"Reformation Day"

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

So, to reform something is to make it better or something, that's how the word is used. Suffixwise and all it means to impose a form anew on something. But anyway, in Masonic terms if you will (spiritually that is), if something is to be made better from being corrupted before, it is like a building is in disrepair and to reform it is to... reconstruct it. For construction, too, as in architecture for example, is to impose a form on matter in the classical hylomorphic sense.

Now as it turns out, after all my ridiculous personal and mystical and whatever-the-hell reasons for thinking with dread on a certain impending day, there is however a legitimate reason, from the point of view of the very people in question (on one end of the equation), for that exact day to serve as the pivot of their intent. It is the day of the first Reformation, the origins of the Reformed Church in general/the abstract, when Luther posted his challenge on that one door in his land, so even though not Calvin's day, still emblematic for the identity of the entire order.

Otherwise it seemed so stupid to me, and I really did think my expectation was so foolish as to defy rationality, probably---you might say---because it was irrational as such. So what if some books elliptically indicate something terrible in this context? There was nothing guaranteed to piece those together, was there? Yet, this ended up irrelevant. The reason for the season is given over to evil already.

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The reason for the season is given over to evil already.

Well. That rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

--A

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

I'm sorry Mig, but I'm in a bit of a quandary descrying your point. Is something supposed to go down on Reformation Day this year? Does this have anything to with your concerns in the " What's Goin' On?" thread?

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

I think so.

I want to say I know so, but that... is a lot to say... especially about something like this...

On the one hand, it is true that a member of the Reconstruction movement tried to recruit me and flipped out on me variously thereafter, including in particular when I went to Chicago. It is true that this movement is allied with neo-Confederates and neo-Nazis and the like, and that these groups were all deprioritized as threats by our new president, and that another member of the movement with whom I worked posted all sorts of gloating things about electrocuting gay people and incinerating Mexicans and impaling Muslims, and that the president said something curious about the Windy City, very early on, and that my parents bought acreage repossessed from a white supremacist leader who had been convicted of murder, and that my father worked on the Trident submarines, and so on and on. So when I read all the books this movement has put out, out in the open even, in which they discuss their plan, and I know what they have the power to do, and what they wanted me to participate in, I feel I have to ask myself...

... that if these people have the means, the motive, and the opportunity, why in the world would they not act on it? It was from a Christian Reconstructionist blog that I learned about Reformation Day, which seems to me might as well be named Reconstruction Day, since reforming and reconstructing are basically the same kind of thing, metaphysically, and so much else in my life all zoned in on this one specific date, especially now, like, why would they not begin the transformation, then?

One of them, he said something once like, "No one is going to be able to look back and see where it began, or how it happened." And either the same guy or someone else, among them, said something like, "And then bam! It's gonna hit them, and they're gonna be so surprised!" All this, that is, descriptive of their plan and its turning point.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

You worry a lot, but I'm sure you already know that. (I'm a worrier myself, so I feel yer pain. And I've prolly been worrying more lately than is healthy.)

All of which is not to say that there aren't troubling tendencies on the horizon. But ain't that always the way? Modernity presented its own challenges and distortions, and so will any corrective to those. It's good to keep these potentialities in the back of one's mind, but better to do so without letting them disturb one's peace. The evil of the day and all that jazz.

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I only worry about things I can (or should) do something about. Worrying about things I can't affect is counter-productive.

--A

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Maybe it's automatic for me, like I have background dread regarding gamma-ray bursts too Who knows...

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Pretty sure you'll be ok on that score.

--A

[deer of the dawn]

Reformation Day recalls the moment when Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg in 1517. The 95 Theses, which challenged the idea that the Roman Catholic Church could sell God's forgiveness for money (among other things), went viral and became a movement. There was bloodshed and not everything was God-honoring, but one great thing that came from the Reformation was the accessibility of the Scriptures to common people, which before were practically forbidden and controlled by the Church.

Mighara, there ought not to be negative energy attached to the day. It should be a day to celebrate the power of ideas and dialogue to change the world. It could also be a day to celebrate the badassery of those who defied the Church authorities who threatened those who taught such "heresy" as that forgiveness comes only from God himself, not with the mediation of priests or the Church; because they believed that people deserved the truth.

I wouldn't say that was irrelevant at all.

Being a human endeavor, the Reformation also resulted in some bad things happening-- war, and a kind of reverse repression of those whose ideas went beyond the pale of the Lutheran Church such as the Anabaptists (whom I consider my spiritual foreparents). Still, there is nothing to fear if you take the stand the original reformers did:

"Here I stand. I can do no other."

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Mig,

Here's an article which seems generally relevant to this thread. Granted (and thankfully), it doesn't quite fit with your seeming theme of Paramilitary Presbyterians establishing the na-Calvin's Geneva-on-the-Potomac, but there are still some genealogical connections, IMO.

To preface, lemme say that I find this to be a bizarre article. It begins by affirming the rightness of the Protestant cause, segues into claiming that Catholic worship — or at least, some liturgical modes of Catholic worship — reflects extra nos imputational justification[!?!], and ends by suggesting how regressive Protestant movements can appropriate Catholicity as a weapon against their ideologico-political progressive enemies (assumedly, both within and without the American Protestant landscape writ large).



How Roman Catholicism Can Get Protestantism Back To Its Reformation Roots

Protestant churches will claim a doctrinally correct view of justification, but what the doctrine means has no bearing on their worship practices. Not so with many Catholics.

[…]

Why would divergent worship practices—formal versus informal—lead to divergent attitudes toward political involvement? It all goes back to the Reformation doctrine of justification. If Christ is extra nos, as he is in the liturgy, then he's imputed on me as a gift from the outside. There's no expectation I'll be transformed into the likeness of God. I can't. This is Christ's show, and I remain distinct from him.

Also, recognizing my own incapacitation, I'll never think humanity can be mustered to the cause of positive governance. If anything, government needs negative checks, as does human nature. No establishment of the kingdom of God on earth for a ritualist!

However, if God "leaks" out of Christ and the sacramental life of the church into me, I can imagine myself as the sacrament, as God's incarnated presence effecting change in the world through my cooperation with God's Spirit. I'll believe God's using me to establish his kingdom on earth. These are the theological roots undergirding the political religion that is modern leftism. …

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Strange.

So, tell me guys (does this actually belong in the close?) is there an increased intra-faith conflict / disagreement / whatever in these days of steadily waning numbers for Christianity?

--A

[deer of the dawn]

I tried to reply to this earlier and had Error 404 issues.

I find the author's logical leaps to be... wow. Kinda crazy. Nowhere have I heard Protestant preachers purport that because Christ alone appropriates justification, we are powerless to become Christ-like. Anyone who reads a Bible would understand that it is exactly the imputation of justification-- by grace through faith-- that enables us to become Christ-like.

As for using politics to establish God's Kingdom on earth.... that'd be a big fat No. And I would say it's more the Right than the Left who sees this as their mission, so I really don't get that either.

Av, usually any group who is out of power discovers sudden bonds of unity between former opponents... As for decreasing numbers, this is only in the West. In Africa and Asia, Christianity continues to spread. This image is relevant:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... rmat=1500w

Of course, such a map counts anyone who would tick a box on a form next to the word "Christian", including Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Cherubim and Seraphim Church, and other groups who are not orthodox in persuasion; i.e., would not subscribe to the Nicene Creed.

Still, unity in the Church should be a good thing, even when it comes at the price of persecution and powerlessness. Power corrupts, even the Church. I have really become convinced that governance ought to be secular. Even though I struggle with the idea of the division of sacred and secular. Muslims make no such distinction, which is why they feel justified to enact "holy" war. I don't have it all figured out, but I wouldn't encourage theological gymnastics to regain political power as a good plan for humanity any day of the week.

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Av, usually any group who is out of power discovers sudden bonds of unity between former opponents... As for decreasing numbers, this is only in the West. In Africa and Asia, Christianity continues to spread.

Uh, because of people like you?

Would be interesting to see numbers, even better if they were broken down by urban / rural and education level.

--A

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

I can't... I just can't. I just started reading the novel Q, the Luther Blissett(sp.?) one. He says it all started on October 31st when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses.

He says this is when his battle with Q began.

I just can't.