Via Douglas, a Catholic 'private military company' with Crusader themes. In principle, the idea of forming an order of knighthood to combat the extensive persecution of Christians worldwide right now seems reasonable to me; and incorporating as a private entity seems rational given that the Church is currently disinclined (especially the Pope!) to anything remotely resembling a real fighting order. Whether or not this particular organization has anything like the capacity to accomplish those goals is not known to me.
They do have a holy rule, which makes them similar to numerous orders of knighthood established during the Crusader period and the period of the Reconquista. Two points that refer to secular realities strike me: that those who held military rank should serve in the Order with the same rank they held in the secular military service; and that those who are wealthy enough to provide their own expenses shall enjoy greater honor than those who depend on the Order to pay their way and/or their salary. Those are the sorts of practicalities that historically bedeviled religious orders, a kind of recognition that the nobility and the wealthy aren't quite prepared to surrender all of their privileges in order to follow God. But the verse says 'if you want to be perfect,' which is more than most of us even want.
Related to our recent discussion, it looks as if they have a Twitter account that was mysteriously temporarily deleted during a Congressional hearing relevant to them.
I'll open the floor to discussion, both of the idea in general and the particular example.
7 comments:
It's in a weird place in my mind. The Knightly Orders are a positive, but non-governmental forces are a negative.
I suspect the positive is from reading GA Henty as a kid and watching King Richard declare himself in an old Robin Hood movie with the Crusader tunic. The negatives are probably from a general media negativity toward non-governmental maintenance of force, be it self defense, contractor (Blackwater), or militia (Constitutional, to include privateers). There aren't a lot of religious orders, or they would probably have denigrated them two fold for faith and arms.
I poked Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_order_(religious_society)
and they list several still existent orders beyond your example, and do not list your example. FWIW.
I find it interesting that there even fewer protestant orders along these lines. There must be something in the differences in theology or culture that stops this or redirects the efforts in other directions.
Given all that, I currently like the idea both general and specific. The opponents and enemies of their organization are hostile to my interests. They help spread and protect the gospel. I do not see them as a threat to inter-christian peace, but I have to basis for that belief other than ignorance that they might be threat. In the specific case they carry on the American tradition of peaceful defense of self and brotherhood and private organization.
-stc Michael
I'm personally inclined to prefer non-governmental forces; but the Church used to house them. Still does, by custom and tradition. It's not as well-fitted to assume the leadership of new ones, should another such order come along.
And it wasn't always the right thing anyway. Robert the Bruce had neither Papal nor government blessing when his men wrote the Declaration of Arbroath. But he was right, all the same; as were the Founders, when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, into the teeth of all established governments, and asking no permission of the Pope.
My inclination is to think this is a good thing, but of course all endeavors by human beings are subject to error and flaw. The materials I saw at their website suggested to me that they are serious, have some good minds working on how to do this as there are certainly some good ideas in how they are organized given today's feelings about such things, and their inspirations. That said, I've only listened to a tiny bit of the radio stuff and at times it seemed almost a bit conspiratorial, so I am also cautious. I brought this to your attention, Grim, as I knew you had an interest in attempting to have a non governmental military response to oppression abroad, and that the military orders were of interest to you. I'm excited and curious to see what others here think of them. I suppose if I truly believe then I should probably pray on whether or not I should invest effort in their cause. Couldn't hurt.
I did attempt to set such a thing up at one time, during the BLACKFIVE days, although it was not going to be religious in nature. We never managed the funding for that one, as nobody wants to pay for an army on charity. Jimbo and I do work sometimes with a PMC of a non-religious nature that some of his former SF friends set up. They get paid by doing training exercises of foreign military, mostly, which is not a charity; and unfortunately, the Christians most in need of training are least able to pay for it. If someone could make it work, it has potential to be a very good thing.
So I'm not opposed to the PMC concept, especially for liberation/defense of liberty purposes. I'm just not clear on the execution, here. I'll need time to study them to see if they seem solid or not.
Too many secret societies and factions in the Catholic organizations, including Dei Opus (spelling problem likely), and other direct subordinates of the P of Rome.
Not sure how they can De-Nazifi these issues, as it took a few centuries but the Scottish Rite Masons got hijacked.
As someone who knows a lot of the players and hidden problems, I don't see why it is a useful use of resources.
It is possible to do para military work as an NGO. Just look at Prince or a combination of mercenaries + Railroad fighting sexual trafficking of children.
The Dark has infiltrated all organizations, to my knowledge. The only way not to get infiltrated was to keep everything hidden, which is not exactly conducive to long term Light levels.
Now a days, though, the way to not get infiltrated is the VoxDay Alt Right tactic of not having centralized leaders or cadres. That way there is no central C3 or C4 to hijack. It's a terrorist cell type organization instead, where cleaning up the Dragon's Teeth is the best that can be done, and even without leaders, the organization can still fulfill operational parameters and mission goals on a per cell or per member basis. Logistics are handled via Bitcoin type systems. Not something Jihadists are solid on yet.
Probably hard to do whe nthe CIa and FBI has all electronics you use hacked and cracked with backdoors, GPS target JDAM seekers.
Any time the Catholics start gearing up for war, I am reminded of all the christians who refused to bow down to their Authorities and what happened to them.
Or in other words, an organization with a history of persecuting the Saints of the Most High is not exactly looked upon fondly by a Son of God. It is sorta like malaria. It is not that people want to get it, it is that the environment they are in is prone to certain "issues".
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