Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

I’m excited. I’ll be honest, it feels good not to be so cynical. I like being hopeful and feeling like the Church is uniting (other than the German bishops, of course.) It’s pretty rare that I get to write pieces about Pope Francis that are hopeful and joyful. I’m taking my opportunity while I can. I’ll say my morning rosary and then head to Mass. I don’t know if a parish near me is having people gather for the consecration or if I’ll watch it on EWTN. I’ve seen this “Joy of the Faith” guy before being interviewed. He’s my mood today. Upbeat. Almost Ned Flanders-ish. I’m hopeful and prayerful today. I should be like this more.
Thus spake Matthew Archbold talking of his positive emotional response to yesterday's fake-consecration of the Fire Nation . 

MA is author of a worthwhile, well-written, traditional Roman Catholic blog called Creative Minority Report (its title presumably referencing Benedict XVI hope for the RCC rebuilding from a small but faithful and motivated 'Creative Minority')  
I'm sure many readers can recognize and sympathize with the cause of Archbold's apostasy from real Christianity and convergence with The System; but it is seldom we get to see the event expressed so candidly and unaffectedly. 

When a Christian's faith and hope are located externally in a this-worldly institution - including any church; and when all institutions are progressively absorbing-into the evil totalitarian leftist Global System; then we are all (sooner-or-later) brought to a 'moment' when we must choose to go with the institution or stand-apart, and perhaps alone. 
And, we must face it honestly; it 'feels good not to be cynical'! Going with the worldly-flow, after feeling isolated from it, is indeed exciting. Such feelings can even seem 'hopeful and joyful' even though that is an illusion - since joining one's heart to The System is the negation of hope and joy. 

But Men are - with very few exceptions - not built to be solitary; and very few of us can endure psychological isolation for very long. 
We so-very-much want to 'belong' - and when the only option is to belong-with an evil-affiliated institution, then many people will take the evil option - rather than living-with the 'cynicism' of recognizing the world's evil and repenting it. 

I can see that those churches which have been most successful at building communities - for example Mormons in some parts of the world, or evangelical protestants in the mega-churches - have created such a complete 'sub-society' and a strong and sustaining sense of belonging that when the church leadership unmasked back in March 2020, and called upon their flocks to abandon Christ and join the anti-church of the birdemic-peck; so many church members followed. 
Having suddenly lost their church community life, they were desperate to 'unite' around something until it may be restored - and the birdemic was that something.  
Anything was better than than self-exclusion; than being left out in the cold; alone, embittered, cynical. 

For those Christians who 'held-out' for truth and faith during the birdemic years, who maybe even resisted both the blandishments of antiracism in the summer of 2020 and the constant drum-beat of climate-excused economic vandalism and the 'inclusionary' denial of sex and sexuality; this latest anti-crusade against the Fire Nation (of which the pseudo-consecration is a part) came as a very welcome excuse to rejoin the mainstream - again to feel part of something bigger ('the church is uniting'); to feel - after so long a drought - again 'upbeat'. 

This is a measure of what Christians are up-against. It is the spirit of Antichrist - which partially-simulates Christ as a way of turning the heart against Christ. 
Which rewards every step into apostasy; and inverts valuations to make the descent to hell feel almost-like a spiritual ascent: upbeat, hopeful, prayerful, a community... 
...Because, 'at least' in stepping onto the down-escalator we will 'enjoy' plenty of 'good company'; with loads of fun, sexy, and clever casual-friends; guided on our way by all the prestigious institutional leaders of the world - from Popes and Presidents, to CEOs, Generals, Police 'commissioners', Lawyers, Doctors, Scholars, Artists, Writers, Sportsmen, Actors... 
Everybody who is anybody in the world today*...

Therefore it is necessary to recognize the tough reality that when Christians argue for truth against lies, for God against Satan, for Heaven against This-world; we are also arguing (if nothing else changes) for a profound act of psychological isolation - including self-isolation from those institutions such as churches that have been focal and dominant in our lives. 
For most people this is felt as 'way too much to ask' - their personalities are not equipped to stand (almost) alone against The World. 
Too much to ask... unless something equal or better can provide compensation. 

And this is why I have come to believe that traditionalist concepts of Christianity cannot suffice except from a very small minority of heroes of faith; those who have the introverted detachment to survive psychologically despite the permanent misery of having everything they most value in their church taken from them, and turned against them - as the Papacy has been turned against faithful Roman Catholics.
(And the analogous has happened for Protestants and Mormons. And the analogous has happened when medicine was turned against real doctors, professional research against real scientists, the education system against real teachers, and universities against scholars - to give only example from my personal experience. What had once been a sustaining social environment with some significant dedication to high values was, in all instances, subverted and inverted into an Antichrist-parody of its former-self.)   

This is why I have come to believe that Romantic Christianity is our best (and indeed only) viable and effective path forward. 
Why? Mostly because it is what God wants of us (by my understanding). But a sign of this divine destiny is that Romantic Christianity can - by its recognition, nurturing and valuing of the inner-divine, and directly-known-spiritual - compensate and more for the necessary degree of societal isolation that staying a Christian requires of us here-and-now. 
In a sense, every Christian must become a mystic - in frequent and direct 'contact' with the divine and living-conscious world - which is all around and within us as well as in the persons of God and Christ; because otherwise there will be next-to-nothing to 'enjoy' in life. 
But with a mystical apprehension of Christianity, of reality - life (yes, even this mortal life - seen in the context of eternal resurrection) becomes a source of abiding joy and hope; as well as of excitement and adventure. 
This actual world is knowable, experience-able, as a place of High Drama, challenge and victory - Love and Courage. 
And the stakes get higher almost every day...   

Romantic Christianity is a choice, and a conscious choice - that any Christian of any denomination can make. Indeed, it is to encourage exactly this choice that these times are as they are. 
I expect to see traditionalist and church-orientated Christians continue to fall-away from faith in wave after wave; as each new Litmus Test is devised and implemented by Satan and his Establishment minions, in order to seduce them into the very temporary delights of sheer belonging. 
And this Great Apostasy will continue-to-happen until we consciously agree to learn what God is trying so hard to teach us. 

*Note added: The Romantic Christian need not be alone in his quest; however (if he is unfortunate enough to lack a loving family); he will himself need to seek, evaluate, discern and choose his companions for the adventures and tests of mortal life - this will not be done for him by any external institution.