I spend far much too time on Twitter; typically to kill time, but it does ‘kill time’ indeed for me. Ron Coleman, someone I follow on Twitter, in an interview with Tim Pool (@TimCast), opined that Twitter is ‘America’s mental cesspool.’ What he meant by that, which is elaborated on further in the interview is something like this (my paraphrase): The American (indeed, the Western) mind accrues layer upon layer of mental fecal matter, and it needs somewhere to flush it. Both Tim and Ron seemed to agree that Twitter represents the very type of crap-hole fitting for such a flushing. I have been critical of Twitter in just the same way for years, in fact. Indeed, I avoided Twitter until maybe about two or three years ago now; I would have been well advised to continue my self-segregation from that platform. The only positive in regard to Twitter is that I have made some good personal contacts along the way (this holds true as a positive for all social media platforms). But as far as the content, and the majority of players on Twitter, it represents nothing more than a ‘mental cesspool’ indeed. Twitter teaches people to think in fragmented soundbite ways; it allows high profile personalities to speak in ways they really aren’t qualified to (so personality cults); it serves as a sort of bug-lite which attracts, indeed, all of the bugs of the ether-world; it encourages people into group think (no matter what side of the political aisle the person inhabits); so on and so forth. For Christians on Twitter, or in ‘conservative Twitter,’ it opens them up to find solidarity with non-Christians, ideologically, simply because they share “conservative” ideals. But this is where I must part ways with many a Christian who finds this sort of solidarity.

My problem with Christians finding solidarity with Pagans in the name of their shared conservatism is that the latter are ultimately on the same ‘side’ as their so-called ‘progressive’ enemies on the opposing side. In other words, ultimately, Pagan-conservatives are fighting for a particular way of life that has nothing to do with the Kingdom of Christ; and it definitely does not have the epistemological capacities to think from within the Kingdom of Christ. This is why I cannot sign on with Pagans, even if they might ostensibly have overlapping socio-political desires in mind. It is because we don’t share the same teleology; they think from a world that is ‘being destroyed’ while Christians, in principle think and live from a Kingdom that is being saved (cf. I Cor. 1.18). To press this line of thinking further, here is something I just tweeted:

There is a lot of supposed abstract self-knowledge on display on this website. But there is no knowledge of self, unless there is first knowledge of God. Just as our knowledge of God is contingent upon His Self-giving in the Son, likewise, knowledge of ourselves, and thus the world, is contingent upon the Son of Man assuming our humanity through which knowledge of the human being is similarly revealed to us by its Creator. There can be no correct diagnoses of the problems plaguing the world without first the problems of our own hearts being made known to us through the cross of Jesus Christ. It is only after this fact, and the foundation of our new lives have been gifted to us, by adoption, in the new humanity of the risen Christ, that we are in a place where we can start to identify the genuine evils and issues of humanity, and all the deleterious consequences an “unknowing humanity” has generated in and through its self-possessed “knowledge of the self.” This sword cuts both ways: right and left. Solo Christo

I think Christians, on Twitter in particular, who align themselves with Pagans in the name of conservatism are sending mixed-signals. At worst what can potentially obtain is that said Christians can end up selling their souls in the name of socio-political expediency; that is, they just might take their shared “conservative” riches, and construct a golden-calf out of them.

I am a Christian. My life is grounded in and based upon the wisdom of the cross; which to the world (the Pagan conservatives included) is both foolish and weak. My life is grounded upon the scandal of particularity which is Christ’s life. My life is rooted in the particularity of a God who is three-in-one/one-in-three; this is stumbling to the wisdom of the world. And as a Christian my thinking is given its values not from an exterior and abstract seed-bed of ideals known as ‘conservatism’; instead, it is given its values from the ‘heart of flesh’ that first beats in the body of Christ for me, that it might beat in my life as well. No matter what our apparent shared ideals are with so-called fellow conservatives, ultimately, they aren’t shared at all. By definition, as already noted, the Pagan only has the capacity to think and live from the homo incurvatus in se (turned in on oneself) way. My job as an ambassador for Christ is not to lock arms with Pagans simply because they share a vision of the world that I think would better serve my purposes and comforts as a conservative Christian person. My job is first and foremost to bear witness to all people that Jesus is Lord; and that outwith a relationship with Him they are destined to world of non-being and nothingness governed by the politics of hell (which they are currently governed by, by virtue of their Paganhood).

I think much of this hit me because of the ‘feel’ of Twitter lately (and before). I might despise the Beast system, and the way the world looks right now. But this isn’t enough reason to simply forget who I am, to fight for a ‘City of Man’ whose foundations are not built on the indestructible Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world. And yet, by-and-large this is exactly how most of Christian-conservative Twitter has been operating; particularly over the last couple of years. Christians are not here to build cultures, to be culture warriors; Christians are here to bear witness to the world that Jesus is Lord; we are here to proclaim to the world that Christ is risen, and that He is coming again—indeed, He breaks into this world afresh and anew moment by moment everyday of every year the seasons continue to cycle through. What good will it do the Pagan conservative to gain a conservative world only to lose their eternal soul?