Remembrances for October - 2024

 

Dear friends, if you have time, please pray for these members of the Southern family on the day they reposed.  Many thanks.

But one may ask:  ‘What good does it do to pray for the departed?’  An answer is offered here:  https://orthochristian.com/130608.html

Along with prayers and hymns for the departed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6je5axPodI

3 Oct.

Henry Hughes of Port Gibson, Mississippi.  He did a little of everything:  lawyer, sociologist, State senator, soldier.  Some of his ideas are no longer of interest, but his vision of an economy that looks and functions like a family is still worthy of consideration.

https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/henry-hughes/

His book, Treatise on Sociology:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000000449458&view=1up&seq=5

7 Oct.

Edgar Allen Poe of Virginia, one of the South’s finest writers.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/poe-of-virginia/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/822/edgar-allan-poe/photo

8 Oct.

Norbert Rillieux of New Orleans, greatly improved the sugar-refining process.

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/norbertrillieux.html

12 Oct.

Gen Robert Edward Lee, our dear and loving father.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/ten-things-you-dont-know-about-robert-e-lee/

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/review/the-real-robert-e-lee/

23 Oct.

Chief George Washington Harkins, leader of the Choctaw tribe who led them along the Trail of Tears from Mississippi to Oklahoma.  His memorable farewell to the people of Mississippi may be read here:

https://www.ushistory.org/documents//harkins.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Harkins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_removal#/media/File:Trails_of_Tears_en.png

His son David Harkins served as a Lt Col in the Confederate Army as part of the Choctaw Mounted Rifles and also served as a statesman in Choctaw politics:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18910347/david-folsom-harkins

29 Oct.

Sir Walter Raleigh, helped establish one of the earliest colonies in the South on Roanoke Island; he also found time for writing poetry and prose and for military service.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Raleigh-English-explorer

Some of his poetry is here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sir-walter-ralegh

29 Oct.

Joel Sweeney of Virginia, he popularized the banjo inside and outside of the South.

http://www.cgim.org/sweeneyclan/misc/musical.html

29 Oct.

Clarence Jordan, another recent Southern agrarian, founder of the Koinonia Farm in Georgia.  Also a preacher and a defender of black folks during the turmoil of the Civil Rights era, which made him and his Farm a target of violent attacks.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/clarence-jordan-and-the-southern-tradition/

Also, to celebrate some of the saints of October from the South’s Christian inheritance of various lands, please visit these pages:

https://southernorthodox.org/orthodox-saints-for-dixie-october/

https://confiterijournal.blogspot.com/2020/11/happy-feast-for-saints-of-october.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!

Offsite Post: 'Universal Man'

 

While there are many virtues in the peoples comprising the United States, very many of them are also living in delusion.  The firm, unshakable belief of the MAGA conservatives that Donald Trump is under the special protection or blessing of God, despite his continuing to do things that the Lord explicitly warns us against (such as giving approval to same-sex ‘marriages’), is an excellent illustration.

But this delusion stems from a larger system, Americanism, that is in opposition to traditional, Apostolic Christianity (i.e., the Orthodox Church).  Like the Gnostics, adherents of Americanism believe that man is already a divine being:  Each individual has shards or splinters of divinity within him (his natural, God-given rights); salvation is as simple as being enlightened of this fact and then doing whatever is necessary to actualize and exercise those rights as fully as possible.  Alexander Hamilton of New York State expressed it this way:  ‘The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.’  The Declaration of Independence, authored mainly by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, said it more famously in these words:  ‘We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’  John Adams of Massachusetts also adds, ‘They have, undoubtedly, antecedent to all earthly government, -- Rights, that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws -- Rights, derived from the great Legislator of the universe.’  Likewise, Benjamin Franklin:  ‘Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.’

It follows from this that most wicked act in the world is to restrain man from exercising his divinity, his Rights; and the greatest enemy of man is therefore the external tyrant (political or otherwise) who restricts one’s actions.  The tyrant is to be opposed and overthrown at any cost, even one’s own life.  Examples:

‘Men are also bound, individuals and societies, to take care of their temporal happiness, and do all they lawfully can, to promote it. But what can be more inconsistent with this duty, than submitting to great encroachments upon our liberty? Such submission tends to slavery; and compleat slavery implies every evil that the malice of man and devils can inflict.’  (Simeon Howard of Massachusetts)

‘Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!’  (Patrick Henry of Virginia)

Martyrdom for individual liberty and rights is the thus the highest honor a man may attain in this life in the United States (see, e.g., the ‘martyrs’ of the Alamo in Texas).

Finally, all those who ascribe to this creed of Liberty make up a new nation, a new Church even, in which old identities give way to a new one:

‘Where liberty dwells, there is my country.’  (Benjamin Franklin)

‘God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, 'This is my Country.’  (Ibid.)

‘Tis a Common Observation here that our Cause is the Cause of all Mankind; and that we are fighting for their Liberty in defending our own.’  (Ibid.)

The atomized individual of Americanism, walled off from all people he doesn’t care to associate with, recognizing and actualizing his divine rights, his divine nature, has achieved universal consciousness, has become True Man, Universal Man (a false belief, as we shall see).

How does this differ from Christianity?

To begin with, the Orthodox Church does not emphasize the ‘sacred rights’ of man but rather his fallenness.  Americanism teaches that man has already attained the likeness of God due to his possession of ‘unalienable Rights’; he just doesn’t know it yet.  Christianity says that man is indeed made in the image of God, but has lost the likeness, which he must regain not by a Gnostic epiphany of lost knowledge but by acts of repentance, a life of ascetic labors done out of love for God and neighbor.  Instead of freedom from restraints on the will, the Orthodox way emphasizes cutting off one’s own will:  ‘Blessed is the man who has become humble and cut off his own will, and has been led to his own resurrection, to apatheia, to the lack of any movement of the heart and nous toward evil. This is holiness’ (Fr Peter Heers, ‘Orthodox Great Lent’)

Attaining holiness is the ultimate freedom in the Orthodox Church.  Thus, the tyrants for her are those things that prevent her children from reaching that state – whether internal or external, whether the devil and his demons or our own fallen, disordered passions, whether government officials or family members or friends or strangers:

 . . .

The rest may be read here:

https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/universal-man

Or here:

https://katehon.com/en/article/universal-man

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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!

Offsite Post: ‘The Best Help for Haiti’

 

Haiti – much-suffering Haiti – is writhing in torment once again:

 

Haitians have been plunged into a deepening crisis, as gang violence forces thousands of people to flee their homes and businesses and schools to shutter.

 

On Thursday, Haiti’s government extended a state of emergency until April 3 in the Ouest Department, where the capital, Port-au-Prince, is located. It was first imposed on Sunday. The measure includes nightly curfews and bans on protests, although rights groups have said they have done little to stem the violence.

 

A new police station was also set on fire on Wednesday night in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Bas-Peu-de-Chose, according to a statement that the leader of the SYNAPOHA police union gave to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

 

The surge in violence began over the weekend when armed groups launched a wave of attacks in the capital, including raids on two prisons that led to the escape of thousands of inmates.

 

According to a SYNAPOHA tally, at least 10 police buildings have been destroyed since the start of the unrest.

 

Haiti has been plagued by widespread gang violence for more than two years, particularly in the wake of the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. That killing created a power vacuum and worsened political instability in the Caribbean nation.

 

The country’s de facto leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has faced a crisis of legitimacy and continuing calls to resign. Moise chose Henry for the post just days before he was killed.

 

This week, the head of the powerful G9 Haitian gang alliance, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, warned, “If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide.”

But this isn’t merely a political problem; it is a religious problem.  And it began right from the start of Haiti’s history.  The Roman Catholic Spanish, who initially discovered the island of Hispaniola and built settlements there, and the French, also Roman Catholics, who succeeded them in control of the area that later became Haiti (which they called St Domingue), brutalized both the native peoples living there as well as the African slaves whom they imported to replace the natives:

 

Hispaniola, or Santo Domingo, as it became known under Spanish dominion, became the first outpost of the Spanish Empire. The initial expectations of plentiful and easily accessible gold reserves proved unfounded, but the island still became important as a seat of colonial administration, a starting point for conquests of other lands, and a laboratory to develop policies for governing new possessions. It was in Santo Domingo that the Spanish crown introduced the system of repartimiento, whereby peninsulares (Spanish-born persons residing in the New World) received large grants of land and the right to compel labor from the Indians who inhabited that land.

 

 . . . The Taino Indian population of Santo Domingo fared poorly under colonial rule. The exact size of the island's indigenous population in 1492 has never been determined, but observers at the time produced estimates that ranged from several thousand to several million. An estimate of 3 million, which is almost certainly an exaggeration, has been attributed to Bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas. According to all accounts, however, there were hundreds of thousands of indigenous people on the island. By 1550 only 150 Indians lived on the island. Forced labor, abuse, diseases against which the Indians had no immunity, and the growth of the mestizo (mixed European and Indian) population all contributed to the elimination of the Taino and their culture.

 

***

 

By the mid-eighteenth century, a territory largely neglected under Spanish rule had become the richest and most coveted colony in the Western Hemisphere. By the eve of the French Revolution, Saint-Domingue produced about 60 percent of the world's coffee and about 40 percent of the sugar imported by France and Britain. Saint-Domingue played a pivotal role in the French economy, accounting for almost two-thirds of French commercial interests abroad and about 40 percent of foreign trade. The system that provided such largess to the mother country, such luxury to planters, and so many jobs in France had a fatal flaw, however. That flaw was slavery.

 

The origins of modern Haitian society lie within the slaveholding system. The mixture of races that eventually divided Haiti into a small, mainly mulatto elite and an impoverished black majority began with the slavemasters' concubinage of African women. Today Haiti's culture and its predominant religion (voodoo) stem from the fact that the majority of slaves in Saint-Domingue were brought from Africa. (The slave population totalled at least 500,000, and perhaps as many as 700,000, by 1791.) Only a few of the slaves had been born and raised on the island. The slaveholding system in Saint-Domingue was particularly cruel and abusive, and few slaves (especially males) lived long enough to reproduce. The racially tinged conflicts that have marked Haitian history can be traced similarly to slavery.

The later occupation of Haiti by the Protestant United States (1915-34), prompted not by humanitarianism but by geopolitical concerns that Germany might build a naval base there, did not help, either:

 

The occupation of Haiti continued after World War I, despite the embarrassment that it caused Woodrow Wilson at the Paris peace conference in 1919 and the scrutiny of a congressional inquiry in 1922. By 1930 President Herbert Hoover had become concerned about the effects of the occupation, particularly after a December 1929 incident in Les Cayes in which marines killed at least ten Haitian peasants during a march to protest local economic conditions. Hoover appointed two commissions to study the situation. A former governor general of the Philippines, W. Cameron Forbes, headed the more prominent of the two. The Forbes Commission praised the material improvements that the United States administration had wrought, but it criticized the exclusion of Haitians from positions of real authority in the government and the constabulary, which had come to be known as the Garde d'Haïti. In more general terms, the commission further asserted that "the social forces that created [instability] still remain--poverty, ignorance, and the lack of a tradition or desire for orderly free government."

The reaction of the Haitians to this abuse by the Western, supposed Christian, powers is both predictable and understandable:  They rejected the lot of them and embraced quite firmly the religious practices of their African ancestors, developing what most know today as voodoo:

 . . .

The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-best-help-for-haiti/.

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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!