Advent two: two hymns.

A couple of days ago I listened to a Canadian graduate student in tears as her lecturer told her that playing a tape of Jordon Peterson was problematic, and a harder female lecturer stated that this did not merely break the Canadian Codes of Rights (Which is a lie, but that is another post) but was transphobic, homophobic and she needed to clarify this for the peace of her students, for they were disturbed. I am quoting Briggs, who clarified the problem.

That people in charge use words like transphobia, biphobia, homophobia in earnestness proves the coming doom. Why? Because these words are undefined! They are the left side of the equation 2 + 2. We do not know what the right hand side equals: only the State does, and it is always free to change its mind. What transphobia is today might not be what it is tomorrow. You must submit.
Now the, uh, solution. The solution to the problem of the university is to replace the university. Rather, remove it. You cannot stop employers from requiring “degrees”, and so you cannot stop kids from wanting to attend universities. And you cannot stop the indoctrination or mandated insanity at universities.
Thus, the only thing you can do is stop the universities. As I have said before, rocks from space are the best approach, but the treatment is radical. Gradual tweaks suggested by this fellow probably won’t work. And since none but the irascible few reading this blog would advocated actual rocks launched from actual space, the contagion festering at and emanating from universities cannot be, and will not be, stopped.

These political officers masquerading as academics have never read the prophets. Who speak not their words, but as the spirit of God moved them.

Amos 6:1-14

1  Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
        and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
     the notables of the first of the nations,
        to whom the house of Israel resorts!
2  Cross over to Calneh, and see;
        from there go to Hamath the great;
        then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
     Are you better than these kingdoms
        Or is your territory greater than their territory,
3  O you that put far away the evil day,
        and bring near a reign of violence?
4  Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,
        and lounge on their couches,
   and eat lambs from the flock,
        and calves from the stall;
5  who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
        and like David improvise on instruments of music;
6  who drink wine from bowls,
        and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
        but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7  Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
        and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.
8  The Lord GOD has sworn by himself
    (says the LORD, the God of hosts):
    I abhor the pride of Jacob
        and hate his strongholds;
        and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.
9  If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. 10And if a relative, one who burns the dead, shall take up the body to bring it out of the house, and shall say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” the answer will come, “No.” Then the relative shall say, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.”
11  See, the LORD commands,
        and the great house shall be shattered to bits,
        and the little house to pieces.
12  Do horses run on rocks?
        Does one plow the sea with oxen?
    But you have turned justice into poison
        and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood ?
13  you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
        who say, “Have we not by our own strength
        taken Karnaim for ourselves?”
14  Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,
        O house of Israel, says the LORD, the God of hosts,
    and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
        to the Wadi Arabah.

We are not to be such, considering that our pleasures and our comfort are the aim of all life, and letting our desires rule. Hedonism is effete. The ancients, even the queer sacred bond, knew better: they did their duty for honor, their nation and their Gods. Those who entertained were considered of the lowest caste.

Herodias and her broken daughter included.

For there is a judgement coming, and we should keep the reign of violence far away.

 2 Peter 3:8-15a

8But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

11Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

14Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15aand regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

The progressives hate this season. They do not want to reminded that their time is short, so to keep up the skeer let us have the first carol for this Advent, dated from 1611. Yes, it is Puritan, and the Puritans tried to remove the pagan. As John Wright says, below, this is not needed. We left our pagan habits behind, from infanticide to the human sacrifice of kings. But, as he notes, they may return.

Besides, even if each jot and tittle of Christmas tradition was taken from pagan forebears unchanged except for the name “HORUS” crossed out in bright red crayon, and the name “CHRIST” crudely thrust in, so what?

The pagan forebears of the Christians were themselves the very people who converted and became Christian. Their culture also was baptized. Words, dress, architecture, calendar, was unchanged. The names of months, weekdays, planets, constellations, were kept.

Everything they kept was a pagan survival into Christianity. It all became Christian.

What was left behind was sodomy, polygamy, pederasty, divorce (yes, the Romans had that), contraceptive pharmaceuticals (yes, the Romans had that, too) and the belief that Caesar was sacred, but not human life.

The pagan things that did not survive are the very things the modern world wants to return to us: sodomy, polygamy, pederasty, divorce, contraception. A despot worshipped as a god. Life held cheaply. Some returned came in the 1930’s, some in the 1960’s. Some are coming.

So, to make it clear: putting pretty lights on a tree, or weaving a wreath of evergreens, is not a pagan survival. These things did not spring out of Christianity. The only thing that honestly can be said to have sprang out of paganism, and which survives to the modern day, is Christianity.

But these silly, trifling slurs and insults against nativity scenes and Charlie Brown plays, and these silly, trifling arguments about the alleged pagan roots of Christmas are not being done to change décor nor change minds. They are done to affront, not to persuade.

Win or lose, the bickering destroys something of the Christmas spirit. The rudeness is an instrument to kill the joy and pleasure of the season, to make a shared solemnity into a bone of contention.

It is done to ruin the fun.

So the War on Christmas is waged to kill the fun of Christmas, to end the joy.

In this season starve the commercial beast as much as you avoid the parties. It is a time to give to the poor, to provide for your family, to bring some joy to others. Open your house. Sing songs. Do good. And ignore the codes of rights that have become the code for tyrants.

Let us take back their tunes. Blake wanted the pinchbeak and clerk of his time to look to the fields and see God, not commerce. His Jerusalem was not one of this earth, as London was and is. But we shall not rest, for the post modern will kill not British Isrealitism but the idea that any land can be redeemed.

Do not be them, and do not be like them.