Welcome to the Catacombs

Oregon Magazine ^ | Art Hyland

[Mount Athos]

There are only two classes now: “Christians” and “Romans”.

If you are called an extremist, if you revere an old document created long ago by people known as “founders,” if you lack that old motivation to produce because of unending taxes, fees, regulations and other barriers, if you have to pay more attention to rules than customers, and if you are disillusioned enough to consider going underground, searching for ways to hide or reduce your business, your income, or just preserve your wealth (what’s left of it), then you are a “Christian” regardless of any religious affiliation. The Tea Party is “Christian.”

For modern “Christians,” for the moment, welcome to the Catacombs of 2013. Underground has taken on a new meaning, but the purpose is the same: survive, wait for an opportunity, pick them off from time to time, and be patient–they will be defeated by their own doing.

The ancient Romans persecuted Christians ruthlessly for hundreds of years while becoming so arrogant, and so immune from reality that they self-destructed financially, having destroyed themselves morally generations prior. It took the Christians about 300 years to be able to leave their catacombs behind, replace Christianity where Romans used to rule, and to ultimately dominate the culture and landscape of the West.

America has wandered so far from its founding principles as to be unrecognizable. What used to be a tapestry of individuals accomplishing little things by themselves, and big things collectively, all done freely–with self-determination and creativity propelling them to greatness– has become (temporarily) a collective controlled by masters of perception. This cycle of control will fail out of its sheer weight of stupidity, immorality and applied ignorance.

[Mount Athos]

Heavily edited to fit 300 word excerpt limit, click to see original

[NCjim]

Thanks for posting.

[Louis Foxwell]

The engine of perception. I am befuddled. There is no capital T Truth for those who are convinced truth is relative. If I claim, as I do, to have some apprehension of Truth my dis-creditors tell me I am claiming to be God, a personage whose existence they vehemently deny. They seek to trap me with the most witless argument, that I am not permitted to persuade others of my belief because I claim it is True.
Is this the Democlean sword that severs the Gordian knot? Is the sheer insanity of progressivism the key to its demise?
Perhaps Senator McConnell has given us the key to victory. He guffaws in the face of the left’s best efforts. We need not argue the Truth. It sustains itself. This is either genius or dismal stupidity. Either way we must do it. We must live by the truth we know. We must be Christians in a Roman world.

[Psalm 144]

Thanks for this post.

[Cronos]

well, ruthlessly yes, but not ceaselessly. Christians were persecuted under Nero, Domitian, the Macriani, and some other emperors. But they also spread and for much of the time they were ignored

In the end the Roman Empire became Christian so that Romaoi = Christian