From: Christ Church
To: christkirk@moscow.com
Subject: League of the South
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 08:31

Kirkers,

In the midst of our current controversy with our local intoleristas, some of you many have wondered about the League of the South, and what our connection to that organization actually is. Steve Wilkins, whom you know, has served as a director for the organization. When the group was first formed Steve told them a couple things that bear on our situation here. First, he said the group had to be explicitly Christian or he could not be associated with it. He also told them that it could not be racist in any way, and if anything like that showed up, he was out of there. Steve has recently resigned from their board of directors, but *not* because there was any problem with the conditions above. Rather, it was the result of changing priorities. Some of the thinking about those changing priorities might be made clearer through something I recently wrote on the subject, which I have included for you below. Just consider this free information, and if you can use it, great.

If At First, You Don’t Secede . . .
One response to the League of the South has the effect of making any desire for secession for cultural reasons look ludicrous. Now I am not a member of the League, and Steve has recently resigned from the board of directors because his priorities have been shifting. But let me say this to support the League (mildly), even though I do differ with them. I am not a member of the League because I believe that the severe problems this nation has do not admit of a political or cultural solution. There is no way out for us apart from a massive reformation of liturgy and doctrine in the evangelical church nationwide. That is where I want to concentrate all my energies, and that is what I understand Steve as also wanting to do. I believe that the League’s attempts to stop what is happening are in the same category as the attempts being made by Focus on the Family to get prayer back in the government schools.

But let me defend them to this extent. They are not wanting to maintain a distinct Southern heritage because they are afraid that some Yankee judge will outlaw grits. Please note where we actually are as a nation — just a few weeks away from the full faith and credit clause of the mangled Constitution, courtesy of Massachusetts, being used to impose homosexual marriages on Alabama, Virginia, Idaho, and all the cities of the plain. Secession over such a cause is impossible (because of the current impotence of the church). But if the church were not impotent, and if a state were able to successfully secede from the Union rather than have such an abomination imposed upon them, it would be entirely noble. Not only would it be worth doing, it would be obligatory.

But the League of the South should not be anticipating large successes in their fight for traditional culture because the carrier of all culture is cultus, the worship of God. Because our general evangelical cultus is both inane and idolatrous, there will be no salvaging of our culture in the next few weeks. Reformation of the church is what we need to be eating, drinking, and breathing — all the time. As for the folks in the League of the South and Focus on the Family, God bless them. I wish them the best, and I understand why they want to get out there and make a direct challenge to the abortion culture, the homosexual culture, and so forth. But they will continue to fail because so many Christians still refuse to acknowledge Christ’s ownership of their babies, refuse to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, refuse to teach them the glories of celebrating the Lord’s Day, and refuse to conduct their worship services as though our triune God is holy, holy, holy.

The folks in the League are good diagnosticians. But they are not in a position to pursue the remedy, which will only be found if judgment begins with the household of God.

________________________
Chris LaMoreaux, Administrative Secretary
Christ Church — Anselm House
205 East 5th Street P.O. Box 8741
Moscow, ID 83843
christkirk@moscow.com
Voice: (208) 882-2034 Fax: (208) 892-8724
Credenda/Agenda: (208) 882-7963
www.christkirk.com