THE CAMBRIAN PESHER
THE VOICE OF THE DESPOSYNI TO THE AMERICAN DISPERSION
The Days of the Ladies (July, 2001 vulgaris)
St. Salome (July 15), St. Mary Magdalene (July 22), St. Mary and Martha (July 29)
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven . . . a time to mourn, and a time to dance . . .
Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 4
Beloved:
Why don't Christians dance?
A couple of months ago, I participated in a community event which was called "a Gospel Opry". It was an opportunity for the local talent to be displayed and for people to enjoy some old-fashioned Gospel music. Although it was a rainy, chilly day, there was still a good crowd underneath the tent. There was a lot of fiddle playing and foot-stomping tunes. At one point, the moderator (an Asbury Methodist and one of the ancients among us) invited the crowd to get up and do a jig if they were so inclined. No one did, of course, but it got my mind to thinking. Why don't Christians dance?
I suppose it is partly because Christians, as a group, tend to be sedentary and heavy (that is a polite way of saying "fat and lazy"). Preacher religion is largely a spectator sport, where the congregation watches as the orator and a few assistants perform. About the only physical activity that churches offer are pot-luck dinners, where gluttony is glorified as a virtue.
It may also be because of pride. The more proper among us used to dismiss the old-time Pentecostals as fanatics for jumping the pews and tap dancing in the isles. I never could figure out what was supposed to be wrong with exuberant worship. "Undignified" or "irreverent" were the terms I have heard. The "laughing revival" in recent years has been condemned by Christian leaders - surprised? - (even by Pentecostal leaders) as fleshly and satanic.
This sort of arguing over proper worship has been around forever, it seems. If you study the history of American revivalism, you will find that many of the current denominations - the very ones who are judging others today - were founded during the great campmeetings of the circuit rider preachers, where such undignified forms of worship were commonplace (see Peter Marshal's, From Sea to Shining Sea).
I won't name the denominations, for fear of leaving someone out, but laughing fits are nothing compared to the antics of those by-gone tent revivals. In those days, "dignified" men of the community would lose control of themselves, get on all fours, and bark like a dog!
Was it satanic? No. I would say God was smiting their pride. A lot of us need such humiliation.
Do I sound too cynical and condescending? Perhaps. But you must admit, that if you take the time to look at Churchianity today, the starchy dignity is quite a spectacle to behold. Who kneels anymore?
Early this year I took up dancing to Country-Western music. I have wanted to for several years but never had a convenient opportunity until recently. Why? I suppose there may be more than one reason, but basically, I did it because it's fun. We have plans to start a dance club and provide lessons for dances which the whole family can enjoy together. But for now, it's the boy/girl dancing.
And in case you are wondering - yes, I do dance with women other than my wife. I consider dancing to be one of those few occasions when men and women can touch each other without sin.
Ah, and therein lies the controversy among the Bible-thumpers: to them dancing is inherently sinful because it provides physical contact between men and women and stimulates sensual feelings. And I partially agree, because I tell my children that there is good dancing and bad dancing, just like there is good music and bad music or good language and bad language. However, our Augustinian Christian culture teaches us that anything which causes sexual arousal is sinful. Do you remember Augustine? No, it's not the predestination doctrine which was central to Augustine's system; it was the depravity of man, specifically, sexual man.
If you remember in my other writings (e.g. Biblical Midwifery and The Mother Heart of God), I identified Augustine as the quintessential Mahuzzim, the Antichrist movement within early Christianity which was misogynist, anti-family, and statist in orientation. A successor to men like Tatian (who taught that marriage was fornication) and Tertullian (who taught that women should wear sacks on their heads), Augustine taught that the proof of moral depravity was the involuntary erection of the male member. Anything which causes the phallus to stiffen was moral pollution. And of course, since the purpose of the erect penis is to plant seed into the woman, and since women have breasts, well-turned ankles, and other features which arouse men, women are, thus, the source of that moral pollution.
The Celtic Church has always had a resistance movement within its bosom against Augustinianism. Morien (Pelagius) was the first. He was followed by others (see The Holy Conspiracy). Today, unconsciously and imperfectly perhaps, Country music represents that ongoing Celtic revolt. Celts like fun. They like to dance. They like to sport and make love. The Fundamentalists and other modern-day Puritans try to make them feel guilty for their cavalier sex, but they do it anyway. Celtic Pelagians believe in the all-sufficiency of the Atonement. They like to live as if they were already living in the Millennium (postmillennialism). The Calvinists like to live as if there were no Millennium (amillennialism). They make God into a monster who torments us with unfulfilled desire and then they glory in the fact that they can still love and obey Him.
The Churchianity in which I was reared taught that the closer a man wanted to be to God, the farther he had to be from women. Women were the temptresses. And even if a woman was exceptionally godly, the inherent mundane life with her drew the man away from more spiritual pursuits. This is the view of the Augustinian Church which pervades all of Christianity - even the so-called Arminian churches which differ with Augustine (and Calvinists, his successors) over predestination and free-will.
The Celtic Bellum tradition of the old South, of which Jefferson was perhaps its most able spokesman, had a chance to recapture the heritage of the ancient Celtic church and to become the true mediating culture between the moroseness of Augustine and Calvin and the hedonism of the pagan world. But it was quickly corrupted by Puritanism early in the 19th Century. And while readers will remember that I consider Puritanism to have many virtues, its inherent Augustinianism works like the leaven of the Pharisees and chokes them out.
Today, the Celtic way provides a viable alternative culture because it does not rely upon the dos and don'ts of preacher religion, nor does it countenance the anarchism of the rock culture. Rather, it looks to the family, its joys and its burdens, and the loyalty of kinfolk to hold society together.
*This month, we honor the memory of a few prominent women in the Gospels: Salome, Martha, and the Magdalene, who we consider to be the Mary of Bethany. Their esteem in the Church has suffered greatly because of Augustinianism. When the Mahuzzim heresy prevailed in the Early Church, the influence of these women was marginalized, as were all women. The warmth and closeness of those early times were lost and the Church became a state institution.
It is impossible for women to be spiritual without being sensual and affectionate at the same time. Because the essence of the life force within us is sexual, thus making sex and procreation a spiritual quest, home worship is the purest kind. For only in home worship can the liturgy be consummated in the bed chamber, one of the great rites of the Jamesian Church.
"Hierogamy" (hi-raw'-gam-ee) is a new term to people, but it is a term which describes the Bridegroom/Bride imagery in the Scriptures. Literally meaning "sacred marriage", it refers to a marital union which has been sanctified by these Divine symbols. And while hierogamy is not necessarily sexual (although it usually is), it was the way that Jesus healed women, and continues to heal women today. For women, worship - the sacred dance - is meant to be lovemaking with their Lord, for whom men, as His manservants, become His symbols and representatives in the bed chamber. It is impossible for the public church to have a completed liturgy for this reason.
**Hierogamy will be one of the lecture topics at our annual reunion this Labor Day weekend. Another topic for discussion will be the Book of Enoch. If you are interested in coming to this event, it is open to catechumens and those who they sponsor to attend. We are located near Moscow, Idaho on U.S. Highway 95. Interstate 90 is a little over an hour away as is Spokane International Airport. We can make arrangements to pick you up there with adequate notification. As for lodging, all that we can offer is some open ground for camping, with water, electricity and sewer for RVs. We are in the country, but within 20-40 minutes of the finest motels.
For more information, you may contact us at clerk@grailchurch.org or call 208-882-5135. If you are coming, we need to know the number in your party by August 30th. We will feed and water you. So come.
A servant of Jesus,
James Wesley Stivers
Overseer
Collect for the Day:
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion, we beseech thee, upon our infirmities, and those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, mercifully give us for the worthiness of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.