day no. 17,426: collateral damages

"Those who are governing us are not very good at governing us, but they are very good at staying in power despite being so very bad at their real job." — Douglas Wilson, Belfast Blues

Our representatives are like our government schools, they are not good at what they tell others they are doing and very good at what they are actually trying to do.

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.” ― Thomas Sowell, Dismantling America

A politician's job is keeping his job and as good as he is at that is as bad as he is at concerning himself with what concerns us most.

"Now the public school system may not work satisfactorily, but it works; the public schools may not achieve what we want, but they achieve what they want. The popular elementary schools do not in that sense achieve anything at all.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World

Government schools are not trying to educate our children for their own good, they are indoctrinating them for the State's own good.

"Public education has not produced an educated public." — G.K. Chesterton

Not because they have failed, but because they have succeeded. And in the meantime, those who suffer are the rest of us for those who educate their own children still have to live in a world where most other people's children are catechized by the government. 

“For those who suffer are chiefly the provident, the resolute, the men who want to work, who have built up, in the face of implacable discouragement, some sort of life worth preserving and wish to preserve it . . . They are, in fact, the bearers of what little moral, intellectual, or economic vitality remains. They are not nonentities. There is a point at which their patience will snap.” — C.S. Lewis, Delinquents in the Snow

Regular people want to be left alone, but the State wants mind our beeswax. This tension is untenable and anything that cannot go on forever... won't. A breaking point will come and when it does the wrath of those who did not want to get involved will be severe, Lord willing. This is not a threat per se, it is a natural consequence to being relentlessly infringed at every turn.

"The judge, if she read this article, would say I was ‘threatening’—linguistic nicety not being much in her line. If by a threat you mean (but then you don’t know much English) the conjectural prediction of a highly undesirable event, then I threaten. But if by the word threat you imply that I wish for such a result or would willingly contribute to it, then you are wrong.” — C.S. Lewis, Delinquents in the Snow

Those who cannot be shaken will eventually be stirred and then that which can be shaken will come crumbling down. God, grant us mercy in the meantime and may their fall not include much, if any, collateral damage.

day no. 17,425: new heights or new lows?

"Have you ever seen a fellow fail at the high jump because he had not gone far enough back for his run? That is Modern Thought. It is so confident of where it is going to that it does not know where it comes from." — G.K. Chesterton,  The Illustrated London News (1914)

If you refuse to look back, you cannot advance. Progress requires a reference point. If you merely seek to rewind the tape to a previous point, you will get the same result. You must begin somewhere else if you desire to end somewhere different. If you don't like the final scene, it does you no good to select a scene from earlier that you liked better. The story will end the same way. 

To put a finer point on it, if we do not go back to the Garden, we will continue to end up in Gomorrah. When we forget the Fall, we will always fall. If we ignore where we were before we fell and what we were doing before that, we will always walk off the edge and end up in the valley of humiliation.

Modern thought wants to lower the bar, but godly thought wants to raise it. In Christ, we can clear the requirements of God, but outside of Him, we can only fall short of our highest aspirations, regardless of how low we go. When we aspire to new heights, we fall to new lows.

day no. 17,424: majoring on minors

"There is nothing stranger today than the importance of unimportant things. Except, of course, the unimportance of important things." — G.K. Chesterton, Collected Works

Modernity majors on the minors. That fact is strange enough, but the fact that majors are now electives, is even stranger.

It is odd enough that there exists a trope that many churches split over something as insignificant as carpet color, but it is even odder that there exists a tendency for churches to rally around an indifference to sound doctrine. It is strange that someone would consider joining a church based on the ability of the drummer, but it is stranger that someone would plant a church for the purpose of ignoring the teachings of the Bible.

And yet, here we are. The phenomenon is one we are familiar with. An uninvolved person attempts to make up for his or her lack of involvement by being overly invested in some seemingly random detail of their neglected duty. So, a parent who is never around is always ready to throw down over what sports team the child cheers for or the wife who is otherwise indifferent to her husband has a vested interest in what he eats for lunch. We pick something to do and then we do it with all of our might in order to distract from the fact that we do nothing about everything else. And that, in a nutshell, describes the spiritual condition of many parishioners and unfortunately many pastors.

The same is true in politics, but unfortunately the pun takes on new meaning when considering their majoring on minors. In their case, they are not interested in small things to cover up their lack of interest in large matters, they are interested in little people and use their interest in big government to pursue them.

day no. 17,423: are we making any progress?

“[Progress] is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle.” — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

"Progress" implies an eschatology and an origin story. Without a starting point, what one might call a zero, you cannot measure how far you've come and without an end goal, what one might call a utopia, you cannot measure how far you have to go.

The Christian faith has an origin story and an eschatology. We know where we come from and where it's all going. As such, we can measure how far off the mark we have gotten by comparing it to Eden and we can see how well we are doing by comparing the kingdom on earth to the one that is in Heaven.

Secularism is dominated by a presupposed optimism that nature does not make mistakes. Christendom is dominated by a a presupposed optimism that God does not make mistakes.

Romans 1:20-25

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

It is only natural that a natural man would turn to nature if he turns away from the supernatural. If he abolishes the category of god, he establishes idolatry.

"Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural." — G.K. Chesterton 

Everything is going somewhere and sooner or later, it's going to get there. Evil is progressing to its end, which is destruction and good is progressing to its end, which is eternal life.

day no. 17,422: a violent interpretation

"Good men must know violence, so evil men do not become fluent in it." — Miyamoto Musashi

Good men must not be violent all of the time, but they must be violent some of the time or else bad men will be violent all of the time. If good men are never violent, they are not good. If they are incapable of violence, they are not men. Good men are violent when necessary and never when not.

Ephesians 4:26

Be ye angry, and sin not.

Good men agree and seek to submit to this, their marching orders from God. In their anger, they do not sin. In their violence, they do not steal vengeance from the Lord, but become His hand of justice as they are submitted to His will. Good men are the deacons of God's wrath. 

Proverbs 19:25

Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; 

reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

A good man must know how to speak violence, but he must not be fluent in it. It cannot be his native tongue, but he must know how to translate his native tongue into violence so that the wicked may understand and the simple may gain wisdom.

day no. 17,421: all fuss and no fun

"This merry-making is subordinate to the marriage; because it is in honour of the marriage. People came there to be married and not to be merry; and they are merry because they did." — G.K. Chesterton, G.K.'s Weekly (1925)

Those who forget why they are gathered fall into frivolity, but those who remember the reason for the gathering get caught up in the festivities that follow. The fun is the result of the formation. The party bows to the privilege and the dancing takes a back seat to the doctrine. But it always follows. The doctrine demands it. The privilege provides it. The fun follows the formalities. But only if the formalities are acknowledge on the front end as the true meaning of what is being done.

Snobs who forget the formalities in principle throw large celebrations, but have no fun for they have forgotten what they are celebrating. They have large societal weddings with all the who-who's attending, but they have nothing to celebrate. It is all fuss and no fun. It is pomp and circumstance and no faith or substance. They participate in grand renditions of long held traditions for the sake of nostalgia, not as an apologia. 

"Modernity is largely the story of human beings attempting to find significance apart from God." — Ryan Whitaker Smith, Winter Fire

The modern world is all wedding reception and no ceremony. They have the ceremony to get to the reception as opposed to the Christian who has a reception because of the ceremony. That is the difference in its highest contrast.

day no. 17,420: a fighting chance

"The 7th century Christians of Asia and Africa...had trained themselves not to fight, whereas the Moslems were trained to fight.” — Teddy Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Part

Pacifism is a dead Quaker. It is the war on war. If you are not prepared for battle, you are being prepared for the menu.

Those who fight the good fight discover that God is still a God of battles. Everyone stands up a little straighter in the armor of God.

“From the hammer of Charles Martel to the sword of Sobieski, Christianity owed its safety in Europe to the fact it...would fight as well as the Mohammedan aggressor.” — Teddy Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Part

Enmity is hardwired into the system by God. Those who do not fight the seed of the serpent will lose. He will not stop fighting even if you do. Jihad will not go quietly into that good night, it will only go out with, quite literally, a bang. So, fight for your brothers, your sisters, your wives, your children, your country, your people, your life, and your God and see the deliverance of the Lord.