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all earthly government, -- Rights, that cannot be repealed or restrained by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
--
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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