EPTA

Establishing the first institutional American system for tradition.

FAQ

Advocacy

At this time, EPTA does not have a large enough membership to hold events across widespread locations. It’s our goal to provide more events further along our development, but please remember that the traditionalist community itself isn’t large compared to the overall population of the United States. Its geographical sparsity means you’d likely be required to travel some sort of distance in order to attend, even when the Association provides more opportunities.

EPTA isn’t currently organized into a “chapter/lodge” structure. The Association itself is a national entity with no franchised jurisdictions. We don’t currently offer any local locations, either.

It is EPTA’s long-term goal to open installations in large traditionalists communities. If you’re interested in helping us open an installation or donating property for a location, or if you’d like to organize a official event for the Association, please be sure to contact us with your ideas! Enabling natural leaders and inspired members is very important to us.

EPTA currently doesn’t have a club system for high school or college students, although the idea has been proposed before and warmly received by leadership. Contacting us to petition your interest in such a club would help us determine if it’s a poplar enough idea to pursue in the future.

We’re currently developing a schooling program for the academically-minded called EPTA Classroom, where students and graduates can receive a complete, structured, and authoritative education in the classic Western liberal arts style to compensate for what isn’t taught in contemporary sophistic universities.

Contore is EPTA’s online platform for members. It intends to eventually integrate the average internet user’s entire routine into one location, so that traditionalists can have their own space to live and leisure with each other. Projected features include a social media feed, a media cloud, an events calendar, online shopping, mailing, social status rewards, and more. The current plan is to launch social media features first while proceeding with work on others. Currently, Contore‘s initial stage (called Incipit) is live online and accepting applications! To make any further progress, we’re looking for skilled volunteers for software development. If you program or work in software design and would like to contribute, please contact us with your interest.

EPTA does not organize official social groups on other social media platforms as we can’t sufficiently guarantee a wholesome atmosphere for the user’s experience. This is due in part to factors of other platforms’ constitution which are out of our control. However, we’d happily advertise unofficial traditionalist spaces created by our members for the purpose of socializing EPTA’s supporters. Note that listing unofficial spaces makes no endorsement or guarantee of quality, and that listings can be removed at our discretion without warning. Please contact us if you’d like your group listed.

Metaphysically speaking, the will of a man cannot pursue an object unless his intellect is sufficiently educated about what the object is. Consequently, the traditionalist community can’t be pursued as an object of development and preservation if we can’t define what it is. Professed academics have the job of educating the community, especially the next generation of academics, to act as an intellectual authority in guiding the decisions and parameters of traditionalism. Examples include social etiquette, high art, application of the material sciences, and theological progress on the Church Crisis. It’s proximate to EPTA’s mission statement that, instead of being left to individualistic pride and vainglorious speculation, the work of academics be coordinated to make the most progress towards academia’s true end. We intend to form a body of academic peers to do that. Please contact us if you’re interested in receiving updates on such a body’s progress towards conception, or if you’d be interested in a leadership position.

Man is necessarily a social creature. To survive as he ought, he needs to live with other men to satisfy his material needs. In other words, business and industry are the first practical realities which make any sort of community necessary and not simply contingent. EPTA hopes to create a substantial traditionalist community that relies on each other in a necessary way. Choosing to do business with people whose beliefs are yours simply makes sense. And considering how the fractured American public is increasingly liberalized, it’s also become the safe option to prefer a self-sufficient economy among fellow traditionalists rather than risk financial persecution, inability to support our families, and thus the dissolution of the churches dependent on us. The first step towards regular business with each other is coordinating the body of business owner to do it. If you own a business, are starting a business, or are seriously considering making your living from serving the material needs of the traditionalist community, please contact us for further updates on the creation of a professional body.

Whether you’re a professed academic or businessman, EPTA strives to make sure qualified and established men are at the helm leading our Association. It’s our very purpose to bring diverse walks of accomplished life into union for a singular high cause. In fact, if you believe yourself more qualified and deserving than a current member of our leadership, our Policy of Deference will allow you to open a replacement dispute to that leader’s particular office. You can make your case for your own promotion to the remainder of EPTA’s government body, who will evaluate your claim with respect to the organization’s welfare. This way, EPTA’s growth isn’t limited by the scarcity of human talent from earlier stages of development. To make a dispute, you must contact us directly.

Above section missing parts located at epta.online

The Association

NGO stands for “non-governmental organization.” The term originated in the United Nations for non-sovereign organizations engaged in what are normally state-building activities. These private enterprises flooded the Third World throughout the twentieth century in an attempt to improve the poor quality of living rife in un-industrialized nations. Because of NGOs’ history in poverty relief and social services particularly, the term evolved to encompass any such organization with chiefly humanitarian goals. Most NGO’s are intuitively nonprofit.

EPTA aptly fits both the original and contemporary definition of what it is to be an NGO. According to the Aristotelian definition of “politics,” the Association aims to coordinate and preserve the traditionalist community as any proper society needs to be organized by leaders. Liberalized Modern politics do not sufficiently care for the whole welfare of man in society, such as moral and social duties. The human needs behind government’s duties don’t simply disappear because they’re ignored. The effects of, among other things, this leaderless vacuum has caused internal divides in North American Society. Dissenting factions are free to assert their own values in the void of civil government. Like John Senior’s idea of dissociety, the result is a steady erosion in loyalty to the over-arching American identity for the more particular factions, which some Modern scholars call “subcultures.” While American society remains an economical fact, its degradation by factional conflict brings us to a point where the public welfare is not perceived the same by different groups. Too small to correct the nation as a whole, traditionalists are still morally obliged to mind their own community’s survival, from the family, to the parish and beyond. The Association serves this purpose, making a functional “society” within the American to protect from possible hardships coming on the horizon. Not only is this classically understood as a political endeavor, but the noble goal of social service and cultural revival are undoubtedly humanitarian, not-for-profit efforts to serve a specific demographic of people.

While a charism is something usually reserved for an institution of religious, EPTA has been formed with a similar transcendental intention and is deeply religious. There’s an analogical sense of charism that we consequently enjoy: it’s said to be that of the Christian secular life. Just as religious confraternities formed in the previous century to defend the priesthood against novelties, so our businesses, homes, and families should benefit from formal protection against the increasing aggression of recent evils. The Association calls on a particular devotion to St. Joseph, patriarch of the Holy Family.

Leadership positions in EPTA reflect a pinnacle of masculine qualities like leadership, bravery, intellectual mastery, and self sacrifice, and are thus seen as an answer against the Modern attacks on masculinity and the promotion of third-wave feminism.

Unlike traditionalist think tanks, policy institutes, academic peer organizations, nonprofit causes, business guilds, or social fraternities, our Association isn’t relegated to one particular field. Rather, EPTA acts as a “big tent.” It focuses on the over-arching infrastructure needed for specific efforts like the examples listed, so that each is supported within a broader confederation of people sharing the same beliefs. Just like we interiorly dedicate ourselves to a particular job because it serves our deeper convictions, circumstances in America make it prudent to also dedicate our exterior efforts to a formalized group championing those deep convictions. Defending our convictions makes most sense by directly coordinating under their auspices because it’s the convictions themselves, not our particular livelihoods, that are under attack in the Modern world. We strive to create both new programs and network existing organizations while retaining their identity. Because of its complete approach, EPTA is animated by a “charism” of the secular life, promoting and defending all its aspects without discriminating against any single profession or cause.

In most cases, no. If a member remains in good standing, free from public scandal, and incurs no direct conflict of interest, affiliation with other organizations has no bearing on EPTA membership.

Our Association will built for uniting traditionalist organizations! While each one has its own particular mission statement, EPTA wishes to unite them under the over-arching principles we all hold in common. That way, our goals can be coordinated, the pool of available volunteers and donors grows larger for everyone involved, and we can ultimately work together in designing the restoration of our community and country. Considering the challenges that lie ahead of us, unity is preferable to remaining alone and vulnerable. If a traditionalist organization you’re affiliated with (through ownership, administration, or membership) would like to learn more about uniting their efforts with the Association, please contact us for details.

If an interested individual truly understands EPTA’s purpose, then he would naturally understand that creating another effort of the exact same kind defeats the purpose. Our purpose isn’t simply a set of unified principles, but a unified traditionalist community. Creating splinter groups or projects is entirely contrary to what we stand for, and it does more harm to the small traditionalist minority than good. It reduces the moral authority of our movement for formal organization, it fractures the small donor and volunteer base (destroying the potency of all parties), creates scandal for the faithful, threatens univocal social diversity, and introduces room for philosophical error to vie against perennial and Church teaching. EPTA is the first organization in the United States of its kind, giving it both precedent and justification advocate on behalf of the entire local traditionalist community without reservation. Its historical supremacy and mutually exclusive mission statement deduce that, should the Association achieve the faculties to satisfy its mission, it should be the only local traditionalist organization of its sort. In other words, organized traditionalism and the physical body which preserves it should be a logical distinction only. To guarantee it, no respectable voices of our persuasion are barred entry. One’s success in the organization is dependent on your aptitude instead.

A member working on unaffiliated parallel groups – that is, ones mutually exclusive in the same respect – presents a direct conflict of interest to the Association, and thus stands for termination of his membership.

Effects of the Modern Crisis have engendered such unrest to the point where the traditionalist community can potentially suffer persecution.  If our community doesn’t create its own institutions and authorities to protect from unnecessary dependence on hostile alternatives, it will have no recourse for defense against it. Although the Modern Crisis isn’t completely synonymous with the current wave of revolutionary unrest in the United States, greater efforts still need to be made if the well-being of our families, churches, and neighborhoods are to be maintained with the same ease. We argue that the extenuating circumstances place a moral obligation on those God made able to organize in such a way as to extend adequate protection to those under their care. EPTA is one concept for how to achieve this. Regardless of the way, any man God appoints with extraordinary talents will regardless be held responsible for how their talents are used, especially when there is need. We believe that the need is evident, and that moral obligation doesn’t simply cover participation in realized methods, but also extends to the creativity, ingenuity, and new ideas which God also grants us.
 
Besides necessity, there’s an argument of convenience, too. Traditionalism could be argued with more quality publications, promote religion more boldly, convert more souls, do greater business for the prosperity of our families, and ultimately heal the public landscape of this country; if only our regular affairs were conducted in a better method than the current status quo. 
Defining a particular event which proves the absolute moral necessity for organizing, like in other times of social upheaval, is difficult to do before reaching a “point of no return;” when circumstances make such organization no longer attainable if not already attained. The devastating effect of a solution’s absence in hindsight is the best proof  for a certain point of necessity. In other words, it’s often a privilege of the historian to make such accurate logical distinctions of passing human events. While we wish to produce more academic work speculating on the ethical nature of our times, basic inductive comprehension (“common sense”, as the American phrase puts it) leads the faithful and well-instructed citizen to realize that: firstly, the current trajectory our civilization is taking isn’t sustainable; and secondly, that recent events preclude immanent harm of some sort. The harm itself – social, economic, legal, or even physical – can be debated, but if it’s within the potential victims’ power to avoid, and if the current trajectory is still assured to worsen, then the only objection should come from the ignorant and the general human fear of trying something new.
 
But more specifically, the induction of impending harm itself can be further analyzed to guarantee its veracity. So looking at its origin from particular events and their meaning is necessary:
 
As an advanced symptom of the Modern Crisis, the 2016-2020 presidential term is the closest thing to a “point of necessity” we can identify. It witnessed several substantial developments in the long deterioration of American public leadership. These developments are matters of fact, novel in history and their effects, whose efficient causes are specific events of the past several years. They concretely threaten the prolonged prosperity of all Americans, but demographics not aligned with the contemporary revolutionary doctrine are in further demonstrable danger of legal discrimination and violence. Although such potential for strife and danger have long been topics for partisans and excited speculators, these recent developments are not to be confused with popular remarks or the act of speculating itself, nor conflated with hypothetical or ideological dangers. They can be proven by the fact of current suffering caused by the same events. Some of these events are:
 
  • Government lockdowns in the name of COVID-19, which have eroded American rights, destroyed the plurality of American businesses, and crippled the ability for inter-personal networking beyond heavily censored internet platforms;
  • The World Economic Forum’s consequent desire to substantially reshape the world in an authoritarian socialist manner via The Great Reset, a proposal with significant media backing and international support from massive powers such as Amazon, which if realized would pose an existential threat to traditionalism and the very existence of the Church;
  • On-going riots from radical communists (Black Lives Matter and Antifa) for upwards of five months in some locations, with individual assault of conservative political opponents becoming a reality in the United States, tainting any ability to advocate traditional beliefs publicly without massive social stigma and irreversible career damage;
  • Mass-censorship in popular media and online social platforms reaching a numerical apex, from which the majority of American citizens demonstrably obtain information about events in the world, demonstrating an active attempt to discredit and extinguish non-liberal worldviews altogether;
  • The uncritical adoption from the public school system and supermajority of universities of the same;
  • Mass-legalization of the barbaric practice of abortion, particularly the unspeakable evil of abortions up to the point of birth;
  • The assault against the Seal of the Confession and religious institutions, specifically their nonprofit status and those refusing immoral medical practices;
  • The apparent partisan slant of a plurality of state officials, so that justice is not enforced against leftist criminals throughout American cities and the 2020 presidential election integrity cannot be duly proven
No. The secular order has been known for being historically disorganized compared to other orders, like the religious. Natural law remained unquestioned for the great majority of human history, and so God’s good nature intuitively took its course. With the proper guidance from civilizations that imbued morals universally, the role of men in the world needed no habit or vows. Only sovereign government dutifully kept after the temporal end of all orders in society, secular and otherwise. The age of Christendom had secular life discern its lower state without any other hierarchy.
 
That’s no longer the case. God and the natural law have long been assaulted and publicly ignored. Government and even the Church are defiled with heterodox innovators inhabiting the most august offices of human power. The intuitive natural order is assaulted as antiquated and primeval. Like we find in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Modern man attacks intrinsic truths for the love of his own hollow inventions.
 
We’re under attack. Fiction asserts itself as real, delegitimizing the natural order once understood without being given a name. The traditional way of life is under attack in every aspect, from academia to the child-rearing mother. Children are stolen from families with propaganda. Livelihoods are ripped away from dutiful breadwinners. The traditionalist community is made leaderless by atheistic states and conciliar bishops. Public traditionalists everywhere are threatened with suppression and destruction by a growing, menacing political machine.
 
Dutiful traditionalist men shouldn’t remain content with an unorganized community without institutions, defenses, or hope of prosperity. While many have historically conceded to cooperate with infidels and atheists, evil and disorder now fast becoming compulsory to continue participation. As the institutions that once defended Christian duties of state are failing with no reasonable expectation of redress, it falls to the lowest order to organize in more explicit ways than ever before. Speculation bodes well for the creation of new institutions. After all, they’re required to build the traditionalist community into the concerted, non-contingent society required to guarantee its continuation.
Not necessarily. Our Association exists primarily because of significant deficiencies in other institutions that, if fixed (though directing the secular order specifically isn’t their purpose), would be able to ensure order and well-being as they once had. Those institutions include government and the Church primarily. If both of these rejected harmful ideologies to the extent that traditionalist Americans would no longer be directly threatened, but rather cared for, then EPTA would serve little purpose aside from honorific dues and a devil’s advocate. It could be dissolved at that point.
 
The extent of both institutions’ rejection of modernists tenets can vary to count as a success. It could suffice that one of the two only goes so far as to objectively guarantee public order, but still choose to remain in principled error. However, at least one institution must experience a full revival in the perennial Western principles from which it came. If both experienced only partial revival, the traditionalist community would still remain effectively leaderless (an essential aspect for a functioning society, one which EPTA also fills in absentia), thus vulnerable to deterioration. It would leave the way open to future revolution and further persecution as well. 
While our mission (defining traditionalism) itself seems too big to swallow, our approach breaks it down into coherent parts in two ways. First, EPTA employs a logical division of labor. The different aspects important for the mission’s total completion are all treated individually: education, networking, commerce, etc. Instead of appearing like a looming impossibility, EPTA’s division of labor gives people of all vocations a real vision – and responsibility – as to how they can build a better world by simply participating with the skillsets God has given them. Second, each aspect is given its own path of short and long-term goals, so that concrete needs can be put into perspective with the larger picture. Each goal of an aspect builds upon the previous. The first short-term goals are the easiest to reach (doable for a startup nonprofit), and their work acts as a foundation for the progress of larger goals down the road. Each goal can potentially be a terminal fulfillment of its aspect, too. If one aspect’s most far-flung goals are never realized, the work achieved towards it so far has value in itself, not simply because of what comes next. For example, supporters speculate that the aspect of education might have the establishment of a four-year, brick-and-mortar college as its final long-term goal. While such lofty aspirations are impossible to realize now, the potential short term goals – creating an online learning hub, offering space for traditionalist academic publications, and creating a body of affiliated academics – are much more realistic. Their accomplishment would also bring EPTA much closer to simply finding the money combining all three on a physical campus; but if the college were impossible to form, the short-term goals themselves (learning hub, journal, and affiliated academics) are not in vain just because the farthest goal is discarded. All three are worthy operations for the end of the mission in themselves. In fact, they ought to be continued by the Association.
 
By creating a division in both the mission and the steps to its accomplishment, EPTA can adapt dynamically to the environment that the traditionalist community find itself in. Short resources or a lack of professionals will not completely thwart the efforts of this organization. Even with the utter failure of one particular aspect, the mission may still continue on in several others as conditions permit. It’s advocacy and expectations tailored to reality.
 
Ultimately, the work of our Association might aim to effect real change in America, but it does so as a reflection of its members’ Christian perfection. If we strive to work as God’s instruments, our members can happily fulfill their calling on earth, and thus their duty of state. Man is both flesh and spirit, and so Christians in the Church Militant must orient both to the greater glory of God. God is glorified through the acts of His creation. With orderly work aimed at heavenly lives on earth, members of the Association can hope to better secure their salvation afterward. Affixing the will on higher things is to purify our soul from the sin and corruption, the selfsame enemies of EPTA’s work. Thus any scrupulous debate over EPTA’s justification by a minimum efficacy ad melius esse misses the point. As Teresa of Calcutta said, “God does not require that we be successful, only that we be faithful.”
Often times, diversity is an obvious weakness in a group of people. Divergent interests lead to a lack of unity. With no common vision of the good, times of hardship can present the opportunity for division and hostility.
 
Contrarily, the diversity of vocations which EPTA entertains is a point of strength. Rather than exemplifying a disparity in participants’ common purpose, it’s a testament to EPTA’s ability to transform a universal mission into the particulars of everyday life. Different careers and professions can see common over-arching principles in their respective calling. The result is a resilient cooperation of multiple vocations in the secular life, all achieving something greater together. The Association avoids any singular, rigid interpretation of how to fulfill its mission statement. It dynamically applies its mission over time by serving demonstrable need with available resources. Unlike overly specialized organizations with the same worldview, EPTA doesn’t exclude participation by vocation or disposition. 
 
The ultimate result is balance (something hard to achieve in advocacy groups!). With inclusion of all walks of life, the Association consequently houses a myriad of human dispositions within the organization, eliminating the propensity for the eccentricities of one viewpoint or another to drive us astray. Equilibrium can easily be struck between the caution of established businessmen and the vigor of holy clergy. Harmony can balance participation of both the leisurely and utilitarian users in the organization. Its been our intention to exclude social extremism by design, so that sense, good judgement, and right comportment have their just place in defending higher truths. For more information on our efforts against deviancy, please refer to our Anti-extremism Policy. 

EPTA works meticulously to guarantee its actions, leadership, and volunteers are held accountable to rigorous standards. Our reputability is inseparable to our organization’s mission. Without establishing standards for our advocacy to abide by, there can’t be a new normal to establish in the first place. The careful work and infrastructure created would be in self-defeated. There are three factors we assess that affect 

EPTA was founded as a unique unilateral organization for all traditionalists. It has the only mutually exclusive, universal mission of its kind. That’s a very bold claim, nothing to be made lightly. Making an all-inclusive organization worthy to make the claim is critical for our organization’s reputability, and we take it with the utmost seriousness. We’ve established several practices to solicit all interested American traditionalists in sharing that mission with us, especially leaders already established in the community. Ideally, the only traditionalists who won’t be included are those who intentionally refused to work with everyone else.

Firstly, we’ve established an Institutional Outreach Campaign. The campaign encourages our existing members to dialogue with other traditionalist institutions they already have connections with. Additionally, our Association’s leadership engages in a series of additional strategic meetings to network with like-minded initiatives, clergy, and intellectual figures. The end goal is for leadership to establish formal working relations with otherwise isolated movements. After a mutual rapport is established, it’s in the Association’s interest to reach out to the  reach out to parallel organizations and religious institutions to invite their participation. We’ve established a Policy of Deference 

The closer we come to fulfill our goal, 

EPTA isn’t currently incorporated. We’re seeking more candidates for our Board of Governors, as well as skilled volunteers. We plan to complete our application to incorporate as a legal entity in the winter of 2021. If you know a fitting candidates for any position listed above, please be sure to contact us!

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