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THE CAMBRIAN PESHER
THE VOICE OF THE DESPOSYNI TO THE AMERICAN DISPERSION
St. Morien's Day, 2004
Beloved:
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
But he turned, and rebuked them, and said Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
- Luke 9:51-56
The historical context of this story is that the Jews and Samaritans represented two different religious traditions, traditions which had mutually excommunicated each other. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to be crucified. His disciples did not know this, nor, of course, did the Samaritans. They thought He was just another Jew on his way to worship at the Temple, a fraud and an abomination in the minds of the Samaritans. They didn't understand; so they turned Him away.
His disciples wanted to toast them. They didn't like Samaritans anyway and the fact that they refused hospitality - a very serious offense in the ancient world, lacking inns and motels for travelers - they felt it was only insult added to injury. They wanted to teach the Samaritans a lesson.
Jesus rebuked them. He knew His mission transcended the petty squabbles of religious fanatics. He knew that they could not possibly have understood his mission, and so, He refused to take up the cause of personal vendettas. "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." How many churchmen need to hear those words of rebuke today?
Historically, the Desposyni have been excommunicated by both Jew and Gentile. The Jews have hated them for their worship of Jesus, even while admitting that the Desposyni were the wisest among men in understanding the Torah.
The Gentile Christians, on the other hand, while admitting the Desposynic affinity as the family of Jesus, nevertheless, despising the Old Testament, excommunicated them for not following the path of Imperial Rome. It must never be forgotten that historic Christianity - the Christianity of the Patristic fathers - embraced and then was absorbed by the civic institutions of ancient Rome. The strange hybrid of what I call "churchianity" was a departure from the model of the Messianic Church. Central to that apostasy was a rejection of the family as the primary institution in the Kingdom of God. As I have shown in my book Hierogamy & the Married Messiah, the family church was replaced by the bureaucracy of eunuchs. And it is with us to this day, even among the Protestants, who claim to have remedied all of the errors of Rome.
The world of Churchianity is a spectacle of mind control, using mechanisms which create emotional dependencies and then threatening excommunication. Very recently, I came to the aid of a defrocked pastor who could not seem to understand that he had been brainwashed. He and his family were, quite literally, cast out into the snow during the Christmas season because it was discovered that his wife had not kept the books properly. Accused (but never tried) of embezzlement - the unpardonable sin in corporate churchianity - and with no place to go, he and his family of four young children were forced to live in a tent for the winter. Even though I showed him that the accusations of this organization were a fraud, even by their own convoluted rules, he repaid the money and now is seeking reinstatement. It's a spiritual "battered-wife syndrome"; these people keep going back for more abuse.
One of the rules for reinstatement is that he cannot be in contact with any of his former parishioners. I told him that any organization which uses control mechanisms to dictate your personal life - to tell you who you can or cannot see, what you can or cannot eat, where you go, what you wear, what you read, and so on - is a cult by definition. I don't care if it wears an evangelical label.
I can cite other sorry examples I have witnessed through the years. Perhaps, someday I will nail my 95 Theses to a church door to prove the fraud of Churchianity. But it is enough to say that the spirit of love and forgiveness is entirely lacking. Jesus said of the last days, "because iniquity (lawlessness, disregard of God's laws) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:12). The most heartless people I have ever met have been professing Christians.
Moral conservatives, in the name of God, are on the prowl to cleanse the land of homosexuals, abortionists, "do-gooder" liberals, and New Agers. Never mind that many homosexuals are so today because they were "eunuchized" as boys. Churchists don't seem to understand that boys which are repeatedly sodomized experience a physical change which ruins them for normal sexual activity. Their abusers are usually predatory heterosexual males respected in their community.
Never mind that abortion, liberalism, and New Age religions are symptomatic of a society led by a lawless church. The churchmen want to remedy these social ills by cracking a few heads and shooting a few rubber bullets. Some of them with righteous indignation want to burn them out and smash their homes with tanks. They do not know "what manner of spirit they are of."
August 28th is the day of St. Augustine. The Cambrian Church does not honor him with a day, but instead, honors his opponent, Pelagius (also known as Morien in the tongue of his nativity). Augustine, along with Jerome, is responsible for the edifice of Churchianity which serves as the velvet glove to the iron fist. In opposing Pelagius' attempt to reform the Church, he disgraced himself and turned against his earlier Christian enlightenment. He tried to put the new wine of Christ into the old wineskins of Rome, just as the Judaizers tried to do with Judaism in the time of Paul.
We don't know much about Pelagius, except that he was from Celtic Britain (Wales) and was an evangelical preacher who emphasized personal holiness (see my books, Biblical Midwifery and The Holy Conspiracy for more about Pelagius and his doctrines). We do know that the fruit of Pelagianism was Celtic Christianity and the tribal culture which resisted the juggernaut of the State Church - the fruit of Augustine's theology.
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Our annual gathering for Labor Day is scheduled this year for September 3-4. As usual, our first lecture will begin Friday night at 7 PM. The conference will continue Saturday morning at 9 AM to Noon, then in the afternoon and evening from 1:30-4:00 PM and 6-9 PM, respectively.
The theme this year will be "Earth Changes and Social Organization in Post-Cataclysmic Scenarios". Planet X will figure prominently in the discussions. We will explore the prospects of world catastrophes (real or imagined), the rise and fall of civilizations, and what kind of social structure might form in their aftermath. A special and detailed emphasis on family abbeys will be forthcoming. New initiatives for the Grail Church will probably emerge from these discussions.
These meetings are closed to the public. Only catechumens or persons with letters of recommendation from our affiliations will be allowed to attend. If you are interested in attending, exceptions can be made if you send us a signed Application and study this website. You may call us at 208-882-5135 to discuss your attendance.
We are located approximately one hour south of Spokane International Airport in north Idaho. We will come and get you at the airport. We have three camping trailers, one bunkhouse, and friendly neighbors available for lodging. We will feed and water you.
A servant of Jesus,
James
Prayer for the Day:
O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.