‘Lee and Orthodoxy’

 

(The following essay appears as a foreword to the novel With Lee in Virginia by G. A. Henty, published by Contra Mundum Press.  It is presented below with the publisher’s permission.)

The South holds a unique place in modern Western history.  While most Western countries in recent centuries were discarding Christianity and other traditional norms, the people of Dixie were doing the opposite:  defending an hierarchical view of the cosmos with the Holy Trinity reigning over all; defending Christianity, as well as traditional notions of marriage and family as found in the Holy Scriptures and in ancient Greek and Roman society; looking distrustfully upon rapid mass industrialization; upholding the slower, more humane agrarian economic system in its stead, believing that the creation is suffused with meaning and with the presence of God Himself, that it serves a sacramental function, rather than being simply ‘dead matter’ to be transmuted by factories into consumer goods and monetary profits.

While not identical in content, the South’s defense of traditional living is yet very similar to what was going on in the Orthodox world at the same time – with St. Athanasios Parios and the Kollyvades Fathers of Mount Athos, for example, or with Ivan Kireevsky, Alexei Khomiakov, and the other Slavophiles in Russia.

The closeness of Dixie to Orthodoxy may be seen in other ways as well:  in keeping the fasts before Easter and Christmas, even forbidding weddings during those times, celebrating Christmas on its Old Calendar day of 6 January, and honoring St. George at Eastertime.  There were also Southern converts to the Orthodox Faith like Philip Ludwell III as well as Orthodox settlements in the Old South, such as the Greek community in New Orleans.

There are plenty of reasons, then, for the Orthodox to be interested in the South, and vice versa.

Throughout her 417-year history, a number of Southerners have exemplified Dixie’s traditional Christian ethos:  from William Berkeley, Robert Byrd II, and Robert ‘King’ Carter I, to Flannery O’Connor, Donald Davidson, and Andrew Lytle – but the greatest exemplar of them all remains Robert E. Lee.

Robert Edward Lee was born on January 19^th, 1807, into the squirearchy of Virginia, his father the famous Light Horse Harry Lee, a general in the War for Independence from Great Britain, and his mother Ann Hill Carter Lee, of the renowned Carter family.  He would marry into another distinguished Virginia family, the Custises, when he was wed to Mary Custis in 1831, the great-granddaughter of George Washington’s wife, Martha; their marriage was a fruitful one, bringing seven children into the world.

Lee was a devoted Christian from his early years, attended the West Point military academy as a young man, and spent much of his adult life in the United States Army, mostly in the Corps of Engineers, but he would experience combat in the Mexican-American War in 1847 as well as at Harper’s Ferry in 1859 to quell the insurrection of John Brown.  After Virginia seceded on April 17^th, 1861, Gen. Lee resigned his commission with the U. S. Army on 20 April and was made on May 14^th a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army, in which he served with gallantry and distinction until the end of the War with the Yankee invaders on April 9^th, 1865, the day he surrendered himself and his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses Grant of the Union Army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

After the War, Gen. Lee made it his primary mission to promote reconciliation between the States and to work for the common good and upbuilding of them all.  To that end, he accepted the office of President of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia (later to be renamed Washington and Lee University) in October 1865.  There he busied himself for five years, forming the minds and characters of the young men who attended the College.  On September 28^th, 1870, while at a vestry meeting at Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, he suffered a stroke.  He passed from this life to the next shortly thereafter, on 12 October 1870, to the great sadness of his Southern countrymen.  His final words were ‘Strike the tent.’

More than 150 years have passed since Robert E. Lee left this world.  Life has changed significantly over that time.  Can anyone, particularly Orthodox Christians, benefit at all from a closer look into his life?

Another exceptional Southerner, Richard Weaver (reposed on 1 April 1963), whose writings portray especially well the essence of Dixie’s way of life, answers in the affirmative in his essay ‘Lee the Philosopher’.  He notes that it is common to exalt Gen. Lee as a great military leader, a model husband and father, and an embodiment of Southern culture.  These are not unimportant in the present age of barbarism and promiscuity.  But, he says, there are more important things to note about Lee.  And in the characteristics that he notes, we will see how they correspond well with truths proclaimed by the Orthodox Church.

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/lee-and-orthodoxy.

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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!

‘Tear out the 14th Amendment Tumor’

 

Many of the federal Supreme Court’s worst rulings are justified by the 14^th Amendment – everything from anchor babies/birthright citizenship to forcing homosexual marriage upon the States.  William Watkins, Jr, in an excellent essay at the Chronicles web site (‘Time to Topple the Fourteenth Amendment’), explains how erroneous such rulings are.

Many of these rulings rely on what is known as the Incorporation Doctrine:  i.e., the 14^th Amendment’s guarantees of privileges and immunities, of due process, and of equal protection make the federal constitution’s Bill of Rights applicable to the States.  But this is not what the writers of 14^th Amendment intended, per Watkins:

‘To the extent the Privileges or Immunities Clause enforced the Bill of Rights against the states, this would have caused a major change in state practice—especially in the criminal law. States would be required to augment the use of grand juries, to grant jury trials in all civil cases where the amount in controversy exceeded $20, and so forth. But opponents of the Fourteenth Amendment never made these obvious arguments against its adoption. Why not? Because no one understood a few offhand comments about the Bill of Rights as embodying the purpose of the Privileges or Immunities Clause. Moreover, the Privileges or Immunities Clause caused no great state constitutional revival—even in solidly Republican states—to conform state constitutional practice to the federal Bill of Rights. Surely, if the state legislatures that ratified the Fourteenth Amendment had understood it to incorporate the first eight amendments some of the states would have put that into law. None did.

‘Also, if the Privileges or Immunities Clause was intended to incorporate the Bill of Rights, which includes the Fifth Amendment’s due process provision, why does the Fourteenth Amendment have its own Due Process Clause? Is this a drafting error, a double security for due process, or clear evidence that Congress did not believe the Bill of Rights was incorporated? The latter explanation makes the most sense.

‘Further compelling evidence against the incorporation doctrine is found in Twitchell v Pennsylvania (1868), in which the defendant contended that Pennsylvania denied him his rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments by failing to state with proper specificity the manner in which the defendant was alleged to have harmed the victim. The Supreme Court denied relief on the grounds that the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states. Surely, the justices of the Court, sitting in Washington and aware of the great debates that had taken place in Congress, would have understood that the Privileges or Immunities Clause had worked a constitutional revolution in applying the Bill of Rights to the states. The holding of Twitchell and the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was not even mentioned in the decision speaks volumes about incorporation.’

Furthermore, the first appearance of a decision based on this new-fangled doctrine came in 1925, almost sixty years after the Amendment was declared a part of the Philadelphia charter in Gitlow v New York.  This new jurisprudence began the current era of expansive federal power based on the 14^th Amendment:

‘Thus, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause was the engine for incorporation. For most of Anglo-American legal history, “due process” was synonymous with legal processes (e.g., grand jury indictment, arraignment in open court, and a jury trial) that the government had to follow before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property. In the decades after the Civil War, the Supreme Court transformed due process into a vehicle to judge the substance of state legislation. The Due Process Clause served as a master key to give the Court access to a wide range of state policy matters.’

Two things may be noted in opposition to this new jurisprudence.  First, the 14^th Amendment originally had a very narrow purpose, to codify protections of former slaves into the federal constitution:

‘The origins of the Fourteenth Amendment cannot be understood apart from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that Congress enacted over President Andrew Johnson’s veto. The Act, inter alia, defined United States citizenship and required that blacks and whites be treated equally under the law. It ensured blacks could make contracts, file suit in court, and engage in real estate purchases. The Act sought to ameliorate the situation of freedmen in the South who faced state Black Codes. Some of the stricter codes prevented blacks from owning property, required blacks to carry a pass or a license when traveling, and declared any unemployed black man a vagabond. President Andrew Johnson raised significant constitutional questions concerning Congress’s power to interfere with matters traditionally left to the state governments. Thus, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction created the Fourteenth Amendment to constitutionalize the Civil Rights Act.

‘The Amendment addressed, in the words of legal historian William E. Nelson, the Northern demand that postwar governments in the South

‘“be restrained in the future from discriminating against blacks and Northerners, and that this restraint be imposed without altering radically the structure of the federal system or increasing markedly the powers of the federal government.”

‘To quote Fourteenth Amendment scholar Raoul Berger, we must remember that “the purpose of the framers was to protect blacks from discrimination with respect to specified ‘fundamental rights,’ enumerated in the Civil Rights Act and epitomized in the §1 ‘privileges or immunities’ clause.” The Civil Rights Act, in pertinent part, provided that the following were required for the freedmen to enjoy meaningful liberty:

‘“[All citizens without regard to race or color] shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens.”

‘Had the Supreme Court confined Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence to the explicit purpose of the Civil Rights Act, it would not be regulating prayer in schoolhouses or running to remove the Ten Commandments from courthouse walls.’

Second, the 14^th Amendment was never properly ratified:

 . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2025/03/garlington-tear-out-the-14th-amendment-tumor/.

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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!

‘MAGA = Make Antichrist Great Again’ and an Addendum for January Remembrances

8 Jan.

Irvan Perez, one of the leaders in preserving the unique Islenos heritage in places like Texas and Louisiana

https://64parishes.org/entry/irvan-j-perez

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/the-forgotten-voyagers/

***

The hardened MAGA loyalists, particularly Protestant evangelicals, are convinced that President Trump is making the world a wonderful place, but the Zionist leanings of the Trump administration and its allies betray that conclusion.  Just how strong are those leanings of Trump and his supporters?  Some recent actions will show us.

First, let’s check in with the National Religious Broadcasters.  Many in the MAGA movement claim they are for free speech and against censorship, but the NRB association, which skews heavily Protestant evangelical, as well as some powerful US congressfolk, are fully onboard with censorship that comports with their Zionist convictions:

At the 2024 NRB convention, Israel365, in collaboration with The Israel Guys, achieved a significant breakthrough when NRB President and CEO Troy Miller endorsed their resolution opposing the use of the term “West Bank” in favor of the historically accurate “Judea and Samaria.” The resolution, adopted by an organization representing over 1,100 member organizations reaching millions of viewers and listeners, marked a turning point in how Christian media addresses Israel’s biblical heartland.

 

“I think your words matter today. And the truth matters as well,” Miller said at the time. “It is time for us to step up and be honest about the truth of what’s happened in Israel, in the definition of this land.”

 

The resolution’s impact quickly spread beyond media circles. In January 2025, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-24) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) reintroduced the RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act, requiring all official United States documents to use the term “Judea and Samaria” instead of “West Bank.” Tenney also launched the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus, a congressional group dedicated to supporting Israel’s sovereignty over these territories.

 

Building on this success, Israel365 launched its comprehensive “Accuracy in Reporting Style Guide” in December 2024. Developed in collaboration with Yisrael Medad of Israel’s Media Watch and Gil Hoffman of Honest Reporting, this resource helps journalists navigate the complex terminology surrounding Israel and the Middle East. Rabbi Tuly Weisz, founder of Israel365, emphasized the guide’s importance: “We hope that the Style Guide serves as an important resource for Christian journalists who want to be faithful to biblical truth when covering stories from the biblical heartland.”

So much for the NRB.  What about the Conservative Political Action Conference, the popular CPAC?  Not any better:

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) passed a resolution advocating for the US to support Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. CPAC is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and officials nationwide. CPAC is hosted by the American Conservative Union (ACU).

 

Intense discussions were held at this year’s [2025—W. G.] CPAC conference by the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council Chair and Binyamin Regional Council Governor Israel Ganz and senior CPAC figures. Also in attendance were Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli and Yesha Council CEO Omer Rahamim.

 

The resolution was read in front of the conference last Thursday by KT McFarland, former deputy national security advisor in US President Donald Trump’s first administration.

 

“We believe all these areas are integral parts of Israel, and the United States of America and her allies should recognize Israeli sovereignty over these lands,” the resolution stated.

 

 . . . Ganz compared the resolution to the historic Balfour Declaration of 1917, issued by the British Government, announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Israel.

 

“Your declaration is akin to the Balfour Declaration,” Ganz said. “You are granting political validity to biblical values and to justice. This is a tremendous blessing for Israel, the US, and the entire free world. The extension of sovereignty will launch a new era based on the historic truth, that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People and the Jewish state. These days are proof of the depth of the partnership between our countries, both in the processes currently underway, and in the promise for Israel’s hold on Judea and Samaria. The declaration today clarifies the importance of changing the security reality in all the arenas – the north, the south and in Judea and Samaria, to ensure the security of the State of Israel.”

 

“I would like to thank my colleague Minister Amichai Chikli for his professionalism in promoting the issue of Israeli sovereignty among senior US administration officials and important non-parliamentary figures.”

 

“For a long time already the CPAC Conference has been not only an American organization, but to a great extent has been the leader of the conservative movement worldwide. The declaration of this major conference, for the extension of Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, is supremely important, with respect to both the incoming US administration’s stance and to the rightist parties in the European Parliament and in Latin America.”

Then there are the figures in the Trump regime itself.  The same article linked just above speaks of Paula White:

 . . .

The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/maga-make-antichrist-great-again/.

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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 Flying Jacobin’

 

Predictive programming is a technique the anti-Christian power structure uses to condition the masses to accept changes that those twisted people want to introduce into the world.  It is often used by them in Hollywood TV and film productions.  Star Trek is a frightfully good illustration:  AI computer assistants and computer tablet reading devices were featured in this series decades ago, to give only a couple of examples from the long-running series.

We have recently watched Back to the Future Part II, which features predictions about the year 2015 (the movie was released in 1989), and found the same process at work.  There are hints of things to come, like the use of biometric data (to open locks on doors) and a completely man-controlled ‘weather service’ (likened in the movie to the regularity of the postal service); both biometrics and geoengineering are becoming more accepted and widespread around the world.  Featured most prominently in the film are flying cars:  the year 2015 was portrayed as being full of them.

Well, it’s 2025, and they’re ain’t any flyin’ cars around, so we’re a little behind schedule.  But the technocratic elite still want to shove as many of us as possible into flying automobiles.  The news about their development is starting to trickle out.  Orlando, Florida, home of Disney fantasy land, is living up to its reputation, getting ready to build a ‘vertiport’ for flying cars, which the city wants to have ready by 2028.

Alef Aeronautics, which publicly ties itself to Back to the Future Part II and its flying car (predictive programming – mission accomplished!), is taking pre-orders for their own version, but it’ll cost you a few hundred thousand dollars (I think I’ll save my stash for eggs, the way prices are going).  Mass production of Alef’s Model A has reportedly begun.

Dr Russell Kirk had a special hatred for the standard automobile that we have all been driving since the early 20^th century, calling it a ‘mechanical Jacobin,’ since it broke up the long-established patterns of living that had grown up organically across Christendom and the rest of the world.  Dixie’s own Andrew Lytle in ‘The Hind Tit,’ his essay in I’ll Take My Stand, was no better inclined towards them.

We covered this matter of the motor car and other related things in an essay written about a dozen years ago.  Dr Robert Peters once referred to it as being somewhat ill-tempered.  We agree.  And we will now be just as ill-tempered in our response to the appearance of flying cars.  Conventional automobiles that roll along the ground at least have the virtue of keeping us connected to that same ground to a small degree, however much of a blur it usually is as we whiz over and by it.  But flying cars, these flying Jacobins, will disconnect us from it completely, making the earth and its places even more distant and abstract to us, increasing the likelihood that we will be even less hesitant than we are today to tear it to pieces, to deconstruct and reconstruct it, for the sake of some hair-brained, Gnostic, nihilistic scheme of economic development, scientific advancement, or non-sensical entertainment.

As Southerners, we must stand against the rising tide of tech.  We have witnessed the deadliness of it for generations now – from women and children being mangled in the early factories to hydrogen bombs incinerating Japanese cities to suicides tied to social media.  The prophetic English writer Paul Kingsnorth is helpful at this moment.  He points out two paths that traditional Southerners (and other like-minded peoples) can take as it regards technology, which he calls ‘cooked asceticism’ and ‘raw asceticism.’  In his own words (from his essay ‘The Neon God’):

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/the-flying-jacobin.

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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!