I got a good scolding at music yesterday. One son is about to go to the high school prom — having avoided it for years, he was ambushed in such a manner where he said yes and is now not looking forward to shopping for a suit. I’m amused. So I got a lecture about how feminism is not a dirty word. I live in a university town: the orthodox thing here is to belong to the Labour party and be a good progressive. Which I have difficulty with — I would argue, as Brother John does, that male and female have separate roles and duties. And like him, I would argue that there is power in appearance, in dress.

You can laugh and scorn all you want about this is cultural or about how it won’t work, but given the complete lack of any proper headship I see today in the wider “Christian” church, I will go so far as to say that any church where a gender distinction is not maintained in hair length and head coverings between men and women (and this distinction is preached from the pulpit as a visible reminder of the creation order) is not a Christian church. It is not part of the church that Jesus established. And its followers are not followers of Christ.

They are followers of the false gods who have been trying to destroy God’s creation since before the fall. Today’s false gods are feminism, abortion, unchastity, divorce, remarriage, and child support based family.

The true Christian will reject all of these things. Those who embrace these things and cause little children to stumble will face God’s wrath for eternity.

In Dunedin I am a doubleplusungoodthinker. Yer we are told to obey the laws and the authorities: including our mayor who cares more about green talking points than fixing the budget or sorting out the issues with drains and roads. But yet we are told to obey authorities, even though they oppose us.

And even though this system is broken: even though the locals, in their hubris, will not recruit and train those who will come to fill needed jobs. looking for the perfectly qualified person. But those people can get jobs almost anywhere: Oxford, Boston, San Francisco, Edinburgh, Sydney, Leeds, Auckland… Dunedin. There is a flaw in all this.

This system is so broken, that only One power can fix it: only God can sort it all out.

So there you have it, folks; that’s the sliver lining. This world’s so terrible that you can’t fix it – by definition only God can, so that’s reason enough to believe in a Higher Purpose right there. If only God can sort it out, then God will sort it out… eventually.

… All we can do – all any of us can do – is to continue to follow our own paths to virtue, while doing our best to stay on the good side of the Lord. Try to be on the right side of History. Try not to piss Him off. Try and be charitable to those who are deserving (Hubris always results in Nemesis, after all), and courageously violent against those who need a beating — but don’t believe in your own bullshit. We’re all enmeshed in this idiotic embarrassment of a world; pretending you’re above it won’t actually make you above it. It’ll only make you look like an ass.

It is not our job to force this society to fall and cause a revolution. Revolutions come, and frequently blood is shed, and the revolutionaries damn themselves: those they murder for being of the opposition will bear witness against them.

Our God is just, and active, and living. But he is merciful. And he will intervene. For what cannot continue, will not.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
(Psalm 72:18-20 ESV)

So what then should we do? Well, we need to engage with our rulers and submit to their laws: we have to pay taxes (at 33%) Sales tax (at 15%) and property taxes. We need to keep within the traffic rules. We should not rob, steal, and destroy — even the overt temples of false Gods. We should not riot. We should give our rulers common politeness and respect.

That is owned, we should give: we should pay our debts. But worship belongs not to them.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

(Romans 13 ESV)

The rules we have in our live about submission, including those commands that are within marriage flow from the same dialectic as we see with our rulers. Paul had no illusions about these people: according to tradition they beheaded him. These people were anti-christian.

Yet we are to obey the laws, but when they come into conflict with the law of God. At that point,we are to obey God, and bear the penalty that the law metes out: we are to try to get the law changed if we have that ability — which means a functioning democracy, not the one party state that exists in towns that have voted Labour for 100 years.

In the more domestic realm, we have commands as men to love our wives, and submit to our masters. To work willingly. To be aware that if we disobey for conscience we may lose that employment. To meet the grounds of our contracts. And these do not depend on our bosses being reasonable, or our wives being in perfect assent.

Yet women ar taught that husbandly submission is not part of this – while quoting the next verse to their children, saying that they should obey their parents. This is raw rebellion. We are not commanded to that: we are commanded to increase our love for our brothers and sisters, particularly (I say) that whom you are married to, and that whom you have bought into this world: Paul said that a man who does not provide for his children should be considered akin to an idolator.

And that is why I despise feminism. I have to deal with people in authority who make the most irrational SJW look sane: I give them the respect their office deserves, even though I have generally voted against them . But you cannot select which class you will not respect, our which people you will call subhuman.

To say men are perfect is a lie: and the more subtle version — that one only needs to submit to A Man of God (TM) who is so righteous that all would willingly obey is also untruthful. Our leaders generally are profoundly flawed, and heading for a perdition made from their raw ambition. Give them respect: their roles are established for the good of society and us. Obey their laws.

And do the same in your family, where the directions of Paul, written to a church under persecution, are becoming far more applicable as we move into a time where Christianity is not even recalled by the second and third post-Christian generation.