Weaponizing Holidays In The Culture War
Events in the physical world are driven by those in the spiritual world. A great example of this is the drug runners in Mexico. It is not simply a desire for money, power, women, etc., that is motivating these men; there are also dark religious rituals – evil spirits – driving them, as Rod Dreher details here.
One effective way of shaping the spiritual life of a society is through establishing holy days – holidays. The Left has become very adept at this practice in recent years. Here are a few of the major ones it has added:
–Juneteenth: It is historically false and promotes racial separatism and animosity.
-LGBT Pride Month: Destructive of sexual norms, marriage, family, birth rates, etc.
-MLK Jr Day: Rev. King was a communist sympathizer and woman-abuser, as well as a supporter of Planned Parenthood and a teacher of heresies.
Even Thanksgiving Day is an example of the cultural/political imperialism forced by the Yankee Elite upon the States outside New England.
Conservatives have mostly ceded this field of battle, allowing the Left to impose its cultural values through special days of celebration with little opposition. Trends within society (i.e., Democrat/Leftist victories at the polls, greater acceptance of drug use and sexual deviancy, a turning away from God and His Church) reflect this.
There is nothing stopping conservatives from using the same tactic to further their own cultural values, however. While the federal government is in enemy hands at the moment, there are many States with overwhelming Republican majorities in their respective State legislatures. They need to use that advantage to implement holidays that honor and strengthen what they hold dear.
There are some States that are coming to this realization. Florida, amongst others, has established Nov. 7th as Victims of Communism Day.
There needs to be much more of that. Heroic defenders of the good, the true, and the beautiful must be celebrated for a Christian culture to endure. Here are a few examples Red States may consider adding to their official calendars:
-J.R.R. Tolkien’s Birthday, 3 January – Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings legendarium is overflowing with beauty and archetypes to help direct souls onto good paths.
–St. Katherine the All-Wise, martyred in Alexandria, Egypt; Feast day Nov. 24th – This young saint, enlightened and empowered by the Holy Ghost, confounded the wisdom of the best pagan philosophers who were gathered to dispute with her by the Roman emperor Maximian, converted them to Christ, along with the emperor’s wife and a host of soldiers, endured tortures, and finished her contest by beheading about the year 305 of the Lord. Angels carried her holy relics to Sinai, where they remain and work miracles for the faithful.
–St. George the Great-Martyr and Victory-Bearer (+23 April 303): St. George was an outstanding soldier in the Roman army. His deed of slaying a giant serpent (St. George and the Dragon) is well-known, but he was also a brave confessor of the Lord Jesus Christ before the heathen emperor Diocletian, for which he suffered numerous inhuman tortures and was martyred, while also during his life converting many to the True Faith, overcoming sorcerers, being visited by the Lord, and destroying idols.
–St. Benedict of Nursia in Italy (+14 March 547): St. Benedict, perhaps as much as any other person, was responsible for the conversion of many of the western European peoples to the Christian Faith through the monastic rule he established. His rule was influenced by the genuine African Christian spirituality of St. Anthony the Great of Egypt and other holy Desert Mothers and Fathers (not the false kind peddled by Jeremiah Wright, Raphael Warnock, and others). St Gregory the Great (+604) recounts his life and miracles in his Dialogues.
-There are several other Great Feasts of Our Lord and His Most Pure Mother on the ancient Christian calendar that could be celebrated during the year in addition to Christmas and Easter. For instance, Thanksgiving Day could be given a solid theological foundation by celebrating it on the Feast of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple in Jerusalem (21 Nov.). A hymn for the Feast shows how fitting this would be:
Today is the prelude of the good will of God, / of the preaching of the salvation of mankind. / The Virgin appears in the temple of God, / in anticipation proclaiming Christ to all. / Let us rejoice / and sing to her: / “Rejoice, O Fulfillment of the Creator’s dispensation.”
Let us also not forget the idea of an Annunciation pro-life holiday, mentioned before.
Adding holidays, though, isn’t enough to turn the culture around by itself. It will require effort on all fronts. Parents must not let smartphones and social media raise their children. Teachers and principals must lead their students in prayer and unapologetically teach Christian truths in their schools. Artists and filmmakers are needed to produce uplifting, redeeming works. Churches must offer something other than rock concerts and syrupy preaching to the spiritually starving.
But if conservatives insist on ‘religious neutrality’, on ‘the free exercise of religion’, we are going to continue to lose the culture war to the enemies of Christianity. In California, there was another victory for the Satanic Temple at a public school:
Tehachapi Unified School District Superintendent Stacey Larson-Everson, in a Nov. 15 letter obtained by The Bakersfield Californian, announced the district had approved the After School Satan Club to host gatherings after school hours in the elementary school’s cafeteria.
By law, Larson-Everson said, the district can’t discriminate among groups wishing to use its facilities or distribute flyers “based on viewpoint.” The superintendent noted that religious groups are among those the district has allowed to rent its facilities over the years.
The 2001 Supreme Court ruling Good News Club v. Milford Central School paved the way for After School Satan Clubs to exist in public schools. The High Court ruled that schools cannot discriminate against religious organizations offering a club on its facilities.
Let this be a spur to conservatives/trads/revivalists to action, and to State legislators and governors in the South and in all the other Red States to show creativity, boldness, and courage in proclaiming new Christian/conservative holidays to stave off such evils.