"We Are in for a Very Long, Increasingly Harsh Battle"

The Anchoress is reacting to the Hail Satan story and the title quote stood out for me:

When the Christians began to sing “Amazing Grace” they had to know it would foment a reaction. The hymn strikes a chord of mystic understanding. It is listed as an “American Folk Melody” but that melody is African — probably anciently African (sometimes I wonder if it was not the melody hummed by the Hebrew slaves, the soundtrack to the exodus) — and it seems to touch a sinew of recall and reclamation in all of us, in the same way, perhaps, that our cells can hold memory. Think of the first time you ever heard it; you already knew it. It is something primal, earthy and familiar to us: it is life, strain, yearning. The cross.

“Amazing Grace” is a psycho-spiritual weapon. When it is deployed, people cannot be shocked at what weapons others will use in response.

We are in for a very long, increasingly harsh battle. Keep your powder dry and don’t flip out at these first tactics.

Meanwhile, Amazing Grace. I wonder if it was the sound that accompanied the moment when Adam first stood erect and encountered consciousness.

I urge you to go over to her place and watch a rendition of Amazing Grace that is undoubtedly one of the best I've heard.

As to the "increasingly harsh battle" that's coming.  There's a part of me that wants to think it's an alarmist's warning, that in fact, it won't be as bad as some are saying.

A bigger part of me believes that thinking is naive.

I'm convinced The Anchoress is correct.  And before preparing for this battle, the first thing one must do seems obvious but I'll state it anyway.

Choose a side.

I think nuetrality or apathy is choosing a side, the wrong side.

I also think that we on the right side of this pending battle need to prepare.

The Church offers the best preparation.

When are you going?