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The Way Forward: The Constantine Strategy Applied

The Way Forward: The Constantine Strategy Applied

Last updated on: November 30, 2015 at 9:24 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Way Forward: The Constantine Strategy Applied 2015-11-30T21:24:10-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Restore the Cross

“Never surrender! Never give up!”

Perhaps one should not get cultural advice from a science fiction parody, but the advice fits American Christians. We are in a Constantine moment. What does that mean?

Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome, faced a nearly impossible political situation. The Roman Empire was in decline, the wealthy Greek East splitting off from the West. Civil war was nearly constant and outside barbarians threatened the peace of Rome. The City of Rome herself was broken, hard to defend and addicted to social welfare. Constantine was imperfect, but he got the big things right and bought civilization one thousand more years. He shifted the terms of success from the defending the indefensible, to defending a New Rome he built: Constantinople. As for unity in the Empire, he ceased the persecution of Christians and put the faith on favored status.

His strategy worked. The educational system of Constantinople saved “secular” learning and the walls of the City protected Roman civilization, East and West. For one thousand years, Constantine’s strategy provided a Minas Tirith for Judeo-Christian civilization.

So the Constantine Strategy is an attempt to change the terms of the debate we are now losing. We must shift to Constantinople, divide the united, and unite the divided. Here are three things that we might do to begin the Constantine Strategy.

Begin and support good or alternative media.

We need to find, start, and fund start up film and media companies that tell our stories. We must demand high quality, particularly in the writing process. Start with people like Doug TenNapel, Josh Sikora, and Barbara Nicolosi. They will each take different strategies, but can be trusted with funding.

There exists a Christian Media Complex that has failed us and with certain exceptions, the Constantine strategist cannot look there. The future will not include ghost writers, celebrity books with made up stories (see Ben Carson as one example), apologetic books that plagiarize or use spurious arguments, and a failure to fact check. The Constantine Strategy must eschew doing something intentionally second-rate . . . we will fail often enough even if we try! No more “product” hustled out to make money.

Invest in artists and not in the Christian Media Complex.

Begin and support good or alternative educational structures.

We must not build schools as they have been. We lose that game by comparison. Instead, we must adopt the best of the changes new technology makes possible, especially related to individual educational programs for students as opposed to the old “credit” system. We must focus less on geography and more on mentoring. Student-teacher ratios must not change, but the location of the teacher and the student can be different! Many resources for a library can be online.

We need a series of classical, Christian schools that contain grades pre-school through college. These schools can utilize the economy of small to fulfill particular visions (denominational), but unite for research positions, avoiding duplicating majors, and for other educational purposes. Education must get out of businesses like “big time sports” that do little for the average student.

Stay engaged in politics. Cast as big a tent as possible.

Christians must not be captive to one party. We must cultivate allies on our issues wherever we can find them. While standing for life, justice, marriage, and the poor, no one party will ever answer our every requirement. We must be issue orientated and not “personal.”

We must love God more than America, but love our nation under God. Christians do this best by working hard for our values, even when we lose. Get what we can. Argue for our cause with joy. The outcome is God’s.

The Kingdom of God is here now, but the fullness of the Kingdom is not. All Utopianism must be avoided, including in our organizations. No gurus. Accountability is the key. As much as possible we should take criticism from the “world” seriously and apply it to our own blind spots.

Constantine restored an Empire. We live in a Republic and so must turn our backs on singular charismatic leaders. Instead, we the Christian people must become Constantine in aggregate. We must network and talk to each other.

I am working with a strong group of people to start a school and media strategy. Join us if you can or do your own thing if you cannot. Let’s conquer in the Sign of the Cross: the emblem of our pain and sacrifice will become the sign of His victory.

Never give up! Never surrender!

——————————————————

I am thankful to a friend of Constantinople (logothete?) Doug Hammonds for suggesting this topic.

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