Radically Different

Kiln of the Soul parish is neither liberal nor conservative in our political outlook. Those terms refer to persuasions based on secular materialism. They are to varying degrees hostile to genuine Christian faith. The Covenant of Christ does not lead to either of those positions because it transcends human political reasoning.

In order to live out the Covenant, divine revelation gives us a polity that is tribal and feudal. We are not even on the same planet with the secular political ideologies of Americans. To the degree we engage human politics at all, our message points to the Covenant of Noah to guide those who are not Covenant Elect. Any other political ideology or theory is a rejection of Christ’s Lordship.

That said, we can stand back and evaluate what we see in the secular political wrangling of those outside the Covenant. As long as you wallow in the social culture of America, you cannot see clearly how it is filthy or why it is filthy. If you renounce it and depart from it into biblical faith, you can understand why things work the way they do. You can see clearly the inherent flaws in all the various positions in light of how they depart from God’s ways for us.

We can see that there is theory and then there is what actually exists on the ground. We can filter the rhetoric and lies designed to manipulate the masses who are still wallowing in the mud. There is talk of a “conservative agenda” that does not exist in any political grouping in government, and is foreign to virtually everyone in politics. The chatter is meaningless, except to indicate that this or that idea is simply “not progressive”. No one actually promotes a genuinely conservative agenda.

Within the context of our American heritage and culture, “conservative” is a fairly realistic and mature outlook. It arises from paying attention to the disasters of the past. It’s the thinking you expect from adults who want to preserve what humans can gain from social and economic activity. It seeks stability and material prosperity. Further, they seek it for the whole country, not just a select few. So, for example, a genuine conservative outlook would hate the many wars and military actions the American government takes these days. No one is attacking the US. War is a hideous waste of productivity and benefits only an tiny few upper class folks.

Against this, the progressive viewpoint is childish, a fantasy, a siren song claiming what could be, but which is utterly unrealistic. It comes dressed in all the implacable demands of spoiled brats. To this day, you would be hard put to find any progressive representative capable of even understanding conservatism, much less being fair and impartial about conservative people. It’s not a matter of intellect, but moral development. Progressives have no moral development.

Genuine conservatives have no trouble understanding progressives because they were children once. But left-versus-right is not the real debate in America. The real conflict is a constantly morphing and shifting array of folks neither conservative nor progressive in their commitments, but people seeking wealth and power by any means possible. They use the false left/right paradigm to manipulate the masses.

And none of this is news on this blog, but I would like to recommend to my readers that you learn to enunciate these political outlooks. Be ready to answer when people press you to affirm their silly political agendas. Almost without fail, those yapping fools have no idea what they are talking about. Tell them that. It’s not so important to correct their false narratives; that is likely not even possible. Most people who talk about such things are already worked up in a heedless frenzy. Rather, it’s important that you communicate a lack of interest in whatever is driving them to distraction. You are not a pawn in the political manipulations of the day.

No one is going to hear our story except a tiny few whom the Lord moves. Most of us are not in a position to withdraw from society right now. We cannot go off and build our own society of faith. Our missions keep us involved in the lives of people around us. But it’s important that we insure people know we are not a part of the herd. We distinguish ourselves by refusing to wave flags and slogans. We represent the Lord of all Creation, and His agenda is radically different from that of mere humans.