Thanksgiving
Day in the [u]nited States always brings forth a stream of sweet-sounding words about ‘America’s Puritan
Fathers’ from many Evangelical Protestants.
But there are a number of problems with their accounts of the Puritans
in American history.
First,
these histories show the hubris of their American Supremacist writers with
their assertion that New England Puritan culture is superior to all other
cultures in North America. They usually
never speak of the cultures of the other regions of North America, whether the
Quakers or Dutch of the Middle Atlantic, the English cavaliers of the South, or
the Celts, Africans, French, Spanish, Scandinavian, and others, some of whom
predated the arrival of the Puritans by a number of years. And when they do acknowledge these other
cultures, it is always to show how much better Yankee/Puritan culture is than
theirs, how grateful we should be that the cultural genocide of the Yankees has
succeeded in stamping out these unworthy, unchosen, unclean competitors.
And
this leads to another very dark problem, that God (which ‘God’?) has set
Puritan-Yankee ‘America’ aside for a choice and special mission, to evangelize
the world with the gospel (what ‘gospel’?).
The question arises: Which
servant of God anointed them for this task?
From the mouth of which prophet, bishop, priest, or other holy man or
woman came forth the words declaring them God’s chosen people, the most
Christian of Christians? The anointing,
the declaration, came forth from their own lips. And we see clearly enough from Holy Scripture
what the Lord God the Holy Trinity thinks of those who consecrate themselves
for certain tasks without His blessing:
But the
prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even
that prophet shall die.
Then said the
prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath
not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus
saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this
year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. So
Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
For such are
false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the
ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
American
Supremacists are greatly deluded in thinking that they are God’s special
vineyard, meant to spread the gospel of individualism, capitalism, and
hierarchy-destroying doctrines of egalitarian constitutionalism around the
world. By pridefully standing on such un-Christian
claims and doctrines, they are ensuring that they will undergo a sorrowful end
just as other rebellious peoples have.
Speaking
of which, Yankee Americans are especially boastful of their capitalist economic
system. Capitalism is the economic
system advocated by the Bible, we often hear from them. Mr Bryan Fischer, an outspoken Protestant
Evangelical and defender of Yankee America, expounded at length today (26 Nov. 2019) on Focal
Point that the Pilgrims under Gov Bradford in New England were the most
virtuous men of all the Earth, and yet they couldn’t make socialism work. Here again we see Yankee pride on
display. They have never considered the
monastic economy, which is a highly centralized and planned economy under the
direction of the abbot (we will note only in passing that the Southern
plantation economy mirrored this system in crucial ways). St Benedict of Nursia
(+547) in
his Rule for monastics (which has proven itself more durable and stable
within and beneficial to the world in its 1,400 and more years of existence
than anything on offer from Yankeedom) orders the following:
1 The goods of the
monastery, that is, its tools, clothing or anything else, should be entrusted
to brothers whom the abbot appoints and in whose manner of life he has
confidence. 2 He will, as he sees fit, issue to them the various articles to be
cared for and collected after use. 3 The abbot will maintain a list of these,
so that when the brothers succeed one another in their assigned tasks, he may
be aware of what he hands out and what he receives back. 4 Whoever fails to
keep the things belonging to the monastery clean or treats them carelessly
should be reproved, 5 If he does not amend, let him be subjected to the
discipline of the rule.
1 Above all, this evil
practice must be uprooted and removed from the monastery. 2 We mean that
without an order from the abbot, no one may presume to give, receive 3 or
retain anything as his own, nothing at all–not a book, writing tablets or
stylus–in short, not a single item, 4 especially since monks may not have the
free disposal even of their own bodies and wills. 5 For their needs, they are
to look to the father of the monastery, and are not allowed anything which the
abbot has not given or permitted. 6 All things should be the common possession
of all, as it is written, so that no one presumes to call anything his own
(Acts 4:32). 7 But if anyone is caught indulging in this most evil practice, he
should be warned a first and a second time. 8 If he does not amend, let him be
subjected to punishment.
1 It is written:
Distribution was made to each one as he had need (Acts 4:35). 2 By this we do
not imply that there should be favoritism–God forbid–but rather consideration
for weaknesses, 3 Whoever needs less should thank God and not be distressed, 4
but whoever needs more should feel humble because of his weakness, not
self-important because of the kindness shown him. 5 In this way all the members
will be at peace. 6 First and foremost, there must be no word or sign of the
evil of grumbling, no manifestation of it for any reason at all. 7 If, however,
anyone is caught grumbling, let him undergo more severe discipline.
This
sort of Church socialism, if you will, actually does work well in some
contexts, i.e., where Christian virtues are present in a high degree such as
humility, obedience, love, and self-sacrifice (see, e.g., Acts 4, as noted just
now in the Rule). This is very
much the opposite of what one finds in the various anti-Christian national
socialisms of the French and Russian Revolutions, the Nazis, and so forth,
which are motivated by envy and hatred of particular individuals or groups of
people. In them, the oppressive hand of
the government must act as the restrainer of the brutality of the people, while
in Yankee capitalism, competition serves this purpose of regulator/restrainer. Within the Christian monastery, however, the
mild word of the abbot is enough to guide the monks (likewise for the pastor
and his parish).
Atheistic
socialism/communism is obviously nothing to crow about. But, when contrasted with the Church’s kind
of economic solidarity or socialism, contrary to Yankee claims, neither is
capitalism. Its rough and tumble
competition is not ennobling; it debases men who live under its sway.
Furthermore,
the Law and the Prophets, which Christ upheld, are full of commands that require
property owners to give part of their wealth to the poor, fatherless, widows,
etc. To try to turn the Bible into a
proof-text for either pure capitalism (per the Yankee American Supremacists) or
pure socialism is a grievous error.
Howsobeit,
the fact that the Benedictines and other monastics have succeeded for
generations at living Christian socialism (as well as the Southern plantations
while they were allowed to exist; recall that some Southerners saw in their
form of domestic slavery the fulfilment of the virtues the atheistic socialists
of Europe were grasping for - protection of the poor, weak, etc. See, e.g., Fitzhugh, p. 72.) while the New England
Puritans failed at it after only a handful of years is simply more evidence
that Yankee America is not the most exalted expression of Christianity the
world has ever known, as its apologists like Misters Fischer, David Barton,
Tony Perkins, and others are often telling us.
And
like the false teachers mentioned above, the doctrines Yankee America spreads across
the world do not fulfil their promises, whether for peace or prosperity or
freedom. What have the Native American,
the Afghani, the Yemeni, the Serbian, the Nicaraguan, the Iraqi, the Japanese,
the Ukrainian, and others received from the Yankee Empire but dislocation,
destruction of tradition, war, death, servant status to Washington City, and
other upheavals?
The
various cultural regions of the [u]nited States, much less all of North America
or the world at large, do not belong to the Puritan Yankees. If Evangelicals and others admire Puritan
culture, let them move to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the other places
where it originally put down roots. But
they ought to leave the rest of the cultures of the world alone to flourish
along the lines that they choose for themselves. Such a turn of events would indeed be worthy
of a Thanksgiving celebration.
--
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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