Christian Persecution in America

Many are aghast at the thought that it could happen in what they consider the most Christian nation on earth.  But they fail to understand that it has already happened - in the South, during the War of Northern Aggression, committed by Northern soldiers against their Southern enemies.  Here is but one ensample:

 . . . I received to-day a kind letter from Reverend Mr. Cole, of Culpeper Court House. He is a most excellent man in all the relations of life. He says there is not a church standing in all that country, within the lines formerly occupied by the enemy. All are razed to the ground, and the materials used often for the vilest purposes. Two of the churches at the Court House barely escaped destruction. The pews were all taken out to make seats for the theatre. The fact was reported to the commanding officer by their own men of the Christian Commission, but he took no steps to rebuke or arrest it. We must suffer patiently to the end, when all things will be made right..." (Letter of Gen Lee to his wife Mrs Mary Lee, 14 Aug. 1864, Recollections and Letters of Robert E. Lee, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2323/2323-h/2323-h.htm#link2HCH0031, accessed 10 Feb. 2014).

But all things were not made right at the end of The War.  As the Nashville Agrarians and those likeminded men and women before and after them saw, the attack on the Southern way of life and on any other thing traditional or Christian (both within the Union and more and more outside it as well in places like Iraq, Syria, Serbia, and so on) has continued to this present day by the same forces of godless materialism that invaded the South more than 150 years ago.  Against these forces (which control the Republican and Democrat parties, Chambers of Commerce, national and international corporations, and other entities people usually think friendly), against these forces in all their array, to borrow a phrase from those same Nashville Agrarians, let us take our stand, firmly and boldly - before active persecution breaks out once more upon the people of God.

 . . . The people do not seem to realise that there is a war (Letter of Gen Lee to his daughter Miss Annie Lee, 8 Dec. 1861, Recollections, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2323/2323-h/2323-h.htm#link2HCH0027, accessed 10 Feb. 2014, emphasis added).

Industrial Pride or Agrarian Humility?

And someone asks, “It is not possible to enjoy relaxation both here and hereafter?”  It is not possible  (St John Chrysostom, ‘Third Sermon on Lazarus and the Rich Man’, On Wealth and Poverty, 1981, p. 74).

Those faithful to the traditional Southern way of life ever and anon emphasize the importance of farming, especially that which does not use modern machinery and chemicals.  Some reasons for this are given in a short entry entitled ‘Agrarianism’ at the University of Virginia web site:

Socrates, Artistotle, and Horace can all be attributed with various praises of the art of husbandry and of the shepherd and cultivator. From Virgil's writings about the peaceful life of the Arcadians, a primitive people of the Greek Peloponnesus, the name Arcadia came to signify an idealized pastoral society. The power of this symbol comes from the contrast of the simple, harmonious, rural life with the corrupt, discorded life of the city. It resurfaces throughout Western literature; Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dryden, Swift, Pope, Wordsworth are among the many artists who used the tillage of the garden as a theme. It is clearly and eloquently exhibited in Thomas Jefferson's Query XIX from Notes on the State of Virginia. He writes, "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue." Jefferson's words give structure to a notion which had gradually developed throughout the ages and which would influence American culture and politics even to the present day.

In his introduction to Agrarianism in American Literature, M. Thomas Inge defines "agrarianism" by the following basic tenets:

·         Cultivation of the soil "has within it a positive spiritual good" and from it the cultivator acquires the virtues of "honor, manliness, self-reliance, courage, moral integrity, and hospitality." These result from a direct contact with nature, and through nature a closer relationship to God. The agrarian is blessed in that he follows the example of God in creating order out of chaos.

·         Farming is the sole occupation which offers total independence and self-sufficiency.

·         The farmer has a solid, stable position in the world order. He "has a sense of identity, a sense of historical and religious tradition, a feeling of belonging to a concrete family, place, and region, which are psychologically and culturally beneficial." The harmony of his life checks the encroachments of a fragmented, alienated modern society.

·         Urban life, capitalism, and technology destroy independence and dignity while fostering vice and weakness.

·         The agricultural community, with its fellowship of labor and cooperation is the model society.

Source:  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/yoeman/agri1.html, accessed 7 Feb. 2014

While there is much that is true in the above, there are a few things in that article to quibble with, such as God bringing order out of chaos:  His creation was originally perfect; it was only after man sinned that decay and disorder set in.

This mentioning of the Fall leads us to the deeper meaning behind the agrarian philosophy, to its grave importance for us today and for every age.  Thomas Jefferson gets close to it in his Query XIX above.  Farmers, though, are not the chosen people of God (that title belongs to Christians), but the hard work tied up with farming and like ways of living from the earth and sea (fishing, foresting, mining, etc.), are essential for the well-being of man. 

The Holy Father St John Chrysostom explains, commenting on Genesis 3:17-19:

Behold the reminders of the curse!  Thorns it will bring forth, He [God] says, and thistles.  I will do this so you will endure severe labor and cares and spend your whole life in sorrow, that this might be a restraint for you, that you might not dream that you are higher than your station; but that you might constantly remember your nature and might henceforth not allow yourself to come to a similar state of deception.

“Thou shalt eat of the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”  See how after his [Adam’s] disobedience everything was not as it had been before in his life!  I, He says, bringing you into this world, wanted you to live without afflictions, without labors, without cares, without sorrows; to be in contentment and prosperity and not be subject to bodily needs, but to be a stranger to all this and enjoy perfect freedom.  But since such freedom was not of benefit to you, I will curse the earth so that henceforth it will not be as it was formerly, giving forth fruit without sowing and cultivation, but will do so only with great labor, exertion and cares.  I will subject you to constant afflictions and sorrows, and force you to do everything with exhausting efforts, that these tormenting labors might be for you a constant lesson to behave modestly and know your own nature (Homilies on Genesis 17.9, The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, 74, Washington, D.C.: U of America Press, 1947-, pgs. 243-4, quoted in Father Seraphim Rose, Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, 2011, p. 270).

St Symeon the New Theologian, another Holy Father of the Church, continues this line of thought in his homily ‘Adam’s Sin and Our Salvation’:

And so it is that these are our sins, that is, that we do not patiently bear the temporal chastisements of God and do not give thanks for them but becoming presumptuous as if we were enemies of God we go in a certain sense against that Divine decree that states in the sweat of thy face thou shall eat thy bread (Gen. 3:19), and we exert all our strength so as to find repose and we do not find it because there is no opportunity for us to escape from labors and sweats, and from this being yoked to needs, no matter what we might do.

            Therefore, fortunate is he who endures all these temporal chastisements with gratitude, confessing that he has been justly condemned to them for the ancestral sin.  Yea, he will find repose from his labors; for by reason of these chastisements the All-good God has given death to men, so that those who bear them with gratitude might rest from them for a time, and then might be resurrected and glorified in the day of judgment through the new Adam, the sinless Jesus Christ and God Who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25) (The First-Created Man, 2013, p. 61).

We should note at once how far out of line much of modern Western life is with the divine commandment.  Western man is much obsessed with escaping hard work and living in ease and comfort and doing his own will.  But in this path lies his ruin.  Commenting on Genesis 11:3-4, on man’s plan to build the Tower of Babel, Father Seraphim Rose of blessed memory says,

They already knew the prophecy that man would be scattered over all the face of the earth.  They made one more attempt to make a great name for themselves: a great tremendous project, which would prove that we are supreme beings.  This is repeated throughout history—the empire of Alexander the Great, the Communist regime, Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich, etc.  The sin behind this is pride.

            Such towers are known in Babylonian-Assyrian history, and some still survive.   They are called ziggurats: temples with a shrine on top.  These are a symbol that, as St. John Chrysostom says, man did not want to stay within the limits that God had given him.  He wanted to make himself a god: self-deification.  In our modern times, an image of this can be found in our skyscrapers.  The idea is to build something higher than anyone has ever built before. . . .

            In chapter 11 we see that, within five hundred years after the Flood, mankind had again become corrupt and proud.  It says men were of one tongue, one voice.  They all agreed on one thing: that they would become great.

            It is like mankind today.  There are a few exceptions—people who do not agree with what is going on—but for the most part, men are either agreeing with what is going on or else they are being dragged along with this great project to build Paradise on earth: the Communist society, or a comfortable reign of earthly values; but God is forgotten.  Mankind is doing it again.  And if man does that, what is God going to do?  He promised that He will not destroy the earth like He did before; therefore, He will find various other ways to stop man: plagues, disasters, earthquakes, volcanoes.  In this case, He confounds their tongues (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, pgs. 362-3).

As our Southern forefathers wisely sensed, farming and other forms of difficult labor are necessary parts of a good life.  We may go further and say that they are needed for our salvation.  Without the humility imparted by toiling, man becomes too comfortable, forgets God, and rises in his pride to build an earthly paradise, to deify himself - rejecting the revelation of God the Father in Jesus Christ His Only-Begotten Son through the Holy Spirit kept faithfully and without blemish by the Orthodox Church, and the salvation and deification available through His grace therein. 

The Western trinity of ‘science-technology-and-industry’ (Wendell Berry, Life Is a Miracle, 2001, p. 33) is the latest incarnation of mankind’s godless pride.  Will it take a catastrophe sent by God to make us turn away from it and back to the Orthodox Church, and to the land?

Works Cited

Berry, Wendell.  Life Is a Miracle: An Essay against Modern Superstition.  Berkeley, Ca.: Counterpoint, 2001.

Chrysostom, Saint John.  ‘Third Sermon on Lazarus and the Rich Man’.  On Wealth and Poverty.  Trans. Catharine P. Roth.  Crestwood, Ny.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1981.

Rose, Father Seraphim.  Genesis, Creation, and Early Man: The Orthodox Christian Vision.  2nd ed.  Ed. Hieromonk Damascene.  Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2011.

Symeon the New Theologian, Saint.  The First-Created Man.  4th ed.  Trans. Father Seraphim Rose.  Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2013.

A Few Thoughts on ‘America’

First, there is no ‘America’.  There are a number of regional cultures - Scandinavian Midwest, Quaker Middle Atlantic, Anglo-Saxon-Celtic-African South, etc. - unnaturally pressed together by a central government that has always been a tyranny in waiting (as Patrick Henry and the other (poorly named) Anti-Federalists foresaw).  But there is not ‘one nation’ or 'one people' with a common cultural inheritance.

Second, Americans should not boast that their Union is the best nation in the history of the world.  To do so does not show Christian humility and does not correspond well to the truth.  To give but one example:  Hitler seems to have admired the extermination policy of Lincoln, his successors, and their generals towards the Native Americans (namely, forced marches and concentration camps):

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/thomas-dilorenzo/was-hitler-inspired-by-lincolns-army/

One might also cite here the curses of industrialism and mega-cities and the scarcity of monasteries in America.

Third, to view material prosperity as the blessing of God is to misunderstand Christianity.  We are called to renounce the world, not embrace it.  Because of the fall, we must develop resources to protect ourselves from the elements, to feed ourselves, for defense against enemies, and such like.  But once we get much beyond these necessities, worldly wealth simply becomes a snare, a source for pride that separates us from God.

Fourth, to the extent that there is one nation called ‘America’, it exists by virtue of the destruction of long established local cultures by national and international corporations intent on making slaves of all (this has been our especial misfortune since the end of World War II).  That such a condition ought to be rejected would seem to be self-evident.  Yet this is what is hailed as progress by many so-called conservatives today, who worship at the altar of Economic Development.

As Dr Donald Livingston et al. wrote a few years back, it is far past time to rethink the American Union:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11769014-rethinking-the-american-union-for-the-twenty-first-century

(Thanks to RH for inspiring this post.)

Life without Television

Contrary to popular belief, it was not at all bad.  The Reverend William Barnes makes this abundantly clear in his poem ‘A Bit o’ Fun’. 

Rev Barnes, living as he did in pre-Industrial Revolution Dorset in southwestern England, is a kinsman of the South.  For many Southerners came from this area to their new homes in Virginia and elsewhere.  The landly speechways and subject matter in his various poems are therefore similar to what one finds in Southern literature.

May we be so blessed as to find ourselves once again with neighborhoods and families as close and joyful as those Rev Barnes portrayed in ‘A Bit o’ Fun’:

We thought you woulden leäve us quite

So soon as what you did last night;

Our fun jist got up to a height

As you about got hwome.

The friskèn chaps did skip about,

An' cou'se the maïdens in an' out,

A-meäkèn such a randy-rout,

You coulden hear a drum.

An' Tom, a-springèn after Bet

Blind-vwolded, whizz'd along, an' het

Poor Grammer's zide, an' overzet

Her chair, at blind-man's buff;

An' she, poor soul, as she did vall,

Did show her snags o' teeth an' squall,

An' what, she zaid, wer wo'se than all,

She shatter'd all her snuff.

An' Bet, a-hoppèn back vor fear

O' Tom, struck uncle zomewhere near,

An' meäde his han' spill all his beer

Right down her poll an' back;

An' Joe, in middle o' the din,

Slipt out a bit, an' soon come in

Wi' all below his dapper chin

A-jumpèn in a zack.

An' in a twinklèn tother chaps

Jist hung en to a crook wi' straps,

An' meäde en bear the maïdens' slaps,

An' prickens wi' a pin.

An' Jim, a-catchèn Poll, poor chap,

In back-house in the dark, vell slap

Athirt a tub o' barm,—a trap

She set to catch en in.

An' then we zot down out o' breath,

An' meäde a circle roun' the he'th,

A-keepèn up our harmless me'th,

Till supper wer a-come.

An' after we'd a-had zome prog,

All tother chaps begun to jog,

Wi' sticks to lick a thief or dog,

To zee the maïdens hwome.

Source:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21785/21785-h/21785-h.htm#page106, accessed 3 Feb. 2014

For help understanding the Dorset tongue, a word-hoard and list of letter sounds are available here:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21785/21785-h/21785-h.htm#page459

Remembering Lee - III

Are we in the South today better than our forefathers?  Are we more righteous than they?  Are we more neighborly?  More generous?  More pious?  More humble?  Do we have stronger extended families?  More Christians, and more devout Christians, among us?  Tend better the garden of creation?  Practice a less materialistic way of living?

Or do we have pride because godless men sneeringly call us ‘the Bible Belt’?  All the while we fill the cup of God’s wrath for ourselves and our children by taking into our hearts the sins of the New England Puritans - deifying the American Empire, wallowing in greed, etc. - who have done their best to destroy the culture of the Old South.

We sin more grievously than our mothers and fathers, but do not even know it.

Where are the leaders who will speak to us plainly as Gen Lee did during The War?

‘ . . . But the contest must be long and severe, and the whole country [i.e., the South-W.G.] has to go through much suffering.  It is necessary we should be humbled and taught to be less boastful, less selfish, and more devoted to right and justice to all the world . . .’  (Letter of Gen Lee to his wife, Mrs Mary Lee, of 8 Feb. 1862, Capt Robert Edward Lee, Recollections and Letters of Robert E. Lee, Cosimo Classics, 2008 [1904], p. 64; also available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2323/2323-h/2323-h.htm#link2HCH0027, accessed 31 Jan. 2014).

And again in an order to his soldiers issued on 13 August 1863:

‘The President of the Confederate States has, in the name of the people, appointed August 21st as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. A strict observance of the day is enjoined upon the officers and soldiers of this army. All military duties, except such as are absolutely necessary, will be suspended. The commanding officers of brigades and regiments are requested to cause divine services, suitable to the occasion, to be performed in their respective commands. Soldiers! we have sinned against Almighty God. We have forgotten His signal mercies, and have cultivated a revengeful, haughty, and boastful spirit. We have not remembered that the defenders of a just cause should be pure in His eyes; that 'our times are in His hands,' and we have relied too much on our own arms for the achievement of our independence. God is our only refuge and our strength. Let us humble ourselves before Him. Let us confess our many sins, and beseech Him to give us a higher courage, a purer patriotism, and more determined will; that He will hasten the time when war, with its sorrows and sufferings, shall cease, and that He will give us a name and place among the nations of the earth’ (Recollections, pgs. 105-6; also available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2323/2323-h/2323-h.htm#link2HCH0029, accessed 31 Jan. 2014).

What will become of the South if we do not repent?  Father Andrew tells us:

If we distance ourselves from the Creator, then we distance ourselves from the grace of God and the protection of the Holy Spirit. God does not leave us, but we leave Him. To abandon God is to be like a soldier who goes into battle without any body armour; it means inviting mortal wounds. To live our lives without God in them is to subject them to the ‘elemental’ forces of the fallen Cosmos, to the ‘elemental’ forces of fallen Nature, to the ‘elemental’ forces of fallen mankind. And what are ‘elemental’ forces? They are simply demonic forces. All ‘natural’ and ‘manmade’ catastrophes, so-called ‘acts of God’ come from this. The demons want only one thing – our suffering, for they are the source of all suffering, whether through corruption, crime, war, disease, hurricane, earthquake or flooding.

Source:  http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/retribution/, published 19 Jan. 2014, accessed 31 Jan. 2014.

God, in His boundless mercy, however, has granted us this great blessing, which our forefathers had not: the presence of His Orthodox Church in our midst.  Through her will come the salvation of the South (and all the world).  To her, let us hearken and hasten.

Works Cited

Captain Robert Edward Lee, Recollections and Letters of Robert E. Lee, New York, Ny: Cosimo Classics, 2008 [1904].  (Available free to download here:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2323)

Satanic Acts at the Grammys?

‘Within New Age esoteric societies, it is taught that we must go through mass “planetary initiations” for the realization of “The Plan.” [for a New World Order-W.G.]  As we have seen, . . . these initiations will be “Luceferic” at their esoteric core’ (Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, 3rd ed., Platina, Ca.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2010,  p. 700).

‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you’ (James 4:7).

What happened at the Grammys Sunday night?  Not one, but three satanic acts were on display.

http://www.infowars.com/christian-singer-walks-out-on-grammys-after-satanic-performances/

And now the Super Bowl is only days away.  We must not be so naïve as to think our enemies (spiritual and in the flesh) will overlook the opportunity to corrupt millions of souls and minds just as they did at the Grammys in an attempt to further their goals. 

Indeed, they have done this very thing in the past (the relevant portion of the report starts about a minute into the video): 

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

We must protect those we love and ourselves against any sort of evil influence by not watching (or watching with great care if it cannot be helped) any nationally broadcast event of this type.  (Of course, avoiding the television in general is a good idea.)

Be on your guard!  The evil one desires our destruction.  We must resist him and his fallen servants, and cling to God.

‘And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues’ (Revelation 18:4).

We will not be ‘popular’ for turning our backs on these spectacles, but we will help our souls and gain approval from the Lord of Hosts.

An Urgent Plea from the Tenth Amendment Center

The men and women at the Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) are doing yeoman’s work in promoting nullification among state and local officials and among the media.  Having now come under attack by a George Soros-funded outfit, we must conclude that they are beginning to make real progress.  However, they are in urgent need of financial help.  Please read the letter below from Michael Boldin (the TAC founder) and contribute as you are able.

I don't know how else to put this

I'm not really good at being a politician, because I generally despise them.  So all I can do is shoot straight from the hip. I hope you can appreciate my honesty.

Today, the Tenth Amendment Center received a direct attack by the George Soros-funded ThinkProgress - a major establishment organization with tens of millions of dollars at their disposal.

If we don't get some help  taking these people on, we're in some big trouble.  We just can't keep going on like this, begging to barely get by. 

please help us HERE:  http://rally.org/tenthamendmentcenter

Here are some choice quotes about TAC at ThinkProgress today:

"radical tactics"
"makes John Calhoun look like a moderate"
"They fear the federal government with pathological intensity"
our goal is "burning it down"

They basically warned people to not work with us because we are so dangerous to the future of the country.

HERE'S OUR SERIOUS PROBLEM:

The TAC is operated from a spare bedroom, now a home office, in my apartment.  We're going head to head with the NSA, gun control, Obamacare, and George Freaking Soros.

We are struggling to raise a mere $30,000, and are actually 4 thousand SHORT!  But with that little, we've still had so much impact that this Soros group is attacking us.

30 thousand vs 40 million.  This is David v Goliath.  We'll continue taking them on, but you know what?  30K isn't really going to cut it.  4 more thousand gets us to our baseline goal - so we can stay open.  We really need significantly more than that.

Please help us out in a big way right now:http://rally.org/tenthamendmentcenter

 . . .

The rest of his message is here:

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=3a5a3fb1ad250e247bde9f42d&id=b29088a95a&e=02e87ef58f

For more information on the Tenth Amendment Center, please visit their web page:

http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/