Paul VanderKlay (PVK) did a video reviewing, among other things, Tucker Carlson’s recent Heritage Foundation talk – the one that some point to as one more reason for his ousting. Following are some of my reactions to this.
PVK asks, what is the answer to the divide seemingly caused by these various cultural and political issues? In my view, the only peaceful answer is secession and decentralization. Secession means gathering with others who share similar cultural, political, and religious views – and excluding those who hold contrary views. Decentralization means governance at ever-lower institutional levels – at the lowest reasonable level (e.g., family).
And this happening, but not in the traditional way. The traditional way would result in The State of Jefferson. But we know that the US government has a history of not allowing peaceful transitions. Not in the United States, not in Korea, not in the former Soviet Union – even Ukraine today. Not anywhere.
But back to how it is happening today. People are migrating – seceding in the way they can. California and New York are losing people, Idaho and Tennessee are gaining people. Unfortunately, this isn’t an answer for everyone, or even many. It can only happen on the margins. But it is happening.
There is no law of God that says three hundred million people have to live under the same rules or in the same culture. When God created the earth, He didn’t draw the political boundaries on His creation. These aren’t carved in stone, so to speak.
We have a culture that freely ignores what God carved in stone, and violently defends that which God did not carve in stone. Abraham Lincoln ignored what was carved in stone by God, and violently defended that which was not carved in stone by God. And he is considered by many as our greatest president – especially so by many Christians…sadly showing how long the road is that must be traveled.
Carlson, when speaking of the culture-destroying actions we see all around us, said something like: The weight of the government is behind it. PVK: “I agree with this, but they aren’t thinking through it either.” I think this is a naïve statement by VanderKlay. He attributes good intentions where such attribution isn’t deserved – or, he doesn’t attribute malevolent intentions when such attribution is richly deserved.
PVK, commenting on one of the many theological points made by Carlson: “He’s not at a theological podium; he’s at a political podium.” VanderKlay would often comment: “Politics is downstream from religion.” He is right. In other words, it’s all theological. It’s just a question of which theology.
PVK: Don’t back your enemies into a corner unless you are planning to do something final. From this, two points: liberal democracy does not have the tools necessary to defend itself; its enemies don’t play by the rules of liberal democracy, and nothing in liberal democracy is available to counteract this. Second, one side in this discussion is happy to just be left alone – in other words, they will tolerate, but don’t demand that they affirm. The other side demands more than toleration; it demands even more than affirmation. It demands subservience.
Then PVK asks: “Was Donald Trump just more pantomime?”
Yes. All political theater. When he brought in people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, it was clear that the joke was on us. When he led the charge on fourteen days to flatten the curve, it was clear that the joke was on us. When he did (and still does) self-congratulate himself for operation warp-speed and the jab, it is clear that the joke was and is on us.
I say “us,” not as an avid Trump supporter, but in the context of something else Carlson said recently: we are all caught in a game where none of the important issues are discussed, and all people on all sides of all of the things that are discussed are fooled into ignoring the important things.
Trump’s election was important because of why people voted for him. And it is those people who are in jail. It is those people who are shut out; it is those people who are considered the enemies. These are the people who cling to their Bibles and guns, per Obama; these are the deplorables, per Clinton.
PVK: “We know what happens when things go existential.” Yes, we do. It seems clear that those with power today wish it to go this way. It is clear in the US; it is clear in Ukraine; it is clear with China.
Conclusion
‘If You Want a Picture of the Future, Imagine a Boot Stamping on a Human Face – for Ever.’
Whatever one might say about Tucker and his firing, it is seen by a large portion of the population as one more stomp in a very long string of stomps of the boot on the face.
Epilogue
Ephesians 2:2 (paraphrased): …the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Your analysis is brilliant as always. Some of us are working on organising in different counties. See
ReplyDeletehttps://l5news.substack.com/p/your-county for some thoughts.
Thank you for your work. God bless you. Amen.
Mike Mahharey gave a great speech at the Take Human Action tour yesterday in Austin. I was there! He explained from the Constitution and other political writings of the Founders what the strategy is to do just what you say. It can be called several different things refusal to enforce, secession, nullification, etc. But it was all about decentralizing power outside of secession through the states, counties, and local governments. I encourage everyone to support the 10th amendment center in some form or fashion or familiarize yourself with their work at least.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to catch up on reading Rothbard. I think one of his greatest points is to explain all natural rights through the lens of property rights. It all makes sense once you do that.
https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-ethics-of-liberty-human-rights-as.html
Our problem is we try to reform the "empire". "Empire" is the main strategy of the enemy. The real solution is the opposite of "empire" -- local at county level. Even small town level. This is exactly the strategy of Christ: one local "church" at a time. Of course, we have to change our concept of "church." Ultimate goal is to become a loving, self-sufficient (under God) community. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." (Eph. 5:11)
ReplyDeleteVery nice analysis. I think that the most significant event of this decade is the transition of the American church from an establishment church to a persecuted church. And it is a very hopeful sign. 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church' Soon or late, eventually our cries for help will be heard. We just have to make a point of crying for help, our one crucial task is to need deliverance. Only needy people get rescued.
ReplyDeletehttps://comfortwithtruth.substack.com/p/to-a-people-who-walk-in-darkness
With all due respect, this is the approach of what I call the Church Juvenile (versus the Church Militant). Christians relish this mental image of themselves as St. Paul speaking truth to Herod Agrippa before being thrown to the lions. The truth is the early Christians moved quite rapidly to get the levers of State power and created the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. After all, if Christ is God and the Way of Truth, then Christianity should enjoy premier status in the society, at least in the territory the Christians hold.
DeleteIf there's no Christendom, then Christianity just becomes a personal affectation. I don't think religion exists without a process of group-consciousness-forming.
Which is to say if I'm to be a Christian my goal is not martyrdom, or even dhimmi status; my goal is Christendom. Speaking of dhimmi status, Christians won't be mass-slaughtered. They'll just be told how and when to worship and what public activities they can engage in. This actually happened in 2020, and most of the priests, elders and hierarchs and their congregations acknowledged the State, not Christ, as the head of the Church. Again, Christianity is no longer in the group-consciousness-forming business. If it were, the hierarchs would have said, "Arrest us. I'll designate a locum as you're handcuffing me and marching me out the door. Lock the doors and we'll meet in homes. Lock down the home and we'll meet in the next home. The State can go to Hell."
They didn't say that; they bent the knee. A priest in my old parish told a member he was going to Hell for not getting vaccinated. He and his family left; mom and dad have landed in a new parish but the children were badly shaken and will probably drift away from the Faith. The successors to the Apostles and, in fairness, much of their congregations, no longer believe their religion.
Why would you say with all due respect before treating someone like an ignorant child, literally referring to my position as juvenile? That is asinine. Your comments show exactly how much respect you think is due to the belief that 'My kingdom is not of this world'. And just as the kingdom is not of this world neither is our warfare.
DeleteOn what do you base your comments on Christianity seizing worldly power? Don't you know that the ante-Nicenes considered being a magistrate inconsistent with a profession of Christianity? Show me the movement of early Christians to obtain state power.
The weakness of our churches comes from being an establishment church. Anything that the state can give the state can take away. They are a broken reed and if you lean on them they will go through your hand, as the prophets said of depending on foreign powers. I am sorry that you have encountered weakness when the church ought to have shown strength, but even sorrier that you have taken to coveting the state's strength for the church rather than wishing that she employed her proper power which is mighty for tearing down strongholds and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
Jon, he didn't call you juvenile. He was describing your statement. He then further offered a lengthy reply - the opposite of what might be done if he thought you an ignorant child.
DeleteWhat we need today is a strong institutional Church acting as God's Church. I spend more time on this in the post published today.
I will ask you both to keep the tone down.
@Jon - Christians look at the lost culture war and pine for the imagined purity of the early Church of 20,000 scattered souls, meeting in the catacombs and being arrested for sedition. This is what I call the "Church Juvenile" versus the Church Militant, which coronated emperors and kings in Christendom and set the feasts and fasts around which the whole society was organized, like the Jews in their Zions and the Muslims in their Dar-al-Islam. Again, after the Edict of Milan, Christians moved very quickly to convert the elite and gain the levers of power. The ultimate profession of your Christian faith, the Nicene Creed, happened because the Emperor Constantine ordered it done. And again, after all if Christ is God and His teachings are the way of Truth, an officially secular State is simply antithetical to Christianity. The organizing principle of Christendom, as accepted by Christians from the great to the small over centuries was the double-headed eagle of Imperium and Church.
DeleteAs much as modern Christians may long for the supposed clarity and moral purity of the Apostolic Era, it is not going to happen that way. Christianity has become another choice in the secular State's permissible religious bazaar. The "Church Juvenile" is not a sufficiently potent enemy of the secular State.
Another approach which I think you're advocating is anti-establishmentarian: non-affiliated congregations with careerist preachers supposedly hewing to the "true" Christian doctrine. Or just the individual Christian lugging around his King James Bible, a congregation of one.
The weakness of the former is it leads to "schism-ism." Factions form and somebody decides some verse means X, not Y, and the congregation splits to form two churches with "true" doctrine, then four, then eight ad infinitum. The weakness of the latter is obvious; there is a whole blogosphere of "Romantic Christians" out there now, disappearing up their navels. Either way, the anti-establishmentarian church is unable to form a group-consciousness in opposition to the secular State and its hyper-sexualized, deviant culture and soul-killing consumerism.
In sum, Christians don't need martyrdom, which they won't get in any event; they need national redoubts in which to be good Christians.
My apologies for getting heated. I will try and keep the tone down.
DeleteThe apostles were not a very potent enemy to Rome either. Except that they were.
DeleteYou say that I won't get martyrdom, but I could just as easily say that you won't get visible unity. Rather, authentic New Testament Christianity produces martyrdom whereas we have no promises of visible unity but rather promises that the truth will divide and pit brother against brother.
The Nicene unity that you applaud, is rather the product of dissension and heresy. And I would advise you to look at the subsequent history of Athanasius. Exiled twice by this same Constantine whose visible unity impresses you so much, twenty five years kept out of His bishopric writing pastoral letters from the desert. And I ask you who was the true church with? Constantine did as the state will always do, decide based on expediency with no understanding of the matter. Thus, when he was done subscribing the Nicene Creed he subscribed an Arianizing Creed and two of his immediate successors were heretics.
The desire for visible unity is a noble one, but it is a desire for an inconsequential thing and if it comes at the cost of the Gospel, as it always does, it is a net negative. Or do you see some Institutional Church that is not as filthy as the state you wish them to reform? Did I simply miss them? 'Come out of her my people' applies just as much to churches as it does to states, perhaps more so.
You tell me that Christianity has become a religion among other religions permitted by the state, but it is not Korans that Antifa burns. It is not Imams that are being prosecuted outside of abortion clinics. You tell me that the state sees no threat from the scattered and disorganized church but it isn't your opinion that counts. It is Merrick Garland's and he pursues the Church of the Wilderness, rather persecutes.
Religion addresses groups, but the Gospel always addresses the lone individual standing before the Lord. It is when the apostles were driven from city to city by the Institutional Church of Judaism that they were strong. The church has one great power, the power to present the scandalous Gospel, the power of the offense of the Cross. Anything else she does she is just one among many.
Love and peace, jc
comfortwithtruth.substack.com
"You tell me that Christianity has become a religion among other religions permitted by the state, but it is not Korans that Antifa burns. It is not Imams that are being prosecuted outside of abortion clinics."
DeleteThat's because any #BLM or antifa who did so would get a collective Muslim beatdown. Christians just scatter into individuals with their King James Bibles, wandering around talking about how powerful the message of the Gospels is while losing on every front.
"...would get a collective Muslim beatdown."
DeleteI have been thinking quite a bit about this recently. Frankly, to save Western civilization might require more Muslim (of the right sort) immigration. Culturally, they support a moral society much more strongly than most Christians do.
As Peter Kreeft put it, in the context of your comment (greatly paraphrased): Christians could use some Muslim spine.
Just to be clear, the kingdom that we are working towards is one that can be advanced by giving beatdowns and we should take our cues from unbelievers or not so much? But, you yourself point out that we are distinct from other religions in that we are not tolerated, we are persecuted. The claim that we are one religion among others tolerated by the empire is disproven by your own words.
DeleteThe message of the Gospel is defeat. It is death and burial before resurrection. Even individually we must be condemned before we can be justified. A victory that comes in any other way is not worth having. The respect that comes from terrorism is not something that I want for the religion of the Crucified, at any cost. By terrorism I mean violence against civilians or as an attack on ideas(principally practiced by the US government against the entire world including their own citizens and by traditionalist Islam mainly as asymmetric warfare against an aggressive empire not saying it is justified in their case but it is you know defensive.
Not sure why you keep bringing up the KJV, but you should look into the paradox of the Gospel.
Where do I keep bringing up the KJV? Yes, I often cite it when I find the wording particularly beautiful and / or appropriate and / or traditional. But I more often cite the ESV, and occasionally other translations.
DeleteSorry that reply was meant for Anti-Gnostic who brings it up as part of what seems a bit like an anti-fundamentalist trope or something.
DeleteI love all Tyndale Bibles myself, the more modern translations have value but they do lack the beauty of the older ones.
Jon,
DeleteIt is so much more than beauty, although that is definitely part of it. The English language was at its zenith then. The best it would ever be. All languages degrade as they age. They get worse, our current times as the sine-qua-non case-in-point. Other "translations" use "modern English". There is also the issue of the text they are variously translated from - the TR being the best.