044 All Saints' Day: Matrilineal Ministryx
Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! ~Psalm 149
In a century where the media publish endless stupidities, the cultured man is defined not by what he knows but by what he ignores. ~Nicolás Gómez Dávila
See you Tuesday on the Youtube channel.
And remember,
Be strong, and let your heart know courage.
Rev. Fisk
Ministryx - Matrilineal
By Rev. Benjamin Steenbock, Sons of Solomon Mastermind
Is your church controlled by "The Patriarchy" or is it "feminized"? Actually, it's probably neither. Anthropology gives us a term and a framework for understanding what is truly happening in most American churches.
The term is "matrilineal." Matrilineal societies are not defined by who holds formal positions of power or who does which jobs. Rather, matrilineal societies are defined by female needs, desires, and concerns having primacy in social life and females as the primary teachers of worldview for the next generation. In short, matrilineal societies have women as the center of and source of life, sustenance, and thriving (read more from Anthony Bradley's column).
The evidence is all around you. In most churches, what determines the programs and schedules? Answer: what fits best for women and their children. In most Christian homes, who does the lion's share of forming religious habits and passing on religious instruction? Moms. Maybe. And if not them, probably the female teacher(s) at your Christian day school and Sunday school. Your church service on Mother's Day probably chastises men for not appreciating moms enough. And then your church service on Father's Day probably chastises men for not appreciating moms enough. Even a common non-biblical phrase among Christians betrays the matrilineality we have adopted: "Happy wife, happy life."
In fact, you may be starting to think, "This isn't just a church problem, this is Western culture in general!" You'd be right. This became a cemented reality in the Industrial Revolution.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution many more men and fathers worked in and around their own house (e.g., farming, butchering, shoemaking, etc.). They had frequent interaction with their children, who often helped in these tasks. Fathers and men directly passed on skills, values, etc. Moreover, the more parochial nature of work resulted in more social interaction among men as members of the community not just coworkers from disparate places. However, in the Industrial Revolution, men shifted en masse into working away from the home for long hours at a factory or some other locale remote from the home.
The people left to run social life and conduct most of the child-rearing? Women. Mothers. And as a result, contrary to feminist insistence otherwise, the vacuum of male presence in the round-the-day social sphere handed that power directly to women. Indeed, the social power of women is incredibly dominating in modern American life.
It doesn't have to remain this way. Mad Christian men joining the Sons of Solomon are retaking this space. Instead of living for the nine-to-five job, or the endless crunch of the high-tech industry, we are living to breathe in and breathe out the Holy Scriptures of God - to our families, to our churches, and to our community. We are living to walk in the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do, not just to walk in the dead works our corporate overlords will forget about during the next review cycle. By taking total ownership of passing on the Scriptures to your family and community, by reasserting the inherent goodness of being a priest and king under the High Priest and King of Kings, you can raise your family and lead your community to stand upright upon the ruins instead of wallowing in the muck.
Clickbait Paradise
We don't have the luxury of believing lies
It's been apparent for a while now that the Wokest folks are usually highly educated, wealthy people. Last year, Rob Henderson wrote at Quillette about this phenomenon, which he called a "status update" on Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. He argues that because the upper classes find it increasingly hard to distinguish themselves via their fancy stuff, today's well-to-do stand out from the pack by adopting "luxury beliefs".
One of the main ideas of Veblen's theory is that "a good way to size up [someone else's financial] means is to see whether they can afford to waste money on goods and leisure. This explains why status symbols are so often difficult to obtain and costly to purchase. These include goods such as delicate and restrictive clothing like tuxedos and evening gowns, or expensive and time-consuming hobbies like golf or beagling." These activities and purchases distinguished the wealthy from the riff-raff because they "could only be purchased or performed by those who did not live the life of a manual laborer and could spend time learning something with no practical utility."
Yet today, with industrialized production and globalized economies, "material goods have become more affordable and, thus, less reliable indicators of social class." As Seinfeld says, "You see a limo go by, you know it's either some rich jerk or fifty prom kids with $1.75 each." Anyway, flaunting your wealth can get you into trouble .
Henderson gives an example of how the upper-classes now separate themselves from the rest of society through their beliefs. He says, "Your typical middle-class American could not tell you what “heteronormative” or “cisgender” means. But if you visit Harvard, you’ll find plenty of rich 19-year-olds who will eagerly explain them to you. When someone uses the phrase “cultural appropriation,” what they are really saying is “I was educated at a top college.”
However, luxury beliefs don't stay with the upper classes. As various points-of-view become badges of status, they are embraced further down the social ladder. As Henderson points out, "the less fortunate suffer by adopting the beliefs of the upper class." He uses the example of the wealthy elites, who championed "sexual freedom" in the 60's. "Loose sexual norms spread throughout the rest of society. The upper class, though, still have intact families...The families of the lower class fell apart. Today, the affluent are among the most likely to display the luxury belief that sexual freedom is great, though they are the most likely to get married and least likely to get divorced."
Today we see "affluent people promote open borders or the decriminalization of drugs because it advances their social standing" and yet they "know that the adoption of those policies will cost them less than others." Thomas Sowell points out that even though it is often done in good faith, the consequences of elite "activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole."
As we've said before in Mad Mondays, the current Progressive culture is one that demands repentance but never issues absolution. While some adhere to "luxury beliefs" as a way to maintain power and others because they think they know what's best, these are the tricks we use to deflect our thoughts from our own sin. Changing the definition of what it means to be a good human, self-defined righteousness, is a way we delude ourselves into thinking we can save our own souls.
But taking Christ at his word is not a luxury belief, the Gospel is not just for the elite but for everyone, for folks of all status. It does not inflict damage on downtrodden but raises every sinner to a new life, adopted "as sons through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1). We believe the water sealed it; we believe the bread feeds it. Our status is sure - we are his.
Sons of Solomon
there are not enough good men: become one.
#113487
Find out More
Cut that out
The BBC has issued guidelines warning its employees about virtue signaling when they use social media. The motivation for the new guidelines has been the journalists who become "partisan campaigner[s] on social media." The rules also state: "If your work requires you to maintain your impartiality, don’t express a personal opinion on matters of public policy, politics, or ‘controversial subjects’." Yes, but what will they Tweet about now?
Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss covered a lot of ground writing for Tabletlast week. She outlines many of the ways Critical Race Theory has invaded our societyand sounds a warning for her Jewish community regarding what she sees as rising acceptability of anti-Semitism.
Big bad ACB
David Harsanyi argues that the Left isn't afraid of Justice Amy Coney Barrett but it fears the Constitution.
Universities have largely been ignoring rules around disclosure of gifts from foreign sources but the Department of Education is attempting to change that.
Also changing is the idea of what cities are. As working-from-home becomes a new normal in many industries, an article from the Guardian kicks around a few ideas regarding what they call the "rebalancing" of cities. While telework means people can live further away from their workplaces forming "secondary cities", the gentrification of neighborhoods could make those communities more expensive for existing residents. This might lead to innovation in metropolitan areas or produce "ghost cities." Strange days, indeed.
Better, Tolkien. Better
Something nice to ponder, in this crazy time... The Babylon Bee podcast hosted author Diana Glyer recently, who has written a lot about the Inklings, CS Lewis and Tolkien. The conversation covered the long friendship between Lewis and Tolkien, their faith, and how Tolkien thought Narnia was a bad idea. Dr. Glyer speaks about the Inklings' commitment to meeting consistently, sharing their ideas and work. It's sure to give you some warm, fuzzy inspiration.
Following along with Rev. Fisk's read-through of Talk Them Into It?
Try with a physical book this week!
From Rev Fisk's feed
This guy lays out the argument for voting Trump as well as anyone
All you need to know about Sweden's response to COVID
T cell immunity: What is it and how does it help to protect us from COVID-19?
Fauci knew about false test results
Unmasked by Andy Ngo | Center Street's movie about Antifa
Quick Hits for the Eyebuds
🌱 Biological batteries that generate energy from the ground
🇮🇪 A glass floor in a Dublin grocery store to view Viking ruins
🇯🇵 Bonsai-style forestry in Japan
⌨️ Improve your typing - try some 1984 or Dracula
🎮 Gaming soundtracks to boost productivity
🫖 ICYMI Space station saved using a tea bag
🗳️ It's funny 'cause it's true: Allie Stuckey brings her brand of satire to political advertisements
Only Illuminati Need Apply Your Reaction Highlights (and Shadow's Response)
But first, we apologize- last week's Covidian Cult was sent to us by Michael Schuller.
Dear Pastor Fisk and Mad Christian Team,
In your October 3 Mad Christian Saturday Morning Chill you commented on the idea of releasing a book, even before it's polished, to allow the Internet community to help with the editorial process. I wanted to let you know the Software Development community does a similar thing using Agile Software development. It is a family of methodologies following the Agile Software Development Manifesto.
If I may get a little software engineer nerdy: the process is like walking the path of a helix. Each revolution should take around 4 weeks to walk (an advisory limit), called a "sprint". There are 4 basic steps design, develop, test, and refactor. (This is a metaphor I've adopted to describe the process to others, I don't know if anyone describes it similarly.) The meta work is done before and approaching each revolution to satisfy general business and project goals. The first couple of sprints are used to make something work. Each additional sprint is used to add, expand, and develop features; the working prototype eventually becomes the product (that's why Google had "beta" stamped on their projects). This kind of process allows a team to work in a direction without having to know how to get to the goal, the goals of the sprint and project keep the team on target. Because the sprints are limited in time the development team can work on business goals that are current and react to goals as they change. The prototype becomes the product, helps the non-technical people see what is being developed and they can verify the software. Compared to previous methods like Waterfall, where each project step is completed before the next one as the project is build as a whole, Agile saves time and money by preventing missteps and miscommunication.
Now that I've bored you to tears; thank you for providing the vlog every week. I am always looking forward to it.
Dan
Yes, Dan, this sounds a lot like the process that the Valve Cabals used to completely revamp Half-Life a year before it was actually released. The whole game was broken down and rebuilt using small focus groups. These cabals, as they were known, were at the intersection of individual initiative and "ours" mentality: "The Cabal process gave these ideas a place to be heard, and since it was accepted that design ideas can come from anyone, it gave people as much authority as they wanted to take. If the idea required someone other than the inventor to actually do the work, or if the idea had impact on other areas of the game, they would need to start a Cabal and try to convince the other key people involved that their idea was worth the effort." The best contributions passed the play-testing phase, keeping the emotional attachment out of the decision-making process. The cycle of play-testing, feedback, review, and editing resulted with the experience that lead to Half-Life's success.
This independent recruitment idea is central to Valve's Philosophy and it's one we at Mad Christianity try to mimic (tldr). We "maximize individual strengths and minimize individual weaknesses [to] set up a framework that allows individuals to influences as much [...] as possible." Much like Valve, here we decide which ideas are worth fulfilling and then work on the projects that we believe are the best use of our time. Kinda sounds like a dream job, huh? It sure is, and all are welcome here. We may not have desk on wheels, but the same thing is happening right now in Discord. Be a part of the movement. Join Mad Christianity.
A Good Word: Rec's from Rev. Fisk
the only book you'll ever need
Besides the Bible... and your hymnal... and maybe a prayer book...
Okay, so it's not the only book you'll ever need, but it should be your last stop personal planner. Fully customizable pages in this beautiful leather flap? Now I'm ready to do more good.
Sweetness You May Have Missed
Occupy Ben Shapiro and Ice Chips
Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, You knit together Your faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us so to follow Your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that, together with them, we may come to the unspeakable joys You have prepared for those who love You; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.