The Puritans get a bad rap partly through myth and partly through genuine mistakes, but we believe the spirit and intent and the arc of their history show forth a path to progress toward a truly Christian society ruled by the great governing principles of the Kingdom.
The Puritans sought as pure and true a manifestation of a Christian lifestyle as possible, supported by a close network of religious, social, cultural, and economic as well as civic, civil, and magisterial structures. The individual within a nuclear family was to be supported by an extended family, the local town or township, and the whole “plantation” (colony) of neighboring towns and villages.
The Puritans, a product of their time to be sure, did not differentiate between those who chose to “make covenant” with them and those who merely lived among them but who might not share their views and convictions. This aspect of the Puritans actually led to their decline and disappearance: by making their entire program a product itself of the state, when the state turned away from its Puritan roots, the Puritan program ended.
But the desire to build a Christian society with its own material support structure is still a viable dream even in this day and age. The means of obtaining that have broadened and no longer require, or justify, the use of a state and its coercive agency to implement. Legal structures such as a faternal benefit society, a land trust, mutual benefit corporations, mutual assurance funds, cooperatives, credit unions, and clubs are all based solely on freewill participatory and involve no coercion and no intolerance toward others.
The vision of the Upadarian Society of America (a planned Christian fraternal benefit and missionary society) is in part inspired by and is the in the direct spiritual lineage and continuation of the Puritan dream, which was to create a materially self-sustaining Christian society. Unlike the Puritans, the plan and design of the Upadarian Society of America is to do all of this through freewill participation and within a larger decentralized framework of governance, including a plurality of leadership, egalitarian structures, and autonomous local chapter communities.
Abandoned are the legalistic traits, but not abandoned is the desire for purity in faith and virtues that nurture life and happiness.
The Upadarian Society of America will more or less, in its design, themes, and structure, resemble in spirit something akin to an indigenous tribe, with Upadarians being patriotic Americans who adopt a shared, intentional nationality based on a way of living and common purpose embraced freely by its Peers. In some ways, Upadarians represent a continuation and modern evolution of the Puritan Tribe, as it were. (Though we cannot forget our strong roots in William Penn’s vision.)
(Note- the Upadarian nationality is intentional and global, Christians of any race or ancestry and of any denomination can adopt this nationality without joining any Upadarian Society.)
This idea represents a scaled-up version of a distributed intentional community of people, connected in freewill participatory association for mutual benefit and to achieve shared goals, namely to promote and practice Christian kinship for obtaining real financial and material independence, to practice missional living and support a holistic world missions effort, and to both provide refuge for ourselves and to fellow Christians and others in crisis.
In practical terms, participation in this Society will provide a more extensive nationwide support structure for Christians pursuing material independency within a decentralized and egalitarian structure that supports, as opposed to lording it over, the individual. But more than that, it continues the Puritan dream, learning from their successes and failures, for a truly Christian society that not only glorifies God but is a witness and influence to the nations.
As a Christian fraternal benefit society, with a focus on kinship, missions, and refuge, the Upadarian Society of America will enable and equip Christians of every race and denomination to be part of a Christian society, to practice independency, and to be an effective witness and influence for Jesus to other people.
In no way would this Society seek anything more than to be free to pursue its shared vision and way of life in peace through freewill participation by its Peers in a decentralized structure of mutual benefit and support.
This is a vision for a nationwide structure that will engender maximum local, autonomous developments and distributed communities that serve Peers of the Society, fellow Christians, and fellow Americans. Patriotic as Americans, sincere as Christians, the Upadarian “nation” of people will foremost seek to serve and glorify Jesus Christ and then our country, America.
