Category: Culture

A people in bondage to sin will never create free societal and cultural institutions. The Gospel is the answer for societal and cultural institutional slavery because only the Gospel can set individuals free from their sin that they may in turn set their own societal and cultural institutions free from their enslaving tendencies.

However, if a people are churched and those churched people do not kick against the goads of enslaving societal and cultural institutions then it is doubtful that those churched people know what it means to be free from their own personal bondage and enslavement to sin. People who have been set free by Christ from the slavery of sin and the devil do not abide societal and cultural institutions that desire to enslave them to the caprice of a false god.

People who have been given spiritual liberty always incarnate that liberty into the cultures and societies that they build. Individuals who have been set free from false gods always seek to assist in setting their culture free from the false gods that enslave it.

“Far from being content with a mere uprising, therefore, Gramsci believed that it was necessary first to delegitimize the dominant belief systems of the predominant groups and to create a “counter-hegemony” (i.e., a new system of values for the subordinate groups) before the marginalized could be empowered. Moreover, because hegemonic values permeate all spheres of civil society — schools, churches, the media, voluntary associations — civil society itself, he argued, is the great battleground in the struggle for hegemony, the “war of position.” From this point, too, followed a corollary for which Gramsci should be known (and which is echoed in the feminist slogan) — that all life is “political.” Thus, private life, the work place, religion, philosophy, art, and literature, and civil society, in general, are contested battlegrounds in the struggle to achieve societal transformation.”

John Fonte
Why There Is A Culture War
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/7809

Practical outworking

Cultural Marxism, following Gramsci pursued,

1.) Christianity as a worldview must be subverted

2.) A worldview in antithesis to Christianity must be developed

3.) That alternate worldview had to be embraced and advanced by those marginalized by the Christian worldview

4.) In Cultural Marxism those who were chosen to overturn the Christian worldview were the disaffected and minorities. The promise held out to women (feminism), minorities, disabled, sexually perverted was that they would be the newly empowered ruling class.

5.) In order for Gramsci Cultural Marxism to work what was required was conflict in every cultural institution and in every personal relationship. The conflict was always pursued with the end of challenging and overturning the accepted status of the Christian worldview.

6.) One method that was developed to advance this agenda was called “Critical theory.” Critical theory is simply the methodology that challenges the influence of Biblical Christianity in everything from law to literature. It has been a deconstruction tool in the arsenal of Cultural Marxism and has been used in order to expose putative oppression in different disciplines.

7.) Cultural Marxism works change at a grass roots level.

8.) Cultural Marxism has always worked at both a religious and ethnic level. The reason this is so is that Christianity as a faith system that must be subverted has always been predominantly, in terms of sheer numbers, the faith of the descendants of Europeans. Therefore, in order for Gramscian Cultural Marxism to succeed it had to pull down both Christianity and the white man as the majority ethnic carrier of the Christian faith. Cultural Marxism developed a new faith and that new faith was the faith embraced by the majority of minorities, a strong contingent of women (feminism), and the pervert class. This class of people, having embraced the faith of cultural Marxism, would be and remain the shock troops seeking to overcome the Christian faith of European Americans.

Glenn Beck quoting Benjamin Franklin in order to support his (Beck’s) thesis of what the American Religion is

Benjamin Franklin writing Yale President Ezra Stiles,

“You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it: But I do not take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify it. Here is my Creed: I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to him, is doing Good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever Sect I meet with them.”

Beck stops with this segment of Franklin’s quote without giving what Franklin immediately wrote in the next sentence,

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity: tho’ it is a Question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it…

Beck, then summarizing Franklin, says on his national television show that the American religion that he is all about can be reduced to these four Franklin inspired points,

1.) There is a God
2.) God is going to judge us
3.) We should be good to each other
4.) Cause Daddy is going to be pissed in the end if we are not (good to each other)

Beck goes on to say that the reason that he had all faiths (Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons) represented on stage at his Rorschach Rally on 8/28 is that they can all agree on these four big principles.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/glenn_beck/

Start at about the 5 minute mark.

So, there you have it.

Of course this is utter nonsense that any Historic Protestant Christian would find reprehensible. God is going to judge us but if any of those who are going to be judged really believe that the success of passing that judgment is dependent upon our being good to each other then they are certain to be forever damned. Glen Beck will be forever damned if he thinks that his eternal judgment is based on his four principles.

It is precisely what Beck left out of Franklin’s quote that is the core of the matter. If man does not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ he is lost because a non-divine Christ can not save anyone from their sins. Notice in those four principles there is no mention of Jesus Christ. Yet, any Historic Protestant Christian would tell you that without Christ there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. If Evangelicals, in advance, knew that these four principles were supposed to be some kind of common ground on which all faiths in America can stand and hold hands on then they never should have participated in this blasphemous Rorschach rally.

Historic Protestant Christians you need to run away from Glen Beck and his syncretizing efforts.

“Paul begins his letter to the church at Corinth by reminding them of this same truth. Here was a group of believers caught up in worldliness. They were prideful, arrogant. They were powerful. But Paul, before explaining their poverty and nakedness explains how God works- “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (I Corinthians 1:26-27). That’s how God changes the world. Not by a long march through the institutions, not by preparing ourselves for positions of power and influence. Not by raising up children to seize the institutions of higher learning. Instead He uses those who beat their worthless breast, crying out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

We have a world to conquer. We are to be about the business of being a help to our Husband as He brings all things under subjection. The first thing we must conquer is our own foolish pride. The first things we have to consign to the flames of hell is our strategies. And then, let us be followers, walking in His footsteps who set aside His glory for us.”

Observation by Bret

1.) Yes, God’s strategy begins and even continues with people crying out “God be merciful to me a sinner,” but then what? Does this reality that people must see their sin negate that upon seeing their sin God will require of His people to do their own long march through the institutions? Does the reality that we must constantly face our own sinfulness negate the necessity to be Sons of Issachar who know the times and what must be done? Is not the knowing of our times and what must be done naught but a preparing of ourselves for whatever position and influence God might grant us? Should the reality of rightly assessing that we are nothing but sinners keep us from raising our children to seek to extend the crown rights of King Jesus over every area of life?

Look, I agree that part of the problem of the Church is that it hasn’t come to grips with its sin but should it ever come to grips with its sin, it won’t be wrong to engage in a long march through the institutions, or to prepare ourselves for positions of influence and power or to raise a postmillennial seed. I agree that we have tried to do the latter (i.e. — long marches, carnal power, looking for success from un-catechized seed) apart from doing the former (being aware that we are sinners) but if, by God’s grace, we ever do the former we will still have to do the latter. God’s Kingdom will not be extended by a pietistic people who only beat their breasts and cry out “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

2.) If the first things we have to consign to the flames of hell is our strategies should not the strategy of the writer above be consigned to hell? I mean, all that is being done here is giving us a more superior strategy. Truth be told, I agree with him, but for him to suggest that strategies are in themselves wrong is for him to affirm a self defeating proposition.

For example, what if a person wanted to start a Church in rural Wyoming where people could come and live a life that is uncomplicated, distinct, and well thought out. Would it be wrong to strategize in such a way so that community would become a reality or should such a person’s strategy only be to cry out, “God me merciful to me a sinner?”

I agree that God only uses those who beat their worthless breast, crying out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner,” but as they are beating their worthless breasts He uses them to do long marches through the institutions, and He uses them by preparing them, much like He did Daniel, for positions of power and influence, and He uses them by their raising up children to seize the institutions of higher learning.

Naturally, a sense of God’s grandeur and our sinfulness is the perquisite for any Kingdom use. I thoroughly agree that there are often times when people who call themselves Christians are carnal in the pursuance of influence. I agree that a proper estimation of God and self must precede strategy to take over the world. What I don’t agree on is that it is ever possible to be done with our own foolish pride and I don’t agree that we must wait till our foolish pride is finished before we begin to strategize or act. Were we to wait until our foolish pride was finished we wouldn’t do anything for the root sin of all creatures is pride and that root sin won’t be finished until we see Jesus as He is.

We are proud sinners. Regardless of how much sanctification we are given we will remain proud sinners. The palliative care for that is a vision of God’s Holiness but that vision of God’s Holiness and that palliative care must come in the context of long marches through the institutions, and preparing ourselves for positions of power and influence, and by raising up children to seize the institutions of higher learning, and by developing strategy on how we may assist in the subduing of all things.

Well, we are coming up on a week since the Glen Beck “American Rorschach Rally,” held in Washington DC last week. I offer a few observations below.

1.) I call Beck’s rally the “American Rorschach Rally” because like the Rorschach test it is a ink blot that has not objective meaning. No one knows what the rally really means — not even Beck — but each and every member of the punditocracy is convinced that it means whatever they see in it.

2.) So, what I am about to say, does not presume to suggest that I have the inside skinny on what the ink blot rally objectively means. I’m just one more patient telling what I see in the ink blot rally.

3.) What I see first is classical Americans — those Americans who still retain a shadow of a remnant of a memory of original Americanism — coming together to articulate some primeval instinct that something is wrong with their nation. However, though the primeval instinct remains, it is a instinct that is both unformed and uninformed, and as such, is easily led astray by the vacuous Beck and the silly Palin.

4.) The fact that the instinct of many of these rally goers is unformed is seen in the ridiculous contradictions. Here we have people gathered who have been energized largely by the passage of socialized health care who would and so are demanding their “country back.” And yet … many of those attending doubtless would be outraged if their socialized Medicare, or Social Security were deleted in order to remove the stain of socialism from their country. Doubtless many of them with the deepest desire to have their country back would have kittens if it were suggested that government schools be abolished since government schools are the very essence of state socialism.

5.) The fact that the instincts of many of Beck rally cheerleaders is uninformed is seen in the people they keep cheer leading and voting into office. These rally goers want their nation back and yet this November all indications are that they are going to vote into office a party that is pro-war, pro-Empire, pro-mega Corporations, and pro New World Order. The American electorate wants their country back and yet they do not realize that the very people they are looking to in order to get their country back are the people who are in bed with the people they hate. The current contest in American party politics is between two parties who desire to sustain the incestuous relationship between the Big Money interest (Corportism) and the Big Government interest (State run socialism). The only disagreement between these two interests is who gets to be on top. Neither of these interests gives a tinker’s damn about America as a unique sovereign nation. Beck is a cheer-leader for the Big Money interest and he is serving to channel the frustrations of many Americans in a direction that is against their interests.

6.) The Rally was, at its heart, a rally to support multiculturalism, which is the very cultural philosophy that is killing America. There are a couple ways in which this reality could be clearly seen. First, that the rally was given to the advance of multiculturalism could be seen by the countless numbers of Faith leaders that Beck paraded before the rally. Beck’s message was clearly the necessity to turn to god, regardless of which god one turns to. Clearly this is an example of multi-faithism. Now, as faith is one major component that creates culture, it simply is not possible to throw your passion behind multi-faithism without at the same time throwing your support behind the multi-cutluralism that multi-faithism always inevitably creates. As long as Americans continue to believe the elite created myth that there is something uniquely Christian about allowing other faiths to have equal standing in the public square the whole notion of “getting their country back” will be just an inconvenient fiction.

The second indicator that the rally was in support of multiculturalism was the “in your face” support of multiculturalism. First there was the unthinking homage to Martin Luther King who was a man who was instrumental in continuing the work of moving America’s cultural identity from an already diluted Christian base to a country torn between cultures that would forever be at war with itself. The success of King, both in life and in death, guaranteed that America would struggle with multiculturalism. Only the removal of King from the American pantheon of heroes will make it possible for Americans to take their country back. Second, there was the unthinking homage of Abraham Lincoln, the man who is responsible for beginning the work that King continued. The problem with Lincoln and King is not their advocacy for black people but their advocacy against black people. Both of them, guaranteed that a parasite culture, characterized by socialism, supported by the belief system necessary for socialism to thrive, and employing and abusing American blacks as the pawns to overthrow classical Americanism, would become part of the American identity that the original American identity would be at war with. Lincoln, like King, must be removed from the American Pantheon of heroes before anybody living gets their country back, for Lincoln marks the beginning of multiculturalism just as King represents the most recent successful purveyor of multiculturalism.

Until the well intentioned, but misled, minions of Beck completely turn their backs on multiculturalism, and the multi-fiathism that drives it, as well as the heroes of multiculturalism, the flag waving, “God” fearing, country loving Rorschach rally roadies will die wondering what happened to America.

And as a kind of post-script lets be clear and say that the God of the Bible does not honor a movement that desires that He be only one of the gods of the people. God is a jealous God and does not take kindly to sharing a pantheon or platform with any other god. I don’t doubt that there are many Christ loving Christians who were a part of the Beck rally, but I can promise them that no long term good thing will come in any success of this movement.