This segment of a recent Paul Joseph Watson video addresses the cultural collapse that we see happening around us - including the way in which a debased culture has infiltrated the Church Impotent.

One of the effects of our cultural malaise is a decrease in Christianity all around the globe. This is not an American phenomenon. This is not a Lutheran phenomenon. This is not an LCMS phenomenon. This is not a Harrison phenomenon.

This is a Western phenomenon.

But of course, this is an election year, and there are people salivating to get their fingers on the levers of the Purple Palace. They seem to have adopted the political slogan BAMN (By Any Means Necessary). In politics, you never want a crisis to go to waste. They rail against the decreasing numbers of the LCMS. And they blame President Harrison for it. For surely, if we just had a different president, our numbers would increase.

We just need new programs.

We just need less pastors in collars.

We just need more casualness.

We just need less liturgy.

We just need more guitars and drums.

We just need a CM guy on the throne.

We are living in times of great civilizational distress - as have Christians in other times and places. We are seeing a culture intent on committing suicide. We are seeing people refusing to reproduce. We are seeing open Satanism and a general degradation in popular culture. We are seeing the celebration of abortion and the expansion of the culture of death. We are seeing sexual deviancy treated as a virtue. We are seeing young people, ignorant of history, clamoring for Socialism. We are seeing religious liberties being thrown under the bus by the increasingly hostile State.

And yet, there are people who are pushing the narrative that we just need to get rid of Harrison, and the numbers in our churches will somehow grow.

Talk about fiddling while the world burns.

What we need in these dark and latter days is to strive to be faithful. We need to stop being seduced by the world’s methods of psychological manipulation, marketing, and hype to “grow the church.” We need to stop pushing a Cult of Personality that treats candidates as saviors.

We need to own up to the reality of what is happening to our Western Civilization, and we need to put our trust in the Lord of the Church, and not in machinations of convention, candidate, or party.

If you think your guy can do a better job than President Harrison, fair enough. But this godless worship of numbers, this regurgitation of the Church Growth Movement, and this unctuous messiah complex is not what we should be doing. Nor should we be embracing the Theology of Glory and the “If You Build It They Will Come” cult of positive thinking.

Maybe we should humbly seek the wisdom of our fathers in the faith. Maybe we should read Augustine’s City of God.

Maybe we should teach and learn about the martyrs of the Church, like Justin Martyr, like Ignatius of Antioch, like Polycarp, like Perpetua and Felicity; and confessors of the church, like Martin Luther, like Philip Melanchthon, like Bo Giertz, like Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand - instead of worshiping sports gazillionaires and pop singers. Maybe we should keep the sports out of the chancel and pulpit, and keep the pop music out of the church’s worship. We now worship at the arena - when a few centuries ago, Christians were executed in the arena. Whether or not we find ourselves being executed for the faith, at very least, we are going to find faithful confession an increasingly difficult endeavor. Many will fall away in a time of persecution, be it explicit or tacit.

Maybe we should stop the shallow gimmicks, and instead do the heavy lifting of catechesis. Maybe we should rediscover the treasure trove of the Church’s hymnody, and inspire people with transcendent beauty instead of settling for schlock.

Maybe we should try the authentic evangelical catholic confessional Christianity, in doctrine and in ceremonies, instead of worldly programs and slogans that make the church sound like a tawdry seller of throwaway razors or chicken nuggets or a clown troupe - not to mention the ubiquitous gutter politics that have infested church and state.

Not only is it not the answer, it is part of the poison that is destroying Western Civilization.