A minyan multiplied

Pence writes:

Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, was filled one Sunday in May with over 40,000 men in formal attire promising to erect a fence of purity around their own souls and the eyes of their children.  That "fence around the Law" is the Jewish tradition of establishing communal practices that protect man from getting too close to the defilement of sin. 

Two thousand years ago, the Rabbi forbade killing a man, but He added a fence: “Don’t call him a fool.”  He forbade adultery, then added the fence: “Look not with lust.”  All these practical acts of separation to better safeguard the law and purity are priestly acts protecting the Holy. And since Adam, men have been charged with guarding the purity of the Garden.

The visual icon of the all-male group bound in common duty under God was a striking reminder of the public masculine protective bond that forms the fundamental accord of public life. Public communal life is not built on families or marriages. Marriage and family are protected by a larger male covenant sealed by blood – sacrificed to G-d.  This covenant is everywhere in our history guiding us through the desert.   In these troubled times, though, the feminist implant has so confused our souls that we disdain the public brotherhood that will safeguard us from the Evil One.  Just mention “males gathering in public,” and the Nazi jackboot creeps to mind and Gestapo sirens fill the ears. Civic militias and religious patriarchy are denigrated as the chicken hawk flies free and the serpent slides unnoticed.

The male public bond is as central to Christianity and America as the singular male-female private bond is to our country and Church.  Christ built his Church on twelve men with priestly powers to separate men from sin, disease, and death.   Arthur built his Roundtable on brother knights swearing their masculine might for right. (If only he had called it an anti-bullying program!)  America’s nation was consecrated not in a royal marriage, but by a blood oath sealing an honor code among the Founding Fathers.

The New York stadium (built large enough to show these men, but not to hold them) was a field of contest built in the heart of a city. For the city cannot survive without a band of brothers to fight for her. All of New York sleeps better tonight. For this time Sodom found her ten just men… and a whole lot more.