A Confident Masculine Christianity

As Western society comes apart at the seams, it’s fascinating to watch dissident atheists grudgingly stumble toward the realization that Christianity is necessary for the preservation of the West.

One such blogger whom regular readers know I enjoy is the redoubtable Z Man. His progress on the Road to Damascus has been especially interesting since he clearly knows the cause of our ills and the solution but has been hesitant to unreservedly admit it.

A world without authority, especially an agreed upon authority, is anarchy, but humans naturally retreat from anarchy. This is because anarchism is just mob rule. The ideal of anarchism is the mob mutually and magically agreeing to not murder one another, while the reality of it is the mob demanding authority to bring order. It is why democracy, which is just mob rule, is always a transition state. It is the period between the respect for natural, hierarchical authority and authoritarianism.

An example of this from history is the slow collapse of the Western Roman Empire, first into constant warfare, then into chaos and finally into the anarchy of local authority in the early medieval period. The end of the republic was not the end of a natural authority in Rome. The rulers still had to respect the gods and traditions. It is when those sources of authority collapsed that the end was clear for the Empire. The subsequent rise of the West was the rise of authority, Christian authority.

The modern West is undergoing the same sort of collapse of authority. Christianity, like the pagan faiths of the ancient world, has receded to the fringe. Tradition and hierarchy has given way to mob rule and force. What’s missing from the analogy is a new religion that provides a coherent order to the gathering chaos. Progressivism is an anti-religion, in that does not provide order to the natural world. Instead it preaches a denial of order and the denial of reason. It’s a primitive revolt against the natural order.

Now, the broad strokes of Z’s argument are correct. The West is mortally stricken by a virulent lack of legitimate authority. He is also correct that the Christian Church, Scripture, and Tradition did in fact provide that source of unifying authority. Furthermore, he hits the trifecta by correctly identifying Progressivism as the acid eating away at the three pillars that uphold Western civilization.

The one false note is the assumption that a new religion could possibly replace Christianity as the glue that binds the West together. That’s like assuming you could replace the spherical form of a baseball with a cube and still be able to play the game.

It’s not as if replacing orthodox Christianity is a new concept. The Arians tried. The Jacobins tried. The Communists tried. Practical atheists pretending to worship trees will hardly do better.

Being smarter than the average bear, the Z Man is evidently coming to terms with Christianity’s necessity. Here he is taking the next vital step:

Of course, the neutral public space argument is a justification for not fighting the Left over cultural turf. By claiming a principled claim in support of an open and neutral public space, it rules out doing anything that could actually win the fight. After all, defending the public square from complete domination by the Left, means pushing them out of some portion of it. That would violate the sacred principles of principled conservatives, so they not only refuse to do it, they prevent others from doing it.

Something that never gets mentioned by dissidents is that this line of reasoning contradicts basic Christian teaching. To cede the public space on principle is to agree, in advance, to not proselytize. To preach and proselytize means staking out space in the public square, regardless of the consequences. The very founding of the Christian faith was on the bones of those, who martyred themselves to spread the word of Jesus Christ in the face of violent opposition.

That of course, raises the question as to just how sincere David French is in his religious conviction. He waves his Christian faith around almost as much as he waves around his military service, yet he is not willing to risk much for it. The Gospels are pretty clear on this point. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus instructed the rich to give away their riches and follow him. Surely, salvation is worth some principles.

This is where dissident Christians can find a niche in dissident politics. There is a long tradition of Christians preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of fierce opposition from authority. To be a dissident is to reject the authority of the prevailing orthodoxy. To be a dissident Christian is to know the source of all authority. The way forward to a society built around natural association is also the path to a society where Christians can proselytize and lead their fellow man to salvation.

This is what the backers of Frenchism fear. A militant, optimistic and aggressive Christianity would be wildly attractive to disaffected white youth. Imagine young guys in camo flash mobbing public events, while reading Scripture. Imagine them employing the protest tactics of the Left, but in favor of faith. That’s why millions are poured into Christian groups to advocate the surrender model. Their leaders get very rich while leading their flocks away from the public space.

To paraphrase, what the West needs is a confident, masculine Christianity whose members aren’t afraid to publicly preach and live their faith. Contra the highly exaggerated rumors of the Church’s death, those Christians are coming soon to a street near you.

It is now more important than ever to support authentic Christian creators. Even if you’re not a Christian–even if you’re an atheist, only God-fearing artists who hope in Christ have a chance against the NY and LA death cultists who spread the Left’s anti-faith.

Support Christian science fiction. Back Combat Frame XSeed: CY 40 Second Coming today!

UPDATE: Our third stretch goal has been unlocked. R&D on a a Combat Frame XSeed pen and paper role-playing game will be greenlighted when we reach 400% funding.