Right after chow one morning, we had a lecture that I dimly recall was on the topic of “Urban Warfare.” I remember the major teaching the class had a last name resembling a line on an eye chart. I was only 19 back then. Officers and NCO’s in those days always used some kind of “hook” at the beginning of their lectures to engage the audience. Jokes were common. Some used film clips. Others read book passages or newspaper articles.
This major read us a story written by an eyewitness to the Sack of Constantinople. For a few minutes that morning, we listened as blood ran in the streets and children were slaughtered in front of their parents. Shrieking mothers were gang raped alongside their daughters before all of them were brutally decapitated. Old men were drug down the streets by their white beards for sport. Books representing thousands of years of accumulated knowledge were burned. Some of the greatest art in the world was despoiled in a frenzy of hate and violence.
When he finished reading, the major asked us what the moral of the story was. Marines in the audience ventured various guesses. The major seemed increasingly annoyed by their efforts. Finally, he closed the book sharply and said, “The moral of the story is – don’t f**king lose.”
Over thirty years later, I still remember the moral of that story. In the meantime, I’ve learned a lot, gotten old, and become Orthodox. Now I recognize that many of those Greeks died as martyrs for Christ. They are in a place of peace as they await the resurrection and their everlasting reward. But as a father and husband, I also recognize that if they had had a choice, few of them would have voluntarily watched helplessly as their loved-ones suffered such horrible deaths.
So yeah. Don’t f**cking lose. Once you do, whatever happens next is completely out of your control. And historically speaking, what comes next can be really, really bad if the winners hate your guts.
Tens of millions of us are looking out over the landscape of contemporary America and feeling besieged. This year, we’ve watched BLM / Antifa rioters allowed to pillage and burn with impunity. Police stood down in the face of violent disorder, and refused to protect innocent civilians. Citizens who tried to protect themselves and their property were vilified and some have even been charged with crimes. Not even senior public officials such as senators and congressmen were safe from the fury of the mobs. The riots have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses causing billions in damages. Churches have not been spared, some even being attacked while worshippers prayed inside. Statues of Jesus, the saints, and American heroes have been pulled down and desecrated.
The media and the politicians have made excuses for all this or intentionally downplayed it. The words “mostly peaceful” have entered our lexicon now, along with “flatten the curve” and the “new normal.”
The mobs were also active on social media. As a result of pressure campaigns, historical place names are being changed. Books are being banned. Beloved authors are being consigned to the memory hole because they were the wrong color or because they wrote about the wrong topics. As the old American culture is erased bit-by-bit, a new one arises that none of us can even recognize.
Truly the barbarians have breached the gates. Only this time, the rulers invited them in.
But it’s not just the violence in the streets and the pressure of woke Twitter mobs that are changing our nation. We’ve watched with concern for decades as executive power has grown unchecked, only to discover in 2020 that the situation is even worse than we could have possibly imagined. Mayors, health officials, and governors can lock us in our homes, shut down our businesses, close our churches, close our schools, and even change the rules for how we vote. Police around the country enforce these clearly unconstitutional orders as if they were the law of the land. City councils, state legislatures, Congress and courts have all proven ineffectual in reigning in executive overreach. On the off chance a court declares one arbitrary rule or another unconstitutional, the executives seem to always find a way to keep their boots on our necks.
If the fear of a virus with a 99.7% survival rate can be leveraged to transform our entire society, are there any limits on what government can do in a “crisis”?
Throughout this nightmare of a year, we consoled ourselves with one thought – at least we can vote the bastards out. Or, maybe not…
According to the official narrative, COVID-19 is going to kill millions any day now and Joe Biden campaigning from his basement, after 47 lackluster years in politics including two failed presidential bids, was able to win 81 million votes. There is so much evidence of fraud in this election that a blind squirrel could find it. And that leaves Red State voters asking each other, “If they can steal an election this brazenly, does it matter if we vote ever again?”
Despite all the evidence, the courts are not interested in even hearing the cases brought before them. The state legislatures appear uninterested in exercising their constitutional duty to oversee the selection of electors in a fair manner. The old guard of the Republican Party can’t seem to surrender fast enough.
But Trump is refusing to concede. In court challenges and through other Constitutional means, Trump is not giving up. And in his fight to stay in office against the powerful forces of tech, media, academia, religion, and the Deep State, his supporters are largely there with him. They are willing to fight for Trump, to turn out at rallies a month after the election, because they feel Trump is willing to fight for them. For decades, the Republican Party’s only use was to negotiate slightly better terms of surrender. The old joke was, “The Democrats propose burning down the country. The Republicans want to phase it in over 5 years!” Trump is by no means perfect, but at least he has shown the courage to withstand vicious attacks that would have cowed most any other Republican into submission. His intestinal fortitude has seeped into the Republican Party as a whole, and the post-Trump party is stronger as a result.
Conservatives are angry at what they perceive as having their votes stolen. And they do love The Fighting Orange Man. But there is another, extremely important reason that conservatives refuse to accept the results of this election. They are terrified that the last year has only been a dress-rehearsal for what comes next.
Conservative Americans realize they are facing the very real threat of being governed by politicians that absolutely hate us and who have no meaningful restraints on their power.
We started out as “deplorables” and have now progressed to “f**kers.” We are even being dehumanized by some writers and cartoonists as “rats.” In the current storm of insults, Trump supporters are even being cast as traitors. At least one Democratic congressman has called for attorneys representing the president in legal challenges to be disbarred and to strip House members who supported Texas v. Pennsylvania in the Supreme Court of their seats in Congress. One of the defendants in that case described it as a “seditious abuse of the judicial process.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) went on CNN with this accusation, “These senators and members of Congress who have refused to acknowledge that we had a free and fair election in which Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by over 7 million votes, are bordering on sedition and treason.” Not only can we not get our day in court, even asking for one is tantamount to treason.
These are not necessarily just empty words. In 1918, at a time when our constitutional order was much more robust than today, the Democrats gave us the Sedition Act which made it a felony to criticize the government. More than 2,000 American citizens were arrested and prosecuted pursuant to the Sedition Act before Republicans, victorious in both houses of Congress in the mid-terms, could repeal it. That is just one example of criminalizing dissent. There are many more marring our 240+ year experiment in self-rule. Not only can such things happen in America, they have happened in America.
To cement their power, the Democrats openly discuss transforming our system of government by abolishing the Electoral College, admitting new states to the union to gain permanent control of the Senate, and packing the Supreme Court with reliably liberal votes to rubber stamp everything. Conservatives also hear calls for retribution from progressives that include “re-education,” “truth and reconciliation commissions,” and nationalizing the lockdowns and mask mandates (see ya’ free state of Florida). Those proposals are just for starters, as the in-coming Biden Administration also keeps discussing executive orders to “deal” with gun violence, forgive student loans, and further “reform” the criminal justice system. And the granddaddy of them all – climate change, of course.
Climate activists are chomping at the bit to use the “COVID” model of economic lock downs by executive fiat to combat “climate change.” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) in a Washington Post op-ed wrote, “The climate crisis is an emergency, and President-elect Joe Biden needs to treat it that way. That means using every tool available to him, including declaring a national climate emergency and using emergency powers to take unilateral executive action.”
Combatting climate change is central to the The Great Reset, the latest project by very intelligent people to remake the world into a centrally-planned Utopia. The plan started with COVID, but will be completed during the next crisis. The slogan of the project appears to be “Build Back Better,” a line parroted by politicians around the globe. The goal of “building back better” appears to be herding regular people into urban techno-prisons, while the world reverts to an idyllic greenspace for billionaires and their minions to enjoy. Sort of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park on a global scale, but without the annoying lines as the average people will all be locked up at home.
Whatever is left of our economy after fighting COVID will surely be finished off fighting climate change.
Conservatives fear they are facing a string of emergency orders that will destroy our economy and rob us of our freedoms. These orders will be issued by politicians with unchecked power, supported by rampaging street mobs, who hate conservatives passionately and consider them sub-humans with no rights. The politicians will be protected from electoral accountability by an intricate system of election rigging hidden in plain sight. This is a nightmare scenario conservatives will be powerless to resist by any legal or constitutional means.
Such fears tend to bring out fanatical tendencies in even the most even-tempered of people.
Biden has said he wants “unity.” Fine – acknowledge the problems with this election, allow full investigation of voting irregularities, commit to national, transparent standards for future elections, tell your supporters to stop talking about retribution, stop the talk about “sedition,” quit holding Antifa / BLM in reserve as a street army (prosecute them instead), and commit to constitutional principles as part of your plans for governance. That would include foreswearing the declaration of a “climate crisis” that would allow for unconstitutional executive orders. For a man who truly wants to govern all of America in peaceful co-existence, that should not be a hard set of promises to make and keep.
It is not the job of nervous Americans to reassure themselves. That would be the job of the incoming administration. A job Biden and company had better take seriously, because the alternative is tens of millions of potentially ungovernable Americans who question the very legitimacy of the government in Washington. Talk the talk, walk the walk, appoint some people to government that we can trust, and maybe we can work together to avoid some really bad potential outcomes.
Otherwise, may God have mercy on us all.
Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America, a COVID refugee from the GOA
1) When a state becomes immoral, ALL ALLEGIANCE to that state ceases for a Christian. We are to serve God, and not man.
2) Christ’s words AFTER Resurrection are to be our model, NOT the words of the dying and miscegenated Judea of His day- Why do you think that,’ in the fulness of time,’ Christ came? He came for Judgment on Israel’s NATIONAL sins- including allowing the accursed Edomites to claim patrimony with the Chosen People! Read Josephus and the Books of Maccabees. Then read, ‘The Thirteenth Tribe’ by Jew Arthur Koestler. Same tribe today, that crucified Christ, then.
“… the passage suggests rabbinic willingness to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus. No effort is made to pin his death upon the Romans……. Jewish apologetics that “we could not have done it” because of Roman sovereignty ring hollow when one examines the Talmudic account … (“Jesus in the Talmud,” Steven Bayme, American Jewish Committee National Director, Professor of History at Yeshiva University, September 24, 2003)- https://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2015/04/rabbinic-judaism-is-deicide-religion.html
“The Jews, Sir, are, and always have been, the most professed enemies to Christianity, and the greatest revilers of Christ Himself: They are the off-springs of those that crucified our Saviour, and to this day labour under the curse pronounced against them upon that account. I know, Sir, that, as a Christian, I am obliged to love my enemy; but whilst he continues to be so, no precept of Christianity enjoins me to take him under my roof, much less to put him in a way of making himself the master of both me and my roof…” – Sir John Barnard, an enemy of Sampson Gideon and his Jewish clique, and impugner of the Walpolian corruption, made a remarkable speech in the House of Commons against the Naturalization Bill on May 7, 1753.
3) Christ’s POST-RESURRECTION statement, ‘ALL AUTHORITY has been given unto me, etc. [Matt. 28:18] is tied to Evangelization. We have ALREADY had “Christian Nations” – this is not pagan Rome vs. the early Church- this is the DEFENSE OF CHRISTENDOM AGAINST HELL!
This is the Commonwealth of Israel, battling the Philistines!
We are ALREADY in the Kingdom. Defense of your wife, your children, your home is MANDATORY- not an ‘option.’
Your priest is a COWARD, preaching an eschatology of Defeat! The RCC, the post-Soviet Pseudo-dox are all IMPASTORS, preaching compromise with the World.
Think of the SCOBA ‘Synagogues of Satan’ – they are ALL in bed with Rome, the Demon-crapic party, or some other antichrist schemata!
THIS is where we are… Solzehnitsyn told us, decades ago- and the Bolsheviks are of the same Christ-killing race now, as they were, then. THEY ARE CHRIST’S ENEMY, and OURS.
Ps. 139:21-22 “Live in peace with your enemies, but only with your Personal Enemies, and NOT the ENEMIES OF GOD.” – St. Theosodius of the Kiev Caves Lavra
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
If you want to know what to do, then look at our brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe. Look to our history to see how Orthodox people lived the faith. Killing is a sin (even in self-defense) that needs prayer, fasting, and alms. But Orthodox defend, fight, and kill if needed. Look up the Battle of Kosovo of Serbians standing firm but ultimately defeated by the Turks. Look to the New Martyrs of Russia. Look to St. George or Sts Boris and Gleb. We have the saints with us. We have their example and their protection. Look to our faith our Church instead of the heresy of America and ideology. Stand firm.
I was part of the “Taxpayer Protest” in DC on 9/12/09 and 9/12/10. We were one of the Texas Diplomate squads.
Two things I learned first-hand about protesting in DC:
They have extremely low tolerance for anything that might be construed as a weapon, and:
If the lyin’ media chooses to ignore or downplay such an event, then it simply didn’t happen.
So, armed defiance? That will be an “everybody or nobody” decision. I wouldn’t want to be part of a 10% minority that was showing up armed. These buttholes will arrest you for pepper spray or a baton.
The only real option is overwhelming force, and if it’s not breathtakingly overwhelming, many Patriots will be casualties.
The Park Police dream about such scenarios while they sleep, I’d guess.
Prophetically, my banner at the ’09 protest read: “This time, I come peacefully and unarmed….THIS TIME!”
“absolutely hate us and who have no meaningful restraints on their power.”
The sheer genius and foresight of those magnificent Framers ensure there will always be restraints on power in this exceptional Country.
Ultimately, as we have witnessed over the last several months, the relief may be by extraordinary means.
Not illegal means, as have been foisted upon we Liberty-loving Patriots, but certainly extraordinary means, where our desire to restore the strength and beauty we have enjoyed by God’s Blessings are stronger than the sum of our fears.
[…] The Islamic Conquest of Constantinople, a reminder on what can happen when you let down your guard […]
Hi,
I am an Orthodox Christian. I will be in WDC on January 6. I asked my priest what I am to do if assaulted. His answer: Protect yourself but do no more. Do not go on the offensive. If you can suffer the beatings with certainty of no risk of irreversible damage, consider doing so. That advice was given to me today, December 27 right after Liturgy.
Take it for what it is. I plan to honor my priest’s direction. That does not mean I won’t carry defensive tools…including fast running-away…it means that I will not start any violence, but will act in an equal and opposite way to protect myself if I am in danger of irreversible harm.
Interpret as you may, and get your confessions, will and testament, and codes to your 401K and bank accounts to your wife before you go.
See you January 6th in DC.
So, you needed a priest’s direction to help you figure out how to defend or protect yourself? Wow. Talk about controlling the masses.Organized religion has had that market cornered for thousands of years.
It is always a good idea to discuss these things with a spiritual father.
I need my Father to be my spiritual sounding board and to temper my response so that my natural passion to render instant and permanent street justice was guided away from that and towards defense only.
I need my Father to calmly give me options other than being the one-man slaughterhouse that I have the capability and propensity of being.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner.
Very well put
What’s also clear from Luke 22:38 is that the Apostles had multiple assault weapons at the Last Supper, and Jesus was quite quite okay with that.
Brothers and sisters, if you believe that God inspired the Constitution of the United States of America and you can understand and even agree with the signers of the Declaration of Independence that we support our God-given liberties with our honor and that we stand together and fight the evil and prevent evil from destroying our lives and liberties; I for one will defend our God-given liberties and protect my family and innocents from the future killing fields in America.
If it is fight we are to have let us do it when we are strong and we can , and we will win, rather than when we are weak and unable to defend our liberties.
For those who question our right and our responsibility to defend our liberties, our families and our lives, please join the medical corps and help humans on every side with medical treatment or pick a side and help heal and treat the wounded God-fearing Americans.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! and defending liberty and our lives is the Lord’s work! AMEN, AMEN…. God bless you and us all. God have mercy on each soul.
this article is lame and boring. Asking Biden, “Oh please submit to free and fair elections and prosecute Antifa.”” You are part of the problem at this point…”Oh please be nice and don’t kill me!” yuck sickle
That is not what that means. What it means is that we are not unreasonable. Not in the slightest. We are willing to work with Joe Biden for the good of the country, but he needs to live up to his rhetoric. If he really wants “unity” then that should not be difficult. That does not mean we are willing to give up our freedom or live on our knees. We can articulate what we need from a Biden administration. That does not mean he is willing to provide it. Hopefully, somewhere on the Biden side is some caution, some sense of the good of the country. If not, then so be it. No one wants to go where this kind of conflict leads.
[…] Via WRSA, this remarkable summary on the stakes. […]
Sleepy Joe is unfit for command and so is his two-bit whore running mate. Their blatant deep state puppets.
This is in your face, take that you dirty peasants. Once we threw away our rights over some bogus pandemic the puppet masters became embolden.
They’re banking on nothing happening and sadly would have to agree with them. When talking with so-called fellow Patriots they complain of President Trump being “a big meanie”
It’s simply pathetic and maybe we deserve what’s coming. Our only chance is to support the president and take out the left’s ground troops in a covert manner.
Hypothetical speaking of course. Just want to make that clear for any the federales out there listening.
Just exercising my first amendment ( while we still have it )
Greetings from a Jewish patriot. Thank you for this piece. Well said.
They openly state what their goal is: their boots on our faces, forever. Well, to cite the Talmud – when someone comes to kill you, arise and kill them first.
I have a grim fear this is going to need to be applied. Alas.
[…] Orthodox Reflections via NC Renegade. Read the entire article; well worth your […]
pray to Saint Michael
Psalm 144:1…..”Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.” I’ve been to war, and I’ve had to defend my friends. How much FIERCER do you think I will fight when I am defending and protecting MY FAMILY? And I will do it with a clear conscience. See again the Ephesians reference above……
Question:
If this country explodes in violence on or about January 6 – 9th, as is being predicted by certain people, I have the following questions to ask.
1. What is the proper response for the Christian? It seems that any and all violence was eschewed by the Early Fathers of the Church. Is that the proper response?
2. It also seems to me that if we are truly close to the Lord, we should not be afraid of martyrdom/death because it is a gateway to Christ.
3. Is there ever any time that a Christian might defend himself by whatever means necessary?
Thank you for your response.
Thank you for your replies.
Yes self defense is our duty, Read Luke 22:36
The Lord Jesus don’t like cowards, Be brave and fear not, go into battle to defend your loved ones and country !
perhaps this comment lifted from an article over at The Captains Journalcan be considered
“God never intended for His people to doormats for others; even a cursory reading of the Old Testament, would tell us that. Sadly, though many Christians are told to ignore most of the OT as irrelevant, there is enough evidence in the New Testament that Christians are not only permitted but commanded to defend themselves and their families (and I would argue the innocent as well) as long as they use good judgement, and wisdom – which God will give if we ask (James 1:5. Ephesians 5:17).
In addition to sword passage in Luke which is a clear justification for self-defense, here are a few scriptures which indirectly apply:
Luke 11:21 – “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.”
1 Timothy 5:8 – “But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (how can one provide for his own, without protecting them?)
1 Timothy 1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Ephesians 5: 25, 28-29 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her… so husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself… For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it…” (one cannot love his wife without protecting her from harm)
Those who cite Jesus’ rebuke of Peter for drawing his sword during Jesus’ arrest as a prohibition against the use of force, overlook the context- Jesus was saying that it was not yet time to fight, because Hs mission was not yet complete.
https://www.captainsjournal.com/2020/12/26/christians-in-the-crosshairs/
Thank you for a thoughtful response. I am torn between this decision, for it looks like there is a real possibility of a shooting civil war breaking out in this country. I am troubled because:
1. Killing another human being, even in self-defense, is a horrible thing to go through unless your conscience is completely dead.
2. I am afraid that if I do have to use this as a last resort, I will do so not with regret in my heart, but with feelings of extreme malice in my heart, which would not be in the character of God as I see it. This would be a grave sin.
Albert, you seem a wise man. Where did the Early Church get the idea of non-resistance to evil? Was it because they realized it would be logistically futile, or was it really because they knew that once they were killed, heaven would be the next stop for their souls?
Thanks again for replying.
Ed, research the “Just War Theory”.
Defense of the innocent is not optional. Concerns about malice? Ponder the WRATH that will be poured out when Jesus returns! The key in my mind is truly seeking to represent Christ. Jesus said not to fight if you are slapped on your right cheek (which is a backhand slap from a right handed man), but I am not aware of Him saying to standby & watch the innocent be slaughtered.
I have spent a lot of time pondering these issues, which include how does one respond to tyrannical government. Romans 13 is explicit about the duty of government to punish evildoers, to uphold righteousness. Yes, we are sinful creatures and restraint of evil is necessary. So IF the “government” IS the doer-of-evil, they are no longer a godly (that is legitimate) government and is opposing God.
Rest in His blood shed on Calvary, accept His infinitely precious gift, and seek His face.
It is very clear what Jesus instructed the disciples to do in Luke 22:35-38
He told them to sell their coat and buy a sword for there would come a time they will have to defend themselves from Evil.
I find no scripture that ever reversed those instructions.