Offsite Post: ‘The States Must Enforce Immigration: Not the Feds’

 

A couple of recent news articles should make the blood of any tradition-friendly Southerner run cold:

From Bloomberg:

 

Trump carried the Gem State by 2 to 1 against Hillary Clinton in 2016. While he’ll easily win there against Joe Biden, polls show he'll be lucky to do as well this year. Idaho-registered Democrats increased 47% between November 2016 and June 2020, or almost twice the rate of new Republicans during the past four years. The state’s dynamic business diversity likely has a role in its changing politics.

And from The Washington Post:

 

In the four years since the last presidential election, at least 2 million people have moved to Texas, many of them Democrats from places like California, Florida, New York and Illinois. An estimated 800,000 young Latino Americans have turned 18, and a wave of immigrants became naturalized citizens. More than 3 million Texans have registered to vote.

 

 . . . The same dynamic making Texas more competitive in the presidential contest and buoying the Democratic nominee in a U.S. Senate race is playing out in Arizona and Georgia, states long dominated by Republicans. It follows a similar Democratic rebirth in Virginia and Colorado that predated Trump; both are predictably blue now as newcomers have altered the states' demographic makeup. North Carolina and, this year, even South Carolina have seen Democrats grow more competitive for the same reasons.

Dig a little deeper into the changing demographics of most of these ‘red’ States and the narrative connecting them is that people are moving to take advantage of their growing economies.

This raises two important questions. 

First, what is a State?  Is it primarily an economic enterprise that exists to provide good-paying jobs with good benefits to anyone who can make it within her borders?  However shallow and crass it might strike the ear, that is the view that predominates, and, therefore, the only goal that really matters is having a dynamic, modern, expanding economy.  In such a State, people become empty ciphers, replaceable parts, in service to the mechanical dynamo that presses out the blessed manna of GDP.  It really doesn’t matter where they come from or what they believe, so long as they are ‘productive workers’.

What is missing in that conception of a State is any idea of the preservation and nurturing of a particular, deeply rooted, long-growing culture and the practices that grow out of it.  . . .

The rest is at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/the-states-must-enforce-immigration .

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

Anathema to the Union!

The Yankees’ Thanksgiving Day

 

It is not proof of American Exceptionalism.  After all, even the heathen Romans saw the value of gratitude:

In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.

--Cicero, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cicero; also, https://www.commonsenseethics.com/blog/5-signs-you-lack-gratitude-according-to-cicero

Far more importantly, however, it is during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy within the Orthodox Church, and not in heretical Yankee ideas and practices, that the ultimate experience of Thanksgiving is found:

The dread Mysteries, full of such great salvation, which are celebrated at every Liturgy, are also called a Thanksgiving [Eucharistia] because they are the remembrance of many benefits, and they signify the culmination of God’s Providence towards us, and in every way cause us to be thankful to Him.

--St John Chrysostom (+407), http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/gratitude.aspx

More sweet words from the Holy Archpastor John on thanksgiving:

If you blaspheme, you have driven away God’s assistance, made the devil more vehement against you, and involved yourself even more in suffering; but if you give thanks, you have driven away the plots of the evil demon, and you have drawn the care of God your Protector to yourself.

--https://blog.obitel-minsk.com/2018/03/st-john-chrysostom-on-giving-thanks.html

Let us give thanks to God continually. For, it is outrageous that when we enjoy His benefaction to us in deed every single day, we do not acknowledge the favor with so much as a word; and this, when the acknowledgment confers great benefit on us. He does not need anything of ours, but we stand in need of all things from Him. In point of fact, thanksgiving adds nothing to Him, but it brings us closer to Him. For if, when we recall the benefactions of men, we are the more warmed by affection for them; much more, when we continually bring to mind the benefits of the Master towards us, shall we be more earnest with regard to His commandments. For this cause Paul also said, Be ye thankful. For the best preservative of any benefaction is the remembrance of the benefaction, and a continual thanksgiving for it.

--http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/gratitude.aspx

(Thanks to C for the above quotes and links.)

To further undermine the case for ‘Pilgrim pride’ over establishing a tradition of thanksgiving, there is the little matter of the Spanish in North America doing so long before them in 1541:

https://www.reginamag.com/the-real-thanksgiving-story/

Via https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/the-real-thanksgiving-story/

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

Anathema to the Union!

The First Major Liturgical Commemoration of St Alfred the Great in the South

 

May this spread all across Dixieland!

 

On Sunday, November 8, St. Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899, was liturgically commemorated at Holy Apostles Church in Beltsville, Maryland, a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. 

 

It was “perhaps the first Orthodox parish in North America to celebrate the commemoration of Holy Right-Believing Alfred, King of England,” reports the Eastern American Diocese of ROCOR. 

 

On August 21, 2007, the Holy Synod of the Russian Church officially approved the veneration of all the saints who shone forth in the lands of Britain and Ireland, blessing the annual celebration of their memory on the third Sunday after Pentecost. This feast is in honor of all the saints who lived in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland until 1054, including St. Alfred, known as “the Great.” 

 

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Archpriest George Johnson and his son and assistant priest Fr. Christopher Johnson. Due to pandemic restrictions, the service was held outdoors, with 69 people present, including visitors from several other parishes. 

 

“We hope that with our veneration of him we can begin to draw more Orthodox attention to this holy king, so that more and more of us can humbly ask his holy prayers before the Throne of the King of kings,” the parish said. 

 

Following the Divine Liturgy, a moleben to St. Alfred was served, with a supplicatory prayer composed by Fr. Christopher: 

 

A Prayer for the USA 

 

O holy right-believing Alfred, great king of Wessex and father of the English nation, hear our supplication. 

 

Thou hast shown us an indelible example of courage and faith in the marshes of Æthelney, when all England was suffering the depredation of the heathen Danes. Thou didst build up the defenses of thy kingdom as thou didst also strive to increase the Christian Faith in thy kingly heart, showing an example of true wisdom to friend and foe alike; enlightening thy people, showing mercy to thy vanquished foes, wisely preparing for war, but striving always for a holy peace. 

 

Thou didst love learning and render into English many holy books, sending them out to all thy people, raising up their minds and hearts in the light of true knowledge. Thou didst renew the ancient laws of England, becoming a new Justinian, showing an example of the righteous judgement required by God of all who are in seats of power. 

 

We, thy spiritual children in America, ask now thy strong intercession before the King of kings; help us in our time of trouble. Be like Elijah and grant us a double portion of thy spirit that thirsted after these virtues of courage, faith, steadfastness in the face of uncertainty and fear, the love of the Lord that bringeth holy wisdom, and righteous and merciful judgement in the fear of God.

O Alfred, wise king, do thou entreat Him to guide us steadily, as He guided thee, and to grant order, justice, peace, and tranquility to our native land. 

 

In the name of the Father to Whom thou drawest nearer every day, the Son Whose love thou didst teach to all, and the Holy Spirit Who fillest thy heart, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

 

The Eastern American Diocese provides details of his life worth emulating:

 

St. Alfred (born 849) was King of Wessex from 886 until his death on October 26 899. He was the fifth son of his father, Æthelwulf, and never expected to become king. He loved learning and loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and most likely looked forward to a life of contemplation in the Church. Such was not to be his fate. 

 

He was thrust into kingship at the age of 22, during a time of near-constant serious threat from the heathen Viking Danes. Through much hardship and wise preparation, he defeated Guthrum the Dane in a decisive battle, ending the Viking threat for many years. As a term of the surrender, Guthrum received Holy Baptism as Æthelstan, along with 30 of his jarls (Danish noblemen), with Alfred himself standing as godfather to Guthrum and his men. This is an example of the justice and mercy of the saint, as he showed care for the souls of not only his own people, but his former enemies. 

 

When he was finally able to rule in peace, he began a program of education, requiring that all of his Thegns and Aldermen (nobility) learn to read and write, and that all freemen of England teach their sons the same. He personally translated Boethius’ "Consolation of Philosophy" and St. Gregory’s "On Pastoral Care," among many other books, and had them propagated throughout his land, spreading the light of holy knowledge to all his people. 

 

--https://orthochristian.com/135452.html

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

Anathema to the Union!