Revisionism and the Appropriation of Bonhoeffer

https://religionnews.com/2024/10/21/stop-taking-bonhoeffers-name-in-vain-scholars-warn-eric-metaxas-and-other-christian-nationalists/

https://baptistnews.com/article/bonhoeffer-family-and-scholars-warn-against-metaxas-and-christian-nationalists/

Evangelicals are excited. There's a new Bonhoeffer movie coming out from Angel Studios, the same people who produced The Sound of Freedom - based on Tim Ballard, a Mormon QAnon advocate and liar. And from everything I've read, this Bonhoeffer movie is basically another example of twisted history and propaganda. But this is nothing new. Bonhoeffer was hijacked by the Evangelicals years ago.

Riemenschneider, the AfD, and Anti-Semitism

https://ironsharpensironradio.com/2024/09/16/september-13-2024-show-with-tobias-riemenschneider-on-the-rise-of-anti-semitism-admiration-of-adolf-hitler-in-the-21st-century/

It has been disconcerting to listen to Chris Arnzen interview German Theonomist pastor Tobias Riemenschneider on various subjects, but in particular in connection to German history and politics.

Washington and the Banderites

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/09/13/czgh-s13.html

It had been a few years since I picked up Russ Bellant's Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, the 3rd edition published in 1991. The scandals he reports surrounding World War II-era fascists and the Nixon, Reagan, and GHW Bush administrations have been all but forgotten. And yet it was the Ukrainian angle that drove me to revisit the work - and it revealed some interesting bits of information.

Zelenskiy Knew

As I stated in a related piece, the coverage of the Canadian Parliament scandal has been largely disingenuous and has omitted several critical points.

Anti-Semitic Israeli Generals?

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-former-general-compares-palestinian-treatment-nazi-germany

One would think this story would get a little more press than it has received.

Was this some left-wing firebrand that dared to compare Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi regime or its West Bank policies to apartheid South Africa?

A Historical and Hypocritical Curiosity

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/06/far-right-politics-hitler-d-day

The son of former CIA director Richard Helms is alarmed at the present political climate in the United States and as a result has pulled out a historical curiosity to make his point. He is in possession of a letter written by his father in 1945. The future CIA director was part of the OSS and wrote his infant son a letter on the recently defeated Hitler's stationary warning him about the evils in the world and his witnessing of them.

Orban's Mouth, the Fourth Reich, and The European Union (EU)

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/czechia-fumes-after-orban-compares-eu-with-hitlers-plans/

The European Union has always been a secularized attempt at rekindling the Holy Roman Empire – and as time has made clear, the 'of the German Nation' is probably more apropos than many would care to admit.

The Woke Fantasies of a Dominionist Fool and His Blind Pursuit of Fascism

https://theaquilareport.com/wokism-and-silent-preachers-a-redux-of-hitlers-germany/

The fool speaks again. We have certainly wasted some ink responding to the likes of retired PCA minister Larry Ball, but given that his material is published at The Aquila Report it's evident that someone finds it to be noteworthy and intelligent. It's hard to imagine someone might find it edifying but given that there are still people walking around with Newsmax and Trump hats on – anything is possible.

Germany: Anti-Nazi Laws Turned Against Those Opposing Fascism

https://unac.notowar.net/2023/02/05/peace-activist-sentenced-for-criticizing-german-war-policy-in-ukraine/

This story makes one's head spin. Peace activists opposing German policy and state support for Ukraine (especially in light of Germany's history with Russia) are now being punished by laws that ostensibly would have been drafted to silence Nazis and Neo-Fascists in the post-war setting.

A Ukraine Miscellany (VI): Mackinder's Pivot, Bucha, and Crimea

By demanding Russian rubles as the means of payment, Putin is attempting to 'blackmail' the European nations that still rely upon Russian gas. At least this is the argument we've been presented with by the mainstream media in the West. This is not only an unfair charge, it's incoherent.

Misassessing German Evangelicalism

https://www.evangelical-times.org/articles/evangelicalism-in-germany-a-stocktaking/

This represents a flawed analysis and sadly it also reveals some of the flawed thinking at the helm of German Evangelicalism. The entire assessment is in terms of Christendom. One would think that the lessons of that flawed paradigm would have been learned by now, but apparently not. 

Ken Burns and Vietnam Revisionism

https://bracingviews.com/2017/09/20/the-vietnam-war-a-tragic-mistake/

I haven't watched the Ken Burns series on Vietnam and there's a good chance I won't bother with it. Why not? Because despite all the hype and praises heaped upon it I expected it to be more or less as the author of this link has described it.

Burns is only going to go so far in criticising the United States. Tied to the Establishment he's not going to risk burning his bridges with PBS, the educational mandarins and the host of foundations and corporations that promote and fund works such as his.

Wicked Experiments in Guatemala

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2017/02/guatemala_syphilis_experiments_worse_than_tuskegee.html

This is a well known story to those who look into such things but the bulk of the public knows nothing about it.

Neo-Nazis and the German Intelligence Services

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/15/neo-nazi-murders-revealing-germanys-darkest-secrets

The nebulous Nazi connection lives on or so it would seem. Even this Guardian article openly admits the connections between the American formed post-war German intelligence services and ex-Nazis. The question is, as Neo-Nazi groups have acted and continue to act (often with impunity) are they being facilitated by the state intelligence apparatus? It would seem so.

Trotsky in Exile, the Radicalisation of the Masses in 1930's Germany and Today

Recent political events drove me to revisit an old but stimulating book. Historical repetition is rarely exact, but the parallels are sometimes uncanny.

Texaco, Fascism and the US Establishment

Adam Hochschild has written a new book about the Spanish Civil War and the role played by Americans in the conflict on both the Left and Right. In particular he provides some very interesting and (for some) enlightening information about Texaco under Chairman Torkild Rieber who sold oil to and supported both Franco and Hitler throughout the 1930's.

Two Kingdom Theology in its Compromised Form

http://heidelblog.net/2016/05/memorial-day-a-time-to-distinguish-between-patriotism-and-pulpit/

This article is an affront to morality and Biblical sensibilities. All too often what passes as Reformed Two Kingdom Theology manifests itself in this type of mostly Sacralist, certainly Kuyperian and loosely Constantinian format. While not wishing to formalise a so-called Christian state it nevertheless champions the legacy of so-called Western Christendom. While its advocates may be anti-Theonomic and so-called Amillennialists, their embrace of Dominionist categories both in the end and on a practical level brings them to more or less the same place. In terms of ethics they might as well be Post-millenarians of the old stripe.

Right-Wing Militias and the Christo-American Heresy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OHQ5oMywMk

I apologise in advance as some will find this video to be offensive. It starts out with some bad language. I will also freely admit that it is heavily slanted and is not really attempting to be objective.

Fidelity in the Face of Totalitarian Militarism

I'm sorry to admit it but the Jehovah's Witnesses conducted themselves marvelously under the Third Reich. There's a lot of material to be found on this but I was fairly impressed with the Wikipedia article's summary and narrative. In other words, it's a good place to start.

Mohler and Metaxas on Bonhoeffer

An interesting interview to be sure. They never specifically mention the Metaxas biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer but it's quite obvious they have it in mind. It's the elephant in the room.