PBS:Frontline on the AfD

Last year Frontline ran a documentary on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) which I made a point of watching. Generally I find that PBS does a decent job covering domestic issues and yet like so much of US media is sub-par when it comes to foreign issues. And I remember being less than impressed with the previous coverage of German politics.

Christians Aiding the Trump Cover-Up

After all the efforts to cover up Trump's connections to Jeffrey Epstein, the GOP base and now the White House have capitulated. What has already been revealed is telling and yet not in the least surprising. We already knew what Trump was.

And we'll see whether or not Pam Bondi intervenes and withholds documents due to 'pending or ongoing investigations'. It was no accident that Trump ordered to start investigating Clinton and others in conjunction with his seeming capitulation.

The Nigeria Controversy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I734EZXvHqM

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/10/2/no-bill-maher-there-is-no-christian-genocide-in-nigeria

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/1/trump-threatens-to-launch-attacks-in-nigeria-over-killing-of-christians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoywuyiRY_w

https://africa.thegospelcoalition.org/article/is-there-a-christian-genocide-happening-in-nigeria/

https://www.africanews.com/2025/10/17/nigeria-denies-ted-cruzs-christian-genocide-claims//

The first link is to a recent episode of Al Jazeera's Inside Story. One of the panelists is from the Right-wing Hudson Institute. Despite the fact these panelists argue that to simply call what is going on in Nigeria 'a Christian genocide' is misleading and an oversimplification, there are those who will continue to insist this is what is taking place. There are even Christian leaders in Nigeria protesting this representation by the American Right.

DeYoung, Wilson, and the Delusions of Chivalry

*updated 17 Nov 25 

https://clearlyreformed.org/in-search-of-chivalry/

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-wilson-moscow-mood.html

DeYoung is to be commended for his challenge to Doug Wilson and his cultish and even fascistic understanding of masculinity. I was thus surprised to find this article by DeYoung in celebration of Medieval Knighthood and its supposed virtues. In reality, DeYoung presents us with an idealised and even romanticised portrait of Christendom's warrior class. The reality is something quite different.

Lobbyists Who Pose as Pastors and the Ministries that Attempt to Cover-up Their Crimes

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2025/attorney-general-james-announces-conviction-new-york-political-party-leader

https://wng.org/sift/family-policy-director-jailed-for-campaign-finance-errors-1753457727

https://www.thelcn.com/news/livingston-county-conservative-party-chairman-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-party-funds/article_605fd85f-fad5-4b51-b6e9-85f96180f749.html

Jason McGuire is a regular fixture on the Family Life Network (FLN). Based in Bath, New York, the Evangelical radio station covers an area from the eastern border of Ohio to the Catskill Mountains - from Lake Ontario all down through Northern and Central Pennsylvania. The station is ubiquitous - at times it seems to dominate the airwaves with multiple frequencies overlapping and drowning out other signals. It's odd though because whether one is wandering through Buffalo, Johnstown, State College, Scranton, or Binghamton - one does not feel a strong Christian presence. Sometimes I wonder, who is listening to this? Of course FLN's watered down pop culture Christianity with its cheap grace gospel doesn't lend itself to a strong witness. The tattooed vaping girl with the green hair standing outside a Sheetz gas station/convenience store may in fact be an FLN-type Evangelical who attends church a half-dozen times a year, has been assured of salvation, and yet doesn't know the Scriptures, and cannot even begin to explain or elaborate the faith apart from some emotional expressions.

This kind of Christianity is also dominant on college campuses. My son attends a Bible study wherein many of the Christians present will admit they haven't even made it through the New Testament. Obviously, they know next to nothing about Christian doctrine and the understanding of Church history doesn't extend beyond the last decade.

Is this even Christianity at all?

You Will Love and Celebrate Charlie Kirk

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/11/nx-s1-5550366/charlie-kirk-social-media-firings

There are many stories similar to this one that have been lost in the fog since the September assassination of Kirk. The irony here is that the 'Alexandra' in question was only using Kirk's own words and morally dubious framing of the Paul Pelosi attack - which was attempted murder. She more or less quoted Kirk and yet because it was directed against him - it turned her life upside down.

The Crisis in the American Church and the Underlying Assumptions (and Worldly Givens) the Church Refuses to Address

https://virgilwalker.substack.com/p/the-sermons-the-church-refuses-to

Once again Virgil Walker manages to raise some valid points and then miss the larger point. Has the modern Church succumbed to worldliness in the realm of gender and family structure? Absolutely, and this is even a problem in circles that otherwise are deemed to be very conservative.

The Fallacy of Veteran Veneration by Evangelicals

https://www.evangelical-times.org/are-nonconformists-hypocrites-on-remembrance-sunday/

*You may not be able to read the entire article without a subscription. The Evangelical Times has restricted a lot of its content in recent years.

In the linked article, Mike Judge of Manchester writes:

"Remembrance Sunday is not about endorsing every decision of government, nor about glorifying war. It is about acknowledging sacrifice — the high price paid by those who laid down their lives in the service of others. That principle, of self-giving love, resonates deeply with the gospel we proclaim. “Greater love hath no man than this,” said our Lord, “that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Soybeans and Argentina - Economic Nationalism or Political Economics?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/22/why-us-soya-bean-farmers-are-upset-with-trumps-20bn-argentina-bailout

It's not something you hear about in Right-wing circles, but America's agricultural sector is not happy with Trump. Now since this article appeared on Al Jazeera at the end of October, the soybean situation has changed as Trump has cut a deal with Xi Jinping - though Chinese assessments don't seem to match the White House's rhetoric. China is once again buying American soybeans and so the situation has improved - at least as some see it. Others say even this is not panning out the way the White House has marketed it. Tariffs remain, and Beijing is signalling that it's looking more and more to Brazil to meet its demand. In other words, the reality seems a little more murky and complicated than how Trump would present it.

One Nation - Two Masters: The Confusion that is Sacralist-Nationalist Evangelicalism

https://cne.news/article/4851-why-one-nation-can-never-serve-two-masters

We read in Matthew 6.24:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Not long ago I head Charlie Kirk twist this passage and use it to justify nationalism. You have to serve and love your country or not. You can't have divided loyalty. It was a complete distortion of the passage as it actually precludes the very nationalism Kirk was arguing for. Kirk was advocating a divided loyalty that contradicted the words of Christ.

Western Media and How it Frames Resistance

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/08/the-shanghai-cooperation-organization-and-brics-2025-eurasias-re-alignment-in-the-face-of-late-stage-barbarism/

For those who follow the meetings and agendas of groups like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) or BRICS, Hudson's explanations are nothing new. However, his relation of this agenda to Western media coverage is critical and telling, as it's clear the media doesn't actually want the public to engage. These meetings and organisations are utilised by the media as a means of stoking fear and anxiety.

Backing Zelenskiy's Corrupt Regime

https://www.politico.eu/article/dark-side-zelenskyy-rule-ukraine/

When Politico is reporting this, it suggests it might be just the tip of the iceberg. It's more than a little ironic that Zelenskiy, the darling of NATO is in fact turning into a Putin-like ruler - crushing his opposition, using the courts to silence and imprison them, and in many ways erecting a regime of fear.