Once again, the “Left” is exposing its fear that Christians, who still make up sizeable majorities in the West, may one day do the unthinkable: reclaim their true Christian heritage and abandon the “Doormat Christianity” variety that has long been imposed on them.
Because Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the incoming Department of Defense, has Christian tattoos — including the Crusader Cross and the Latin phrase Deus Vult (“God wills it”) — the media, are suggesting that this is proof positive that, once in office, Hegseth will put all his domestic and foreign enemies to the sword.
For example, quoting several obscure academics, New Lines Magazine writes: “There is no version of Deus Vult that means anything other than Crusader fanboy.” Hegseth’s Christian tattoos are “a call to religious violence, expressly linked to a pretty horrific episode in history. There isn’t another way of reading it other than that.”
Incidentally, nowhere does that article (or any of them, including the New York Times’) even hint that the Crusades, which it simply defines as “one of the bloodiest periods of Christian history,” were justified. Rather, they, and those who support them, were and are “explicitly Islamophobic.”
Although the fears expressed in these media hit pieces are obviously exaggerated, they do touch on a certain truth: if the Left has little to fear from Christians waging a physical “holy war” against them, it does have to fear the resurrection of the “church militant,” long defined as “the Christian church on earth regarded as engaged in a constant warfare against its enemies, the powers of evil” (aka, “the Left”).
In short, the real fear is that, after decades of prostration, Christians may finally stand up again. "Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam" gives an idea of what that might look like. Most of the men profiled in it sacrificed their lives — though they were emperors, kings, and lords who had much to live for and enjoy — fighting to defend and strengthen Christianity.
The contagiously inspiring image invoked by these men who boldly and unapologetically sacrificed everything in the name of their faith and civilization is precisely what the Left does not want today’s Christians to recollect as part of their heritage, a thing available to them to emulate in times of crisis: standing up against evil.
Much better Christians remain convinced that the highest virtue of their religion is to be passive doormats that never “judge” (a position that is also conveniently easier than taking a stand).
From here one realizes why, for decades, all departments in service of the Left — from the public school system to Hollywood — have done everything in their power to 1) emasculate men and 2) present “good” and “true” Christianity as being nothing more than a welcome doormat (the antithesis of church militant).
There’s a reason why the powers-that-be have for decades idolized the effeminate and extolled the homosexual; portrayed sword-waving women as the true and only embodiment of courage, heroism, and self-sacrifice; demonized true masculinity — without which civilization perishes — as “toxic”; and, most insidiously, depicted any Christian who wishes to do anything other than “turn the other cheek” as being the epitome of hypocrisy if not evil.
One can go on and on as to how the Left has done everything, subtle and increasingly not so subtle, to neuter men, but the point should be clear: the first and foremost enemy of anyone or thing — in this case, the Left — is men. As such, teaching men not to be men has been one of the most strategic ways to defeat men.
Little wonder the lgb-whatever agenda has been to infiltrate and indoctrinate the minds of children — whether through schools and libraries, or television programming and books for children. While that agenda is dark on several fronts, one of its chief goals is to strip boys of their latent manhood while they’re still young and pliable — nipping them in the “bud,” as it were, so they become compliant in adulthood.
Incidentally, unlike the aforementioned “Defenders of the West,” who had no choice but to fight, today’s Christians need not take up arms in a physical manner.
Rather, if today’s Christians were simply to stand up — which in large and practical measure means if their men start behaving like men — and, most importantly, if they all believe in a Cause greater than themselves, then all the insane ills plaguing Western society would inevitably dissipate like vapor.
And that is the real reason the Left fears men like Pete Hegseth.
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