re: For the anarchists

quote:

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I am in total agreement - and I am heartened by someone else being aware of The Benedict Option.

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It's a provocative work. His opening comments on the loss of the cultural wars is compelling and devastating.

Sadly, it validated much of what I believed but wouldn't say aloud or write too much about. Much of what follows is from conservative Anglican theology and validated (in my mind at least) in large part by Dreher's book.

Coming from being raised a marginal, cultural Southern Baptist, through a journey with stops along the way in Charismatic "temples" and non-denominational Evangelical fellowships, I have landed permanently in an very conservative (orthodox with a little o) Anglican Church. We have a very high view of Scripture, the Sacraments principally because of our theology of the Incarnation in its fullness. Birth. Life. Death. Resurrection. Ascension. Second Coming. With the Incarnation is everything; without it, nothing.

From this vantage point, I've been able to take a look at myself and my "journey". It seems that much of the failure of the Evangelical movement's efforts to influence American culture and government stems from a murky, almost gnostic, appreciation of the Incarnation, Eschatology, the Sacraments, and the difficulties, hardships, and self-denial required to follow Jesus and obey and please God.

The result has been to be lazy, self-indulgent, make more of once saved/always saved than is warranted, trust in trying to elect Christians to public office, and wait for the Rapture and be carted off to Heaven. That's an oversimplification of course but a decent outline.

All these criticisms refer specifically to me and close friends and relatives. Some remain in the Evangelical mainstream and some have moved to a more catholic (little c) community, Anglican, Orthodox, or Roman Catholic.

I simply don't see in Scripture Christians just holding ground and losing ground waiting to be Raptured to heaven. What I do see is man placed in a garden with a mission to expand it to the far corners of the earth through personal holiness and piety, especially prayer, and not "witnessing" to people, but rather being a witness to the love of Christ by actually loving each other and our fellow man whether he knows and loves Christ or not.

The body of Christ should be bringing heaven to earth and not waiting for a late great planet earth apocalypse from which to escape.

We Christians need to get our individual selves squared away first before we can even begin to influence our families, our neighbors, and our culture. IMO.

Sorry for the wall of text. Seemed relevant in a discussion of a virtuous republic arising from the ashes.

The Constitution is the law. I would love for the law to be enforced.