State of /r/Christianity: February

the state of /r/Christianity is poor. i just asserted it. i guess you could call me one of those one-issue voters: flair. yes, flair. currently, we do not have enough flair, despite our great efforts to welcome all.

we are called to serve the poor, and if the state of /r/christianity is not always impoverished, then what the 'hell' (seriously) are we doing here?

further, my take on this is that we are impoverished by the considerable lack of flair for traditionalist christians, and catholics in particular. this ties hand-and-hand with the ongoing discussions concerning how we are to treat our more conservative brethren (not you, mennonites, you're fine), when they are simply wrong according to /r/sidehugs and /r/brokehugs.

but, jokes aside, this is the real question: that the issue of the lack of adequate traditionalist flair is nevertheless more pressing still. i have made my heart patient and firm on this one thing.

oddly enough, i am not a partisan of /r/sidehugs, and i routinely complain about the [humor] threads in this subreddit. nor is this another one of those secret ploys on behalf of /r/radicalChristianity. no, i am just one guy. i am a traditionalist catholic. i am discerning monkhood, and aside from this great community, flair is the only thing left here for me.

otherwise, if my attempts come up empty, i will have no choice to go on an internet fast and leave the state of /r/christianity impoverished as it is. but i am called to serve the poor, and in truth you all look quite poor at this one thing to me! so here i am, and i do realize that the way i do it is different. i am insisting that one should really properly address the 'sin' of inadequate flair.

as it the present situation would have it, /r/christianity looks absolutely nothing like christianity throughout the ages. yeah, sure, we have catholics, and some eastern orthodox, and lutherans too. we've got already a diverse representation of christians (indeed, as it is said, "all are welcome"), but all of those are of but one type.

this state of /r/christianity is asymmetrically in support of social christians, who enjoy things like /r/sidehugs. but christianity is not wholeheartedly about internet sociality, or is it?

things! of all things!

my friends, are we going to allow things on top of things to accumulate like this? it is easy to overlook asymmetry, but i am way serious about this one thing, which i want to address in particular.

that i have campaigned for fssp flair, in particular, for about a month now - maybe now we are finally getting somewhere. i remain hopeful about our prospects. but i must redouble my efforts, in this thread. i am enlarging this faux-crusade. turn with gratitude to 'kiss' the bigger icon of the bunch:

what has been forgotten by many is the other type of christian, whom we love - no, stronger, with more power, from whom we have learned to love. if we are having meta discussions here, it is because we are not as of yet rightly loving. our desire does not spin gently with our will, as dante observed.

i am referring here to christianity's vast array of monastic and mystical traditions. moreover, i submit both of these "types" are necessary, if we wish to clear up our meta issues. christianity, throughout its history, has lived painstakingly on the backs of its beloved hermits and monks. quietly they read books, eating everyday their cereals, fasting from atop the mountains and from below the valleys, in the deserts of tomorrow.

/r/christianity is having meta issues because we have forgotten how to love, and in particular we have forgotten how to love who we have forgotten, who ironically have been teaching us how to love all along! st. bernard of clairvaux, pray for clarity.

i am proposing a very subtle shift in emphasis. let meta dissussions remain knotted, for now, to be dissolved with a series of subsequent rosaries and hesychastic practices. shift your internet-based attention spans to the more significant issue of monastics. i am asking you, social and /r/sidehugs christians of /r/christianity, to get serious about learning how to love who you have forgotten who have taught you how to love! in turn, as a catholic, i await the coming of fssp, sspx, various catholic institute flairs. i am using opus dei, now.

but take heart and imagine: benedictine, cisterian, dominican flairs.

i have also just been informed that we already have the franciscian tau. but, lord have mercy, nobody uses it! franciscians are seriously great, but lest we not forget the oblates! i also wait flair for our catholic nuns, our sisters in the good fight.

i am now envisioning a generalized Hermit and Mystic and Monastic flair, to go alongside our new Searching flair. one must designate even the roles that are played within a christian group/community. what sticks out is an emphasis on roles. for we need all of these roles if we are to get the ark off of this post-flood rock together.

i also would love (yes, if we learn to love, this will happen) to see same-different flairs to show the whole diversity of the early church. here i am pausing to suggest to you oriental orthodoxy, for syriac christians and coptic christians, for St. Thomas christians, ethiopians, and for the assyrian church of the east (see /r/assyrianchurch), as well as many others. if nothing else, i am rightly angered and justified in this: just one Oriental flair will not cut it!

if THAT is the state of worldwide internet /r/christianity, then we are extremely poor at this special work, indeed.

/r/christianity can become properly christian again, if we turn around and implement flair. yes, early christian flair, and specifically traditionalist catholic flair, is the most significant issue i see here. my testimony is this: in the past, i have only asked for fssp flair, for myself; but this has led me to see the true extent of my internet /r/christianity self-indulgence.

now, my faith has been strengthened, and it is still strengthening, as we pursue the cause of flair for others. we must cluster together in holiness towards the accurate representation of inter-planetary and world christianity, such that any atheist can visit here and become a christian.

think deeply about what i have said in light of our new Christian Atheist flair. it is utterly Absurd that we support contemporary /r/radicalChristianity movements, funding them even with flair, when the early church is neglected, our traditionalists and monks left unto their obscurity. but this, in the dim-computer screen lit caverns of tomorrow, is precisely where, with /r/christianity on the internet, we sorely are in need adequate flair for our monastics.

thus we remain poor, until a whole-scale overhaul of the flair system is introduced with the early church and its history throughout the centuries in mind. this is reddit, we can do better than that! it don't even describe it. the state of /r/christianity is poor.

there - it's done. i just asserted it, again.

and they will know we are christians by our flair. amen.

/r/Christianity Thread