Lillback's Messiah

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.

Freedom by Means of Authoritarianism

https://justandsinner.libsyn.com/how-the-modern-world-misunderstands-freedom-a-conversation-with-brad-littlejohn

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.

Meloni, Crosetto, and the Real Face of the FdI

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.

Napolitano on Easter and Liberty

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?

Meloni and the Judges

https://www.politico.eu/article/giorgia-melonis-italy-judges-viktor-orban-hungary-albania-rome-court-russia-war-ukraine/

Meloni's policy has mostly been to tack toward the centre, which has given her great credibility and standing within the EU Establishment. But as the article points out, there's still a very ugly Right-wing side to her domestic policy. Politically it's brilliant as it doesn't allow domestic rivals like Matteo Salvini to outflank her, but I think it's also indicative of her true colours and the nature of her political pedigree.

The Fog of Delusion: The Collapse of Liberal Democracy and Atlanticism

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/donald-trump-and-the-new-world-order-the-end-of-the-west-a-b71fa1bd-6147-47a4-8738-5c17eff44a55

This piece was written before Trump even took office and yet it has proven prescient - to a point. You won't read or hear about any of this on the FOX channel. Visiting their website is like a trip to fantasy-land - they are completely detached and divorced from the reality that the rest of the world sees and is dealing with.

Wikileaks, Internews, and USAID

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/wikileaks-reveals-us-spent-4726m-to-promote-covert-censorship-media-control-through-ngo/3476741

This linked article comes from a Turkish news source. As expected this Wikileaks revelation isn't getting a lot of coverage in the West.

Some are happy to see USAID collapse because of it ties to US intelligence operations. The article (in the AKP-aligned news outlet) mentions Soros and yet a closer read of the historical record reveals that far from being some agent of Internationalist Globalism or Socialism, George Soros was one of the American Empire's 'point' men in the 1980's and 1990's in Eastern Europe. As soon as the Berlin Wall came down, the US sought to consolidate power in Eastern Europe and worked with Soros and many others to subvert politics, create political parties, and spread money around to quickly shift the former Warsaw Pact nations into the EU and NATO. It was highly successful and played no small role in today's tensions with Moscow.

Recess Appointments and Originalism

If facing resistance from the Senate, the incoming Trump administration has indicated it would like to utilise 'recess appointments' for incoming cabinet members - a provision granted in the Constitution. The new Senate majority leader John Thune has signalled he may be willing to facilitate this by taking the body into recess for no reason other than allowing Trump to push his cabinet nominees through.

Sacralist Jurisprudence and Evangelical Syncretism

https://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ctc877/

I've been listening to Christ the Center since about 2009. An interesting podcast most of the time, this episode was an exception. After realizing the guest was a law professor at Liberty University, I almost turned it off. I struggle to take anyone associated with Liberty seriously, but I decided to give it a listen.

Europe's New Black Nobility and America's Christian Right

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/alito-supreme-court-far-right-ties

If you follow Right-wing politics in Europe or even Traditionalist Catholic politics then you're sure to encounter Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. The Guardian article in question provides a quick overview of the circles she inhabits which overlap with those of Samuel Alito. Her activities are not illegal - the article is focusing primarily on the corruption within the US Supreme Court and the ever expanding circles of Right-wing Catholicism.

Democracy in Crisis

https://theworld.org/segments/2024/09/18/democracy-is-under-strain-across-the-globe

Advocates for democracy are concerned. The once seemingly inevitable and unstoppable 'progress' of their system seems to be struggling. Some would say it's under strain, others would put in more stringent terms and simply say that democracy is in a state of crisis. They would point not just to the rise of authoritarian regimes but the strain on democracy within Europe and the evident fragility of the American system - supposedly the very nexus of modern democracy, the nation upon which the narrative depends.

The Dominionist Ziklag

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ziklag-secret-christian-charity-2024-election

The Christian Right's fundraising and lobbying machine is a veritable labyrinth and this is by design. Money is effectively laundered and the smoke and mirrors make it all but impossible to tell where the money is coming from and where the power is located. There are certain names that always seem to appear - these are in some cases key agents or actors. Sometimes they are the powers, the 'movers and shakers', other times they are the action-arms of the powers - which are often very wealthy people or the people that manage the wealth. It's complicated.

Meloni and the Dilemmas of Liberalism

https://www.politico.eu/article/giorgia-meloni-italy-press-journalists-watchdog-media-eu-politics-rule-of-law-report/

Narrative driven political forces willing to play fast and loose with the law inevitably end up with media problems. They don't like being challenged and called out. And there are other times in which such leaders will utilize this constant irritation as an excuse to detract from other pressing problems. So it is with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

Homosexuality in Woke Communist China

https://www.scmp.com/sport/paris-olympics-2024/article/3272119/chinas-cctv-stunned-silence-lgbtq-scene-paris-olympics-opening-ceremony

I used to enjoy watching the Olympics. Some years we'd even have cable turned on for a month so we could watch them. But at some point the debauchery (and the sundry base and vulgar ads) became too unbearable and so we gave up. I wasn't at all surprised to hear about all the filth in the opening ceremony - I did not watch it.

Legalism and Generation Joshua: An Exercise in Confusion

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/how-the-fundamentals-of-christian-fundamentalism-led-me-out.html

I read this piece twice, attempting to take it all in and let it wash over me. I could appreciate some of what Elizabeth Doll has to say and yet at the same time was repulsed by it. There are definitely problems in some quarters of the Church and often it seems like the parts that affect people the most are not questions of substance but style, an ethos, and a kind of culture within the Church.

An Excellent Summary of Christian Nationalism

https://religionnews.com/2024/04/04/the-peril-radicalizing-some-evangelicals-goes-beyond-christian-nationalism/

This is probably one of the best summaries of Christian Nationalism I've read yet. Taylor successfully and succinctly explains the difference between the older forms of Evangelical Right-wing Christianity and its ethos of preferential pluralism and that of Christian Nationalism or as he rightly puts it - Christian Supremacy.

Congress and Big Tech: Hypocrisy and Blindness all on Sides

https://breakpoint.org/big-tech-families-and-the-role-of-government/

As we've come to expect, Stonestreet is less than helpful in addressing the salient issues. This time it's about families, technology, and the state. It continues to astonish me that parents have so little oversight or influence over their children that they are unable to curtail the problems associated with Smartphones and social media.

A Few Lessons From Norway

https://www.jw.org/en/news/region/norway/Jehovahs-Witnesses-to-Appeal-Unconstitutional-Ruling-in-Norway/

This unfortunate if instructive article from the Watchtower Society's website reveals that even the Jehovah's Witnesses still struggle with the nature of antithesis. Obviously the group cannot be reckoned Christian due to their glaring unorthodoxy regarding the Person of Christ. That said, they are in many respects more obedient to simple New Testament imperatives than the bulk of the Confessional and Evangelical world. In many respects the Witnesses put them to shame. For this reason, I will from time to time 'check up' on them and read of not just their struggles but how they deal with them.

The Rights Granted by America's Enlightenment Creator

A few weeks ago the Christian and Right-wing media-spheres blew up over comments made by Politico's Heidi Przybyla in which she seemed to suggest that Christian Nationalists are those who believe rights are derived from God as opposed to the state.

The Revival of Franco and Francoism

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/15/us-far-right-francisco-franco-spanish-civil-war

This caught my eye because I've heard recent attempts by figures on the Right to argue that Francoism was not fascism. Usually the argument relies on limiting fascism to the Third Reich and anti-Semitic Hitlerism – and maybe taking into account something of Mussolini. Franco is treated as something outside this spectrum and usually much is made of the fact that his regime did not pursue anti-Semitic policies.