Tajikistan Troubles and Evangelical Reporting

https://www.mnnonline.org/news/in-tajikistan-christians-are-government-targets/

https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2019/02/tajikistan-children-barred-from-attending-church-5000-christian-calendars-burned/

Caught between East and West, and embroiled in the New Great Game, Tajikistan continues to exist as an authoritarian state which while mostly secular, panders to Islam in an attempt to counter the narratives of extremist groups like al Qaeda, ISIS, and even the Taliban.

The Knights of Malta Controversy and Wikileaks

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/01/31/wikileaks-releases-documents-on-knights-of-malta-controversy/

This is in reference to an ongoing scandal within the SMOM or Knights of Malta, a famous if secretive lay Catholic religious order that ostensibly is involved in charity work but has always been suspected to have a wider agenda. From its ties to the old Catholic nobility to its many members involved in power politics, the Establishment and often the 'Deep State', the Knights along with Opus Dei and other Vatican entities have elicited no small degree of inquiry and fascination.

NATO, the Military-Industrial Complex and Trumpism

https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-and-security/news/french-defence-minister-its-called-article-5-not-article-f-35/

One aspect of the US push for an increase in military budgets on the part of its NATO partners is closely wed to the fact that such spending all but demands large purchases from US military contractors. The Europeans know this and yet they are torn.

Butina Addendum

A follow up to my December 2018 piece on the Butina case:

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2018/12/butina-mainstream-media-hype-and.html

Maria Butina has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and then faces deportation.

Le Feu: Notre Dame de Paris

In light of the fire at Notre Dame, I thought another perspective was in order so I decided to link this short piece from 2010.

Orlandi and the Vatican Scandals of the 1970's and 1980's

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/10/vatican-to-investigate-1983-disappearance-of-teenage-girl

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/04/10/vatican-opens-probe-into-emanuela-orlandi_da1a1c1f-4f6d-4838-9672-0ca7d972a2b4.html

I think it unlikely that the true story will ever be told. This notorious case has been overshadowed by one salient fact... the Vatican itself has been the chief force of obstruction to the investigation. These articles contain some valid information but as usual the real meat is found in what is left out.

The Evangelical Blitzkrieg Against the Kingdom of Christ

http://religiondispatches.org/project-blitz-seeks-to-do-for-christian-nationalism-what-alec-does-for-big-business/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/04/project-blitz-the-legislative-assault-by-christian-nationalists-to-reshape-america

They think they're doing God service but in fact they're waging war on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. They have confused power, wealth, prestige and pride with the ethics of the Kingdom. Rejecting the cross they have taken up the sword. They have also taken up the trowel but it's not Jerusalem's walls they seek to rebuild. Instead they're building a new Babel or perhaps they're repairing the breaches of an old one. It's a Babel crowned by a cross of gold, a cross antithetical to the splintered blood stained tool of execution and shame that we're called to bear.

The Christian Right and Lega

The Dominionist Machine Comes to Italy via 1994's ECT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/30/christian-right-summit-in-verona-draws-massive-protest

This article grabbed my attention because the World Congress of Families (WCF) is run by Allan Carlson. I've heard him interviewed on more than one occasion.

He appeared not long ago on Issues Etc. offering praise for Viktor Orban. While I can understand what is motivating Orban, I don't think I can offer him praise or compliment , let alone work with his party as Carlson's WCF is wont to do.

Ford Motor Company and Argentina's Dirty War

As Christians I don't believe we cannot support labour unions and yet at the same time I understand why people form them and on one level it's hard to not be sympathetic to their concerns.

Bakker: Blind Leading the Blind

https://www.christianpost.com/news/jim-bakker-trump-has-been-led-to-christ-so-many-times.html

What is more sad, that Jim Bakker after all he's been through is still as lost as ever? Or that he is still granted a voice within the spectrum of Evangelicalism?