I’ve written before, my very first article for ID actually, on what I call “Dixie’s Quiet Revolution,” or the transformation of Dixie from a religious, conservative, agrarian society to a secular, liberal, and urban one. The idea is taken from what happened in Quebec in the 1960s and Ireland in the early 21st century that saw, in just a few years, those societies change from being among the most conservative places in their geographical areas (Canada and Western Europe, respectively) to being among the most liberal. Remember, if you are a 35 year-old Irishman, you have seen, in the space of your life, your country go from a place where divorce and abortion were not merely illegal, but actually unconstitutional, and weekly Mass attendance stood around 87% to a nation where abortion and gay marriage were not legalized via judicial fiat or even though the legislator, but through a popular vote and weekly Mass attendance has plummeted to around 35%.
Just like Quebec and Ireland, Dixie is going through a Quiet Revolution as well, as seen in the increased attacks on Dixie’s symbols and history and decrease in religiosity since 2010, which has picked up a significant amount of steam since 2015 and even more so in the past few months. And while much of this can be blamed on the godless carpetbaggers, it would be intellectually dishonest to suggest that is the only source of the problem. It is unwise for us to simply blame the Yankees.
There are many reasons Ireland changed so rapidly, but most of the blame resides with the religious leaders of Ireland. The Catholic Church’s hierarchy unleashed a horde of faithless men into that island, some of whom were also sexual predators who proceeded to destroy the faith of an entire generation. Not simply because of the sex abuse, though that was a large part of it, but also through horrible catechesis that failed to impart the faith onto the next generation. So, too, does much of the blame for what is happening to Dixie fall at the feet of the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention as the most powerful religious institution in Dixie. Yes, pedophilia was not as pronounced of an issue (though that was there, too), but many Southern Baptist leaders allowed themselves to fall into sexual sins. Even more importantly, the poor catechesis left a generation of young Christians powerless to defend the basic essentials of their faith against a powerful and hostile force. Sunday school macaroni art of Noah’s Ark was no match for the might of the entertainment industry and the vast majority of colleges and universities (including Christian ones).
Once thought of as one of the bedrocks of conservative Dixian society, we have seen the SBC become increasingly leftwing in recent years – from the denouncing of the Confederate flag and the embracing of critical race theory to even rumblings about softening, if not just outright changing, the SBC’s opposition to homosexuality and abortion. Even the ordination of women has been brought up as a possibility. Some churches are even dropping the word “Southern” from their name because it’s considered racist. To say this all would have been unthinkable to the average Southern Baptist sitting in the pews 15 years ago is a gross understatement.
All of this begs one question, what was going on in the seminaries during the 1990s and 2000s that was able to produce these leaders? It’s an important question to ask and one that means that there must be some soul searching about how conservative the SBC was during its “supposed” golden age – in short, it looks as if the conservative victory in 1979 was not as complete as many thought. It looks as if liberals were never driven out, they just got a lot better at coding their language to create enough benefit of the doubt, waiting until the time was right for them to fundamentally change the SBC. That has happened before, to ask what was going on with the Catholic bishops in the 1960s that produced “the Spirit of Vatican II” or with the catechesis in the 1940s that produced the likes of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Ted Kennedy. We must ask what was going on in the seminaries during the 1920s – meaning that Pius X didn’t cleanse the Church of the modernists as thoroughly as he thought he did.
All this is important because religion is the soul of the nation and no nation can really be separated from religion. It would be like a body without a soul. That religion may be Christianity (Dixie, Hapsburg Spain, Tsarist Russia), it may be Marxist-Leninism (the USSR), or it may be secular liberalism (the modern U.S.) but a society must have a religion. And, when that soul of society has been sick, losing its relevance, that religion can be replaced with another. Remember, long before Rome became Christian the Greco-Roman gods had long lost their relevance for the average person. Or, just look how diversity driven liberalism has replaced mainline Protestantism in New England and much of the rest of the U.S., Christianity had been significantly weakened in the area long before that happened. What we are witnessing right now is an attempt to replace Christianity with the Civil Rights movement as the official religion of Dixie; as the single largest church, much of this fight falls at the feet of the SBC, just as the fight for Ireland fell at the feet of the Roman Catholic Church or the fight against Bolshevism was the responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church.
If what I fear comes to pass and Dixie is the next Quebec, the next Spain, or the next Ireland, then we are about to enter into a very dark time. And if that does happen, future historians will no doubt ask themselves how Dixie was transformed so quickly and, while there are many reasons, I see no way how an astute historian could not mark the transformation of the SCB as one of those decline indicators. Remember, what we are seeing now is simply the fruits of a problem that go back decades ago in the seminaries. As the religion of a society goes, so goes that society.
As I look at it right now, there are three likely scenarios- 1) the SBC continues down this path and Dixie follows, 2) the conservatives retake the SBC and finally do a real cleaning of house, or 3) a new church rises to prominence in Dixie. The SBC was not always the most prominent church in Dixie, at one time that distinction belonged to the Methodists. What I do know is if Dixie is to have any hope at all of survival, only the latter two options are acceptable. The first one is the very death of Dixie.
-By Harmonica
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
I mentioned how the newly formed stock companies subverted Christianity before, by turning the slave trade into a Christian crusade, the early reformation church was vehemently opposed to slavery, the newly formed secular state of Holland for example, completely took the church over, and the state wrote the sermon and the songs they sung( Dutch seaborne empire, CR Boxer) pretty much the same thing today in post civil war America.
The Spanish Inquisition was formed for exactly this reason, to guard the church from infiltration, and to protect the innocent from mob justice, for example, more Jews were saved than harmed, no witch burnings at all. It was the first Supreme Court to rule over the land. According to two historians that I have read (William Thomas Walsh, Characters of the inquisition, being one) and agree with, the expulsion of Jews from Spain was the greatest injury suffered by Europe, no longer flying in the inquisitions orbit, they were free to operate, and in my opinion, fomented the peasant revolutions in Northern Europe, which created the secular capitalist state and the reformed churches and subsequently the revenge suffered upon Spain.
It’s also my opinion that the Church of Dixie got out of their control when the reformed churches truly began to form into Christian states and Aristocracys and tried to succeed.(who killed society, emery. Chapter on the South)
If we only could reach these clay footed churches of America, and all share in the faith and promises of Christ as one, can we take our country back!
Prayers for Dixie is my greatest Joy, God Bless you and Strengthen you, truth and Love will win the day!
Read Gill’s Corey “The Sword of Christ” it goes really good into the cucking of the churches, hoping the folks at Rebel Yell interviews the man sometime cuz he knows his stuff
The transformation of the Southern bBaptist denomination to liberalism and Modernism is just the latest chapter in a long process chronicled in Thomas Reaves” excellent book, “The Empty Church”. Russell Moore(pictured above-a ‘shabbos gay”(pardon the pun) if I ever saw one) and moderator(i.e. Southern Baptist Pope) J. D. Greaser are just the Southern Baptist version of the Episcopal Church’s Bishop Pike of the 60’s-change agents for supplanting the Gospel with the “Social Gospel”. This should come as a shock to no one-did you Southern Baptists really think that the devil was going to forget about your denomination? No wonder Church attendance is plummeting in the U. S. Where can you find true Christianity today?-between the covers of the original King James Bible-but certainly not in the Schofield bible, or it’s spawn.