I sometimes wonder why there seems to be such a malaise among those around me when there is any discussion of our political/economic situation, what got us here, and how we can be delivered.  My answer came as I viewed once again the video series How Should We Then Live? by Francis A. Schaeffer (available from AmericanVision.org).

Concerning our culture, he stated,

As the more Christian-dominated consensus weakened, the majority of people adopted two impoverished values: personal peace and affluence.

Personal peace means just to be let alone, not to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city—to live one’s life with minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed.  Personal peace means wanting to have my personal life pattern undisturbed in my lifetime, regardless of what the result will be in the lifetimes of my children and grandchildren.  Affluence means an overwhelming and ever-increasing prosperity—a life made up of things, things, and more things—a success judged by an ever-higher level of material abundance.

Schaeffer was describing the conditions which prevailed in the 1950’s and 60’s and which produced the counter-culture of the 1960’s and ‘70s.  Schaeffer died 15 May 1984, so he never saw the tremendous rise in attention to personal affluence which crested in the late 1980s and 90s.  He wasn't a prophet, just an astute observer of world cultural history.

When driving along the rural roads of Tennessee, I am intrigued by the number of high-end pickup trucks and fishing boats parked in front of modest houses.  It is also interesting to see the high percentage of satellite TV receivers on the sides of mobile (manufactured) homes.

Why should anyone be concerned about experiencing a swift slide into an earthly hell when we have the MBA, ABL, NFL, and NHL to entertain us?

In a recent survey of why young people join the military, the dominant response was not “to defend my country.”  Young people from both rural and urban areas join the military hoping to either “get out” of where they grew up or to get money for an education so they can “get out” of where they grew up.

There is no thought toward the future in either of these groups (adult or youth) above.  What happens to their children and grandchildren is nothing more than a fleeting thought.

When a person loses their hope for any personal future, they die.  When a culture loses its expectant vision of a future, it collapses.

We must have more than a simple Christian revival, there must be a return to Biblical ethics and Biblical cultural mores.

For a Free Tennessee.

From Solitude,
David O Jones

Just returned from two days in Chattanooga, attending the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the League of the South. Had the opportunity to renew friendships with men and women from a number of Southern States. Also made friends with some like-minded Northerners. And had the joy of meeting new Tennessean friends from as far from Solitude as Johnson City and as close as Murfreesboro.

During one stint at the speaker’s lectern, our League President Dr. J. Michael Hill commented about his experience with some people want to know what they get for “joining” the League. His response? …“you get to work.” The old adage could just as easily be repeated, “Freedom isn’t free.”

In Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver related the following,

During the early part of the second World War there came to light the story of a farmer from the back country of Oklahoma – one of the yet unspoiled – who, upon hearing of the attack on Pearl Harbor, departed with his wife to the West Coast to work in the shipyards. His wife found employment as a waitress and supported the two. Unable to read, the new worker did not understand the meaning of the little slip of paper handed him once a week. It was not until he had accumulated over a thousand dollars in checks that he found out that he was being paid to save his country. He had assumed that when the country is in danger, everyone helps out, and helping out means giving.

As the Columbian Empire continues to crumble, it will become increasingly hostile to individual liberty. All empires act that way. Justice will become even more rare than it is now.

Our hope for survival depends on two things – our Christian faith, and our involvement in community. By community, I mean those people who live on your street (or road), those you work with, those you worship with, and those you play with who care enough to work with you in survival. In Weaver’s story, the Oklahoman assumed that everyone was part of his community, but he was wrong.

Communities are more easily formed while the yoke of the Empire’s oppression is easy to bear. So let us now be diligent in forming the associations and alliances which will be our personal community.

With faith and community, we will have a Free Tennessee.

From Solitude,
David O Jones