The Romantic Christians say that in the birdemic, church leaders endorsed the Lockdown and shut their doors in the faces of their flocks for months or years on end.
Not all church leaders did this. John MacArthur has been the pastor of Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles area for more than fifty years. He holds to orthodox Protestantism and also vigorously attacks heresies both religious and secular. His church closed for a few weeks, decided it was wrong, reopened, and remained open in the face of many threats from the civil authorities.
And MacArthur has massive influence worldwide.
The Orthosphere 
One of the “heresies” MacArthur incessantly attacks is my own religion – Roman Catholicism. At any rate and without going into too much personal detail, my own Roman Catholic parish – in the middle of the beating heart of early COVID craziness – only very, VERY briefly closed. “Masks required in accordance with local ordinance” signage was perfunctorily hung up – but never enforced. Emergency sacraments – baptism, confession, last rites – were always available the entire time. This was possible only through enormous personal and political costs to valiant clergy – and other more important folks who looked away and didn’t ask too many questions. A sweet little Presbyterian girl is about to be received into the Catholic Church *specifically* because she was able to attend church – our Roman Catholic church – during COVID while her own was shuttered.
More evidence that not all churches bent the knee to the state. That’s the main point.
This would seem to favor a more congregational model than a hierarchical model.
I don’t think this is the point. I think it is obvious that all Churches have been infiltrated and are quickly becoming part of the Globohomo managerial structure. There are some parishes (or local groups) that are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare.
So what to do? Declare the Churches obsolete, proclaim a new development of conscience, define our own religion and call it “Christianity”, and live religious life as an individual?
If this is true, why is it applied only to Churches? All institutions have been infiltrated and converted into Globohomo structures. This is the long march through the institutions, Gramsci-style.
Replace in my first paragraph “Churches” with “judicial systems of the Western world”. Replace “parishes” with “courts”. So it is still true and even truer than with Churches. So what to do? Declare courts obsolete. A new development of conscience has made that each person should be his own judge and his own legislator. He will decide the laws that should be applied to himself and he will apply them to himself.
Replace in my first paragraph “Churches” with “public administration of the Western world” and “parishes” with “administrative organism”. So it is still true. What to do? Each person will be his own civil servant and will decide what administrative rules have to apply to himself and how to apply them.
Replace in my first paragraph “Churches” with “journalism” (including TV, etc). It is still true. So will be do away with journalism and everybody will produce his own news, which he will consume. What about school and Universities? Everybody will study on his own and will issue degrees on his own “PhD in Philosophy by the University of Imnobody. Supracumlaude”.
The neighborhoods or the family have been compromised: it is better to live alone. When I go to my home town, I see that my cousins have been converted into Globohomo zombies that only try to preach and enforce political correctness (this is a true story: I am talking about my cousins in real life). So it is better not to have cousins.
Do you have a headache? Cut the head. Without head, you won’t have a headache. 100% guaranteed.
If a body has cancer, this does not mean that cells do not need the body and it is better for them to live separately. It means that cancer has to be removed. This may be impossible so the body may die (the civilization may collapse) but this does not imply that the body is not necessary. This is a non-sequitur.
As Aristotle said, the man is a social animal. We need churches, neighborhoods, family, institutions, communities, etc, etc. No man is an island. This is the philosophical tradition from ancient Greeks until before the Enlightenment.
Luther inadvertently introduced individualism in the Western world (without wanting it: he also wanted a community). The Enlightenment developed individualism, by making the individual the be-all and end-all of everything. In the implementation of the Enlightenment, we have ended up with more and more atomized societies (see “The Swedish theory of Love” in Youtube), but this is a huge catastrophe that harms people and make them underdeveloped, not something to be desired or praised as a progress.
In Christianity, salvation is individual but Christianity is a religion of communities. The same way you get a Bachelor’s degree by studying on your own but you still need a University. The first community was Christ and his apostles. Christ gave rules to rule communities (let alone Saint Paul). Christianity will be collective or will not be Christianity. And, if Churches have not been able to reject Globohomo, imagine what isolated individuals can do. You can have a brilliant individual individually rejecting Globohomo, but this is one in a million.
It may not be your point, but it is my point.
You said “…all Churches have been infiltrated…” That capital-c “Churches” may be referring to the Roman Catholic variety, but I don’t make that restriction. If Grace Community Church, with its thousands of members and worldwide influence, is a church that has not been infiltrated, then it is not the case that all churches have been infiltrated, and you and the Romantic Christians are overstating the gloom-and-doom.
imn – at some point the entryists’ triumph is complete: they can throw off the skin of their victim and reveal themselves. This happened with the US Episcopal Church in 2006 and the US government’s Executive branch in 2016 – 2020. The point of not throwing out the baby with the bathwater is well taken, but eventually what one thought was the institution has ceased to exist. Anglo-America, for example, has ceased to exist even though we still drape ourselves in its Anglican, classical liberal skins. In 30 years when America is majority non-white people of a certain age will realize that at some point in their lifetime “America” definitively and substantively became “Brazil.”
To my observation, traditionalist Catholics in 2022 are going through what traditionalist Epscopalians went through from the years 1998 to 2006.
In another setting, serious (for lack of a better term) American Orthodox are finding out just how completely ethnically chauvinist and cynical the Old World bishops are.
It’s hard for me to imagine a single institution in its current form that will remain standing after the decline and fall of the American Empire. An apocryphal saying attributed to Elder Ephraim is that after World War 3, the surviving bishops will get it figured out.
@Alan – This is splitting non-existent hairs! – since I only ever said that that the major Christian churches followed the totalitarian-demonic line wrt the birdemic – I have always been aware of local scale exceptions.
But the validity of your critique of existing Christendom depends on there being no significant exceptions to the rule that the churches are corrupted.
Your basic message is “All of traditional, formal Christendom has gone over to the Enemy, therefore true Christians must go it alone.”
The correct message is “MOST of traditional, formal Christendom has gone over to the Enemy, therefore true Christians must exert great diligence to search for a true church and exercise great discernment in deciding which churches remain faithful to Christ.”
Well, I stand corrected. I should have said “most Churches”. I may have other mistakes in my writings. I write quickly and about complex topics in a language that it is not mine. And I am not good with details. But, in spite of my many flaws, I think my point was clear.
Having said that, I don’t think churches like Grace Community Church are the answer to our problem. First, I don’t think they can accommodate all Christian people, because of questions of doctrine. But they could be a lifesaver for many people for some time, the way Traditionalist parishes are a lifesaver for some people in the Roman Catholic tradition.
Second, I don’t think any Church will stand against the Globohomo power structure, which is determined in subordinating Churches and has the means to do so. If the Grace Community Church pulls it off, I will be very happy. And I will praise it for its fidelity. However, I remember the times when we, Roman Catholics, used to brag before Protestants about being the only Church that had resisted some aspects of modernity. We needed a lesson in humility and God gave it to us in spades. If Globohomo has been able to subvert a behemoth like the Roman Catholic Church with 1.3 billion believers, it would be able to do so with smaller Churches (I don’t say they are less important, only smaller). They have started with the big prizes but they will continue with smaller things.
Some years ago, some Romantic wrote in his blog that we were in part the cause of our problems because we submitted to a job and a country where Globohomo can get us. He had moved to Hungary and was happy about the freedom from Globohomo that enjoyed there .
I told him that, more than 20 years ago, I left my native Europe fleeing Globohomo and moved to Latin America (where I still live) which was more traditional and Christian. However, Globohomo eventually followed me and I see in Latin America the same processes that I saw in Europe (although they are somewhat delayed with respect to Europe). I told him that Globohomo will eventually get Hungary as well. That there is no place to hide.
Then Covid arrived and Orbán followed the same policies than the globalist establishment. That Romantic Christian now says that the government of Hungary is only another progressive institution and it is not the answer. I have resisted the urging of telling him “I told you so”.
So count your blessings while they last. And fight until the last moment. But I really don’t think my point is exaggerated. (But I would love to be wrong.) All Churches will eventually be subverted. There will be some small oases and it is our task to find them to survive but this will be very marginal. The vast majority of the 2.38 billion of Christians will be part of an infiltrated Church.
Sorry, this was a response to Alan Roebuck in the “July 29, 2022 at 4:12 AM” comment above.
Grace Church is somewhat like the “Vatican” of a certain type of Protestantism, but it leads by example rather than by formal authority. So you have tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of churches worldwide which are independent in that they would have to be taken down one at a time (and others are always sprouting up to replace them) but are in union with Grace in that they agree with most of its doctrine and with its independent spirit. This is a valuable model for resistance.
Yes, there is a danger that Globohomo will conquer the world and 1984-ize all societies. But we don’t know the future, so we must just do what we can right now.
If anyone’s interested, the Romantic imnobody00 is alluding to is me and the context is based on this heated and respectful back-and-forth we engaged in on my blog back in 2019:
https://www.francisberger.com/blog/does-the-use-of-pseudonyms-aliases-and-false-names-indicate-cowardice
Your assessment of escaping the System in an external sense is spot on, and I concur with your discernment that we should not place too much, if any, hope in external considerations, regardless of whether these hopes are placed in the altar, in civilization, or a combination of the two.
When I moved to Hungary in 2015, I held out some hope for Hungary under Orbán, but 2020 put those hopes to rest. So, you can indulge in a little gloating if you choose; however, please keep in mind that though I was positive about some of the things Orbán had said and done, I also held onto many reservations about Hungary and was very open to the possibility that its resistance or so-called resistance might be just a dog and pony show or would fail. I was also quick to point out that my hopes in Orbán and Hungary had been misplaced.
Having said that, my example underscores rather than detracts from your overall point — we have to move beyond pinning our hopes on the System and on externals, be they political or Christian.
So the question, what to do? You denigrate the development of consciousness and Alan and Bonald don’t put much stock into it either. Fair enough, but if Christians do not at least begin thinking about new ways of understanding, knowing, and relating to themselves, others, God, and Creation, they won’t be left with many positive choices going forward.
Your insulting choice of language gives away that you believe churches changed their modes of operation out of fear, or sheeplike deference to secular authorities, rather than an independent decision of what was safest for their parishioners. False dichotomy, as well as pretending you know the motives of others. (Did you invest in one of those special Motive-O-Meters I’ve been hearing about? I’ve been trying to find one for myself, but there must be supply chain issues or something. I hear they are most effective when focused on oneself, though.)
Some churches stayed open and even had special events…which killed some of those in attendance. Gate City Church up here in NH was one. It has become popular in some conservative and traditional corners to pretend that Covid was no big deal, but that doesn’t change the facts on the ground. The death rate for the country increased by 16% for two years. Some churches thought that was worth noticing.
Regardless of motive, it was wrong to shut the doors completely. They could have, for example, given parishioners the choice of in-person or on-line. Or they could have had special sections of the pews which were mask-mandated and others that were mask-optional.
And regardless of motive, they cooperated (or at any rate gave the clear appearance of cooperating) with the greatest power-grab in the history of mankind.
“The greatest power grab in the history of mankind.”
I recommend a little scotch when such ideas occur to you.
An enormous demographic bulge is in the process of dying over the next 20 years. People will wave statistics around and demand more money and bureaucratic control.
Did this need to be a post of its own?
I think you are missing the larger point of Charlton’s arguement which he has wrote in-depth about over the past 2 years if you word search his blog.
I think Charlton’s larger point is wrong. He speaks as if all of institutional Christianity is kaput and therefore something new is needed. My point is that good Christianity is still available, and is more common than generally believed. It just has a low profile.
Therefore a new Christianity is not needed. What is needed is for good Christianity to multiplied.