The Story Behind The Society

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    My name is Chris Toney. When I was a kid I read about Narnia and Oz, and other "secret countries". Out of that grew a dream, that one day I could have my own little corner of the world to live a life of awe, beauty, and happiness, to commune with God and share the secrets of the universe with others who could catch the vision. I dreamed of a place where I felt a true sense of belonging, where we could take care of it and live to the high standards we believed in, and have a cultural identity that had a connection to something deep and meaningful. As I grew into adulthood that dream became more down to Earth. In Kindergarten it was in our imaginations. Us kids had so much wonderful imaginative fun, like when we would find a tall cardboard box, we'd lay it sideways and crawl through it pretending to go through a doorway into another world. We didn't need toys, we had an empty box! Those were the days.

   In my later elementary years I had several different clubs where I'd try to get people together and do fun stuff, but I also liked having officious looking paperwork and feeling like I was up to important business, even though I hadn't any. It wasn't just to be pretentious, I've always liked feeling that there was something big going on. Not to sound like a James Bond villain, but the world really is not enough. I like big endeavors. When I was in middle school I started having Bible studies. During this time my family had the opportunity to live on my grandpa's land for several years out in the country in a log cabin. There was a pond behind the house, and behind the pond was a clearing with an old shack that my grandpa had used as a chicken house. I turned the little shack into our clubhouse, and put up a sign that read "Toneysville". Lol, that was the first real manifestation of my dream. (I'd like to build a little town called Toneysville someday.) In high school I had an after school Bible study + activity group, almost like an out-of-church youth group. After that it was "brotherhoods" and attempts at little secret societies and the like. Around 2006 or so, when those "do-it-yourself" social media sites like Ning.com and Spruz sprang up, I started a social media site called The Underground Jesus Network, which grew to roughly 250 or so people. I tried many things but none of them accomplished what I was after. People don't really want to do anything to change society, they just want to shout and hold signs and vote for someone who will. To try to understand where I was going wrong, in 2015 I sat down in front of my computer and started typing what I would eventually call "The Original Edict". I wanted to put into words what the core purpose of life was and how to have the best life possible. It was through this process that I realized the cornerstone of all successful human living is Stewardship. Even in the book of Genesis, God put Adam and Eve in the garden to take care of it, and taking care of things makes life better. This would be the beginning of my "secret society" in it's final incarnation. It went by many different names, including the Kingdom of Excedora and the Gemmagen Society, but nothing felt right. Something deep down kept telling me that I was missing the point, but I couldn't figure out what it was!!

Then 2019 happened.

   When I began to see the trouble that the Western world was in I had a gigantic epiphany. Because I was born in the United States, a child of the system, I take it for granted, and I dream of even better places like Narnia or Oz in all their mysterious fantastical glory. But to some people, the United States IS Narnia or Oz. We ARE the magical land that they dream of. I believe my feet have finally touched the ground. The world is whatever we make of it. Dorothy learned this lesson in the movie version of The Wizard Of Oz. We can run away to some other land where they have a whole-nother set of problems to deal with, or we can take care of what's right in front of us and make the absolute best of it. That's what I'm choosing to do with the Reformed American Society. We are living in our own "magical land", but we've neglected it. We've let it fade and whither, and it is becoming dilapidated. It's time to take hold of the reins again and get back on the straight and narrow.

   Voting is very important, but the end-all be-all solution to our problems is not the White House. We the people have exponentially more power than we realize, and when we set our sights on a goal and work together we can undertake enormous endeavors. The Bible says that great things can happen when we're in agreement. Let us be in agreement that we're going to rescue this old nation, renovate it and do some remodeling, and make it new again.

Let us be once more, the land of the free and the home of the brave.