18 September 2024
I'm going to rehash something that I addressed a couple of years ago because the context has drifted quite a ways since then.
I link to Jack's blog often enough, and he links back here. We have both declared our blogs part of the Radix Fidem community. He's family. His primary subject matter over the years has been the so-called Red Pill Men's Movement. Eschewing most of the secular pick-up artist stuff, Jack focuses on the Christian outlook in general, and quite often advocates the Radix Fidem approach. I will place comments on some of his posts from time to time under the alias "Tomb Refugee" because I am not allowed to use my preferred nick; the WordPress ID service (Gravatar) rejects that alias. Indeed, I once had it by they shut down my "Catacomb Resident" account without warning.
Some of Jack's blog posts are NSFW; his taste in images is a little more racy than I can tolerate at times. He does that typically to illustrate something important. But that's his problem; he can predict when I won't visit. I'm a hard-core prude about displays of flesh. I am fully aware of what passes for typical on the Net and I know I draw my circles a lot tighter than most of humanity does.
The Red Pill lore has traveled a very long way since first appearing some 15 or so years ago. It began as nothing more than perceptive men observing the sharp difference between what women claim they want from men and what they actually respond to. Nowadays, the romance market has become an emotional wasteland. The feminist mythology has drifted quite a ways in 15 years, and as younger women enter the romance market, the whole appears to have become ever more hopeless for ordinary men. The myth of what constitutes the ideal man is wholly non-existent.
But let's be honest here: Men in general are picky, too. I cannot count how often the most sensible advice about guys embracing a more realistic standard was flatly rejected for any number of inane reasons. More than one has asserted that their fleshly lusts were from God. Both sides of the romance marketplace are pulling back to the heights of severe demands, and never the twain shall meet. Everyone kvetches constantly and no one is realistic.
And this dismal outlook is backed up by ample evidence in social statistics as well as the load of anecdotes available. As long as the whole focus is on the tactics and strategies (AKA, social sciences), romance among Americans is doomed.
But when people like me raise the issue of trusting in God, we are lucky if all they do is ignore us. Often enough, we have faced sharp rebukes. I'm not saying Jack has been difficult with me; to the contrary. But the majority of those who comment on his blog have reacted with varying degrees of almost hostility to any testimony that God is the primary reason I married a "unicorn" -- a mythical woman who doesn't fit the typical pattern. She's a woman who defies the stereotypes and does what a biblical woman should do in marriage.
I'm also not suggesting that American women aren't generally wicked and deeply taken in idolatry. What I'm saying is that there are plenty of women who aren't. More to the point, if a man was to push his Red Pill lore into the background and bring his faith to the front, he has a far better chance of finding a woman worth the effort and resources. Making faith the standard, instead of formalizing some kind of fleshly standard (making it a law code), is the only answer.
It's one thing to be aware of how things work in the absence of God's miraculous powers. We should know that stuff. It clarifies the power of God when He does do something miraculous. And we've declared it often enough in the RF community that miracles might show up almost anywhere when it suits the Lord, but His promises and powers belong to the Covenant. We harvest by faith every day what outsiders regard as exceptional.
I don't mind confessing that I broke several Red Pill rules when I chose whom to marry. That's because adhering strictly to that background Red Pill lore would have steered me to ignore the woman I chose to marry -- it would have been silly legalism. But instead of working through things in the flesh, I chose to seek out the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the result is a solid passionate marriage that is approaching its golden anniversary. She's more precious to me now than ever.
Let's be clear: In general, the Christian Red Pill lore reflects rather well what's in the Bible. Plenty of voices in the field of Red Pill lore tend to compromise a bit here and there, and virtually nobody is talking about the Covenant, but the common lifestyle depicted in the Bible shows a strong awareness of what Red Pill thinkers noticed some years ago. The tribal lifestyle, arranged marriages, men as gatekeepers on sex (male spiritual covering), and social customs regarding how people should interact in public, etc. -- all of it is a strong statement that women are not what they claim they are today in the feminist West.
The Bible is pretty clear that, if women are allowed to choose and govern the situation, they cannot get it right. They aren't wired for that. They are wired for a lot of other things, things they can do with grace and beauty, but they cannot be allowed to decide how and whom they will choose for sexual union. They get a veto for just cause, but not the freedom to run the show. All of this was in the law code of the Covenant; the Red Pill lore tends to reflect the backside of that law.
Without that ancient Hebrew social milieu guiding things, we end up with the apocryphal social situation we have now. And God will still work through that, but not without the faith to see the miracles. I have heard plenty of testimonies of women that were not at all ready, but when the Holy Spirit got hold of them, they got ready and got married to the right man. Our Lord is able and ready to act on His promises. While you still need to keep an eye on the prophetic context and keep your expectations realistic -- getting married right now is an awful burden for covenant people -- it doesn't mean God won't let His people find each other and pair up righteously.
But if you stick to the law code without rising to faith, you might as well not pretend Christ is Your Lord. The Law, including however much it is reflected in Red Pill lore, is not the final word. Red Pill Law is only what men can see without faith. Learning to read your convictions and the move of the Holy Spirit will inevitably mean taking an exception to the law code here and there, because it's a matter of divine priorities. Joseph took Mary as his wife quite against the Law of Moses in obedience to the Lord's personal communication.
Yes, you can heal on the Sabbath and you can harvest a snack in the fields. You can break with social custom because the Holy Spirit told you to, and you can seek the Lord's face against all the odds if your convictions demand it. Most of all, by faith you can set aside the demands of the flesh and walk into the mighty gifts of God's provision.
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