A NEW TIME FOR CHOOSING
What will it take to stop America from sliding into the abyss of corruption and depravity?
EDITORIAL NOTE: The essay below A NEW TIME FOR CHOOSING, that accompanies the Preview of The Covington Compact is solely the work and the opinion of its author and is not a statement from the men and women who drafted the Covington Compact.
A NEW TIME FOR CHOOSING
by Mike Church - The weekend of April 5, 6 and 7th, 2024 was probably pretty normal and springlike for most Americans but for a rag-tag group of 42 men and women, gathered at a tavern and then a meeting hall, it was anything but ordinary. Under the auspices of the 4th Annual Crusader Congress, these folks met for good comradery , good food & drink and perhaps most importantly, to put down on paper the sentiments of themselves and their fellow citizens regarding the wretched state of nearly all of our public and private affairs; they met to see if they could find agreement enough to compose and courage enough to publish a plan of “first principles” concerning the three primary areas of American life:
Family
Government
Business
Well, after two days of meeting in small committees then in a “committee of the whole”, the Congress agreed upon the document which is to be laid before you, and which you will be asked to sign and help distribute, below: The Covington Compact.
I suppose the first question most readers will have is
“what’s the point!?… why would I sign a ‘compact’” and “even if I sign it, so what!? what will you do with it!?”
The answer is more simple than you would think and I believe the reason for this oversight is the cynical nature of life in 2024 i.e. most people have either given up hope or never considered that America can be restored to some semblance of our not so distant, civilizational cousins of Christendom. Of course if you are not of the view that what is missing a priori in the affairs of American’s today is Christ and His Kingship, then you may be wasting time that could be spent with your Only Fans mistress and Fan Duel bookie. As my once collaborative pal Michael Warren Davis put it in The Reactionary Mind.
We want freedom. We want independence. And we know, if were honest, that freedom and independence come only through struggle and strain. But we haven't been honest; we've redefined freedom and independence. Freedom used to mean the ability to do what's right, free from unjust coercion. Today, it means doing whatever the hell you want. Justice Anthony Kennedy put it best in his majority decision for Planned Parenthood v. Casey: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life? And that's much easier, isn't it? For us, freedom is about making choices- the choice between Uber and Lyft, between McDonald's and Burger King. If you're really forward thinking, it's the choice between Tinder and Grindr. Some might call that convenience. I call it slavery.
I will humbly present to you a concrete, very recent example of when and how The Covington Compact might be used for the True Common Good and to assist in quelling the modern American tendency to perform all acts in harmony with others because diving head first off of the Mississippi River Bridge is now normal and recreational albeit short-lived.
The little hamlet of Mandeville, Louisiana, on Thursday last in it’s town council chambers, was confronted by a neon hair-dyed mob of LGBTQ+++ agitators who demanded the city consider then approve their “gay pride parade” permit application. These lusty, poorly dressed members of the Rainbow Purification League Local 6969 proceeding to dominate the meeting with banshee after sexually deviant banshee demanding their “parade” permit because, well:
BIGOTS!
Only 4 brave women, in a town of 8,000 alleged men, would argue against pink diapers and phallic symbols being paraded through the family centric and family friendly streets of Mandeville and the council did what all deliberative bodies that represent primarily Christian constituents in America do: they voted 5-0 for the parade permit. A parade that will now take place in what one of the brave women called “MY Mayberry”. Yes. It is that easy to boldly place the rainbow painted nose of a deviant camel right under the tent of what used to be Christian Middle America.
And it will happen again and again if we don’t stop it.
So what does that have to do with The Covington Compact? Well, fair reader, had those 5 Council members read, agreed to and signed The Compact, they might have had the manly courage (there would be no women on this council) to tell the deviants “NO” and urge them to return to their “closets” where prostitutes, serial adulterers and serial pre-marital sexists dwell, too embarrassed of their wretched sins to “parade” them about in front of their fellow citizens.
The above may sound harsh but it was the unspoken, well adhered to, moral rule of law of Christian society from Charlamagne to The Beatles. This was not a perfect system by any means because men aren’t perfect, which is why we need Christ and Grace, by which we can pursue perfection; and that’s what we should be doing while consciously, charitably, aiding and assisting one another in the same pursuits. The Compact, we believe, can serve as a charter of “first principles” that the Committee did not create or even innovate, we simply sought to recall, record and then share them with you.
Once signed, we include a link for you to download a pdf version of the Compact that you can make copies of at your discretion and share with other leaders as we wish to share them with you. I pray you will consider The Covington Compact with the Love and Good Will which its authors poured into it and forgive us for the inevitable mistakes we made in its composition.
Finally, before considering The Covington Compact and your signature thereof, consider this from G.K. Chesterton; who, were he alive today, I believe would be thrilled that there was even a convention of Christians called to consider composing a “compact”! Chesterton, peering 115 years into the future, into the moment the Convention met and this moment that you consider its work, left this for us.
In short, the whole world being divided about whether the stream was going slower or faster, became conscious of something vague but vast that was going against the stream. Both in fact and figure there is something deeply disturbing about this, and that for an essential reason. A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. A dead dog can be lifted on the leaping water with all the swiftness of a leaping hound; but only a live dog can swim backwards. A paper boat can ride the rising deluge with all the airy arrogance of a fairy ship; but if the fairy ship sails upstream it is really rowed by the fairies. And among the things that merely went with the tide of apparent progress and enlargement, there was many a demagogue or sophist whose wild gestures were in truth as lifeless as the movement of a dead dog’s limbs wavering in the eddying water; and many a philosophy uncommonly like a paper boat, of the sort that it is not difficult to knock into a cocked hat. But even the truly living and even life-giving things that went with that stream did not thereby prove that they were living or life-giving. It was this other force that was unquestionably and unaccountably alive; the mysterious and unmeasured energy that was thrusting back the river. - G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World
The Proceedings of the 4th CRUSADER Congress and Its Declaration on the State Of and proposed Remedies for the Christian People of North America, “The Covington Compact”. Proceedings of which occurred on 6 and 7 April, anno domini, 2024 in The Village of Covington, Louisiana.
THE COVINGTON COMPACT
“The momentous gravity of the American state of public affairs, now occurring, fills every mind with painful apprehension; wise men who should be discussing it alongside practical men who should propose solutions are presently silent; popular meetings and legislatures are devoid of proposed solutions while there are no questions which should more importantly possess the public and private minds of men. A decent respect for the Rights of God and the future of His people and our progeny upon this continent, impel decent men to act; we therefore, the undersigned, in Congress assembled on the 5th and 6th day of April in the Year of Our Lord, anno domini, 2024, in the village of Covington, Louisiana, do solemnly declare.”
Article 1. The Family.
WHEREAS God has ordained the Family as the basic unit of society as evident in the Natural Law, and ordered to man’s final end, his Salvation.
WHEREAS Sovereigns are established for the Common Good and order of society.
WHEREAS the Sovereignty has a duty to pledge itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the family, as defined as one biological man and woman, on which the family is formed, and protect it against dissolution.
WHEREAS Ancient Societies that had allowed divorce found that it proved to be a t detriment to society. That marriage has always been taught to be indissoluble until death. Accordingly, to safeguard and promote the good of Families, and in turn Society as a whole, requires The Sovereignty to prohibit divorce.
WHEREAS the Sovereignty recognizes that by her life within the home, a woman gives to the Sovereignty a support… (continues)
Article 2. The Sovereignty i.e. Government.
WHEREAS there are two Perfect Societies, The Church and The State, hereafter referred to herein as The Sovereignty; that whenever the two are in conflict deference shall be given to the Church.
WHEREAS the legitimate Sovereignty shall guarantee to every citizen a subsidiary form.
WHEREAS the legitimate Sovereign is male.
WHEREAS subsidiary is defined as a government by its citizens acting in mass directly and personally according to rules established by The One True Christian God.
WHEREAS the Sovereign has a duty to pledge itself to guard, with special care, the institution of Marriage, on which the family, as defined as one biological man and woman, on which the family is formed, and protect it…(continues)
Article 3. Commerce.
WHEREAS commerce shall be conducted in a manner that supports families and members of the sovereignty.
WHEREAS commerce shall provide skilled services and quality goods to the sovereignty. That commerce will be conducted through the establishment of guilds for each craft and skill needed in society. Each guild will develop a structured hierarchy of leadership and create apprenticeship programs to ensure the generational continuity of skills.
WHEREAS Guilds & Associations shall be formed under principles of subsidiarity.
WHEREAS these Guilds and Associations shall develop ethical standards and practices that their members shall follow in their respective crafts.
WHEREAS we ensure commerce shall focus on the religious needs of the sovereignty by developing educational practices within a Christian culture to raise children with the mindset, ethics, and morals…(continues)
Article 4. Amendments.
WHEREAS this compact may from time to time may require Amendment, may call a convention composed of not less than three fourths of the original Sovereigns, or their rightful heirs, so ratifying same; and …
Article 5. Ratification.
WHEREAS the foregoing, having been done, in convention, by the unanimous consent of the Sovereigns present on the Seventh Day of April in The Year of our Lord, two thousand twenty-four, in …(continues)