https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/09/atomic-bombings-at-80-the-very-un-christian-nagasaki-bomb/
Growing up I always heard apologias for the use of atomic weapons but few discussed specifically what happened on August 9, 1945 and the place of Nagasaki within the framework of Japanese culture.
https://trt.global/world/article/b73a9e89ed67
The lead-up to the July 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro was the source of a great deal of hype and speculation. Would the BRICS bloc make a more aggressive move against the dollar?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlZl-NkrdNk
Dina Boluarte spent years on the Far Left connected to Marxist movements within Peru and from 2021-2022 she served as a high-ranking official in the Castillo administration. Beset by political turmoil and an ongoing constitutional crisis - including attempts to impeach him, Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve congress, seize control of the courts, and order a national curfew. He reached too far and did not have sufficient support - especially from the military. Even though she was his first vice president, Dina Boluarte did not support him or stand by him. Castillo's plan quickly collapsed leading to his arrest and impeachment in December 2022. He remains in detention as of this writing.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/14/ivan_cepeda_colombia_uribe_guilty_verdict
This is a topic that I've already touched on in the past, however this court case has simply confirmed not only what was already known but expanded upon the nature of the corruption and cover up.
This article inadvertently reveals some of the misperceptions of life under communism. You certainly could attend church but if you did, there was a price.
Along with the bulk of the public, as a church attender you would not be a member of the Communist Party. In addition you would find many jobs and places to live closed to you. You could live and make a living, but as a Christian you were part of an underclass.
In the 3rd and 4th centuries large numbers of Christians lived in Persia - and given that the Roman Empire persecuted them, they were welcome. Rome and Persia had already been engaged in centuries of war and it would continue until the 7th century and the Islamic conquest. Persia was a haven for these Christian communities.
Likud has long collaborated with the GOP, not only on issues such as Project Esther, but in partisan politics as well. Time and again, Israel has helped Republicans undermine not only presidents' Clinton, Obama, and Biden, but other figures connected to the Democratic Party. They work in tandem, with common interests.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-civil-war-erupts-over-gaza-as-gop-rep-says-starve-away/
In some respects it seems like the situation in Gaza is getting less and less coverage even while the situation remains acute, with at least dozens dying every day, killed by bullets, bombs, starvation, or other forms of deprivation. The media is derelict and refuses to properly cover the story nor the fact that Israel has killed over two hundred journalists, and is clearly unwilling for anyone to do on the ground reporting.
https://cne.news/article/4807-may-german-christians-vote-for-the-afd
Huizinga is an activist associated with the Acton Institute, Federalist Society, and other Right-wing think-tanks. As such, his attempt to muddy the waters regarding the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is unsurprising.
It's a shame, but Evangelicals in their persistent misguided zeal love any public quotation or reference to the Bible - even when it is being tortured, manipulated, and abused by politicians or celebrities. They think that somehow they've scored some kind of culture war victory because someone used Scripture - usually to justify something they're doing that has nothing to do with the verses in question.
https://eurasianet.org/trump-brokers-potentially-game-changing-deal-with-armenia-azerbaijan
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/07/us-deal-armenia-azerbaijan-00499285
I must say if this deal holds and comes to fruition, it will be quite the feather in Donald Trump's cap. Or if it goes wrong, it may be viewed by historians in terms of folly and provocation.
https://breakpoint.org/the-fallacy-of-controlling-population/
This was but one of many BreakPoint episodes touching on the issue of population control. At times it almost seems as if they (and many on the Right) have an obsession about this issue. It's ironic given the fact that it seems clear to everyone else that they really would rather not see some segments of the population reproduce but rather are frustrated because the kind of people they want to have big families - are choosing not to do so.
And why is this? I can't decide if they really don't understand or are deliberately resorting to smoke and mirrors in order to shift the blame.
https://cne.news/article/4772-seven-books-to-sharpen-your-christian-worldview
The article's set-up leads me to believe that once again the evocation of 'worldview' is not in the sense of a comprehensive and coherent system of thought but rather the rubber-stamping of an agenda. As such, it is in keeping with its frequent use within American Evangelicalism.
https://virgilwalker.substack.com/p/from-rome-to-rainbow-flags-when-empires
Walker is right in a sense but he largely misses the point. Perversion is a symptom of decadence which is part of a larger complex of events and cultural shifts that signals collapse.
https://eurasianet.org/us-strikes-mineral-deals-with-uzbekistan-tashkent-report
https://eurasianet.org/kyrgyz-pm-gets-polite-brush-off-by-us-business-executives
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/china-intrudes-in-russias-backyard-as-moscow/
https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Central-Asia-and-Beijing-after-the-Astana-summit-63374.html
https://eurasianet.org/united-states-and-russia-angling-for-influence-in-turkmenistan
https://eurasianet.org/rumors-of-chinese-land-deals-spark-public-unease-in-uzbekistan
As Ankara seeks to work with Azerbaijan in the creation of a new energy and trade corridor connected to Central Asia, the other big players are also quite active and the region is astir.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-china-2672360236/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/27/trump-says-us-has-signed-trade-deal-with-china
Trump will tout everything he does as supreme, the greatest ever. Every move is a triumph, a victory - but he's saying very little about the trade deal with China. For all the noise he made about China, his tariff plan, and all the rest, one would think he would want to trumpet this 'success'. And yet like his plan to annex Greenland - he's moved on it would seem.
https://cne.news/article/4780-as-war-looms-in-europe-some-christians-pursue-pacifism
Articles such as this are always going to grab my attention. I was disappointed to read the statement of Fernando Enns who apparently is unfamiliar with the argument that taking up arms in warfare is viewed by war-advocates as self-defense on a large scale, or even better they will argue that invading a country is an act of love - defending people from a murderous tyrant for example.
https://coreyjmahler.com/adolf-hitler-christian/
I already touched on this issue a couple of years ago when LPR's Issues Etc. chose not to cover a story of an LCMS minister caught up in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election in favour of Donald Trump.
https://g3min.org/book-review-the-puritans-in-africa-by-w-de-klerk/
Cantrell offers some insightful commentary regarding Afrikaner Theology and how it devolved into Apartheid. I'm not sure I buy the True/False Calvinism distinction though. First, there's the issue and question of Calvinism which is broad and difficult to define. Second, there is the Dutch Calvinist legacy and its heavy emphasis on an integrated culture - seen particularly in the thought of Abraham Kuyper.
When I heard Starmer's diatribe against immigrants in back in May, I thought of Enoch Powell and wondered if anyone would make the connection. They certainly did - at least in the UK.
I happened to listen to a recent Family Life Network (FLN) piece on gambling. This is a frequently visited topic as it concerns both New York and Pennsylvania, the network's listening area. Both states have in recent years opened up online betting and New York and Pennsylvania have both been involved in casino expansion. In New York, the Indian reservations have become popular venues, while Pennsylvania has allowed some casinos to open up in the Poconos and there are a few horse racing venues in the state.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/26/president_donald_trump_nato_iran
I was pleased to find this story touching on some larger questions that the mainstream media tends to downplay or ignore. The question of increased military budgets and militarism go hand in hand with the cutting of social services and tax cuts - some of the key economic planks of Trumpism.
https://georgewashingtonbible.com/pages/foreword-dr-peter-a-lillback
While perusing the nationalist idolatry and filth being promoted on some other Evangelical sites, I encountered this gem from PCA pastor Peter Lillback, who is also president of Westminster Seminary - to that institution's discredit and shame. Lillback has been known to me for many years as he is a leading champion of the syncretism I refer to as Christo-Americanism. This forward from the 'George Washington Bible' testifies to this.
https://tifwe.org/remembering-those-who-gave-the-greatest-sacrifice/
This was a Memorial Day-related article but it's just as appropriate for the 4th of July and indeed this whole 'Patriotic' period that seems to afflict the Church in the United States.
Littlejohn of The Davenant Institute is an avowed disciple of the Doug Wilson sect and offers his appreciation to not only Wilson and Douglas Jones, but Peter Leithart. This reveals a great deal in terms of his formation.
We homeschooled all of our children but I never wanted to join HSLDA. I know many who found them helpful or called upon them for legal aid, but I could not in good conscience give them money or turn to them for support.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence/news/italian-defence-minister-questions-relevance-of-nato/
Meloni has one face for Brussels and Washington, and another that she has revealed in her history. Has she changed? Has she mediated? Has she learned that it's one thing to campaign as an opposition party and another to actually govern? Maybe. The jury is still out.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/05/04/how-bob-parry-covered-odessa-fire-that-sparked-a-war/
This is not only a mostly forgotten episode but one crucial to understand the complex of events and motives that led to Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This is not to justify Putin's actions. Rather the story in this case is the need for harsh condemnation of Western media which refused to seriously cover this event (and similar stories) and revisit them during the lead up to Putin's invasion. To this day, the statements of his government have never been taken seriously and when sound bytes are played or recounted out of context the purpose is to suggest he's either insane or simply absurd.
There's so much that could be said right now about events in the Middle East and the conflict between Israel and Iran and the potential for a wider war including the United States and others.
For my part I think about scenarios in which the war could go sideways or the aftermath of a regime collapse.
https://newrepublic.com/post/195266/mike-johnson-donald-trump-defense-corruption
This story from May is already outdated but the substance is still pertinent. In addition to his hypocritical defense of the January 6 protesters (especially when compared to the Trumpite faction's rhetoric concerning Los Angeles), Johnson recently spun the incident involving California Senator Padilla at the Kristi Noem press conference. He put the blame on Padilla and suggested he 'charged' the podium - which is pure rubbish and he knows it. The Senator was thrown to the ground and handcuffed - an incident that reminded me of Charles Sumner getting caned on the Senate floor in 1856. These incidents are all pieces of a puzzle that future historians will point to when commenting on the collapse of America and its pending civil war.
https://churchleaders.com/news/510090-anti-christian-bias-task-force-religious-discrimination.html
This so-called 'Anti-Christian Bias Task Force' is part of Trump's plan to weaponize the Justice Department and his Evangelical allies are eager to cooperate and seek a position of preference and favour in US society and the legal system.
One might wish that Evangelical leaders would be a little more familiar with history. If so, they might raise an eyebrow at the sabre-rattling of politicians and be a little more cynical of their motivations. Make no mistake, many are motivated by nationalist interests vis-a-vis Atlanticism or the EU. Others are simply in line to profit from military expansion and militarism.
https://cne.news/article/1753-giorgia-meloni-woman-mother-and-christian
This article proudly proclaims Meloni's roots and ties to the MSI - the Italian Social Movement, the pro-Mussolini party that was founded in the aftermath of the war. The party would splinter in 1995 with one faction merging into Berlusconi's movement and the rest into smaller parties such as the Lega Nord (just Lega today) and the National Alliance (AN) - the party that Meloni cut her teeth in. Her Brothers of Italy (FdI) emerged from the AN, but the Mussolini-based roots are clear not only terms of political-institutional pedigree but ideology.
https://theaquilareport.com/christians-stop-calling-them-monsters/
This was a bit of a frustrating read. Marion is correct in saying that terms like 'monster' get overused and an appeal can be made to that end regarding the imago dei, however any appeal to Genesis 1 must also take in the fall, the curse, death, and the fear and dread (Genesis 9) that man spreads upon the Earth - points he seemingly does not take into account.
I am hardly alone in following the coverage of the Trump-Musk schism which as of this writing continues to escalate. The media tends to focus on the dynamics of the relationship falling into all the 'bromance' talk of the present generation - a sign of the culture's decadence that has degraded friendship and has a tendency to cast all relationships and interactions into some kind of sexual terms. It's tiresome to say the least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpPRkyXrBd0
Jeffrey Sachs is something of a rising star when it comes to commentary on Trumpian economics but in particular the question of Russia and American foreign policy. Since the death of Stephen Cohen, Sachs is one of the few voices in academia that commands respect even while positing a counter-Establishment view.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/12/ecuador-president-blackwater-alliance
Ecuador had been part of the so-called Pink Tide of Latin American nations that had turned turned to Left-wing governments during the George Bush era. The term of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) came to symbolize this era for Ecuador. After Correa departed office, his party continued holding power but the shift was underway. By 2021 a conservative (and pro-Washington) president was in power but his tenure was marked by controversy, corruption, and ultimately collapse.
Lately, I've been reading a lot of articles at The European Conservative and similar publications, trying to get inside the heads of these people and how they frame history and revise it. This article was no exception to what seems to be an established rule.
I was asked to comment about Josh Buice and the scandal surrounding him. G3 Ministries is one of the big names in New Calvinism - even though I think Buice would want to distance himself from that label.
I caught a few minutes of the Family Life Network's (FLN) news segment the other day and I was struck by how fuzzy the line gets between mis- and disinformation. It's also noteworthy how much the network has shifted to the Right in recent years - though it's nowhere near American Family Radio (AFR) or even local stations like WDCX out of Buffalo, New York - other stations I pick up at times when I'm out and about.
https://cne.news/article/4508-rene-breuel-bringing-the-gospel-and-pizza-to-post-catholic-italy
I all but immediately shut down when I see this now standard Evangelical image - the pop culture guy with the headset and backlighting with a drum kit and other instruments. It's something that could be put in a history book as a typical of the period. For my part, it's something I intuitively reject and even recoil from.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tells-walmart-eat-tariffs-instead-raising-prices-2025-05-17/
Trump wants Wal-Mart to 'eat' the costs of tariffs and not pass the prices on to consumers. He knows this will cost him politically as the working poor (many of whom support his movement) will be hit the hardest by the price hikes.
While reading coverage of the Romanian election (with the second round slated to take place on 18 May), I was absolutely floored reading this from a pastor in Romania:
The Russian invasion of 80 years ago is not forgotten. "They distorted everything; they raped our mothers, wives, and daughters. They are less than 200 km from my home. Do I, myself, have to kill somebody? Or to watch how my family is destroyed? Will I be able to preach again from the pulpit ever in my life? Or to run away? To leave everything behind? To leave my flock behind? I am not ready for this, I don't have the strength. I am not Dietrich Bonhoeffer... I am just a simple Christian pastor who serves his Lord in Eastern Europe."
How many times in recent weeks and months have I heard BBC programmes covering the election warning about the lessons of history being forgotten and the threat of Right-wing revisionism? And then to find this?
https://www.creators.com/read/judge-napolitano/04/25/taking-easter-seriously-78f98
Napolitano would have us take Easter seriously and then proceeds to make a mockery of it. I found this to be in keeping with most of his commentaries. We would do well to identify these errors and reflect on them. Have they influenced our own thinking? To what degree do they shape the thinking of Christians around us?
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/syria-assad-hts-china-future/
Foreign Policy magazine and The Economist have articles on this topic but due to firewalls there's little point in linking them.
Instead I'm linking this piece from (of all places) The Atlantic Council. It's biased to be sure (and even misleading at points) but given that it's readership is a little more high-brow, it's intelligent and touches on things that an AP story, let alone something from CNN or CBS wouldn't even address.
It's been more than a month since the Signal Group Chat scandal broke. This Politico piece from the end of March is dated but still relevant. Waltz has now been shifted over to UN Ambassador and Hegseth has invited further scandal. Some believe his days are numbered.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MqvIddYMMEk
This video 'short' appeared on the NPR website promoting a podcast. The clip is only about a minute long but the implications are sweeping and eternal. Materialism is a religion and its becoming pervasive in society as its implications are being worked out and applied. It is creating a new world and a new kind of person.
I happened to catch some Newsmax on a recent night and couldn't help but grin listening to the commentators drone on about the surveillance state and how the citizenry shouldn't have to give up so much of its personal data.
Many will have no problem with giving up their data to corporations - who in turn affect and shape state policy and effectively lobby the government.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/erik-prince-trump-immigration-enforcement
I suppose this article got little attention in Christian circles because few would find it newsworthy. They support Trump's anti-immigrant agenda and the fact that so-called Christians like Erik Prince would want to promote and profit from it - is not worth talking about. Undoubtedly most of them would do the same if they had the means to do so.
As expected PRI's The World didn't go very deep in covering this story but to be honest I was surprised it was mentioned at all. The programme is informative but not exactly adversarial. The story of Depleted Uranium and its connections to cancer occasionally pops up in the media but the Establishment has made every effort to discount and dismiss the question.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/21/vijay-prashad-brics-industrial-development/
I found Prashad's comments which suggested a comparison between BRICS and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be timely and worth serious consideration. Western opponents of the NAM always considered it to be unofficially more friendly toward the Eastern Bloc - itself something of a fiction. In this case, the foes of Western Atlanticism are in BRICS and so one could say everyone's cards are on the table. However, it's important to understand why the USSR and China were happy to deal with NAM nations and the West was not. Unlike the United States they did not assume that everyone who wasn't fully on board with them was an enemy. The US has a tendency to cast geopolitics in such terms - stated so bluntly by GW Bush. "You're either with us or against us." - a stance which may or may not drive nations away in the immediate but in the long term it's a position that destroys trust and respect.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/richard-secord-retired-air-force-155848925.html
For those of us who remember the Iran-Contra Scandal and followed and studied the story of American clandestine operations during Vietnam and after - the name Richard Secord is well known. He was the consummate spook, an intelligence operative that was involved in some pretty amazing if sordid stuff.
https://theaquilareport.com/is-america-part-of-christendom/
There seems to be virtually an endless stream of articles like this - trying to tweak definitions or steer the conversation, but always missing the point.
I was in a coffee shop and noticed a copy of the Sunday edition (13 April 2025) of the New York Times. While perusing it, I came across a large ad placed by one Eileen Hamilton. It contains two columns, one reads 'Putin' and the other 'Hitler' meant to tease out analogies and make direct comparisons. It got my attention.
https://julieroys.com/aaron-renn-might-be-right-christians-face-negative-world-but-is-it-new/
After months of hearing on the radio and from podcasts and pulpits about 'the negative world' and Aaron Renn's interpretive paradigm, it's refreshing to discover at least a few voices that recognize his narrative as problematic.
https://www.propublica.org/article/mike-johnson-evangelical-pastor-steve-berger-roommates
Given
Berger's penchant and drive for Dominionist political activism, the
claim that he and Mike Johnson don't discuss policy is not credible.
Also, given that Berger is obviously connected (and this explains the
reason why Johnson stays there), the claim is even less believable.
Such arrangements are strategic - not expressions of generosity or
mere hospitality. And it's not because Berger thinks Johnson is just a great guy.
Though this story dates from February it is still relevant and still a source of concern. Increasingly Western governments are equating anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech with being pro-Hamas and tantamount to expressing support for that democratically elected political organisation.
Listening to American Family Radio (AFR) in March, I caught a story about Ramadan fast-breaking being held at Windsor Castle. As expected the story was misrepresented. They were invited by Charles - though not without controversy. He is well known as an advocate of inter-religious and ecumenical projects. For some this is controversial as he is officially the 'Defender of the Faith' as head of the Church of England.
I heard one Chinese analyst speak truthfully - the end-game of these tariffs is war. Hopefully a 'deal' can be reached long before then but Trump's moves are a form of warfare - even if the bullets aren't flying yet.
I'm sure many readers have already seen these headlines about Evangelical funding being cut by DOGE - and no doubt many caught the fact that there's something poetic about these developments.
