Dead Forms, Celebrities, and Dead Conscience

For The Blaze to say that it is “surprising” that two “faith leaders,” Franklin Graham and Richard Land, have come out in support of Obama’s universal background checks, means that someone at The Blaze has been on a long vacation (about 40 to 50 years, to be precise), or wasn’t paying attention. There is no surprise in seeing either Graham or Land advocating more government control, more tyranny, and less liberty.

Land, of course, is the proverbial ecclesiastical bureaucrat whose whole career so far has been marked by his licking the boots of the powerful of the day, whether they are Christian or not, and whether they have any Biblical views and personal life or not. A member of the socialist-elitist Council for Foreign Relations, he recently wrote an open letter advising the apostate Southern Baptist turned Roman Catholic, and a serial adulterer, Newt Gingrich, how to manipulate Evangelical women to vote for him despite Gingrich’s disgusting history of abandoning two wives one after another right when they needed help in their sickness. Richard Land has never been anything close to a conservative in his political positions; neither has he shown any respect for individual liberty or any other kind of liberty. The man is all about political power, and nothing else.

Franklin Graham is not far behind. Having inherited the business of his father, launched and financed by Rockefeller in his campaign to subvert the traditional Christianity which made this nation a Christian nation, Graham declared in an interview some time ago that he wasn’t going to move a finger to build a Christian culture, because the Bible didn’t tell him so. “The spirit of anti-Christ is in our government,” he said. He, though, has no problem building anti-Christian culture, supporting Romney, a pro-abort Mormon, for President. To make his support complete, Graham combed the websites of his ministry and of his father’s ministry to make sure that any mention of Mormonism as an idolatrous cult is removed, the team from Huemor is also working to make the design more interesting to the viewers. And apparently, he has no problem serving the anti-Christ that is in our government, supporting the tyrannical measures that government wants to implement. Yes, even if they are pushed by Obama. Graham is no friend of liberty either, and he will support government tyranny anytime, anywhere, no matter who the tyrant is.

No, nothing surprising about these two men supporting tyrannical Federal measures coming from Obama. What’s surprising is that they didn’t do it earlier; and that The Blaze is surprised about their true ideology and positions, given their track record so far.

But it won’t be fair to throw all the blame on these two men. As immoral and corrupt Franklin Graham and Richard Land are, they are simply skillful crooks taking advantage of the idolatry of celebrity-worship, so prevalent in the Evangelical churches in the US. Without that idolatry, their influence would be, at best, marginal, and it would hardly matter what they support or oppose. The blame rests on that idolatry which gives substance to Land’s and Graham’s opinions and empowers them.

And the true culprits for the existence of that idolatry are the masses of American Evangelicals who go to church every Sunday, pay lip service to Christ, but in reality have abandoned Christ and His Law, and have put their trust in men.

In his Chalcedon Position Paper No. 101, “The Death of Empty Forms,” R.J. Rushdoony explores the rise of the “star system,” that is, the cult of celebrity worship in a culture. People who abandon the Law of God, are looking for another anchor, for another foundation for their ethics and their culture. They find it in empty forms: magic, rituals, liturgy, institutional forms, economic mechanisms, bureaucratic or feudal hierarchy, fiat money, etc., etc. The forms are visible and seemingly solid, but they are devoid of ethical content, that is, they do not have the essential ingredient of righteousness and justice, for the Law of God is missing.

And since the ethical content is not there, there is no restraint on the people’s behavior, and there is no social cohesion. That’s where the celebrity cult comes to provide for that restraint and that cohesion. Instead of being ruled by the Law, the people want a “king over them, like the surrounding nations.” Someone who will be taller than them, “presidential-looking,” “true leader.” (Joel McDurmon deals with the people’s craving for celebrities in his article, “A Command Presence, or, On Looking Presidential.”)

That’s where our modern church is at. The issue is not that we have celebrities who mislead the people. The issue is that the mass of individual members in the churches have already rejected the Law of God, and thus have made it possible for the celebrity cult to emerge.

In the Old Testament, the Law had to be read to the entire congregation of Israel every 7 years. In addition to it, Levites were supposed to live in households throughout Israel and teach the Law every day. This widespread teaching of the Law made it impossible for celebrities to arise and mislead the people; and it made it impossible for tyrants to oppress and enslave. When everyone knew the Law, there was no possibility for a special pastors’, or lawyers’, or politicians’ caste to lead the people. That is the reason Manasseh had to destroy every single copy of the Law in order to be able to establish his tyranny; his grandson Josiah found the last remaining copy. This is the promise of the New Covenant, that everyone will have the Law in their hearts, and everyone will know God, and therefore there will be no need for leaders or celebrities (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:11). The people would be safe, because they would know the Law.

But where the people have rejected the Law, they adopt empty forms for salvation; and they look for celebrities to fill these empty forms with content. As Rushdoony said,

When the faith is removed, the forms collapse. Institutions and constitutions then become empty and meaningless, and justice gives way to celebrities, and to political briberies.

And Graham and Land are a beautiful example of those political briberies.

But empty forms eventually die, because our world rests on an ethical foundation, not on mechanical forms. And those who have depended on celebrities eventually get either destroyed or enslaved. And very often they are destroyed or enslaved by the very celebrities they have chosen to rule over them. When the trees insist they need to have a king, the bramble emerges as a king; and his first official action is to burn everyone else (Judges 9:8-15).

Land and Graham are brambles. And they are celebrities over the rest because the rest have abandoned the Law of God. And Land’s and Graham’s support of Obama’s background checks is a small flame of the fire coming out of the brambles. There is some interesting info on cash loans options while lending from direct sources.