I suppose I need to try one more time, maybe saying it differently.
Comments I get in response to this blog, the ones that aren’t posted where you can see them, include input from a bunch of people who are eager for the entertainment value of warfare. These are people who have never actually done warfare, so they have a childlike expectation of what we see in movies. They imagine it would be such a fine thing to see violent civil war break out in the US.
I want no part of that nonsense. I do not advocate violence on that level; it has no place in covenant living. The Radix Fidem community predicts war will come despite our best efforts, so we are preparing to stay out of the way as much as possible. And there’s no denying it will entertain some folks, at least for a while.
But it won’t come with a happy ending. Indeed, there may be no clear resolution of any sort. I believe that, once started, it will drag on for decades. It will pull down the West in general, and America in particular, back into a Third World status. Not everywhere the same, but the nation as a whole will cease to offer any significant influence on the rest of the world.
We do not advocate taking sides. We openly discourage participation, but we cannot pretend to tell you what God calls you to do. We distinguish clearly between defending your own domain versus getting involved in broader conflicts that don’t actually include us.
We are excluded from politics by our adherence to the Covenant, against the complete lack of Covenant identity in the American population. If by some miracle a small body of covenant people were to come together somewhere, then they would have a basis for discussing community defense. But as long as the Lord keeps us thinly scattered, it is purely a matter of you deciding by conviction what you must defend against all outside forces. Nobody engaged in this rising conflict represents us.
They don’t even see us. If someone attacks you with physical violence, it is virtually impossible that they do it for your faith. It is because you and I look to them like part of the broader target they imagine they see. But more realistically, it’s because they are not ideological warriors; more likely they are common criminals seeking plunder and you appear to be a likely target, for whatever reason. This is our biggest threat heading into the apocalypse.
The politics of civil war will bypass us completely. It is not the political battles that will define our place in the big picture. You can easily avoid that; you don’t have to take sides. The only realistic scenario for joining with the local community is simple crime prevention. That’s an entirely different issue from the political nonsense. You can make common cause on those grounds, if the folks around you are willing (if there is a consensus).
This is something we would encourage. This is not what Jesus meant by discussing who your “neighbor” is. He referred to covenant brothers and sisters. We don’t have that; our social concept of “neighbor” is different. It’s not the same principle underneath, but it probably will look almost the same in practice. You should be taking care of the folks who live near you, simply because that’s your best hope for mundane safety and security of property, life and limb. They are allies, if not family. If you can’t work with them, then of course, you are on your own. And God help you if that’s how it is.
Theoretically, the only way I could become a threat to government is if the government begins attacking property, life and limb directly. Idiotic policy is one thing; trying to confiscate or harm common people directly is another. I think we can tell the difference between a government that tries to grab criminals, and one that is criminal itself. We cannot stop what happens at the policy level without using weapons of mass destruction to take out the whole government bureaucracy. I’m not going to go there; it’s far outside my mission for Christ. However, should government policy send agents into the community for something that strikes me as seriously harmful, then government agents will be at risk. Yes, I’ll use violence to defend the folks around me from almost any threat.
Where I live, that is so unlikely that it’s ludicrous. It’s not on my radar at all. Prophetically I see serious problems arising from the breakdown of social restraint. That’s the real issue for me, and I’m convinced that’s what we face in the Radix Fidem community as a whole. If you want to discuss tactics and strategy with me, then let’s target that issue. I will not address the wider political nonsense, because most of it is for show, not the real problem.
The Covenant of Christ offers no solution for political problems outside our community. We might have some useful advice, but it’s not our problem. Christ said so. Our problem is operating and thinking on the human small scale to breathe life into a broad vision of redemption. This how we save the world, by focusing on what’s nearest. Defending yourself means defending those geographically near you; that’s simple common sense. If those near you are the threat, you need to pray seriously about moving somewhere else. A general crime prevention custom is as much entanglement with the world as we can afford in feudal service to our Lord.
