Knocking Out the Pillars of the Sacred Order

28 November 2025  Luke 21:29-33

“When you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Luke 21:31

Why shouldn’t a man marry a man? Or a woman marry a woman?

Why can’t a man become a woman, or a woman become a man?

What’s so bad about a child having two fathers? Or three? Or none?

As recently as about fifteen years ago these were unthinkable questions. Now, the sacred order that used to be assumed by liberals and conservatives alike has become a problem, and the unthinkable has become not just thinkable, but it is also insisted upon. Many priests and pastors are afraid to bring up the topic, with the result that what used to be unthinkable is now the only thing that can be said out loud.

“If you knock out the pillars of the sacred order, the universe itself will change shape” says Paul Kingsnorth. “At the primal level, such a change is experienced by people as a deep and lasting trauma” (see Against the Machine, pp. 9-10).

And that is where we are – slaves abandoned to our own judgment, deaf to any final word, opposed even to the uttering of a final word, and the only arbiter of value appears to be money.

If we disregard the things that have supported our culture, and don’t permit the culture’s assumptions even to be spoken out loud, people are left entirely on their own, with nothing other than their personal judgment to guide them. And if that is all anyone has, then there is no final word about anything, and society falls into relativism, then anxiety, then depression, then disintegration.

And that is where we are – slaves abandoned to our own judgment, deaf to any final word, opposed even to the uttering of a final word, and the only arbiter of value appears to be money.

That is why Jesus urges disciples to be alert to the signs of the times: “When you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 31:31). In many other places, Jesus urges disciples to be alert: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8, see also Matthew 24:42, Mark 13:33, I Corinthians 16:13). We may not be able to rescue the culture. It is the sad history of our species that all cultures ultimately insist on so many errors that they can’t be saved. The 20th century alone saw the destruction of eight empires (German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman, British, French, Nazi and Soviet) and the grisly deaths of over a hundred million people as those empires fell. But in God’s providence, there are some who are ready to plant and tend the seeds of the next culture, which has a shot at healing the traumas we have so recklessly created. It will be long work, and tedious. We will probably have to make do for long stretches with lean resources, both physical and intellectual, all kinds of evils will be attributed to us falsely, and few now alive may live to see the fruit of our cultivation.

So, we need to start cultivating because that is what faith is – “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1-3).