Culture worked quite well and smoothly (with its own flaws) during that time period. Faith, family, marriage, community, and home were the keys to thriving then – and, together, they gave profound meaning to people’s lives. It strikes me in this nihilistic age, that God is likely to forcefully put us in a situation where we recapture those virtues. Root, hog, or die.

Unfortunately, the great majority of people alive today (except in third world countries) have no clue how to live – much less thrive – in such circumstances. Shoot, if the utilities were out for more than a few weeks and Uber Eats was not delivering, a lot of people in the cities would starve to death. The Go Forth initiative was intended to rebuild communities from the ground up, showing people what was needful, specifically, as the organizing principles. As it turns out, my original effort was too political and not spiritual enough. I don’t regret that. We had enemies of religion and of freedom holding all the levers of power in this country at the time. Getting past that threat seemed the most urgent need when I first conceived this project. But I do see why God would say, “Not yet,” to me and make me wait and retool to get it right.

Go Forth covers three major components to rebuild a culture that works. They are practical, communal, and spiritual.

Practical: This involves reviving and teaching the specific skills people would need if suddenly set back into a mid-19th Century setting. CORAC has already been doing that with its seven national teams. Those teams include Health and Wellness, Prayer Teams, Communications, Sustainability, Education, Crisis Scenarios, and a Defense League. Using a mix of homeopathic remedies and traditional modern medicine, the Heath and Wellness Team helps people take control of their own health while taking advantage of what modern medicine legitimately has to offer – without relying on it, particularly as it has gotten so politicized. The Prayer Teams bathe both CORAC and the world in prayer while bringing people from disparate areas together to collaborate in this great work. Communications involves a nationwide network of ham radio operators – because ham radio will still work if internet, cell towers, and phone lines go down. Sustainability actively revives and teaches frontier-type skills alongside ordinary skills that people have lost sight of. Education has developed classical curricula and resources people can use to teach their children the canon of western knowledge. Crisis scenarios works to anticipate sudden disruptions or emergencies and teaches people how to navigate such events with the greatest effectiveness. The Defense League unites people who have experience in law enforcement, military, and other public order professions to help people develop strategies and tactics to defend our homes and communities.

Communal: All of the skills we work on are vital, but they work best when used in community with each other. Not everyone can be good at every skill. By relying on each other, we can divide labor effectively and form functioning communities at every level. In doing so, we see how important it is to be able to rely on each other and cooperate – and we see how vital each member of a community is to the whole. In modern, nihilistic times, people have lost the sense of how to form working communities, what skills are most appropriate, and how they can interact and amplify each other. When done right, under God, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Spiritual: Morality does NOT consist of angrily sitting on the sidelines, criticizing others for not measuring up to what you think they should. It involves humbly doing the little you can right in front of you consistently – and giving thanks to God for the little you can do and being grateful for what you have. Living simply brings this home and gives meaning to life, meaning that is found in service to those around you which, properly ordered, is service to God. Is it any wonder, as we have inverted this, that morality has become devilish? It is we who are charged to go forth and help people see the Gospels with fresh eyes.

— Charlie Johnson