Francis Berger
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On Being Branded an Enemy of Christianity

7/31/2022

9 Comments

 
A little over a week ago I wrote a post in which I challenged the altar-civilization model promulgated by some of the writers at the Orthosphere. At the end of that post, I stated that the content was not meant as a "swipe" but rather as a call to "encourage the expansion of exploratory thinking beyond the altar-civilization model to which so many Christians seem indivisibly wed".     
 
I had not written the post to spark a debate between the Orthosphereans and Romantic Christians and was somewhat surprised when it did. The initial Orthosphere responses hinted that there was much room for agreement concerning salvation and personal spiritual discernment, but when I brought up the birdemic church closures, the overall tone of the discussion took an icy turn.

I finally disengaged after Kristor Lawson published his self-described “splash of hellfire: of hard hot adamantine opaque and impenetrable truth”, which he employed to brand all Romantic Christians as “enemies of the Church of Christ” and by logical extension, enemies of Christ and Christianity.

I suppose I could write a formal rebuttal – compose my own little splash of hellfire, but I won’t.

I am now thoroughly convinced that most Orthosphereans/Orthosphere readers are indeed indivisibly wed to the altar-civilization model. I also know that the very idea of exploratory thinking beyond the altar-civilization model repulses them. And that’s enough for me. I won’t suggest these sorts of things to them anymore.

I don’t believe Kristor, the other Orthosphereans, or their trad/mainstream readers are enemies of Christ, and it’s not my place to brand them as such. Having said that, I must confess that the deep respect I once held for some of the Orthosphereans is now quite shallow.

But I don’t want to harp on about that sort of thing. What I’ll do instead is close with two recent comments taken from Romantic Christian blogs. My aim here is to provide some insight into how “the enemies of the Church of Christ” think:

The first is from David, who runs the excellent New World Island site. The comment appeared on Bruce Charlton’s blog today:

“When I was first introduced to Mormonism (and Christianity, again as an adult, beautifully clarified by the missionaries) I was also asked to seek personal revelation. After some time I did believe it to be true, but I had no desire to become a Mormon or join the Church. I did however become a Christian.

It did not seem necessary to me that a loving God, who is primarily concerned with my salvation, would require my allegiance to a particular church or denomination, but would rather prefer a personal ongoing and unlimited relationship that was Jesus-centered and unhindered by any outside or second-hand influence.

I follow this path knowing that there is no earthly authority (no man, no government, no church) that supersedes my inner awareness of Christ who dwells within all men as "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

This is quite freeing. And therefore regardless of what happens with any church or church system in the future, I am confident this will have no effect on my faith or trust in God.”


The second is from Luke, who added the following thought to one of my posts:

“There are those who are aware of their own freedom and bear upon themselves the responsibility for their own souls, and there are those who wish to renounce their own will and flee their sense of responsibility. For a little while longer the latter may be possible, but I do not think the future will belong to them.”
9 Comments
Lady Mermaid link
7/31/2022 22:05:37

Sigh. I despair that denominations may be forever a part of life. This time it's the "Romantic Christians" v. "Traditionalists". I guess it's human nature for humans to group themselves into tribes needing an external enemy.

I've read the Orthrosphere post about "Romantic Christianity". Perhaps I'm obtuse but I don't recognize what Kristor described. Nobody from you to Bruce Charlton to William Wildblood ever suggested that the past was entirely wrong and should be rejected. In fact, all the "Romantic" bloggers use tradition quite a bit in their spiritual walk. The trouble w/ written media is that it's easy to delve into strawman arguments that one would not dare if he was having a discussion face to face.

Now I'll respectfully disagree w/ Dr. Charlton in that I don't think what he calls "Romantic Christianity" is necessarily new. Prior to Constantine, it was practically the only form of Christianity. You can look at the wide variety of theological schools w/ various teachings functioning during waves of persecution throughout the first few centuries of Christianity. The first Christians by definition had to seek personal confirmation that this new faith was true. The organized religions of Judaism and paganism considered Christianity to be inherently dangerous if not blasphemous. To be a Christian pre Constatine was an individual and dangerous act.

Modern Christians are now back in the same situation as the early Christians. We can no longer rely on institutions that have our spiritual wellbeing at heart. Our modern governments are more wicked than the one of Nero. However, the Holy Spirit is still at work. I attend a church regularly not b/c I need to check off a list to make God happy. Rather, I firmly believe that Christ is present where "two or more are gathered in My name". Christianity is ultimately individual, yet individuals form communities.

This reminded me of a previous post of yours discussing the future of individual v. collective forms of Christianity. Old institutions are fading away, but new collective forms of faith arise through individuals coming together in Christ. As long as two or more people come together in Jesus, there will always be a Church.

https://www.francisberger.com/blog/subjective-and-individual-christianity-is-unavoidable-but-will-it-only-be-a-stage




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Francis Berger
8/1/2022 23:04:11

@ Lady Mermaid - Good comment. Thanks. Funny thing, I go to church quite regularly, too. My son even serves as an altar boy! Despite everything, I continue to see some value in churches (a sense of fellowship, community, worship), but as you know, I don't regard churchgoing as primary or necessary. I appreciate the link -- it was good to revisit my thoughts on the subject.

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johnson j
8/1/2022 05:12:32

Rad trads are all devil worshipers because they worship popes who are devils incarnate. They can't let go of papal infallibility (which only goes back to 1889!!!!!) despite it being proven false by like the last 5 popes. They would rather believe there has been a pause in the having of popes for 5 generations than admit Vatican I was heresy. And they condemn Orthodox and Prots for not being in communion with the pope while themselves denying there has been a pope since Pius IX. Clearly they are just NPCs but more advanced NPCs than the average CNN following NPCs becausr these NPCs can fake being right wing.

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Jonathan Smith link
8/1/2022 20:14:57

Francis @ I'm sorry to have brought this down on you, and am feeling a bit like a man who has carelessly flicked a cigarette butt out the car window, and now sees the surrounding forest in flames. I was not prepared for the sectarian bigotry that was on display last week, and am still feeling a little shocked. I am clearly towards the romantic end of the spectrum, since I learned the faith from books and not churches, and because I judge religious institutions by their fruits. I feel intense nostalgia for the religious world that has gone away, but I think it is time for us to face the fact that that world is gone. I'm afraid I lacked the heart to read all of the exchanges, but in those I read, all the Christian charity seemed to be on the side of the romantics. Nothing tests my faith so sorely as sectarian bigotry. It makes me quite literally ill, and I'm afraid tempts me to be very uncharitable in return.

Reply
Francis Berger
8/1/2022 23:14:06

@ JM - No need to apologize for anything. I was the one who wrote the post, and I was the one who decided to mention the Orthosphere within that post. So, if anyone is to blame, it is me. You cross-posted with good motivations and with the best intentions; and you could not have anticipated the eventual response.

God has interesting and creative ways of shaping things for our spiritual benefit, and I sense a lot of that shaping "in play" now -- both in the "debate" and in the world that has gone away.

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Francis Berger
8/1/2022 23:36:43

@ JM - One more thing, though it is needless to say -- I still hold you in high esteem.

Francis Berger
8/2/2022 00:01:33

@ JM - One fine point, I don't think either of us is to blame for anything that has transpired in connection with this debate. It all is all quite meaningful and serves a purpose. Things came to a point in 2020. Gray areas continue to dissolve. Everything is becoming clearer and easier to discern.

Reply
JMSmith link
8/2/2022 00:22:19

I think you are right. It sparked a sudden clarification for many people, and few of them found what became clear altogether agreeable. The world suddenly seemed even lonelier than before.

Reply
lea
9/8/2022 05:25:59

As much as i admire Kristor's intellectual prowess and analytical capability in philosophical discussions, he does tend to get emotional in the middle of an argument. Even the best of us are not immune to some of that (pun intended?) - Excusing any institution, not just the church at large, for what they did in the last 2 years, will not be looked on kindly by history.

While things have not been entirely 'normal' for a very long time, the paradigm shift represented here in recent years just cannot be trivialized even with the highest quality of word-wizardry. Of course, even for the highly intelligent there is a risk of getting caught in the net of this grand narrative. Tribalism is something Lady Mermaid noted, cognitive dissonance on a large scale is another factor, i have probably mentioned these before. That all ties in to what Mattias Desmet has said, but he is missing the spiritual aspect.

And that is your initial post that lead me here well over a year ago; https://www.francisberger.com/blog/despiritualization-is-dehumanization

I always took that as a broad strokes observation, crossing religious/ traditional lines. It ties in to the replacement of traditional spirituality with the worship of technology and it's 'progress'. That ties in to the reflections on Steiner's work that Wm Jas posted.

If you are branded an enemy of the commodity, you might be a champion of the genuine, original handcrafted version of that thing.

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