Re-Enactors World

Shared by Allen Farley
Ministering to the Civil War Re-enacting Community Since 1984
Celebrating over 20 Years of Ministry

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ." -- Colossians 2:8

As a result of the social, political and religious upheavals
of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, major changes took
place throughout all Western Civilization. Many of those
changes have had a long-lasting effect upon our nation and
its cultural values even to this day. One of the results of
the French Revolution which has affected every aspect of the
American religious and social structure is the "humanizing
of God" and the "deification of man". The leaders of that
revolution wanted to "cleanse" the land of what they
considered the evils of Christianity and to exalt the great
human potentials in the nature of man. As history has
proven, it is impossible to deify man without humanizing God
which results in cultural decay and potential downfall.
During the Age of Reason preceding the French Revolution,
many social thinkers and philosophers cast serious doubts
upon the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures and therefore
enthroned the principle of "reason" in its place in French
society. As a misguided reaction to the Age of Reason and
the religion of atheism, the social thinkers and
philosophers of the North responded with what became known
as Romanticism.
ROMANTICISM was that social and religious philosophy that
worshiped human emotion, tradition and nature. It praised
man’s natural feelings and instincts as sure guides to the
wise conduct of life. Nature was admired not only for its
beauty, but because its beauty and serenity was a symbol of
the divine soul of the universe. There was great emphasis
placed upon the simple uncivilized life in the country,
because it was believed to develop man’s innate divine
element, or soul. There was much poetry written which
expressed confidence in the unity, beauty and goodness of
the universe and mankind. Uncivilized savages were looked
upon as the noblest of human beings, thus we have the term
"noble savage". At this point is where the Romanticists
joined hands with politics to bring about social reform.
The religious faith of the Romantic writers was not a
Biblical faith in the sacrificial atoning work of Jesus
Christ, but of faith and self-confidence in man to solve his
own problems and to elevate himself to a state of
perfection.
UNITARIANISM is that religious movement and philosophy that
stresses the free use of human reason to determine spiritual
beliefs, and rejects the principle of divine revelation as
the means of receiving truth. It also denies the divinity
of Jesus Christ and relegates Him to a position of teacher
and social reformer.
American Unitarianism developed slowly out of New England
Congregationalist churches that rejected the 18th century
Great Awakening revival movement. The transcendentalist
movement of the 19th century inspired Unitarianism with a
new interest in the intuitive and emotional aspects of
religion. Unfortunately, these humanistic philosophies
later degenerated into a belief in human aspiration and
scientific truth rather than Christianity and the Bible.
TRANSCENDENTALISM is a variety of philosophies that propose
to discover spiritual reality through human intuition, while
rejecting an outward absolute authority. It taught the
individual’s ability to receive "flashes and insights" of
truth as the highest form of knowledge. It stressed the
visionary and idealistic aspect of human nature. This
humanistic philosophy was a direct rejection of the Biblical
doctrine of the headship of Jesus Christ and the supreme
authority of the Scriptures.
DEISM is the belief that utilizes a rationalistic mode of
explaining God and his relationship to the world. It
asserts that God does exist and created the world, but now
has no relation to it. Deism views God as a clock maker who
made the world, but programmed it to now run on its own.
Consequently, divine providence, supernatural revelation and
God’s plan of salvation for man are brought into serious
question and even denied.
PANTHEISM is the theory that God does not exist as a person,
but that all natural laws, forces and manifestations of the
self-existing universe are God; God is everything and
everything is God. Therefore this theory allows for the
worship of all gods, whether they be spiritual, natural,
material or mystical.
UNIVERSALISM is the theological belief which stresses the
perfectibility of man, the ultimate salvation of all men,
the varied character of divine revelation and the humanness
of Jesus Christ. The first congregation was organized in
America in 1779. The adherents to this theory merged with
the Unitarians in 1961 and stress the acceptance of humane
men, Christian or not.
RATIONALISM is a descriptive term which denotes the
theological doctrine that rejects divine revelation and the
supernatural such as contained in the Scriptures and makes
human reason the sole source of knowledge.
Many of the North’s most influential 19th century poets
and philosophers were deeply involved in the above named
humanistic schools of thought which have been taught in many
of our nations schools and churches for more than 150 years.
They include:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said that the purpose of his
writing was ". . .to awaken man and to raise the feeling of
his (self) worth." He said, "...nothing can bring you
peace but yourself." He was a life-long Unitarian.
John Greenleaf Whittier, who was a Quaker by religion but
who was joined in purpose and action with the social
reformers and abolitionists of his day.
Walt Whitman, who was a radical abolitionist and homosexual,
yet was considered "America’s national poet".
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was a life-long Unitarian
who viewed Biblical Calvinism with intolerance and sharp
impatience. As a Romanticist he found comfort in Dante’s
Divine Comedy and as an abolitionist expressed his feelings
toward The War Between the States by saying, "meanwhile the
great war goes thundering on. I hope you are cheery about
it, and have faith in something and somebody. The slave
power must be utterly annihilated. There can be no peace
without that done, and for that I devoutly pray."
Julia Ward Howe, was a Unitarian and a most influential
public speaker; whose writings helped to inflame Northern
sentiment against the people and cause of the South. Her
biographer gives a description of her faith by saying, "with
this questioning of the cold, repressive doctrine of
Calvinism, Julia’s evangelical enthusiasm gradually faded
away. As she herself admitted, she began to feel the need
for ‘vanity, amusement and other study’. Then I turned
against my New Testament and said, ‘I know you all by
heart’; later she would again take up the Bible, this time
it would be not ‘in the light of enthusiasm but of common
sense and experience’. She was, in other words moving away
from the Evangelical faith of her parents, which stressed
both Biblical and ecclesiastical authority as well as the
innate depravity of man, toward a more liberal
Christianity..."
Even though many 19th century Romantic writers and thinkers
differed from one another on various points of belief, they
seem to express a common goal in their fight for wide social
reform from women’s rights to the abolition of slavery.
Many of them developed a personal hatred of the South and
everything it stood for including its traditional cultural
and spiritual values. In fact, the pre-war efforts of the
Romantic writers of the North furnished the philosophical
and emotional impetus which helped bring about America’s
"French Revolution" of 1861-65.
After the military defeat of the Christian South, the
victorious social and political structure of the North
combined with a liberal Christianity set about to utterly
crush true Constitutional government, Bible-based Christ
centered Christianity and our Western European ancestral
heritage. These were replaced with a centralized federal
government, religious and moral relativism and a multiracial
melting pot which has resulted in our present day cultural
decay.
What I am trying to say is that our Christian South has been
under attack a lot longer then just 1861-1865. It is still
under attack and those liberal, God hating, carpet-baggers
are still trying to destroy us.
As a matter of fact they have infiltrated our ranks and our
institutions. They are the modern day historians, Gary
Gallagher, James McPherson, head historian for the Park
Service, Dwight Pitcaithley, Robert K. Sutton, James Oliver
Horton, Ira Berlin and the list goes on. They are forming
the policies and the minds of those who will lead the main
institutions.
The guise is “slavery” but the actual truth the South
and all she stands for is so under attack still today is
because she, for the most part, is standing for her
Christian roots.
Friends we HAVE to continue to remember and to continue
having ceremonies just like this. Please never let these
types of ceremonies die. Never let the memory of what our
ancestors fought or died for be lost to those that are
trying to destroy us. Thank you.