Extremism has found a whole new level of crazy in Pennsylvania this week. Sunday worshipers at the ‘World Peace Sanctuary’ were surprised to bring considerable media attention to their humble gathering by holding a ‘commitment ceremony’ resplendent in capes, crowns and AR-15’s.
Ostensibly, the ceremony was between gun toting couples but if you look at the pictures and listen to the rhetoric its pretty clear that the commitment is between the pious and their hardware, believed to symbolize ‘the Rod of Iron’ from the book of Revelation and Psalms which, in both instances, is about smashing people up.
”Thou shall break them with a rod of iron; thou shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel”. Psalm 2
So these people are not just practising their second amendment rights..
and their crowns are not mere decoration..
What kings with Rods of Iron tend to do is subjugate everyone else. When the time is right. When there is a sign. And the AR-15 is not just the means to do it, (the clue is in the name ‘assault rifle’), but the right to do it. When you wield the Rod of Iron you are not only above the law. You are the law. To possess a religious icon or relic bestows legitimacy upon the bearer and shares in its power, for the mere fact of his possession demonstrates the favor of God’s will.
Throughout history there has always been a brisk trade in saint’s toe nail clippings and locks from the heads of martyrs, fragments of the true cross, thigh bones of the prophet….
Dukes and king’s would do battle to house the bones of some venerable saint because it meant that you got to participate in their lofty station. They are a hot line to God. The keeper of the relic possesses the blessing of God and expresses divine prerogatives that regard the rule of law as pots to be broken….
which is what the Rod of Iron does best.
because the faithful not only have the right to bear arms but the right to whale on yo’ ass.
By the way, the Scottish still want the Stone of Scone back, nicked by the English in 1296 and stashed under the throne in Westminster Abbey. Must be very important for 30 generations of kings to sit on…
By identifying with the Rod of Iron, the Pennsylvania parishioners have conferred upon the AR-15 the same kind of magical power as the spear of Longinus, fabled spear that pierced the side of Christ and confers God’s blessing on whoever holds it…an idea so compelling that it was fought over for centuries by a whole string of Kings and Emperors from Charlegmane to Hitler.
The profane killing machine is elevated to sacred sceptre, conferring the spiritual authority of God’s right hand on whoever is swinging it.
which is a tad unfortunate for everyone else because it means you can now be killed for your own good. Like zombies.
So there is a small and niggly problem with being entirely good way more serious than being mocked by your mates, for if you are ever so pure you cannot help but live in a world that is ever so bad. And then the badness is at your door. Being becomes rooted in paranoia.
If only it could be kept to oneself, it wouldn’t be so bad. But the problem with being ever so Pure is that you are suddenly awash in the worlds’ wickedness, hemmed in on every side..
yea mine enemies compass me round..
and so pretty soon purity and paranoia team up. They go together.
In fact its anger at not being allowed your own destiny, stuffed down since you could crawl, suddenly given an outlet, blessed by the lord, with all that undifferentiated infant rage now given machine guns to cradle.
The Sanctuary of Peace are not random crackpots. They are the thin end of the wedge, the visible end of a more pervasive madness that may not parade but still have their assault weaponry imbued with divine powers.
Ever since Siegfried forged his sword from a fallen star the Self of Western Collective Consciousness has been contaminated by the archetype of the warrior king, consolidated by weaponry identical with the will of God.
Just holding a machine gun makes you drunk. Add to that participation in divine mythology, that you could be the keeper and wielder of Wrath… Its easy enough to get young men to take up arms just to prove their manhood…so being God’s right hand to boot and you have a cocktail its difficult to resist. People think that because you can have sex before marriage these days without being tarred and feathered, we are free of the figure of Yahweh but he’s just gone underground, God’s will sunk into steel and nickel-cadmium.
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