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    • Boyd Cathey
    • Dissident Mama
    • Ted Ehmann
    • Walt Garlington
    • Gail Jarvis
    • Gene Kizer, Jr.
    • Neil Kumar
    • Perrin Lovett
    • Ilana Mercer
    • Tom Riley
    • H.V. Traywick, Jr.
    • Clyde Wilson
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Walt Garlington

Whom Will We Serve, the Free Market or Christ?

9/10/2022

2 Comments

 
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U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (4th District, La.) said something in reply to the furor that erupted over his commentary on Little Demon that deserves some commentary of its own: ​
Disney and FX have made a decision to embrace and market what is plainly and obviously evil. We the people have the freedom to call it out and to decide what we want to do about it. I am encouraged that many millions of families are taking a stand over this, that countless many have committed to part ways with the companies responsible for the new series, and that some concerned citizens (like OneMillionMoms.com) have created an online petition to try to stop it. ​

That is the beauty of America, y’all. We have the right to debate and disagree and take appropriate action in the free marketplace when our consciences compel us to do so. And you know what’s most ironic here? That precious freedom we enjoy—those inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—are given to us by God. We should exercise that freedom responsibly. And we ought to honor Him for it. 
The implication is that it is just fine to have explicitly evil ‘entertainment’ being broadcast over the public airwaves as long as Christians have the ability to voice their objections to it. 

But this raises a very serious question:  What is the highest aim of our society?  Maintaining an amoral freedom with no responsibility to any traditional religious values?  Or a society where as many people as possible know the freedom that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Body the Church? 

If we choose the first, we undermine the Church as well as many of the freedoms that we have enjoyed for centuries.  Without the principles of Christianity acting as guardrails in the marketplace of ideas, if Christianity is simply one of many voices in that marketplace, other principles will become dominant, and they won’t be as generous and merciful as what we have known heretofore.  Mary Harrington acknowledges that this is already unfolding in the West: ​

A couple of years ago, Adam Garfinkle made this case, in an essay examining the decline in “deep literacy” following the arrival of the internet. Delving into the interlocking histories of print, Christianity and democracy, the author argued that all three of these combined to create a particular type of subject well-suited to democratic governance. And, he suggests, the principal means by which such democratic subjects were shaped was long-form reading. 

 . . .  

If “deep reading” produced democracy as its governing political form, what can we expect to see associated with its networked digital successor? As Garfinkle sees it, this would probably be toward “a less abstract, re-personalized form of social and political authority concentrated in a ‘great’ authoritarian leader”. 

We may already be seeing this borne out. On this side of the pond, research by the think tank UK Onward revealed support for democratic norms falling with every generation, but then plunging sharply among those under 44. Notably, Onward’s data also show that after an authoritarian spike across the board, that coincided with Covid, every demographic has returned to more or less their previous dislike of strongman leadership — again, except those under 44. 

And these trends are not just observable in Britain. Most young Western people are more authoritarian than their elders.  . . .  

We can also kiss goodbye to the “marketplace of ideas”. This might have seemed plausible when everyone aspired to long-form, deliberative, rationalism and a broadly shared moral framework. When these are things of the past, we all absorb disaggregated, de-contextualised snippets of information at speed, our reading material rewards us for not concentrating long enough to think something through, and we can see everyone else thinking in real time on our screens? 

Well, it turns out that this makes “the marketplace of ideas” much more volatile, infectious, and politicised, and accordingly less willing to notice politically inconvenient facts. That is, less a vector for collective truth-seeking than an accelerant for conspiracy fantasy, purity spirals and unhinged meme wars. And this is chipping away at faith in the capacity of debate to make anything better. 
If we choose the second option, aiming for a society of Christians, then that will necessarily entail us putting limits on what can enter and move about freely in the marketplace of ideas.  Whatever undermines the Church would have to be excluded or strictly limited; shows like Little Demon would have to be banned. 

Louisiana, thanks be to God, actually took a good step in the direction of Christian limits of the marketplace by passing and enacting Rep. Laurie Schlegel’s HB 142, which ‘would create a “civil cause of action against commercial entities that publish and distribute material for minors on the internet that don't verify the age of their users first.” In other words, Louisiana parents would be able to sue entities that distribute sexually explicit material for damages if the entity failed to take legitimate steps to verify the age of its users.’ 

In the debate surrounding this law, the same question of primacy arose:  Is the marketplace itself the highest good, or does the marketplace exist to serve some higher principle?  The La. State Legislature and Gov. Edwards (surprisingly!) responded correctly in favor of the latter: ​​
Morell recognizes the responsibility of parents to protect their children from social-media and pornography addictions, but also points to social phenomena that demand a legal response: 

‘Even if you do stay strong in this [home] environment, and keep your own kids off them, the whole social environment of their class or school is really affected by these kids using the social media apps… A collective solution is needed to say, "Yes, there are certain things that should be left to parents, but as a society, we recognize that when something is dangerous or harmful to children, we haven't left that to individual parents who said we should bar kids from something because it's harmful."’ 
The passage of HB 142 is praiseworthy, but the questions raised above remain largely neglected.   

There can be no doubt, however, that the rich fruits of a Christian culture – the virtues (love, joy, peace, patience; forgiveness, second chances
; fearlessness in the face of death; etc.), the
arts (hymns, architecture, paintings, literature, and more besides), and the Saints – do not grow from the wild tree, the morally neutral and unregulated market.  If we want those blessings, we must cherish and nurture the Church more than the nihilistic free market. 

There are countries in the world that are doing exactly that, like Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Hungary.  We hope the rising generation of leaders here in the States, and in the South especially – which has shown more faithfulness to Christianity than the other cultural regions of the U. S. – Rep. Johnson (La.), Gov. DeSantis (Fl.), Attorney General Landry (La.), Treasurer Moore (W. Vir.), J. D. Vance (Ohio), and others, will pay special attention to leaders like Orban and to Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, whose speech in honor of Orban will make for appropriate closing material for all of us to dwell further upon (via the good folks at Chronicles): ​

Patriarch Porfirije started his address by noting that each individual and each community lives according to its own value system. With these values, he said, they organize private, social, and cultural life, form public morality, set priorities and standards, build relationships with others, and nurture their authentic identity: 

‘Today, however, we are faced with waves of new value systems that are often aggressively imposed on a global scale with the aim of eradicating every existing natural and civilizational order, to establish a new paradigm. In this vortex, the intention is to destroy the foundations of identity and the very pillars of individuals and communities, to make everything relative, fragile, and fluid. You, on the other hand, stand for the Christian value system that springs from the Gospel, which God established. These are the values that created both the Hungarian and the Serbian people, the values that created Europe as we knew it until yesterday, as we lived in it until yesterday. In that we are the same; there is no difference between us.’ 

The Patriarch pointed out that very few public figures use the words God, faith in God, the Church, spirituality, Christian values, the unity of all Christians, or the mission of the Church in their political vocabulary but that Orbán does so regularly: 

‘The word “soul,” otherwise completely forgotten in contemporary discourse, is present in your public statements and in your commitment. Specifically, the phrase “the struggle for the soul of Europe” confirms your uniqueness. These words, when you say them, are not political platitudes, demagogic phrases to win votes. No! You, Mr. Orbán, live as you speak. That is why you are a statesman who deserves the trust of your people. That is why the eyes of many other Europeans are often turned towards you, Your Excellency. And my Orthodox Serbian people listen carefully to the position you take on any issue, especially the most difficult social, economic, and even political problems of our time, which shake Europe and the modern world.’ 

The Patriarch concluded by stating that the relations between the Hungarians and the Serbs today are the best they have been for centuries and that Orbán additionally deserved the award for his contribution to the excellent relations between the two nations: 

‘We invoke God’s blessing on your Hungarian people. We pray to God for you, Mr. Orbán, for your associates, and especially for your family. May Christ the Lord, through the prayers of Saint Sava of Serbia and Saint Stephen, King of Hungary, preserve and improve the harmony of Hungarians and Serbs for many blessed years.’ 

2 Comments

Darya Dugin:  In Memoriam (Poetry)

9/3/2022

3 Comments

 
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​A youthful sunflower,
   Golden, beaming,
Standing with your father
   Proudly musing,
Cut down by coward’s hand
   With hidden bomb,
IED assassin
   Riding along
In your car – explosion,
   Mangled body
Burned past recognition –
   Latest Yankee
Victim, another corpse
Without remorse
Thrown upon the heap –
Millions, for the glory
Of America, slaughtered
On the unholy altar
Of a false belief
In its superiority.
City on a hill?
Rather, a haunt of jackals
And a hive for demons,
Men without reason,
The coagulation of evil on the earth.
When will You free us from its grasp, O our Savior?

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The Weapons of Our Warfare

8/20/2022

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​Folks in the States got another big hint recently of the totalitarian direction Washington City is headed with the raid on President Trump’s home in Florida.
 
Southerners who remember even a sliver of their history will understand that this is simply the post-Lincoln federal government reverting to type, as a review of the rule of the Yankee General Benjamin Butler in New Orleans in 1862 alone illustrates.
 
But if folks need other examples of what lies at the end of this sort of injustice, we offer one from the much-suffering nation of Georgia from the 20th century under the communists:
On August 14, 1924, a delegation from the village of Simoneti came to the metropolitan to request that he consecrate their local church. At the appointed time, the metropolitan arrived in Simoneti with his retinue and consecrated the church. That night, a group of Chekists (Soviet security agents) broke into the house where Metropolitan Nazarius and his entourage were staying, bound and beat them, and then dragged them to the village council. Without an investigation, the Troika (a Soviet extraordinary council of three judges) sentenced to death Metropolitan Nazarius and four other clergymen—Priest Herman Jajanidze, Priest Hierotheos Nikoladze, Priest Simon Mchedlidze, and Archdeacon Besarion Kukhianidze. A layman, Axalmotsameni, was also sentenced to death. They were shot to death in the Sapichkhia Forest.
This is the kind of benevolence that is waiting for Southerners and others in the States who do not give their allegiance to the Leftist/globalist/Marxist elite who have taken over Washington and many other powerful institutions in the [u.] S.
 
And while it is important to remain engaged in the existing political processes so that we can do what good we can in that arena, politics is ultimately only the outer manifestation of deeper spiritual processes.  We are not, therefore, going to defeat our inhuman, transhumanist, Marxist opponents simply with constitutional amendments, with revisions to the law code, and those kinds of things.  To overcome a demonic ideology, we must use weapons commensurate with the battle, which is at its root a spiritual battle.  Therefore, our main weapon will be the very thing that annihilated the power of the devil and his demons over mankind:  the Holy Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Its power has been manifested over and over again in history:
In ancient times, a severe pestilence broke out in Constantinople, the capital of the Greek state, which claimed many human lives. After the Wood of the Cross of the Lord was carried through the streets of the capital with prayers and the sprinkling of buildings and homes with holy water at the request of the faithful, the deadly disease stopped, and all Christians offered the deepest thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
--Archimandrite Kirill (+2017)
​St Ephraim the Syrian (+373) urges Christians to always do the following:
Instead of a shield, protect yourself with the True Holy Cross, marking your limbs and heart with it. Use the sign of the cross to overshadow yourself not only with your hand, but also in your thoughts mark with it your every occupation at the times: your arrival and your departure, your resting and rising, your bed, and whatever service you go through – first cross everything in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This weapon is very strong, and no one can ever harm you if you are protected by it.
​And perhaps most to the point is this account from the life of St Oswald, King of Northumbria (+642):
The place is shown to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald, being about to engage in this battle, erected the symbol of the Holy Cross, and knelt down and prayed to God that he would send help from Heaven to his worshippers in their sore need. Then, we are told, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be set up, the king himself, in the ardour of his faith, laid hold of it and held it upright with both his hands, till the earth was heaped up by the soldiers and it was fixed. Thereupon, uplifting his voice, he cried to his whole army, “Let us all kneel, and together beseech the true and living God Almighty in His mercy to defend us from the proud and cruel enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.” All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved (St Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England1, Book III, Ch. II, p. 136).
A similar spirit was within the Southern army as they fought against the invading Northern revolutionaries, as recounted by Richard Weaver in The Confederate South, 1865-1910 (later published as The Southern Tradition at Bay):
​ . . . the Southern people reached the eve of the Civil War almost untouched by the great currents of rationalism and skepticism, and their allegiance to the older religiousness was reflected in their fighting men.  Into the strange personnel of the Confederate Army, out of “regions that sat in darkness,” poured fighting bishops and prayer-holding generals, and through it swept waves of intense religious enthusiasm long lost to history (LSU dissertation, 1943, p. 96, PDF version).
​In other words, holiness matters.  Not the prideful arrogance of the Yanks and their near-of-kin, the globalists, that masquerades as holiness, but true holiness – the kind that arises when the Grace of God penetrates even into the muscles and the bones, to use the words of one of St John Chrysostom’s prayers.  And we carry it with us when we go about our business in the world, and even into the military battles we fight, and with it we are able to conquer our foes:
​Sennuphius was a great ascetic and wonderworker of the Egyptian desert. He was a contemporary of Patriarch Theophilus and Emperor Theodosius the Great. He is called the "Standard-bearer" because by his prayers he once helped Emperor Theodosius to gain a victory over the army of his adversaries. When the emperor summoned Sennuphius to Constantinople, Sennuphius replied that he was unable to do so but sent him his tattered monastic habit and staff. Setting out to battle the emperor donned Sennuphius' monastic habit and carried the staff and returned victorious from battle.
This we also see again and again in Church history – the presence of holy men and women, or their prayers, or the presence of some other holy object, turning the tide in battle for the Christians.  Archimandrite Kirill added to what he said above about the Holy Cross:
Later, another significant event was added to this miracle, namely that by carrying icons of the Savior and the Mother of God before his soldiers, the Orthodox Greek Emperor Manuel defeated the Saracens. At the same time, the Orthodox Russian Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky also defeated the Volga Bulgarians, carrying icons of the Savior and Mother of God. That these victories were won by a supernatural power was testified to by the Heavenly radiance emanating from the icons, illuminating the people who were there. 
​All of this fits quite well into the Southerner’s religious milieu.  Quoting Professor Weaver again:
Whether he was a Virginia Episcopalian, dozing in comfortable dogmatic slumber, or a Celt, transplanted to the Appalachian wilderness and responding to the wild emotionalism of the religious rally, he wanted the older religion of dreams and drunkenness – something akin to the rituals of the Medieval Church, and to the mystic celebrations of the ancients (The Confederate South, p. 97)
​Mundane politics will have its role to play in freeing the South from wokeness, Yankee imperial dreams, and the rest of those harmful ideologies and systems, but by itself it is quite impotent.  Only when the Southern people, armed with the Holy Cross of Christ, full of His Grace, carrying the icons of the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, singing the Psalms and other hymns – in our homes and in our churches, in our neighborhoods and about our towns – only then will we be able to crush the demons who provide the strength of Dixie’s enemies.  And that will enable victories on the other fronts of our battle:  cultural, political, etc.
 
To our enemies and other outsiders, we may well look ridiculous, weak, and foolish as we do these things.  However, the Holy Apostle Paul reminds us of something we must never forget:
 
‘ . . . the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men’ (I Corinthians 1:25).
 
Deo vindice!

Notes:
1 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org
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Leadership and Culture Creation

7/31/2022

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Christ Church in Weems, VA

​We have perhaps imbibed a little too heavily of the libertarian likker here at the South of late, believing naively that when a need arises, ‘the market’ will spontaneously act to meet that need.  This is not an ironclad law by any means.  Especially when it comes to the creation and preservation of a people’s culture, strong leadership that is willing to undergo hardships and sacrifices, rather than acquiesce to the soft seductions of monetary profits and related interests, is often needed.
 
Serbian and Southern history again intertwine to illustrate this for us.  We begin with Stefan Lazarevic (+1427; also called Stefan the Tall), the son of the Great Martyr at the Battle of Kosovo Polje, Prince Lazar (+1389).  Serbia had been crushed by the Muslim Turks; if decisive action were not taken, Serbia’s Christian identity itself was at risk of being lost.  Thankfully for the Serbian people, the very young Stefan did not shrink back but took upon himself the difficult task of putting the shattered pieces of the Serbian ethnos back together again:
Already as a thirteen-year-old, by coincidence, he began his ruling career. And the task is too difficult - Serbia with great material and human sacrifices, in which there is powerlessness and general fear of the Turkish invasion.
 
The surviving nobles retreated to their territories without wanting to take care of the population.
 
In such circumstances and with the wholehearted help of his mother, Stefan matured as a person, statesman and warrior.  . . .
 
As an Ottoman vassal, Stefan led Serbian detachments in the battles of Rovine, near Nikopolje and Angora.
 
The Battle of Angora in 1402 was a heavy defeat for the Ottoman forces, but also the place where Stefan's warrior skills shone the most. After her, he received the title of despot.
 
The writer Aleksandar Tešić, the author of the novel about despot Stefan "The one who taught darkness to shine", says:
 
"After this battle, the fame of despot Stefan spread far and wide. Everyone admired him like a warrior. Even the Mongols "took off his hat". On the other hand, in the battle of Angora, Sultan Bayezid was captured and soon died, and there was a statement by despot Stefan that it was his happiest day because he freed himself from Bayezid's shackles."
​A parallel may be seen in the way Dixie had to pull herself together after falling to the Yanks in the War:
William G. “Parson” Brownlow was a Tennessee Unionist who did not discriminate between black Africans and white Southerners; he hated both equally. After the war, Brownlow was elected Tennessee Governor in an election in which only other white Unionists were allowed to vote. Of Southern whites Governor Brownlow decreed, “Let them be exterminated,” and called on the federal government to “make the entire South as God formed the earth, without form or void.” In turn, Forrest responded, “If they bring this war upon us, there is one thing I will tell you – that I shall not shoot any negroes so long as I can see a white Radical to shoot, for it is the Radicals who will be to blame for bringing on this war.” When Brownlow went to the U.S. Senate and Clinton DeWitt Senter (a more moderate Tennessee Unionist) took his place as Governor, Senter ceased his predecessor’s apocalyptic threats, disbanded the militia, and promised to restore suffrage to former Confederates. Forrest considered the Klan’s mission accomplished and ordered its disbandment. “There was no further need for it,” he explained. “The country was safe.” - James R. Roesch
​But a leader’s work does not end simply because the clash of swords has ceased.  The well-being of a people is not secure without the protection and enhancement of their cultural edifice.  Just as a man needs a home to dwell in, so a community of men needs a culture to live within.
 
St Stefan’s example is helpful and very multifaceted:
Deeply aware of the delicate position of small Serbia among the great ones, in 1403 Despot Stefan became a vassal of the Hungarian King Sigismund. However, in exchange for that, Serbia got its "white city", Belgrade became an integral part of Serbia and its capital.
 
Until that time, Belgrade was a ruined, abandoned and "haunted" city. The despot took care of him and ruled in him for about 15 years. There he also built a church dedicated to the Mother of God, the protector of both him and Belgrade. The newly created capital proclaimed the Ascension of the Lord - Savior's Day - as its SLAVA, and that has not changed to this day.
 
Thanks to his exceptional skill in governing, Despot Stefan broke the resistance of the authorities, and he used the periods of peace to strengthen Serbia in political, economic, cultural and military terms.
 
 . . .
 
It would be difficult to find a more versatile and educated ruler in Serbian history than despot Stefan. But he also has an exceptional place in the history of Serbian medieval literature.
 
This ruler of a fervent soul wrote "The Word of Love" (Slovo ljubve), one of the most beautiful and most discreet poetic works in the Serbian language. That anthem of love was created in the time of short-term freedom, when the time of vassalship passed. The "Slovo ljubve " or "Word of love" consists of ten parts (stanzas), whose initial letters give its name to the so-called acrostic.
 . . .
 
The great enlightening role of despot Stefan is best reflected in the founding of the monastic transcription school in his endowment Manasija, which at that time was unique in the Balkans and culturally important not only for Serbia but for all other Slavic peoples in Europe.
 
In that school, not only various significant modern Byzantine church and secular works were translated from Greek, but also corrections of many previously translated such books were made, through which mistakes made either due to insufficient knowledge of the Greek language or due to disorder of old Serbian orthography were corrected.
 
He ordered his biographer Constantine the philosopher to create a grammar of the Serbian language better known as "Skazanije o pismenih" (A Tale of Letters).
​We see the same activity in the older generations of the South.  Robert ‘King’ Carter of colonial Virginia, and his father, John, built the famous Christ Church in the 17th century, which still stands.
 
Nineteenth-century Louisiana produced two notable examples of cultural crafting in Francois Valcour Aimé and Charles Gayarré.
 
Among the acts of Mr Aimé are these:
Aime donated money as well as a pair of large silver candlesticks and a set of the Stations of the Cross to St. James Catholic Church. In 1859 Aime purchased and reopened Jefferson College for $20,000 and established a governing board of directors comprised of his four sons-in-law: Florent Fortier, Alexis Ferry, Septime Fortier, and Alfred Roman. Aime constructed a Gothic chapel on the campus dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in memory of Gabriel and Felicie.
 
 . . .
 
In 1864 Aime transferred Jefferson College to the Society of Mary, re-creating it as the first Marist college in the United States. 

​About Mr Gayarré, we find that he contributed the following:
New Orleans native Charles Gayarré wrote the first complete history of Louisiana: a four-volume series entitled Louisiana History (1866). Originally written in French, his study focused on the region’s domination by France, Spain, and then the United States. Many of the components for this work came out of public lectures that Gayarré began giving in the 1840s. He also wrote and published other histories, political tracts, government reports, plays, novels, biographies, and articles in numerous journals, establishing himself as one of Louisiana’s literary pioneers.
 
 . . . At his death on February 11, 1895, Gayarré was poor but well respected by his friends and colleagues as the father of Louisiana history and one of the state’s literary pioneers. At Gayarré’s death, [Grace] King wrote that the “early cultural history of the state” was being buried with him.

​As these and other examples show, a beautiful culture does not arise from ‘spontaneous free market forces’ any more than a beautiful, orderly cosmos arises from the random collision of individual atoms.  Focused, determined leaders willing to sacrifice their fortunes and energies, confront grief and pain, and so forth are essential.  But the allure of money, comfort, ‘fun’, and other such modernisms (not to mention the lies of Yankees and others about Southern culture) has dissipated the ability of Dixie’s folk to perpetuate the leadership needed to build and maintain such a culture.  It is all the more imperative, then, to look back into the past – our own, as well as that of other Christian countries like Serbia – to draw inspiration and practical lessons for the difficult task of re-establishing a vibrant Christian culture in our beloved Southland.
 
A great champion of Georgian national autonomy, Mr Ilia Chavchavadze (+1907; canonized as St Ilia the Righteous in 1987 by the Georgian Orthodox Church) identifies the three fundamental strands of a people’s cultural tapestry and then asks a pertinent question about them:
​Ilia the Righteous was often heard declaring, “We, the Georgian people, have inherited three divine gifts from our ancestors: our motherland, our language and our faith. If we fail to protect these gifts, what merit will we have as men?”
​This is precisely the question we must ask ourselves as Southerners.
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Georgia’s Quest for Independence, and Ours

7/4/2022

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​There is a towering figure in the nation of Georgia’s recent history whose life is tremendously meaningful for Dixie.
 
Mr George Sadzaglishvili (1855-1918; after receiving the monastic tonsure, he was given the new name Kirion) was the son of a Georgian priest.  After his schooling he was active in educational and Church circles, but his most intense interest early in life seemed to be uncovering and preserving the history and folklore of the Georgian people:
​In 1880 he graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy and was appointed assistant dean of the Odessa Theological Seminary. From 1883 to 1886 Saint Kirion was active in the educational life of Gori, Telavi, Kutaisi, and Tbilisi. In 1886 he was appointed supervisor of the Georgian monasteries and dean of the schools of the Society for the Renewal of Christianity in the Caucasus. He directed the parochial schools, established libraries and rare book collections within them, and published articles on the history of the Georgian Church, folklore and literature under the pseudonyms Iverieli, Sadzagelov, and Liakhveli (the Liakhvi River flows through his native region of Shida [Inner] Kartli, the central part of eastern Georgia).
 
. . . 

​Bishop Kirion was a tireless researcher, with a broad range of scholarly interests. To his pen belong more than forty monographs on various themes relating to the history of the Georgian Church and Christian culture in Georgia. He compiled a short terminological dictionary of the ancient Georgian language and, with the linguist Grigol Qipshidze, a History of Georgian Philology.
​The South has figures like Bishop Kirion who have worked tirelessly to reveal and strengthen Southern culture:  Frank Owsley, Mel Bradford, Richard Weaver, Cleanth Brooks, Donald Davidson, and others.  This connection makes what Bishop Kirion accomplished for Georgian independence all the more relevant for us here in Dixie. 
 
Having along with others demonstrated the uniqueness of the Georgian culture, and her freedom in the past in governing her religious life, Bishop Kirion made a bold declaration to restore Georgia’s ancient prerogatives.  But his actions resulted in a bitter defeat:
​In 1905, at the demand of Georgia’s intelligentsia (under the leadership of Saint Ilia the Righteous), the regime formed an extraordinary commission to formally consider the question of the autocephaly of the Georgian Church. Saint Kirion delivered two lectures to the commission: one on the reasons behind Georgia’s struggle for the restoration of an autocephalous Church, and the other on the role of nationality in the life of the Church. The commission rejected the Georgian claims to autocephaly and subjected the leaders of the movement to harsh repression.
​Like the South, Georgia’s first attempt at restoring her old freedoms was repulsed quite harshly.  But that did not stop Bishop Kirion and his allies, nor should it stop the South.  And their persistence, with God’s help, would eventually bring about the desired end:
By the year 1915 the regime had ceased to persecute Saint Kirion. They restored him to the bishopric and elevated him as archbishop of Polotsk and Vitebsk in western Russia. He was not, however, permitted to return to his motherland.

In March of 1917 the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church declared its autocephaly restored. At the incessant demands of the Georgian people, Saint Kirion finally returned to his motherland. One hundred and twenty cavalrymen met him in Aragvi Gorge (along the Georgian Military Highway) and reverently escorted him to the capital. In Tbilisi Saint Kirion was met with great honor. ​

In September of 1917 the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church enthroned Bishop Kirion as Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. 
​The address of Bishop Kirion at his enthronement as Patriarch has the ring of Southern tenderness to it:
“My beloved motherland, the nation protected by the Most Holy Theotokos, purified in the furnace by tribulations and suffering, washed in its own tears: I return to you, having been separated from you, having sought after you, having grieved over you, having sought for you and now having returned not as a prodigal son, but as your confidant and the conscience of your Church.​

“I know that in your minds you are all inquiring, ‘What has he brought back with him? With what ointment will he heal his wounds? How will he comfort himself in his sadness?’ Consider my words: He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). I, likewise, have come not as a hired servant, but as a faithful and obedient son!” 
​The significance of Georgia regaining her religious independence now becomes manifest:  It was the step that made political independence possible –
Soon after he was enthroned, Saint Kirion sent an appeal to all the Orthodox patriarchs of the world in which he described in detail the history of the Georgian Church and requested an official recognition of her autocephaly.

On May 26, 1918, Georgia declared its independence. The next day Catholicos-Patriarch Kirion II presided during a service of thanksgiving. The chief shepherd and his flock rejoiced at the restoration of the autocephaly of the Georgian Church and the independence of the Georgian state, . . . 
​Religious separation of Southern Christians from their Northern cousins (the formation of the Southern Baptists, Southern Methodists, etc.) likewise preceded the first political Southern secession. 
 
And yet, for all the joy in Georgia over her newly regained freedom, dark times loomed just beyond the horizon, brought about by the same sort of communist revolutionaries with whom the Southern people are now squaring off against:
 . . . though from the beginning they perceived the imminence of the Bolshevik danger. The socialist revolution, now showing its true face, posed an enormous threat to the young republic and her Church.

On June 27, 1918, Catholicos-Patriarch Kirion II was found murdered in the patriarchal residence at Martqopi Monastery. The investigation was a mere formality and the guilty were never found. 
​Dixie must likewise be ready to face deadly threats of this kind, if God willing, we also regain a measure of independence.
 
Nevertheless, the story of Patriarch Kirion and Georgia has a happy ending.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, Georgian religious and political independence was recovered once again, and 
When the Holy Synod of the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church convened on October 17, 2002, it canonized Holy Hieromartyr Kirion and numbered him among the saints.
​If the South would achieve what Georgia has, the steps to doing so are given to us in the foregoing: 
 
-First is the recovery of Dixie’s cultural patrimony and its reintegration into our lives to the extent possible.  Those we mentioned above – Owsley, Weaver, et al. – have done much of the hard work in this field for us.
 
-Second is the establishment of a unified Church in the South, unique in some way (or ways) that sets it apart from congregations in the sister States.  For this we will need figures like Rev James Henley Thornwell, Sts Kirion and Ilya, and others of their kind.  But they will only appear after we have climbed the first step.
 
-With those two accomplished, the ground will then be quite ready for the third and final step, political independence.
 
The accomplishment of all three would be pleasant indeed, but there is a hierarchy of value at work here.  Of the three goals, the first two are far more valuable than the third, and the second the most valuable of all (‘What can a man give in exchange for his soul?’, asks the Lord Jesus).  If we can obtain the first two but not the third, let us rejoice in that.
 
But the Lover of mankind also says that if we ask, we shall receive.  What the gift will look like in the end, we do not know; only let us not grow weary in asking that we, like Georgia, may attain all three goals from the hand of the Merciful God, Who is well able to grant the boon, as we prepare ourselves for the work that we must undertake in cooperation with Him in this great endeavor.
Note: All quotations are taken from this source:
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2022/06/27/205447-hieromartyr-kirion-ii-catholicos-patriarch-of-all-georgia

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Fighting to Remember (Poetry)

6/10/2022

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​For four grim years General Lee
And his boys in grey fought heroically
Against a ruthless foe in defense
Of the Southern land. Many, going thence,
Died a grievous death, bodies torn by cannon shell
And musket ball, writhing in blood and spittle.
Many, also, those who survived such an encounter,
At the cost of a limb, an arm hack-sawed at the shoulder.
Knowing hunger, knowing thirst, knowing dreadful cold and heat;
Hard ground for a bed, marching often with bare feet.
For such acts of self-sacrifice, their memory
Should be forever praised by their progeny.
But across the South, corruption has set in,
And hearts are hardened against their patriotic kin.
In a perverse ritual of mockery,
Hailed as a supreme act of manly bravery,
The limpid press of a legislature’s voting machine
To erase their names from public honoring!
To the faithful sons and daughters of Dixie, to them it falls
To remember their names and shining deeds in the halls
Of their homes and in the rooms of their hearts,
Praying rest for their souls and healing for a culture torn apart.
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Serbia under the Turkish Yoke:  What the South Can Learn

4/29/2022

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​It is disheartening to see the ongoing destruction of the monuments erected to honor our Southern forebears.  There is, however, a bright ray of light shining in Serbian history that should give Dixiefolk hope for our future.

The story begins several hundred years ago, with the repose of St Savva, the beloved archbishop and patron saint of Serbia:
After his death in Trnovo, Bulgaria on January 14, 1235 Saint Savva was buried in the Cathedral of the Forty Martyrs. On May 6, 1237 his relics were carried in procession from Trnovo to Mileshevo Monastery in Serbia. When the casket was opened, the relics were found to be incorrupt, and produced an ineffable fragrance. In 1253, the Serbian Orthodox Church glorified the holy hierarch Savva as a Saint.

​​Because of the intense love of the people of Serbia for their archpastor, he became a source of inspiration for the Serbs after the Muslim Turks conquered their land:
Following the Battle of Kosovo on June 25, 1389, the Serbian nation fell under the Turkish Yoke. During this period the Serbs continued to visit the tomb of Saint Savva, asking him to give them the strength to endure the oppressive persecution they suffered at the hands of the Turks. His icon was placed on their flags, and the faithful turned to the Saint for encouragement, consolation, and healing.

​Here the parallels with Southern history begin to come into view, as Southerners, during the dark days of Lincoln’s war and in the aftermath, were often consoled, encouraged, and uplifted by the news or the presence or the recounting of the deeds of the patriarchs they loved ardently, like Lee, Forrest, and Jackson.

In their efforts to quell the resistance of the Serbs, the Turks made the decision to burn the holy relics of St Savva:
Following the Battle of Kosovo on June 25, 1389, the Serbian nation fell under the Turkish Yoke. During this period the Serbs continued to visit the tomb of Saint Savva, asking him to give them the strength to endure the oppressive persecution they suffered at the hands of the Turks. His icon was placed on their flags, and the faithful turned to the Saint for encouragement, consolation, and healing.

​Likewise, those who hate the South are attempting to undermine what remains of our yearning for independence by destroying the memorials of our heroes.

Yet the Turks’ burning of St Savva’s relics did not have the desired effect:
Instead of becoming despondent, the Serbs were inspired to even greater love for Christ, for Holy Orthodoxy, and for Saint Savva. Although the Saint's relics had been destroyed, the people continued to venerate him, and to remember the burning of his relics every year.

​Not only that, but the people of Serbia went further, and built a grand and glorious cathedral in honor of St Savva, a project that was not accomplished without difficulties:
After national independence in 1879, there was a proposal to build a memorial church in honor of Saint Savva. In 1895, the three hundredth anniversary of the burning of Saint Savva's relics, plans were made to build a church on the site where his relics were burnt. A temporary chapel was constructed the following year, but it was not possible to build a large cathedral until after World War I. In 1927, Patriarch Barnabas announced a competition for architects to submit designs for the cathedral. In 1935, architects were chosen and construction began.

During World War II, work was halted when the Communists seized power. Only in 1984 did Patriarch German receive government approval to resume construction. On June 25, 1989, Patriarch German served the first Divine Liturgy in Saint Savva's Memorial Cathedral, which towers over the city of Belgrade.


​Southerners should take heart from all of this.  Yes, things look bleak right now, as the Yankees and scalawags do their best to imitate the Turks, destroying the physical monuments dedicated to our people’s great men.  But there is no reason to believe that we, with God’s help, cannot be victorious in the end, rebuilding the memorials of our forebears in a more glorious form just as the Serbs did for St Savva.  

But we must take note:  It was a long process, with several setbacks.  We, and our children, and their children, and so on, must be ready to encounter and endure obstacles on the path to the restoration of our Southern ethnos.

A famous saying among the Serbs grew out of the cruelty of the Turks’ burning of St Savva’s relics:  

‘Sinan Pasha lit the flames, 
Savva's body burned, 
but Savva's memory 
and his glory did not burn.’

May it be said one day of the South,

Yankee vandals with their bars and cranes
Dixie’s generals and their soldiers broke and crushed,
But their memory and their shining honor
In their madness they did not scathe nor dent.

Notes:

All quotes above come from this essay:
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2022/04/27/100127-the-burning-of-saint-savas-relics

For pictures and more details about the splendid St Savva’s Cathedral in Belgrade, Serbia, follow these links:
http://www.serbia.com/church-saint-sava-orthodox-heart-belgrade/
​
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Sava
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Lessons in Hope from the Maccabees

3/19/2022

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​President Joe Biden represents in many ways what Dixie is not.
 
One of his oft-repeated refrains is that the united States should lead the world in some sort of ideological contest between democracy and autocracy, as though there were no other ways of organizing politically than around the ideas of disconnected, autonomous individuals and the absolute rule of a single, all-powerful strongman.
 
The South by herself is proof that there are other legitimate kinds of political structures – in our case, it is a broad participation in political life combined with a deference to an aristocracy of proven virtue (rather than rule by a self-anointed, ‘educated’, Gnostic elite as at the North).
 
But the Biden obsession with democracy/individualism gives birth to even more dangerous ideas than those involved with political forms; it leads to confusion about even the most basic facts of human nature:  that there are only two sexes, man and woman.  A comment of his on Twitter in 2020 removes all doubts about this:  ‘Let’s be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights.’
 
Alas, this is the way it goes with Yankees (and not just them, but also with their offspring/fellow-travellers – assorted coteries of scalawags, globalists, transhumanists, and the like), wedded to a notion of Progress that extols change for its own sake without any identifiable stopping point or end goal to temper its ‘creative destruction’.  This derangement has reached such an absurd level that the Silicon Valley Yankee Mark Zuckerberg is literally inviting everyone to become a demiurge in his digital simulacrum of reality called the metaverse.
 
This contrasts vividly with what Mr Luke Brown, in his prize-winning essay, notes about the South:  ‘[Dr Russell Kirk] said the South had “impulses” in a “distaste for alteration”, a “determination to preserve…society”, and “a love of local rights.”’
 
Great as they are, these impulses have been and remain under relentless assault from the united forces of Big Government, Big Business, and woke religion.  They are in serious need of shoring up lest they collapse and disappear completely.  Where can we turn for help in this essential work?
 
To a family that will be unfamiliar to some:  to the Maccabees, whose lives are recounted in the books that bear their name in the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures.
 
The Maccabees – Matthias, Judas, John, Simon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and John Hyrcanus – were kinsmen who led a small band of Jews against the mighty empires of Egypt and Syria in the 2nd century before the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.  The rulers of those two latter empires at various times attempted to either exterminate the Jews or to change their customs.  But through the faith, integrity, and boldness of the Maccabees, they failed each and every time.  Thus, for Southrons, they are invaluable guides and examples for us as we try to defend our own lives and inheritance from extermination by evil powers.
 
In one of their encounters with Antiochus, it is related that
41. Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, 42 and that each should give up his customs. 43 All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath. 44 And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, 45 to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and feasts, 46 to defile the sanctuary and the priests, 47 to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, 48 and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, 49 so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances. 50 "And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die." 51 In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. And he appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the cities of Judah to offer sacrifice, city by city (I Maccabees 1:41-51).

​​Now, anyone who has even a lick of knowledge about the South after the War will recognize that this destruction of culture is precisely what has been going on in Dixie also via the Yankees et al.  But we have had few who will defend it with any vigor.  It was the same with the Jewish people in the time of the Maccabees.  But God gave them help.  When faced with the extermination of their way of life given to them by God through the Patriarchs, the Law, and the Prophets, their God-inspired leaders answered with ringing words that should inspire all faithful Southerners:
17 Then the king's officers spoke to Mattathias as follows: "You are a leader, honored and great in this city, and supported by sons and brothers. 18 Now be the first to come and do what the king commands, as all the Gentiles and the men of Judah and those that are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons will be numbered among the friends of the king, and you and your sons will be honored with silver and gold and many gifts." 19 But Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice: "Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to do his commandments, departing each one from the religion of his fathers, 20 yet I and my sons and my brothers will live by the covenant of our fathers. 21 Far be it from us to desert the law and the ordinances. 22 We will not obey the king's words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left" (1 Maccabees 2:17-22).

​​Very much like the leaders of the New South, Matthias was offered great wealth and honor from the haters of the God-given covenant, but unlike those vile, dishonorable traitors, he did not accept the soul-destroying bribe.  He hurled it back at them in a valiant spirit of defiance.  Would that Dixie’s leaders would do the same!

And when confrontations came as a result of their refusal to acquiesce to their own cultural suicide, the Maccabees were unafraid, placing their hope in God, which was not disappointed:
17 But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, "How can we, few as we are, fight against so great and strong a multitude? And we are faint, for we have eaten nothing today." 18 Judas replied, "It is easy for many to be hemmed in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between saving by many or by few. 19 It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven. 20 They come against us in great pride and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us; 21 but we fight for our lives and our laws. 22 He himself will crush them before us; as for you, do not be afraid of them." 23 When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly against Seron and his army, and they were crushed before him (1 Maccabees 3:17-23).

​While we have no need at present to fight any physical battles, nevertheless, how many of us quail from any other kind of confrontation with enemies of the South due to their perceived might in our eyes?  How many of us are even able to resist the allure of modern entertainment rather than immersing ourselves in something from our own rich cultural patrimony?  Let us take courage from Judas and the other the Maccabees, who, ‘committing the decision to the Creator of the world and exhorting his men to fight nobly to the death for the laws, temple, city, country, and commonwealth’ (2 Maccabees 13:14), accomplished great things for Israel.
 
Dixie, with the rest of the world, has entered the Lenten season, a time when we increase our spiritual endeavors that we may be fully prepared to encounter the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday.  This is the perfect time for all Southrons to familiarize ourselves with the heroic life and deeds of the Maccabees, and to put their faith and courage into practice in our own lives as we seek to hold onto the inheritance handed down to us by our forebears.
 
All the while let us pray to God that we may be granted leaders like those we once knew – Hill, Stuart, and the rest – leaders like Simon and Jonathan Maccabeus and their kinfolk, who will help us attain those salutary and essential elements of a praiseworthy society – unity in beliefs and purpose and trust in and worship of the All-Holy Trinity – so that one day, if it pleases God, we will see our enemies driven out from fair ol’ Dixie.

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Armenia’s Advice for the South

1/29/2022

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​Glory to God Who helps us in many and varied ways!

A writer from Armenia has described the problems of his native land and how she can begin to solve them.  Without knowing it, however, he is speaking to us here at the South as well.  Here is the relevant portion of his essay:
​ . . . A nation that once defeated the Roman empire and competed with the British East India company, has now been sunk into deep apathy and utter hopelessness after the 2020 Turkish-Azeri aggression against Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

It is now clear that the loss of the beautiful capital Ani and the fall of the Bagratuni (Bagratid) kingdom a millennia ago, in 1045, played a major role in developing that “saviour-messiah” syndrome within the Armenian nation.

First, losing the independent kingdom, then losing ministries – then the political elite of the Armenians, the nation started looking for a solution to its problems outside of itself.

Notable Armenians of the late Middle Ages would go to this or that European royal palaces seeking for military help from a “saviour-messiah” foreign ruler who would come to the Armenian Highlands and fight the oppressors – the notorious Ottoman Empire.

It did not take the nation to anywhere good and it was not until 1918 when the Armenian nation, surviving the first major genocide of the 20th century, teamed up and regained its independence.

The very 1918 events, which are called May heroics, are an excellent vindication of an adamant success: once a nation relies on itself, succeeds – this is a political axiom that the majority of Armenians seem to have forgotten now.

On a political level, most Armenians are now longing for a “saviour-messiah” who will come and save the country from collapse.

The most common excuse is “I do not trust this guy, that guy, this initiative, that movement” which is fatal and sucks the energy of the nation from within.

There is no magic stick in politics, rather the latter loves everyday hard work. A nation becomes independent, keeps its independence and sovereignty once its people self-determine and self organise – they believe in themselves and their collective power.

1918 was one example, 1990s – the first Artsakh War, is another example.

In business terms, it is like you pitch your right to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and prosperity to the others in the global business club.

If you show consistency, strong team-up record and “rely-only-on-yourself” philosophy, you are then accepted into the global club.

This new 2022 is full of challenges but offers tons of opportunities for the global Armenian nation to stage a remarkable comeback and strengthen its place in the aforementioned club.

Armenians’ forefather Hayk did install that mentality of independence, self-determination, and sovereignty into the Armenian people several millennia ago.

Now is the perfect time to show forefather Hayk that the nation has learnt the lesson.

Armenians, stop bringing up excuses for not working hard for the homeland and the nation.

No outsider is going to work for Armenia unless Armenians work first and hard.

Armenians, stop searching for a saviour-messiah, team up and work hard instead!
​The South, like Armenia, was once a land renowned for her leadership in various fields in the united States, but after a devastating war and various reconstructions and reeducations, she has grown weak and timid and looks for help and deliverance from outside herself – to a President, to the federal Supreme Court, to the ‘star power’ of a celebrity, and so on.

But as Mr Ayvazyan says in his essay, that is not the proper place to look.  Southrons, like the Armenians, must look within for answers to our problems.  This will be more difficult for us than in the past.  Before, we had a class of Christian country gentlemen and ladies who could give us good leadership.  Today, what is left of them is too busy jostling for a seat at the Great Barbeque put on by the powerful in Washington City, Los Angeles, and other political and cultural centers dominated by globalists/Yankees.

More than ever, the plain folk of the South must band together, cultivate new leaders from amongst themselves, and ‘work hard for the homeland’.  But isn’t this just what Jefferson and his disciples told us to do?  Dr Clyde Wilson writes,
​For Taylor, Adams had got his history wrong. The people, in a society like that of Americans, were not dangerous. Most of the time they went quietly about their own business and demanded nothing—unless they were intolerably provoked by abuses of government. It was the “court party” that was the enemy of liberty and that would subvert the free commonwealth. History showed that there were always self-seeking minorities, would-be elites, ready to use the machinery of government to live off the labor of the majority. Sometimes this was done by force, and sometimes by fraud, as in the Hamiltonian maxim “a public debt is a public blessing.” The remedy was not to erect artificial “checks and balances” but to make sure power was widely dispersed, limited, and amenable to recall.

The Jeffersonian Constitution has been misrepresented as much as or more than Jeffersonian philosophy. It was not “strict construction,” a nonstarter, nor even states’ rights. It was state sovereignty. Jefferson (and Madison, too) may be quoted ad infinitum to this effect. The Virginia and Kentucky documents of 1798-1800 spell out beyond any doubt that the final defense of freedom in the American system is the people acting in their only constitution-making identity, that of their sovereign states. The states were the legitimate and peaceful resort to protect the liberties of their citizens and themselves as communities from federal encroachment.
​The federal government exists; we do not care much for it, but let us try to use it to our benefit even while we work to either drastically change it or separate from it altogether.  But, per Jefferson and the Armenian example, our main work must be closer to home, at the State and local level:  organizing, building, reaching out, connecting, so that we can be free from the parasites who use us to fight their wars, play in their football circuses, and perform atrocious country music songs for them.

The example of Russia in the 1300s offers us a great deal of hope that we can accomplish this:
​The Russian Land at this time suffered under the Mongol-Tatar Yoke. Having gathered an army, Great-prince Demetrius Ioannovich of the Don went to monastery of Saint Sergius to ask blessing in the pending struggle. Saint Sergius gave blessing to two monks of his monastery to render help to the great-prince: the Schemamonk Andrei [Oslyaba] and the Schemamonk Alexander [Peresvet], and he predicted the victory for prince Demetrius. The prophecy of Saint Sergius was fulfilled: on September 8, 1380, on the feastday of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, Russian soldiers gained a total victory over the Tatar hordes at Kulikovo Pole (Kulikovo Field), and set in place the beginning of the liberation of the Russian Land from the Mongol Yoke. During the fighting Saint Sergius and the brethren stood at prayer and besought God to grant victory to the Russian forces.
The country of Georgia in the 11th and 12th centuries under the leadership of the holy King David IV likewise overcame incredible odds to gain her freedom from the Turks.

Inspired by them and by the example of our Southern forebears; with prayers to the Saints of our people; with hope in God; Dixie will also reclaim her independence.
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Southern Myths and Legends

1/8/2022

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​Southern history is full of semi-legendary figures – from explorers and settlers like John Smith and Daniel Boone to unconquerable warriors like Francis Marion and Bedford Forrest to centaur-cavalrymen like J.E.B. Stuart.  But what are we doing with these riches?  Unfortunately, not a lot.
 
Johnny Cash shows what is possible.  His ballad ‘The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer’ about the half-mythical folk hero John Henry is one of his finest works.
 
The graphic novel recounting the deeds of General Patrick Cleburne is also praiseworthy.
 
And there are some excellent poems scattered here and yonder. 
 
But more needs to be done.  Dixie’s young folks especially are ‘gobbling poison’, in C. S. Lewis’s words, for lack of true sustenance, turning in increasing numbers to alternative sexual identities to try to give meaning to their lives.  They need the Gospel first of all, of course, but mankind has been constituted in such a way that he also needs roots, stability in a place and in a tradition, in order to be a whole, healthy person, body and soul.  We need to find new ways to pass on the Southern inheritance to our children and to Southrons of all other ages. 
 
This inheritance is being suppressed, but Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent years in the Soviet gulag and witnessed the unbelievable destruction of Russia’s thousand-year-old Christian culture, gives us reason for hope.  While Russia was living in the midst of that nightmare, he was able to say, ‘When “the overly straight shoots of Truth and Goodness have been crushed, cut down, or not permitted to grow,” then perhaps the “whimsical, unpredictable, and ever surprising shoots of Beauty will force their way through and soar up to that very spot, thereby fulfilling the task of all three”’ (The Solzhenitsyn Reader, Wilmington, Del., ISI Books, 2006, p. xxxvi).  And that is what has happened in Russia, where Communism has been overthrown and a return to tradition is well underway.  Through new works of beauty, the South can also preserve and renew her heritage.  It is to Mr Solzhenitsyn’s fellow Russian Christians that Southerners can turn for a remarkable example of how this has been accomplished in another country, of how the influence of folk legends can remain strong over an extraordinarily long period of time.
 
Several hundred years ago, Ilya (Elijah) Muromets lived and died.  He is recognized as a saint by the Orthodox Church, and the legends about his life form a wonderful tapestry that extend into many fields of the arts.  An encyclopedist has written,
For nearly a millennium, tales of Ilya Muromets have been passed on from generation to generation. In traditional fables he is a wise elder, whereas in the most recent cartoon – Vladimir Toropchin's “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber” – he is a dynamic and rather muscular young man, determined to gain the favours of a voluptuous blonde (a princess, of course). Films, cartoons and even video games have been dedicated to his eventful legendary life. All of these unlikely representations are united by one determining feature: physical and spiritual integrity, dedicated to the protection of the Homeland and People.
 
 . . . Over the centuries, Ilya Muromets' canonical image has been preserved, yet he has also gained popular acknowledgement in new, adapted forms. He is the protagonist of many literary works, the hero of numerous movies (e.g. Aleksandr Ptushko's film Ilya Muromets), paintings (e.g. bogatyr s and Ilya Muromets by Viktor Vasnetsov), monuments and cartoons. There’s even an aircraft named after Ilya Muromets. Designed by Igor Sikorsky it was Russia's and the world's first four-engine strategic bomber.

​We do not have to confine depictions of our Southern heroes to traditional mediums.  Films, cartoons, video games, internet videos – any canvas should be welcomed, as it is with St Ilya in Russia.

The encyclopedist goes on to say,
What follows, according to the tales, is an avalanche of great exploits and victories. Ilya Muromets single-handedly defends the city of Chernigov from invasion by the Tatars and is offered a knighthood by the local ruler, but Ilya declines to stay. In the forests of Bryansk he then kills the forest-dwelling monster Solovey-Razboynik, who murders travellers with his powerful whistle. Ilya Muromets becomes the greatest defender of Rus against all of its enemies, both real and fictional ones.

Similar things could be said of Lee or Jackson in their battles with the Yankee enemy who was better armed and more numerous than they were.  Yet no one has bothered to write even the first symphony in their honor, expressing their great deeds in music, though Ilya of Murom has one.
 
The Christian fantasy writer and deacon Nicholas Kotar shows how Ilya’s legends have spread beyond the borders of Russia into other lands (Germany, Scandinavia).  Have not a fair number of Southerners also become well-known in places outside the South (Poe, Faulkner, O’Connor, Welty)?  Surely our myth-makers could craft something from that – misty legends of story-tellers who travel o’er the seas to captivate entire places with the power of their words.
 
The traditional Southern mind, being soaked in Greek and Roman classics, could likewise make use of the myths from those lands, combining them with our legendary figures.  Forrest storming Hades to save Tennessee from an invasion of furious shades instigated by the hateful, bloodthirsty Hera?  General Lee visited by the Graces in the mountain forests of Virginia, receiving a promise of their watchcare over him during the War? 
 
Some mythical figures could stand on their own as well.  In Southern literature, Aeneas is an archetype for the South as a whole, a man who transplanted his culture from Troy to Rome, just as the South did from England to Virginia. 
 
The possibilities in this vein are tantalizing, especially considering how a Greek mythology-based video game, Hades, has just been awarded the first Hugo Award, heretofore primarily given for sci-fi and fantasy  literature, for a video game.  The Southern mind could no doubt do some interesting work in this field if it so desired and if the Lord so willed.
 
But we do not mention mythology lightly.  It is important to utilize the elements of it in our re-presentation of Southern heroes.  Dr Boyd Cathey, writing about Hollywood’s better Western films, makes a key point:
Perhaps it is the need to rediscover an American past that, after all, may be partly mythic, but mythic in the very best and most honorable sense of that word. Indeed, did not John Ford in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” have his newspaper editor tell Jimmy Stewart: “This is the West, Sir; when legend becomes fact, print the legend”?

Perhaps it is the Western’s celebration of American tradition, with its mixture of both truth and myth, which may beckon to a future generation of converts.

​​Myth speaks to people in a special way.  C. S. Lewis makes the point over and over again that it conveys truth in a manner that bare facts cannot:
The idea of myth was an important one for C.S. Lewis, especially with regard to his conversions to theism and Christianity, and his later apologies for the Christian faith. Lewis came to define myth in perhaps a non-traditional manner, writing that “Myth in general is not merely misunderstood history… nor diabolical illusion… not priestly lying… but at its best, a real unfocused gleam of divine truth on human imagination” (Miracles, 138). Thus, one must understand that what Lewis refers to as myth is not some cleverly narrated story but truth wrapped in narrative which can, when properly understood, convey great truths to its readers.

​The South will need to make wise use, then, of myth and myriad other materials to keep her heroes alive and relevant for each new generation.  Ilya of Murom is a perfect illustration of how this can be done.  The South will probably always be most comfortable with words, written, spoken, or sung, but we should not let that be a hindrance to the creative spirit within her in re-telling the stories of our noble men and women. Great dedication and sacrifice will be needed (forming film or video game studios, guilds for painters, etc.), but when we consider that the alternative is the bleak, sterile world of globalization, or the idolatry of Yankee Americanism/consumerism, then we should happily take upon us the arduous labor for the sake our forebears, the patrimony they have bequeathed to us, and the generations who will follow us here in Dixie.
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    Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer (and, when able, a planter). He makes his home in Louisiana and is editor of the 'Confiteri: A Southern Perspective' web site.

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