Can One Christian Make a Difference?

The history of the Church tells us Yes.  Two examples - one a Christian ruler, and the other a Christian soldier (emphasis added below).

St Alexander Nevsky (1263)

"Nevsky" means "of the Neva (River)." This holy prince guided Russia through one of the most fragile and difficult periods of its history. Most of the nation was crushed beneath the 200-year domination of the Tatars, who burned Kiev and established their central territory (known as the Golden Horde) there. At the same time, Teutonic and Swedish Christian invaders sought to conquer from the West, and Pope Innocent IV of Rome was seeking, by conversion or conquest, to pervert the Orthodox faith of the Russian people. At the same time, constant warfare among petty Russian lords made unified work on behalf of the people almost impossible. In this harsh climate, Prince Alexander of Novgorod shone as that rare thing: a truly Christian ruler. In time of famine he opened his treasury to all who were in need. Several times he traveled to the Golden Horde, and even to Mongolia, to plead on behalf of his people for relief from Tatar taxation and oppression.

Soon after he became prince of Novgorod in 1236,  his kingdom was attacked by the forces of Sweden and Lithuania along with the Teutonic Knights, a semi-monastic military order pledged to force the Slavic and Baltic peoples to accept Roman Catholicism. In 1240, the night before his small army was to face the much more powerful invaders, Saint Alexander was granted a vision: Saints Boris and Gleb appeared in a boat on the Neva River, urging angelic oarsmen to hurry to the aid of "Alexander their kinsman." Encouraged, Alexander and his small force crushed their adversaries in battle.

When he  was summoned for the first time to pay homage to the Khan, he went as if to his own death, for the Khan required his subjects to submit to pagan rites or die, and the prince knew that he would never betray the Faith of Christ. Before the Khan, he said "My liege, I do homage in that God has granted you sovereignty, but I am unable to worship idols because I am a Christian and adore the one and only God in three Persons, the Maker of heaven and earth." The Khan, knowing of his valor and impressed by his integrity, received him as an honored guest. 

In another visit to the Golden Horde, the prince averted a Tatar invasion in retribution for an uprising by another prince, dug deeply into his treasury to ransom prisoners, and was given rule over all of Russia.

Threats from the  West continued. Prince Alexander firmly opposed the missionaries sent into his realms by Pope Innocent IV of Rome; in response the Pope launched what the Synaxarion calls a "veritable Crusade" against the Prince. In 1256 an alliance of Swedes, Danes, Finns and Teutonic Knights attempted to take Novgorod, but were again repulsed by Alexander, who for a time occupied Finland.

In 1260, the holy Prince made a final journey to appeal to the  Tatars, who had increased the tribute levied on the Russian people, and were carrying those unable to pay into slavery. Having obtained a reduction of tribute and relief for his people, he headed home but, on the journey home, exhausted and ill from his labors, he gave up his soul to God in 1263, having served his people without rest until the end. On his deathbed he received the monastic Great Schema and the new name Alexis.

"Many miracles and  apparitions have taken place at his tomb, especially on the eves of the great Russian victories over the Tatars in 1380, 1552 and 1572. The sanctity of the holy Prince was formally recognized by the Church in 1380, when his incorrupt relics were uncovered. In the eighteenth century, Peter the Great proclaimed Saint Alexander Nevsky Protector of the Russian people." (Synaxarion)

Source:  Entry for 23 November at http://www.abbamoses.com/months/november.html (accessed 29 Nov. 2013)

  

Holy Martyr Mercurius of Smolensk (1238)

He was a soldier from Byzantium, one of the defenders of Smolensk when it was besieged by the Tatars in 1238. One day the Mother of God appeared to Mercurius and told him that the Tatars were preparing a surprise attack — and, further, that he must take up arms and attack the enemy singlehandedly. Placing all his trust in God, the lone soldier threw himself against the Tatar host crying 'Most Holy Mother of God, help me!' He was quickly surrounded and cut down, and it appeared that his action had been as foolhardy as it had seemed, when a woman at the head of a glorious host, all of them surrounded by light, appeared and threw back the Tatar army. The next morning the people of Smolensk found the ground covered with the bodies of their enemies. They buried Mercurius in the Cathedral, where he has been venerated as a Martyr ever since.

Source:  Entry for 24 November at http://www.abbamoses.com/months/november.html (accessed 29 Nov. 2013)

For a more detailed account, the reader is invited to follow this path:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2012/11/24/103384-martyr-mercurius-of-smolensk

Icon courtesy of the OCA

To underscore the point made in Acts 10 with the conversion of the centurion Cornelius, and above with St Mercurius of Smolensk, that a soldier fighting in defense of his homeland is not a sin before God (as opposed to a war of aggression motivated by greed or other vices), in the life of another Martyr Mercurius (this one from the 3^rd century A. D.), we find this notable passage:

‘During a campaign, an Angel appeared to him, gave him a sword and told him to go into battle trusting in Christ's help.’

Source:  Entry for 25 November at http://www.abbamoses.com/months/november.html (accessed 29 Nov. 2013)

This is something Southerners, being a family, understand well, and it was manifested quite distinctly during the War of Northern Aggression.  Yet with notions of pacifism in the air, it is good for us withal to place the clear teaching of the Church before our eyes.

But as to the former point, let no one despair:  Even in the darkest of times, the Lord is able to deliver any people from evil if there is present an humble and righteous man or woman willing to serve Him (other examples: Noah, Moses, the Judges, David, St Ælfred, etc.).  Only let those peoples and nations make themselves worthy of deliverance from outer bondage by conquering their inner passions.

Happy Thanksgiving from the American Empire

This is what the Most Righteous Nation on Earth and her allies in Western Europe have given Serbia to be thankful for during the long years of their occupation of that country:  Destruction of dozens of churches and monasteries, some of them quite ancient.

For example,

Before

After

Source:  http://www.kosovo.net/sk/crucified/churches/ch02.html

Sadly, much more is to be found here

http://www.kosovo.net/sk/crucified/default.htm#_catalog

and here

http://www.kosovo.net/destruction.html

Depuritanization

Six years ago, Father Andrew Phillips published an important essay entitled ‘Denormanization’ (Orthodox England, Vol. 11, No.1, Sept. 2007, http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/mag/oe11_1.pdf).  In it he wrote of how the culture of the French-Viking Normans that was imposed on England in 1066 A. D. must be removed if England is ever to be herself again.

The South faces a similar challenge, for a foreign culture was imposed on her by the secular Puritans of New England after the War of Northern Aggression was concluded, and the Yankee project of ‘reconstructing’ her has continued unabated up to the present time.  Like England, the South too must rid herself of these foreign elements, must undergo depuritanization, if she is ever to be truly herself.

Using Fr Andrew’s essay as a guide, let the South consider how she may accomplish this.

The South must put away everything foreign to the spirit of Christianity (‘Denormanization’, p. 1) that she has inherited from New England.  This includes, among other things,

-Arrogance - the belief that the America of which she is a part is the ‘greatest nation the world has ever known’;

-Meddling - because America is so virtuous, she has the right to force her way of life onto others who are still wandering in the darkness, or who may be perceived as threatening the American way of life;

-Love of money - making the accumulation of money and comfort the chief ends of life;

-Selfish individualism - seeing man as a being with no vital connections to any others, inward or outward, spiritual or physical, free to develop himself in any way he pleases so long as he doesn’t harm anyone;

-Scientific rationalism - there is no knowledge higher than what can be perceived by the senses through empirical experimentation and expressed mathematically.  All God-given revelation is irrelevant; and

-Conquering nature - the belief that God is not present in His creation in any way; that the creation is merely dead matter to be exploited by humans for building the industrial/technological Kingdom of Man.

At the root of all these and other vices is self-love (a strong Puritan trait - see, e.g., 'Two Diarists' by Richard Weaver, In Defense of Tradition, Liberty Fund, 2000, pgs. 720-48), as St Maximus the Confessor points out.  ‘For from it are produced the three principle thoughts of desire: those of gluttony, avarice, and self-esteem . . . .  All the rest . . . are consequent upon one or other of these three . . . .  He who cuts off [the passion of self-love], cuts off at the same time all the passions that come from it’ (Four Hundred Texts on Love, Third Century, 56-57, in The Philokalia, Vol. 2, London: Faber & Faber, 1981, p. 92; quoted in ‘Teachings and Homilies of St. Gabriel, Elder of the Seven Lakes Monastery’, 2: On Humility, The Orthodox Word, Vol. 47, No. 6 (281), Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Press, Nov.-Dec. 2011, p. 268).

Gluttony being the preeminent native Southern vice from the three mentioned by St Maximus, she has nevertheless taken into herself the other two by way of the Puritan conquest.  But all must be uprooted from Southern soil for the true South to grow unhindered, through love of God and neighbor and the creation.

Some Southern virtues that are in accord with Christianity are essentially the same as those Fr Andrew lists for England.  This should surprise no one, as Southern culture is largely sprung from English culture:

On the other hand, there are many values, which are said to be English, which can be baptised into the Church. For example, on the positive side, the love of (genuine) tradition, patriotism, the love of the countryside and gardens, loyalty, sobriety, discretion, good taste, gentle humour, reserve and politeness are all values which gel very well with the Church (‘Denormanization’, p. 1).

But let sectarianism be avoided (‘Denormanization’, p. 2), the voice that whispers Discord among kith and kin in the South, that demands that the cultural contributions of one’s particular forefathers - be they Celtic, English, African, etc. - and theirs alone have made the South what she is.

Therefore ought each and all to cultivate a respect for, knowledge, and use of the best parts of the several cultures that make up the South’s own unique culture that are in accord with Christianity, whether the ‘liturgical language of the King James Bible’ (‘Denormanization’, p. 2); the loyalty to the extended family of the Irish and Scottish; the monasticism of Ireland, Northern Africa, and France (one of the best sources of charity and Christian education, among other benefits); the rich literary history of ancient Greece and Rome, the Church Fathers, the British and Irish Isles, etc.; and so forth.

Nor, of course, should the best of her own Christian culture be forgotten and lie fallow: her own praiseworthy literary works, agrarian way of life, ballads and other musical forms, finding a balance between the rights and duties of the individual and the community, respect for hierarchy, rejection of fads, love of the Bible, etc.

Ultimately, depuritanization means ‘living the Orthodox Christian Faith in the [Southern] context in which the Lord has placed us’ (‘Denormanization’, p. 3).  This is not to say that Protestants and Catholics are barred from Heaven; only that those denominations are distortions of the Ancient Faith that will likewise produce distortions in any Southern culture that grows from them.  Only in the Orthodox Faith will the true South reveal herself.  For only the purity of Orthodox Christianity will provide the supernatural, otherworldly love, holiness, strength, wisdom, and wholeness of vision to overcome the heretical Puritan ideology and all other falsehoods.

What fruit the pure Christian Faith will bring forth from the Southern people in the Southern land - one longs to see.

The pervasiveness of the Puritan cultural conquest of the South will be clearly seen tomorrow in the unquestioned celebration by Southerners of one of the high feast days of Yankeedom: Thanksgiving, which concerns their founding fathers, not the South’s. 

She ought not to bear ill-will toward her New England cousins for this or for any other wrong visited upon her (this too is unchristian), but it is an illustration of how long her journey will be if the South really does wish to be more than a colony of Boston or New York City.

An Easier Way to Read the ‘Prolegomena’

For those interested in reading the ‘Prolegomena’ to Dr Farrell’s God, History, and Dialectic (mentioned in the 22 Nov. 2013 post), the text is available at this web site, no downloads required:

http://www.anthonyflood.com/farrellghdprolegomena.htm

It begins thusly:

Christian civilization—or what remains of it—stands, apparently exhausted and irreparably divi-ded, on the uncertain terrain of a century’s and mil-lennium’s finish, ill-prepared to carry any cogent or consistent witness into the third millennium and twenty-first century of its dispensation.  This is because the equation of “Western European” with “Christian” civilization is itself founded upon a schism which resulted in a kind of cultural and historiogra-phical heresy.

Such statements may seem like good news to the “multiculturalist,” so I wish to dispel any lingering and seductive causes for rejoicing that they may have engendered.  First, these essays are not an attack on Western European civilization.  They are rather an analysis of the roots of that civilization, and of its origin in a theological heresy and of the cultural and moral crisis that heresy has sired. 

. . .

Why Don’t Things Ever Change in Washington City?

Whether it’s Carter or Reagan, Newt or Obama, Nixon or Clinton or Trent Lott ‘governing’ in Washington, budgets grow larger, deficits deepen, wars rage, corruption spreads, the regulatory straitjacket tightens, and the rest of it.  Why don’t elections matter any more? 

Because both parties by and large are controlled behind the scenes by the super wealthy: owners of giant corporations, banks, entertainment groups, etc.

Most of what is done in the open, politically, is staged, to keep voters forever in a dreamworld in which they believe they have some power to restrain their government.  But such power has been dormant since the War of Northern Aggression (‘The Civil War’), when Northern industrial business interests gained control of the federal government, and it has suffered diminishment at various points since then: e.g., the 16^th and 17^th Amendments and the creation of the Federal Reserve banking system.

But two other events have made things decisively worse.  The first was the slaying of Pres Kennedy in 1963.  About this event, Dr Farrell has this to say (emphasis added below):

The murder of President Kennedy announced a half century of the theater of blood, a surreal bizarrerie which to contemplate can only leave one – if one is truly honest and paying attention to the details – with a sense that everything is connected to it. It ushered in a new era of the political murder, as Senator Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, HRH Princess Dianna, Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme, Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, and many others, were added to the list of suspicious deaths and bizarre murders. There were serious attempts on the lives of Presidents de Gaulle, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan. On and on one could go.  It ushered in an era of unbelievable scandals, each of which, to the attentive eye, had connections with all the others: the Watergate fiasco, Iran-Contra, Mena Arkansas, the BCCI banking scandal, the collapse of Franklin Bank, Penn Square, the Savings and Loan Scandal, Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. There were the Ruby Ridge and Waco Sieges (remember Janet “it’s for the children” Reno?). There were the strange allegations of voting fraud via computerized voting, “Votescam”… a trial run in Reno’s home county of Dade county, Florida. There was the Oklahoma City bombing and the strange disappearance of suspects, the suppression of the State of Oklahoma’s own investigation and grand jury, the quick demolition of the Murrah Building and the destruction of evidence, the allegations of retired USAF brigadier general Benton Partin that showed clear evidence of demolition charges in the building; there were the 1993 WTC attacks. There was the Baader-Meinhof gang in Europe, the Saville scandal in the United Kingdom with allegations stretching back to the Heath government; there was the Franklin scandal in the USA; there was the P2-G affair in Italy, the murder of Roberto Calvi at London’s Blackfriars Bridge; there were the bizarre school shootings from Columbine to Sandy Hook with Batman murders in the theater; Anders Brevik in Norway and the Oslo bombing; there has been all of this and so much more besides, and, of course, the defining “JFK” event of more recent times: 9/11.

. . . It is intriguing and interesting, that the hardened ideological positions both of the left and of the right major media in the USSA, are united on this one point: the Warren Report was right; everyone else is wrong. (And that means, even the Congressional committees that concluded differently).

It matters because, even though the talking heads on the media know their position is nonsense, and know that most people know that it’s nonsense, but yet the theater and the fable are continued. And the reason why is simple: the same forces that murdered the president are still running the show today (see the litany of connected scandals in paragraph two above). And those same people own or exert extraordinary influence within the major media and publishing houses to this day, in spite of the dwindling audience for their operas(why have Salieri when you can have Mozart?)  It matters because their methods are still the same: lies, fraud, deception, deceit, theft, broken promises, and murder.

It matters because lies, fraud, deception, theft, broken promises, have never worked as organizing principles for a civil and open society.  So today, if you’re in the JFK conspiracy camp, send a message to the purveyors of the official fable: turn them off – television, radio, movies – turn them all off, cancel that subscription to the major newspaper that will produce all the op-ed and “looking back” pieces in defense of the fable, and read a book about the subject instead.

Source:  http://gizadeathstar.com/2013/11/remembering-president-fitzgerald/

Second is the formation of the anti-Christian, national sovereignty-destroying Trilateral Commission in 1973, composed of academic, political, financial, and other elites from the three major Western powers in the world - North America, Europe, and Japan, and its subsequent influence over government, schools, religion, business, etc.  The author, researcher, and financial advisor Patrick Wood explains the history and aims of the Commission in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWrceNajf4

 

and in this essay, ‘The Trilateral Commission: Usurping Sovereignty’:

http://www.augustforecast.com/2007/08/03/the_trilateral_commission_usurping_sovereignty/

In that essay is a quote from Barry Goldwater concerning the Commission:

Sen­ator Barry Gold­water (R-AZ) issued a clear and pre­cise warning in his 1979 book, With No Apologies:

“The Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion is inter­na­tional and is intended to be the vehicle for multi­na­tional con­sol­i­da­tion of the com­mer­cial and banking inter­ests by seizing con­trol of the polit­ical gov­ern­ment of the United States. The Tri­lat­eral Com­mis­sion rep­re­sents a skillful, coor­di­nated effort to seize con­trol and con­sol­i­date the four cen­ters of power – polit­ical, mon­e­tary, intel­lec­tual and ecclesiastical.”

Knowing these things, it is essential that the South and every other sane country secede in some meaningful way from the power structure ruled by these bloodthirsty, power-mad, God-hating men and women.  For to continue living in the make-believe world where Republicans are good, tax cuts will fix everything, and Democrats are bad (or whatever simplistic daydream one has fashioned) is to condemn our bodies, minds, and souls to death, be it slow or sudden.

More Evidence the West Is Dying

Aleksei Khomiakov once remarked that the West had ‘received death itself into its bosom’ by departing from the Orthodox Church - gradually from the 8^th to the 11^th centuries but definitively by 1054 A.D., the year of the Great Schism between East and West, as the Roman Popes took it upon themselves to redefine the Church’s Creed without consultation with and approval of the whole Church (‘Some Remarks by an Orthodox Christian Concerning the Western Communions, on the Occasion of a Letter Published by the Archbishop of Paris’ [1855], On Spiritual Unity: A Slavophile Reader, Bird, Robert, and Boris Jakim, trans., Hudson, Ny.: Lindisfarne Books, 1998, p. 102).

The appearance of scientific rationalism, Marxism, relativism, industrialism, total war, etc. in the West is proof enough of the truth of his statement, but sadly more evidence continues to arise.

First is the near indifference of the West to the many massacres of Christians across the Middle East and Asia occasioned by the meddling of the American Empire and her allies in those regions (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, etc.).  The latest, in Sadad, Syria, near the end of October, has received the same scant attention:  29,300 results for ‘Sadad massacre’ vs. 1,480,000,000 results for ‘Black Friday’ in Google searches conducted on 22 Nov. 2013.

Srdja Trifkovic brings to light what the Western Powers That Be have hidden in the dark:

When a false-flag atrocity occurs of which Muslims are the purported victims, the United States goes to war to save them—the January 1999 stage-managed “massacre” at Račak, in Kosovo, being a classic example. When all-too-real massacres of Christians by Muslims take place, they are unreported in the Western media and uncommented upon by Western politicians.

“Slaughter in Syria: 45 Christians Killed by Islamists in Sadad and Thrown into Mass Graves,” CatholicOnline reported on November 5. The facts of the case are obvious from the rebels’ own shockingly gruesome footage ( here with English subtitles ) and from the government forces’ initial video report after liberating the town (viewer discretion advised). As The Tablet reported on the same day, civilians unable to escape – including the elderly, disabled, women and children—were subjected to death by torture, including strangulation. The bodies of six members of a single Christian family, aged 16 to 90, were found in a well, prompting the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III to ask, “How can somebody do such inhumane and bestial things to an elderly couple and their family? I do not understand why the world does not raise its voice against such acts of brutality.”

 . . .

The problem, of which Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh appears unaware, is no longer in the Western elite’s mere indifference to the impending demise of Christianity in the lands of its birth, but in its active, ongoing, and open contribution to that demise. Cyprus (1974) and the Balkans (1991-9) provided the test, Iraq (2003-today) the conclusive proof. In Syria the Obama administration remains committed to supporting the rebels—ah, yes, only the “moderate” ones, like the Christian-murdering “Free Syrian Army” (discretion advised again), not “even though” the result will be the same, but precisely because it will be.

The spiritual inspiration, ideological outlook, methods and long-term objectives of Bashar al-Assad’s fighting foes is no longer in doubt. That makes them the natural allies of the Clintons, Obamas and McCains of this world, who have naturally progressed from being “post-Christian” to being zealously anti-Christian. For the fruits of their labors just ask the non-Muslim former denizens of Famagusta, Sarajevo, Pristina, Benghazi, or Baghdad.

Full story:  http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2013/11/08/latest-massacre-of-syrian-christians-covered-up-in-the-west/

The other sign is the continuing decline of the Vatican into relativism.  From Pat Buchanan:

“Pope Francis doesn’t want cultural warriors; he doesn’t want ideologues,” said Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Wash.:

“The nuncio said the Holy Father wants bishops with pastoral sensitivity, shepherds who know the smell of the sheep.”

Bishop Cupich was conveying instructions the papal nuncio had delivered from Rome to guide U.S. bishops in choosing a new leader.

They chose Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., who has a master’s degree in social work, to succeed Archbishop Timothy Dolan whom Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times describes thus:

“[A] garrulous evangelist comfortable in front of a camera, [who] led the bishops in their high-profile confrontation with the Obama administration over a provision in the health care mandate that requires most employers to have insurance that covers contraceptives for employees.”

That mandate also requires employers to cover abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations.

Yet here is further confirmation His Holiness seeks to move the Catholic Church to a stance of non-belligerence, if not neutrality, in the culture war for the soul of the West.

There is a small problem with neutrality. As Trotsky observed, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” For the church to absent itself from the culture war is to not to [sic] end that war, but to lose it.

Full article:  http://buchanan.org/blog/papal-neutrality-culture-war-5995 (thanks to lewrockwell.com)

Dr Joseph Farrell, in his monumental work God, History, and Dialectic, speaks of ‘two Europes’.  The first is the Europe that was baptized by the Holy Apostles and their disciples into the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church - today known simply as the Orthodox Church.  When the Great Schism occurred in 1054, the civilization of the first Europe continued to exist in Eastern Europe and Russia (and exists to this day in those countries and wherever else Orthodox Christians live, though in many cases not without some corruption by Western ideas).

The civilization of the second Europe that grew up in Western Europe after the Schism and that has spread to North and South America, Australia, South Africa, etc., being separated from the original Faith, has been dying since its very birth.  About this Dr Farrell writes,

Perhaps the best and simplest way of putting this complexity, however, is to point out the fact that St. Augustine, architect of the vast philosophical Cathedrals of the Second Hellenization, was in his time still a part of the Church of the First Europe, an Orthodox Christian father dwelling in the First Europe’s Church. Such a position he ardently wished to maintain, and such a position he still has on the rolls of the Eastern Church’s saints. Thus the ambiguities of Augustine and Augustinism are at the core of the historiographical task to be performed by these essays. For Augustine the bishop and Augustinism the system are two different things. Augustine the bishop insisted, no less vigorously than his great counterparts in Cappadocia — Sts. Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus — on the direct continuity of the Church with the ancient Hebrews and with the cultural autonomy conferred on them by God. But Augustine the Hellenizer erected a system founded upon a continuity of theology with Greek philosophy, a continuity of incalculable enormity: the identification of The One (to en) of Greek philosophy with the One God and Father of Christian doctrine. That marriage of Theology and Philosophy occurred not at some secondary level of doctrine, but at the core, at the height, of all Christian belief, the doctrine of God Himself. So long as this cohabitation went undetected and unchallenged, so long did its hidden implications take root, grow, and eventually overwhelm and choke the Christian component. Our current moral and spiritual crisis is the result of that marriage, and will not be resolved until the churches which persist in it, beginning with Rome, repent and recant the error. For Augustine saw discontinuity with that Graeco-pagan world, but the theologians, philosophers, and humanists who came after him and who were the heirs of his system, came increasingly to see continuity.

Thus, at its core the Second Europe is pagan, for it worships a pagan definition of God, pagan, for it is crumbling from within, over laden only with an increasingly thin and superficial veneer of a Christian idiom. From the standpoint of the First Europe, then, the Second is in the continual process of actualizing the unwitting, but nevertheless, great apostasy contained in the system of Augustine. Even its “bold” and “radical” modern “reinterpreters” of Christianity — an Elaine Pagels or a Rudolph Bultmann or a Julius Wellhausen — are less revolutionary than they think, for they are as much products of the Second Hellenization as their mediaeval forefathers.

--‘Prolegomena to God, History, and Dialectic’ (unpaginated), 2008, available as a free dowload at http://godhistorydialectic.wordpress.com/read-this-first/

One of Khomiakov’s favorite passages to cite was from the ‘Synodal Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs’ (1848):  ‘Knowledge of the divine truths was given to the mutual love of Christians and had no other guardian but this love’ (‘Some Remarks by an Orthodox Christian Concerning the Western Communions, on the Occasion of a Letter Published by the Archbishop of Paris’ [1855], On Spiritual Unity, p. 112).  So long as Western Christians (including Southerners) remain outside of this mutual love, outside of ‘the saving enclosure of the Orthodox Church’ (Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, 3rd ed., Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2010,  p. 1061), so long will they continue down the path of spiritual, and thus also physical, destruction. 

But the Orthodox Church is always ready to accept back into her fold her children who have gone astray, whether knowingly or in ignorance.  Let us not be insensible to the voices of our fathers and mothers among the saints of the first Europe, who plead with us to return to the True Faith, and who continually pray to the Lord for our salvation.

The Gettysburg Address at 150 Years

Many innocent and well-meaning men and women still quote from it, seeking to stir up patriotic feelings in the hearts of Americans.  But it is an utter abomination.  It marks the end of the old federated republic and the birth of a pagan, divinized nation-god, the final outworking of the Pilgrim/Puritan idea of building a ‘city on a hill’, of preparing the world for the millennial reign of Christ. 

M.E. Bradford explores the religious and political heresy that is the Gettysburg Address in his essay ‘Lincoln, the Declaration, and Secular Puritanism: A Rhetoric for Continuing Revolution’:

http://www.thesouthernpartisan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/01.1-ARCHIVEBradfordSecularPuritanism-37p.pdf

Prof Bradford’s wording can be a bit technical at times, but the reader is encouraged to push through any difficult passages.  If one sees it through to the end, he will be rewarded.

For some general remarks on Pres Lincoln himself rather than his Address, Marshall DeRosa’s review of Lincoln Unbound by Rich Lowry (editor of National Review) will serve well.

http://nomocracyinpolitics.com/2013/10/15/a-review-by-marshall-derosa-binding-the-republican-party-to-neoconservativism-a-review-of-richard-lowrys-lincoln-unbound/

For example:

The Indians, swindled by bad-faith treaties and the lack of enforcement of the terms thereof, stood in the way economic advancement and the profitable opportunities. Certainly Lincoln would not have been elected captain if he did not share the views of his fellow Illinois militiamen and the ruling classes in Springfield and Washington determined to “exterminate” the Indians. The same could be said about his election in 1860, only the problem then wasn’t Indians but Southerners. Lincoln could relate to the Ohio troops when he encouraged them to destroy the enemy. And like the once menacing Indians, Southerners were obstructing the advancement of Lincolnian policy objectives.

. . .

Lowry would have us believe that Lincoln was “one of the world’s greatest statesmen.”(4) Not so. Lincoln was one of the world’s greatest politicians, seeking elective office for the power requisite to providing the pork demanded by his supporters. Early in his political career, it was the local beneficiaries of public subsidies for internal improvements. As he competed for higher office, the beneficiaries ratcheted upwards from local interests to national.

Yes, Lincoln was a masterful politician and rhetorician. He was capable of disguising his actual political agenda in words that resonated with voters of his time and, more importantly for our purposes, in ours.

. . .

Lincoln should be judged not by selective rhetoric, but by the consequences of his politics. Lowry dismally fails to do so. Today we are living with those consequences. The destruction of the original constitution, incomprehensible public debt, out-of-control public spending, counter-productive foreign adventures (e.g., nation-building), an unaccountable and uncontrollable political class, a shrinking middle class, worsening race relations, dependency on government handouts, the demise of the Judeo-Christian foundations of American civilization, and an encroaching police state are Lincoln’s legacies. This is not meant to imply that Lincoln would approve of these developments; it is meant to imply that he (via his precedent of crushing States’ exercise of their sovereign rights to withdraw from the federal union and, hence, to check federal usurpation of their reserved powers via the possibility of this occurring) was instrumental in making these developments possible if not probable.

Those developments represent Lincoln “Unbound.” It’s time to rid ourselves of the fixation on the mythical Lincoln and start focusing on the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, Luther Martin, George Mason, John Taylor of Caroline, John C. Calhoun, and President Franklin Pierce. The latter will set us on the road back to the original constitutional order; whereas, the mythical Lincoln plays the part of the drum major leading us down the road to serfdom, with Lowry as an enthusiastic band member marching in lockstep to the beat of power, power, power . . . .

Curing Cancer Naturally . . . and Supernaturally

If one has refused the modern temptation to eradicate all variety of living plants from his yard save a single strain of grass, it is possible that a cancer cure is growing there:  dandelion.

Canadian oncologist Dr. Caroline Hamm of Windsor Regional Hospital noticed a few cancer patients who had been drinking dandelion root tea seemed to be getting better. She was curious whether it was coincidental or if there was something to it. So she urged University of Windsor biochemist colleague Siyaram Pandey to look into it further in case there is something about dandelion root extract that is useful against cancer.

He and Dr. Hamm were amazed to find the leukemia cells were forced into apoptosis, or cell suicide without damaging healthy cells. Further testing showed similar results with other types of cancer cells, and mice showed no signs of side effects from the dandelion root extract.

For more see, Paul Fassa, Natural Society, http://naturalsociety.com/beyond-liver-health-dandelion-serious-anti-cancer-properties/

And the Lord has also made this provision for those suffering from cancer:

‘ . . . There is hardly a malady that has not been cured through his prayers; but Saint Nectarius is especially renowned for his healings of cancer for sufferers in all parts of the world.’

Source:  From the entry for 9 November at http://www.abbamoses.com/months/november.html, accessed 18 Nov. 2013.

Some may indeed need the treatments offered routinely by industrial medicine (chemotherapy, etc.), but it is not the only option available and, because of its destructive side effects, should probably be avoided if possible.  The saints stand ready to help us if we ask, and the creation too offers us her healing plants, for the glory of God and for our well-being.

Back to the Soil!

This was the cry of many in the 1960s and ‘70s, but it fizzled out because it lacked a true Christian, communal foundation.  It is time the South resurrected this movement, in order to free herself from the net hoisted on her by the industrial-technological-financial strongmen of the world.  And one plant in particular may help get her there: hemp.

To address the elephant in the room, hemp is not marijuana.  It cannot be smoked, etc. to alter one’s state of mind.  The Congressional Research Service addresses this issue in its report, Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity, pgs. 1-2 (http://www.naihc.org/images/NAIHC/crs_report_2012.pdf, accessed 15 Nov. 2013).  It is not currently illegal to grow hemp, but one must obtain a DEA permit before doing so (in ‘Summary’ of same report).  And some states like California and Colorado have nullified the DEA’s oversight of hemp.

What hemp can do is described briefly by Carolanne Wright:

An ancient crop, hemp has served humanity since 2000 BCE -- providing fibers for cloth and rope, building materials and paper. It's also an incredible source of food. Even the American founding fathers recognized the brilliance of hemp and cultivated it actively on their own land. Hemp is remarkably versatile and Eco-friendly with many modern applications for fuel, automobile fabrication, toxic waste removal and concrete manufacturing.

. . .

The demand for hemp in the world market has made it a contemporary cash crop. New technologies have allowed hemp to be made into soft and durable clothing, biofuel, insulation, lightweight yet strong concrete as well as paving materials that last for hundreds of years. And hemp is exceptionally eco-friendly. It removes carbon dioxide from the air and pumps out oxygen -- offering a practical solution for global warming. Astoundingly, one acre of hemp produces more oxygen than 25 acres of forest land. Hemp can also be used for biodegradable plastic and building materials that are "non-toxic, non-flammable, mold and mildew resistant and cash positive," according to Scott Thill in the article Ten Great Reasons to Kill America's Ban on Growing Hemp. Henry Ford even manufactured a car body out of a hemp resin and demonstrated its resiliency by taking a sledge hammer to the side panel -- not a nick, dent or blemish to be found. In France, bridges made of hemp and lime are centuries old.

Hemp is easy to grow in a variety of soils and conditions, drought tolerant and resists pests [i.e., no dangerous pesticides, herbicides, etc. are needed-W.G.]. As an added bonus, hemp does not strip the soil of vital nutrients but actually enriches it. Hemp has also been used successfully as a toxic waste 'sponge' for nuclear disasters and chemical spills.

. . .

Hemp is an incredible superfood. An excellent source of protein, essential fatty acids, zinc, iron and magnesium -- hemp seeds have been consumed throughout history during times of famine and long sea journeys. Hemp is a high quality, complete protein. Sixty-five percent of the protein content is in the form of globulin edestin which supports the immune system. The perfect ratio of fatty acids found in hemp oil fosters healthy brain function, repairs DNA damage and wards off inflammation. High fiber levels in the seed keep the digestive system happy too.

Source:  Encourage Prosperity, Alleviate Famine and Heal the Environment with Hemp, 16 Nov. 2012, http://www.naturalnews.com/037986_hemp_abundance_environment.html, accessed 15 Nov. 2013.

Health problems are becoming increasingly linked to products made from oil - drugs, plastics, etc.  For example, regarding plastic products,

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/16/practical-options-to-store-your-food-without-contaminating-them-with-plastics.aspx

Hemp, as noted in Miss Carolanne’s report, offers a safe alternative. 

Other uses are summarized in a chart from the above-mentioned congressional report (p. 5, Figure I: Hemp Products Flowchart.  Source: CRS, adapted from D. G. Kraenzel et al., “Industrial Hemp as an Alternative Crop in North Dakota,” AER-402, North Dakota State University, July 23, 1998, http://purl.umn.edu/23264).

But there is something more important in adopting hemp cultivation:  The South would be recovering her agrarian inheritance, honoring the wisdom of her forefathers and mothers who knew that industrialism carried with it great evils, living at nature’s pace (to use the title of one of Gene Logsdon’s books), making her livelihood from the land in cooperation with nature, not against it (to paraphrase an idea of Wendell Berry’s).  Thus would she begin to clear her spiritual vision; thus would she be able to perceive the energies of God in all created things, upholding all He has made and loves, so long as she repents of her desire for luxury, machines & gadgets, endless comfort, etc.

There is the danger that she will continue down her present suicidal course of greed and exploitation even with an economy grounded in agriculture (John Taylor of Caroline Co., Virginia, never tired of making this accusation against his generation), but it is less likely than under the present conditions:  The closer one lives to the sacrament of the creation, the more likely one will honor the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Who are revealed through it with a life of virtue.  Howbeit, the destruction these vices could loose would be significantly lessened in an agrarian, as opposed to an industrial, society. 

Wendell Berry in his 1991 essay entitled ‘Conservation and the Local Economy’ suggested that local communities, for their well-being, secede from the global, industrial, exploitative economy.  That is what the South must do if she is to survive as a ‘social and spiritual unity’ (Andrew Lytle, ‘The Backwoods Progression’, From Eden to Babylon, ed. M.E. Bradford, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1990, p. 87).  With all that hemp offers - for food, clothing, and all sorts of other products, great and small - centering her economy on it would give her a strong position from which to begin life as a free country in a world dominated by powerful corporations and centralized states whose goal is to foster dependency on them in as many ways as possible.

Perhaps one day soon we will have to change the familiar words:

‘I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times they are not forgotten;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.’