Introduction
A decade ago, Canon published Empires of Dirt, and given our cultural moment now, the subtitle is interesting to look back on. That subtitle was “Secularism, Radical Islam, and the Mere Christendom Alternative.”
In some respects, the terrain back then was quite different than it is today, but in other ways, it is still the same old game . . . only more pronounced and amplified. It is the same old pudding, but somebody put more eggs into it, and then somebody else took an egg whisk to it.
I can see that puzzled look on your faces. Please allow me to explain.
Back Then
In that book, I argued that we were dealing with three basic cultural alternatives, three basic directions to go. There was a continuation of secularism, which I argued had developed a bad case of the staggers. This meant that continuing on with it would in short order involve falling down. Our liberal secular establishment, which had been a vain attempt to hold onto classical liberalism without Jesus, was in the process of discovering how vain an attempt that was. Under their watch, the marketplace of ideas had turned into the marketplace of underage girls.
Then there was radical Islam, poised to cut through the vanities of the decadent West—like a hot knife through warm butter. A man who doggedly believes in something, no matter how wrong it is, will always prevail over the man who believes nothing at all. Secularism had been rotted out by the relativism of postmodern thinking, and their central core values had apparently become pot and porn. They were in no position to stand up to those who had a word from the Prophet. The problem was that the tradition of the Prophet, though far more bombastic and dogmatic than what we were hearing from the hollow men of the West, was a tradition that was bloody and twisted. They too had a yearning for underage girls, only made more grotesque, if that were possible, by means of wedding dresses.
The only real alternative, I argued, was to turn back to Jesus Christ. The only real civilizational option was to repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And regardless of any terrain changes over the last ten years, that repentance part remains true. It was Christ or chaos back then, and it is Christ or chaos now. This is just another way of saying that it was already Christian nationalism way back before Christian nationalism was cool.
Footsie and Beyond
But even back then, the secularists were playing footsie with the Muslims in the most incoherent ways. In their eyes, the condemnations of homosexual perversion in Leviticus and Romans made Christian schools a theocratic threat to the republic, while at the very same time the Islamists back in their home territories were throwing homosexuals off tall buildings. Said Muslims were part of the diversity that was supposed to be our strength, while the evangelical cake baker, reluctant to use his skill in icing to celebrate sodomy, was clearly a hate criminal. But all of that nonsense was just mild-flirtation footsie compared to what we have going on now.
This is how the terrain is now different. This is what has changed. We are still dealing with the same three alternatives—Islam, secularism, and the Christian faith. But what has happened is that for the secularists and the Islamists, in their version of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the footsie flirtation turned into something far more steamy. They are now all in bed together, and with all their clothes off too.
The rise of the Democratic Socialists in the Democratic Party has been quite a striking thing to behold. Mamdani, the major of New York, is a full-tilt commie . . . and a Muslim. Rashida Tlaib is a Muslim. Ilhan Omar is Muslim. The nominee for the Senate seat in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, is a Muslim. He claims he is not a full-tilt commie, but then again, he wants to get elected in Michigan. So give it a bit of time. He might see which side of the bread the butter is on. But maybe not—commies don’t have any bread. Or butter for that matter. And Hasan Piker, the commie commentator and firebrand extremist, was raised Muslim.
On top of that, if we look at the shock troops of the power play that is unfolding, whenever somebody drives a van into a farmer’s market, or an airplane into a skyscraper, or there is a shooting at a military base, or a bombing, or a beheading, the chances are excellent to outstanding that the perpetrator’s name is not Chaim or Ehud or Moshe, despite the Jews being the real threat around here according to some, but rather someone with a name like Mohammed, along with motives that remain unclear.
Now what do communism and Islam have in common? How did this odd bedfellow thing come about? There are two commonalities that I would like to mention here.
First, if there is one thing we should have learned from the postmodern theoreticians, it is that all postmodern theories are power plays, and so here we are. This is a power play, and as a power play, it does not have to make any logical sense. All you need is a set of fingers willing to grab. Communism and Islam both provide a rationale and framework for doing so. They each provide justification for total control. So that is the name of the game right now—total control. The only thing standing in between them and that total control is the New Jerusalem and all its suburbs, which would be the second thing.
They both hate the Christian faith and they both hate anything that reminds them of the Christian faith.
The New Jerusalem would be the elect of God, gathered around Word and sacrament. The suburbs would include, but not be limited to, the U.S. Constitution, the political writings of Samuel Rutherford, Mayberry, a Winchester over the fireplace, Francis Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason, the pro-life movement, Tillamook ice cream, the fact that all 100 cupboards lead to Kansas, the second verse of America the Beautiful, the First Amendment, the glory of limited government, any remaining statues of Robert E. Lee, and European astonishment at American gas stations.
That which is antichrist is obviously against Christ. And that which is anti-American is hostile to anything that used to be friendly to Christ, even if it was a century ago.
I bring this up because we are entering a time, better known as the election season of this coming November, when every last power play needs to be denied. Flat denied. You know, the way Angel Reese might have a shot blocked by Royce White. We want that ball to bounce down to the other end of the court, and still be bouncing high enough to go in—a three-point block. We need to be geared up to vote against everything commie, commie adjacent, commie simpatico, commie-in-denial or, coming to the point at issue, Islamo-commie. And when you go into the voting booth, you should go into the booth looking like Aragorn at Helm’s Deep. All done fooling around,
Deserters
Back when Empires was written, the lay of the land was different. There was a small cadre of Christian activists among evangelicals , as well as a vast army of believers who had not yet had COVID jar them out of their lethargic complacency. We had those who had already enlisted in the fight, and those who were potential recruits.
Since then, alas, we have had a significant number of deserters. All this was first taking shape back in the day when the bleeding edge Christian nationalists had not yet lost their way, and were still able to affirm things like the following: “WE DENY that seeking to maintain and assert national sovereignty has anything to do with prejudice against any particular ethnicity or nation.” Since that time, “anything to do with” has turned into that steamy time mentioned earlier. It turns out that the hatreds of the left are intellectual STDs.
So when it comes to what we should do in the approaching mid-terms, conservatives need to be a hot bed of cool customers. We should engage with the issues in a calm and judicious way, allowing no one to see the secret fire that motivates you. You should feel like your hair is on fire, but it isn’t. So hold the House, hold the Senate, hold the line.
As for those conservatives who appear to have lost their minds, or their way, or both, let them be. Let them go. I have to say that I have not seen a more striking example of Fifth Generation Warfare ever. Whoever looked at the murder of Charlie Kirk and saw in it an opportunity to blow up the conservative movement was operating at Bond villain levels. And those soi disant conservatives who fell for it are operating at Dufflepud levels, and have settled down in their conviction that water is powerful wet.