Daily Verse | Numbers 35:33
Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Happy Monday, Broadsiders. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
BACKGROUND
The Puritans were members of a reform movement within the Church of England in the late 16th century. The state church had broken away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 under King Henry VIII, and the Puritans wanted the church to remove from practice the remaining vestiges of Roman Catholicism which, in their view, did not reflect biblical teaching.
The Puritans failed in their efforts over many decades to reform the Church of England and eventually made their way to the New World. The first group we know as the Pilgrims, a separatist group which migrated in 1620 and landed at Plymouth Rock. Thousands more followed in the 1630s and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After that the Puritan influence helped shape the character of the fledgling nation for the next hundred years.
The name “Puritan” was a pejorative term that first emerged in the 1560s. The epithet was meant to portray Puritans as extremists who strictly followed the Bible as their guide for life. As one writer put it (with my emphasis),
As the Mosaic Law had regulated Israel’s society in Old Testament days, so the church under the Scripture’s authority would regulate New England’s society. There was no place for toleration in Puritan America. Those not in accord with the lofty spiritual aims of the colony could move elsewhere.
H. L. Mencken once famously remarked that Puritanism is “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” In other words, Puritans were thought to be uptight, dour, easily offended nitpickers who were just looking for an excuse to rap your knuckles and put you in your place.
To sum up, the Puritans wanted to reform the established church and strictly enforce adherence to their understanding of biblical standards.
OLD WINE IN NEW WINESKINS
Why do I bring this up?
Because we live under the rule of the “new” Puritans. They bear little resemblance to the original Puritans in terms of biblical purity, but they embody every aspect of a true religion—and with fervor.
I’m speaking of what is called Wokeism. The “Neo-Puritans” are those who take it upon themselves to strictly enforce adherence to the reigning orthodoxy of cultural Marxism under the rubric of Critical Theory that tolerates no deviance. To paraphrase the quote above, “there is no place for tolerance in Woke America.” Weird, I know, given that a central tenet of the new religion is “tolerance.”
Wokeism’s objective is transformative social awareness. Their doctrines are sacrosanct (Black Lives Matter), their principles are indisputable (diversity is our strength), their evangelists are legion (anyone with a Twitter account), and the unconverted, unwashed masses are actively confronted, condemned, punished and made to see the truth of the evil they have committed.
Thus it is that otherwise innocent people are shamed, fired and cancelled. And while one can do penance, those who bear the original sin of being male, white or Christian can never atone for it. Ever.
A CASE IN POINT
Take Chris Harrison, the host of “The Bachelor.” My daughter told me he recently stepped down from his hosting duties after a controversy erupted involving race.
One of the season’s current contestants, Rachael Kirkconnell, was apparently photographed at an “Old South” plantation-themed college party in 2018. She was accused of being a racist when the photos resurfaced because those parties allegedly used the Confederate flag for decoration and invoked the memory of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. No one has claimed that Kirkconnell’s party had Confederate flags present or that she or any one of her friends referred to Robert E. Lee.
When black former contestant and star of 2017’s “The Bachelorette,” Rachel Lindsay, asked Harrison about Kirkconnell’s situation during a podcast, Harrison said,
“First and foremost, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Rachael about it. And this is, again, where we all need to have a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion. Because I’ve seen some stuff online — again this judge-jury-executioner thing — where people are just tearing this girl’s life apart and diving into, like, her parents and her parents’ voting record. It’s unbelievably alarming to watch this. I haven’t heard Rachael speak on this yet. And until I actually hear this woman have a chance to speak, who am I to say any of this?”
I note with some irony that Harrison saw the “need to have a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion.” But, no, there can be no deviance from the orthodoxy. Because Harrison didn’t denounce the racism everyone else saw, he was immediately condemned by the Neo-Puritans. Four days later, he apologized via Instagram.
That’s how it works: Harrison sinned by not denouncing racism. He was confronted with his sin and, as penance, issued what can only be called a groveling apology, relinquished his hosting role and promised to get educated “on a profound and productive level.”
Wokeism won a new convert.
You may have no interest in Wokeism, but the Neo-Puritan disciples have an interest in you. It’s a rather bleak religion but it has high aspirations.
[Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash]