and self-command, but if they be present in a king they make him preeminently godlike and worthy of reverence. ~Musonius Rufus, That Kings Also Should Study Philosophy, Fragment 8


Next, the Jewish view:

Monarchy in the Jewish tradition also begins with the conviction of divine kingship mediated by a human representative. God is the ultimate king over the people of Israel and, also, the cosmos . . . .

Hence the opening to most of the wealth of Jewish prayer: Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu Melekh HaOlam, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe. . ." The kingship of Israel's God, both over the heavenly powers whom the other nations worship as gods as well as over the earth and all of its kingdoms, and especially of Israel, is the central theme of the Psalms (e.g., LXX Ps. 43:4, 92:1, 94:3, 95:10, 96:1, 98:1, 144:1, 13, 145:10, 149:2). However, the Old Testament generally maintains that God's divine kingship is to be rightfully mediated through the human Israelite monarch. Despite the anti-monarchic material found in 1 Samuel 8, the majority of the Deuteronomistic History seems to assume both the inevitability, legitimacy, and necessity of the Israelite monarchy (see, for example, Dt. 17:14-20). This is the explicit apologetic point of the Book of Judges: namely, the repeated idolatry and covenant infidelity displayed by Israel in the period of the Judges was possible only because "in those days there was no King in Israel; [therefore] every one did what was right in his own eyes" (Jg. 17:6, 21:25).

 . . .


--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Friday, July 27, 2018

‘Imperfection’


What is a Preamble?
And a Constitution?

We have our Church, king, and fatherland;
With these we find no fault and are content.
In them the folk become as one.

The Holy Body and Blood
Of the Son of God,
Held in the sacred silver cup,
Knit us together in a deep
And wonderful way.

Our Christian king, the father
Of all in the clan,
Distributes justice
Without the gall of fav’ritism.
In this man, we behold our history:
Ev’ry joy and sorrow,
Ev’ry custom, old and dear.
We wearies himself on our behalf,
And our love for him has no bounds.

The fatherland is our common home and life.
Though seemingly separate,
All our lives are woven together
In the same rivers and trees,
Mountains and lakes, rains and winds.
We walk upon the same soil,
Build our homes upon it,
Bury our dead within it.
Our crops and livestock
Are nourished by it.
Through Christian living,
The Holy Ghost hallows it.
The land embraces ev’ry one of us,
And in each heart, there is the fatherland.

We know no other faith
Than the Orthodoxy
Of our forebears:
The Faith of the Apostles and Councils,
Devout husbands and wives,
Hidden hermits and public pastors,
Angels singing praises.
The Church’s ethos of asceticism
And repentance we dare not
Cast aside:  simplicity,
Fasting, lowly-mindedness,
Bodily labor, discomfort,
Tears, prayer, love.
The Church is our folk,
And our folk is the Church.

Our prayer to the end will be,
‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy,
Son of God, on us,
A people by sin undone!’

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

‘Perfection’


The promise of the Preamble
Is nearing its fulfilment.

Thanks to the smartphone,
The more perfect union
Is being formed.
Every decision of Congress,
President, and Court
Is up for review
Through social media
Of the Facebook
And Twitter type.
Like or dislike -
The people rule.
The children, too:
The Twenty-Eighth
Amendment made it so,
The tyranny of age
Ended at last.
The will of all the people
Now wholly reigns supreme.

To promote the general welfare
The Twenty-Ninth Amendment,
Abolishing the old-fashioned farm,
With its burdensome toil
For beast and man,
Was easily approved.
Food factories that can produce
Meat and greens without sun and soil
Abound in every town
Of our great nation
Of innovation.
No one is sent hungry away.
But neither will he overeat,
For his DNA will say
What his calorie count must be.

To insure domestic
Tranquility, the herald
Of divine fulness,
Amendment Thirty,
Was added swiftly,
After the All-Faith Council
Declared that Jesus was Jehovah,
And Buddha, Allah, and the Tao,
Quetzalcoatl, Shiva,
And every other deity,
At Oprah’s Montecito ranch.
The new Pan-Christian faith
Is now officially promoted
By government spokesmen
And funded just as well,
The First Amendment
Having received its needsome revision.

We have learned the final truth,
You are God and devil both.
Make this hive your habitation,
And bring to us the final evolution.

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!