Law enforcement is just helping itself to our personal data.
And they're not collecting it and sifting it because they suspected you did
something. They're just running your data through their filters and
algorithms... because they can.
11 August 2019
American Style Evangelicalism in France
Expressing the spirit of the modern, these congregations are
hip, entertaining and impressive. Putting on high budget productions and
appealing to contemporary values and norms, the American Church Growth model is
flourishing in Europe.
04 August 2019
Dallas (DTS) Continues its Fall into Worldliness
Founded during the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy,
Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) was once a school associated with
Fundamentalism, however it abandoned that course long ago. Retaining something
of its Dispensational theology, the school now represents mainstream Evangelicalism
and the Dominionist Theology that undergirds it.
30 July 2019
Wal-Mart and the Self-Checkout Swindle
Recently I have found myself in Wal-Mart on a couple of
occasions. We quit shopping there in 2011 but every once in awhile I go in and
walk around and observe.
28 July 2019
The Chemical and Radioactive Legacy of the US War Machine
It's right that the United States is pledging more aid but of
course this must be understood in light of Vietnam's position vis-à-vis China.
Washington has a new ally in Hanoi, one it could have had back in the days
following World War II but that wasn't meant to be.
25 July 2019
Capitalism, Privacy and Medical Records
I agree with Ron Paul that a universal medical ID is a bad
idea and potentially spells trouble. And yet the question of medical records has
been an ongoing problem and all acknowledge the current system slows down the
health care process and increases costs.
21 July 2019
The Ukraine Conflict: Orthodoxy, Militias and Arms Smuggling
All acknowledged that the recent creation of an autocephalous
Ukrainian Orthodox Church would heighten tensions between Kiev and Moscow and
amplify the growing rift between the Moscow Patriarchate and that of
Constantinople.
These conflicts are playing out on multiple fronts. The
AsiaNews link explores some of the difficulties in Ukraine as its symbols,
shrines, relics and properties remain divided. Small seemingly innocuous moves
can mean a lot.
Additionally, a story broke this week about a weapons cache
found among some Neo-Nazis in Italy. The weapons were reported as bound for the
Pro-Russian and Moscow supported separatists in Eastern Ukraine's Donbass. Much
has been made of this story.
20 July 2019
Sloppy Religious Reporting From The Intercept
The Intercept has at times produced praiseworthy work but
overall the news magazine continues to exhibit would I would consider a
downward slide. What was once insightful and somewhat adversarial journalism
has (with a few exceptions) slipped into the mainstream of the American Left
and at times all but echoes the narratives of the less-than-left wing Democratic
Party.
16 July 2019
The Guaido Collapse and Perceptions of American Power
Juan Guaido's attempted overthrow of the Maduro government is
rapidly losing steam. His May 2019 overreach has taken the wind out of his
sails and left him looking weak and vulnerable. There's little doubt that the
forces in Washington that backed him and both disappointed and even angry.
14 July 2019
Terrorist Timing in Turkey and Sri Lanka
After weeks of tension the Erdogan government is going ahead
and taking delivery of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system. NATO
and in particular the United States don't want to see this happen.
This will begin to detach Turkey from the NATO command
structure and throw up barriers in terms of its larger strategies and even
battlefield tactics.
13 July 2019
VOM and Colombian Half-Truths
The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) can at times be excellent and their
reports moving. They are to be commended for their understanding of suffering
and persecution as not being incidental or occasional aspects of the Christian
life, but rather essential components of our calling.
There are times when I listen to their podcast, watch videos
or read their materials and I want to empty my bank account in order to help
them.
And then there are the other times when their predilection
for Charismatic theology comes to the fore and I reconsider. It's really a
continuation of my first encounter with Richard Wurmbrand's work Tortured for Christ which I first read
in the 1990's. On the one hand it was deeply moving but on the other hand the
theology was such a disastrous mess it was hard to know what to think.
11 July 2019
Confronting War Mythology
Reading this also reminded me of Keith Lowe's Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of
World War II. It can be safely said that war foments and breeds evil. It is
a case of Providential restraint being withdrawn and depravity is put on
display, even unleashed.
09 July 2019
Haftar and Libyan Ports
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-economy-port-idUSKCN1U02CH
This development represents further US subversion of the UN
recognised regime in Tripoli.
In addition to further support for Khalifa Haftar... who
interestingly has threatened Turkish interests... the move ensures that China
won't be able to move in and connect Libya to its larger OBOR project.
08 July 2019
Christian Media Schizophrenia on Display
On the one hand LifeSite, an Evangelical-style Catholic news
outlet has done us a service in revealing the repugnant horrors of homosexual
recruitment at work in connection with libraries and other public institutions.
It truly was disturbing to read just how debauched and depraved these people
are and how blatantly they are attempting to recruit the young into their evil
sphere.
07 July 2019
Guatemala: Evangelicals and Smugglers Together
This was a sad and unfortunate read. And what's even more
disheartening is that the report should have been broken by Christian reporters
but instead it takes a pro-Sodomite Anti-Christian publication like The
Guardian to get the story out.
29 June 2019
Kagame and Warren
Kagame is praised by the West and his legitimacy has been
granted through the narrative created about him and his movement and the events
surrounding the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. Kagame's subsequent warmongering and
brutality are largely ignored.
Palantir: The Electric Eye in the Skynet
The apostate and sodomite Peter Thiel has big plans for the
future. He wants to be part of the state surveillance apparatus which in the
end will spy on all of us. At this point it's clear Thiel has Deep State
connections. Just how embedded he is within the larger machine and circles of
power is anyone's guess.
26 June 2019
The Asian Underground Railroad
Beijing fears a massive influx of North Korean refugees.
Despite the perceptions of some, the situation with regard to Pyongyang has not
stabilised. Xi Jinping's recent visit to the DPRK was an attempt to shore up
Kim Jong Un and indeed from his standpoint Xi's visit was a substantial feather
in his cap.
There is no love lost between Beijing and Pyongyang and yet
the Chinese government (CCP) fears a collapse and the flood of refugees that
would result from it. And so they begrudgingly support the Kim regime.
Additionally they do not want the Americans or their proxies (like the ROK)
deciding the course of events right on their borders. This was in no small part
the reason why Mao intervened in the autumn of 1950.
23 June 2019
French Arms in the Era of Trump
Nervousness surrounding US commitments to NATO continue to
drive the EU to look inward. From the Franco-German Aachen Treaty signed in
January 2019, to talk of creating a European Army, many of the nations within
Europe are re-thinking security and strategy.
France and Germany have an increased standing in light of
Brexit and France which has long served as a Western 'alternative' when it
comes to arms is profiting handsomely as a result.
22 June 2019
Kurds Reject the White Helmets
Though outlets like Netflix and the Western media in general continue
to tout the Syrian White Helmets, not a few in the West are on to them and
continue to challenge their origin, actions and narratives. Along with the UK
based (and largely fraudulent) Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) the
White Helmets have played a major role in the Western shaping of the Syrian War
narrative.
18 June 2019
Haftar: Made in the USA
Contrary to the official narrative and policy I would argue
that the United States has been supporting Haftar since his return to Libya in
2011.
Few would doubt that his part in the 2011 so-called Libyan
Revolution was sponsored by Washington. But the official narrative posits that
he fell out of favour during the subsequent and ongoing civil war which many
date to 2014.
17 June 2019
Suspicious Timing and Media Collaboration
In July 2018, just as Trump is set to meet with Putin in
Helsinki, suddenly Maria Butina is arrested in the United States. The story was
a sensation as Butina was painted as a 'Red Sparrow' in reference to the movie
that had been released just months before in which a Russian spy uses seduction
as a means of gaining intelligence. Western media reported that Butina was just
such an agent and in light of the movie and television shows like 'The
Americans', the story caused a sensation.
16 June 2019
Tajikistan Persecution
This is a real shame. Again, it is not my intent to defend
the Watchtower Society and yet their persecution resonates with me in a
particular way because of their apolitical stance.
Why do they face such ire? Well, in Russia and the former
Soviet Union there is a hostility to 'sects' which are viewed as both Western
and detrimental to traditional values and social stability.
13 June 2019
The North Korean Embassy Raid
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-authorities-make-first-arrest-in-mysterious-raid-of-north-koreas-embassy-in-spain/2019/04/19/bfee15e2-d984-4600-9b63-14270f9b0bb3_story.html?utm_term=.8c6ecd3a93e4
I've been watching the news since this story broke back in
February but the story seems to have faded away. Why did a North Korean embassy
in Spain become subject to a raid? What was this episode about? The basic
questions are still largely unanswered.
05 June 2019
Franco's Legacy: The War Continues
Franco has been in the news a lot lately. From the plans to
move his tomb, which many view as an affront to his opponents in the Civil War
and the victims of his regime, to the return of the Spanish Far Right for the
first time since his death in the 1970's, the Spanish people are revisiting the
period.
26 May 2019
Trump's Economy and its Evangelical Apologists
There are different ways to read such articles. On the one
hand one could read it with a sense of outrage and great umbrage at the crimes
of the wealthy.
Others will read it and get angry and defend the status quo.
Employing a multitude of Right-wing and Neoliberal arguments they will quash
all complaints and morally denounce those who would dare to question economic
and market orthodoxy.
But there's another way to read it. First, I reject the
assumption of middle class norms. I don't judge the right or wrong of it for
workers by the standards of the middle class. I realise the average worker
expects vacation days, sick days, a pension and all the rest. I don't and I
don't have any of those things... and I don't really care.
So do I disagree with the author of the piece?
25 May 2019
Corrosive and Compromised Dominionism
This article typifies what I think of when it comes to New
Calvinism applied. This piece is run of the mill on The Gospel Coalition
website and for them it's something to celebrate. For me, it's a cause for
depression and it serves as a warning.
You will not understand the impulses behind their movement or
my criticism of it unless you understand the key tenets of Dominionism which
now is the dominant paradigm within Evangelicalism. The New Calvinism is some
ways represents a super-charged intellectually robust expression of this and
given the cultural angst within the Christian Right, perhaps it's no surprise
that this Evangelical-friendly form of Calvinism is rapidly becoming a
dominating force.
19 May 2019
Chiapas Troubles
For all the ecumenical bridges that have been built in the
developed world between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, it's interesting
that in Latin America the old animosity remains.
11 May 2019
Bolsonaro and the American Evangelicals
It was hardly surprising to read that Pat Robertson and Jerry
Falwell Jr. were part of this group that acknowledged and paid homage to Bolsonaro
during his March visit.
04 May 2019
Authoritarianism and Exploitation: News when it comes to China, ignored in the West
The Chinese government and the ruling CCP are deplorable.
There's no need to mince words. They are enemies of Christ and Beijing represents
a bestial power vying for its place on the world stage.
28 April 2019
Tajikistan Troubles and Evangelical Reporting
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.
26 April 2019
NATO, the Military-Industrial Complex and Trumpism
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:
Maria Butina has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and
then faces deportation.
15 April 2019
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
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.
07 April 2019
The Evangelical Blitzkrieg Against the Kingdom of Christ
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.
06 April 2019
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.
04 April 2019
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.
02 April 2019
Bakker: Blind Leading the Blind
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?
30 March 2019
Myanmar Woes
It is unclear as to whether the anti-Christian policies of
the United Wa State Army (UWSA) are emulations of Chinese policy or are in fact
being encouraged by Beijing.
Myanmar or Burma has been embroiled in a series of
overlapping civil wars since its independence in 1948 and many outsiders have
played a part. The US has officially been uninvolved since they airlifted
Kuomintang (KMT) remnants out of the country in 1953 but only the willingly
blind would believe such a story. The truth is Washington has been deeply
involved in the Karen struggle as well as some of the other 'internal
conflicts' which continue to plague the Southeast Asian nation.
28 March 2019
(North) Macedonia, NATO and the EU
Who has the most power and who is most invested in the
Balkans being wed to the Atlantic order?
While the EU would certainly like to see a Balkan
consolidation, given the tensions and financial struggles of recent years the European
Commission is going to be a little more cautious when it comes to bringing on
more instability. Various European powers have their doubts about a full
commitment to Skopje and I don't doubt that some fear yet another beach-head
for Russia within the EU's structural dynamic.
25 March 2019
Venezuela and the Mainstream Propaganda Campaign
Even though this article is already two weeks old, many will
have missed the story. And I must say that in the past two weeks the propaganda
campaign has escalated. The coverage has been unrelenting and yet profoundly
dishonest both in its assumptions and in the way the narrative is being framed.
24 March 2019
Good News Out of Africa: CAR, DRC and Nigeria
For once there are good reports coming from Africa. Over the
past several months a peace has been negotiated in the Central African
Republic. Let us hope it holds.
22 March 2019
Ukrainian Autocephaly and Schism
On the one hand one can sympathise with those in distress
over the schism and the way in which it has divided Ukrainian society.
20 March 2019
Nigerian Prosperity Politics
It is sad and disheartening to read of the corruption and
heresy that has overtaken much of the African Church. And thanks to
American-style Dominionism they (through the efforts of Theonomists,
Evangelicals and Charismatics) have learned about 'worldview' and the need to
capture the culture.
17 March 2019
Berlusconi Scandals That Won't Go Away
This death may or may not be connected to Berlusconi. She may
have been murdered or it may be something else.
But that's not why it's getting all the headlines.
16 March 2019
Traditionalist Catholic Responses to the Abuse Scandal: The Case of Pell
I found this article both refreshing and audacious at the
same time. In our current climate of accusation and Neo-McCarthyism few have
been bold enough to stand against the tide and resist the trend of presumed
guilt and the abandonment of due process.
But when it comes to the crimes of Rome and its sodomite
priesthood I believe that not only are most of the accusations true, we've only
seen the tip of the iceberg...
The Compromised Pence
Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is an unabashed sodomite and
brought his cohort with him on his recent visit to the White House. The event
made the news because Varadkar upbraided US society for not being pro-sodomite
enough its outlook. Most people interpreted the comments as being directed
particularly at Vice President Mike Pence who was present and in fact hosting
the event.
12 March 2019
The Breaking of Honduras
Honduras is suffering. It has become a textbook example of
how globalisation is a form of imperialism in which the market subjugates the
people, strapping them with massive debt for infrastructure projects they don't
benefit from. From corrupt business deals to the NGO's and old stand by's like
USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to the ways in which Wall
Street can manipulate the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the
imperial hydra is bleeding the nation dry.
10 March 2019
Sodomite Story Hour
By now many will have encountered this story but many readers
will not understand just how shocking and surreal this is.
This would have been absolutely unthinkable a generation ago.
This kind of perversity was relegated to the back alleys and the seedy parts of
town. Mainstream society, Christian or not did not view such things favourably
or even with much amusement.
If there was amusement it was mocking, shock-value type of
amusement represented in popular songs like Lola
and Dude Looks Like a Lady. It was
something you laughed at but at the same time it was something shameful and
dirty. If you saw a cross-dresser out in public it was the sort of thing your
blocked your kids from seeing.
09 March 2019
The Raw Power of the Military-Industrial Complex on Display
This is why the murder of Jamal Khashoggi doesn't matter. The
Saudis are not only in an informal alliance with the United States and Israel,
they are pursuing US interests in Yemen and vis-à-vis Iran.
This is not to say that there aren't Saudi and American
interests upset with the recent turn in Saudi politics under bin Salman.
Nevertheless the pressure is great to 'let it ride'.
When billions of dollars are at stake, there's a lot of
pressure and influence that come to bear and since there are 101 ways to bribe
and payoff people and with plenty of money to spare.... the people who sit atop
the Wall Street-Defense industry-political-military nexus... the Military
Industrial Complex have a lot of power. They get their way and get rich at the
same time.
06 March 2019
The V4, Likud, Aachen and Atlanticism: New Blocs, New Structures
These events are already
old news in terms of the high-tempo news cycle but they passed without proper
reflection.
To start with, the V4
countries are often spoken of in relation to anti-Semitism. Far Right parties
and politics are active in the V4 and thus it seems strange to many that they
would meet in Israel.
04 March 2019
The Threat of China According to The Guardian
The rise of Xi Jinping continues to re-shape China and it's
becoming clear the New Silk Road or One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is
about more than commerce or economic security.
Historically China (when powerful) has remained more or less within
its geopolitical sphere. A dominating regional Hegemon, many have argued that
its contemporary resurgence represents little more than an attempt to revert to
the historical pattern. The lords of Beijing wish for China to recapture its
historical place and position in the global order. Its aspirations are regional
and restricted.
And yet some wonder if under Xi the vision has shifted and
China is moving more in the direction of a global empire akin to the old European
empires but with a special reliance upon the model of the United States.
03 March 2019
UMC Traditionalists Score a Pyrrhic Victory
These 'conservatives' believe they have won a great victory
in that the UMC just voted down full sodomite inclusion... and yet the margin was
fairly narrow. And the story is hardly over. The conservatives do not control
the judicial apparatus within the denomination. If they can't enforce the
traditional position and start punishing and excommunicating the sodomite
factions, then things will go on as they are.
In reality it's clear the UMC is headed for a split, both
globally and within the United States. The real debate will be over the
mechanics of the split and the all the ugly (and sinful) court battles over
properties and trust funds along with all the other rubbish that reveals
denominationalism as a harmful anti-Scriptural distraction.
26 February 2019
Apocalyptic Roman Catholicism
Traditionalist Catholics have been engaged in a quiet (and no
so quiet) civil war for the past fifty years. They desperately want to overturn
the changes that took place with Vatican II. The problem is there are other conservatives
who embrace the changes in part, and then of course there are the large and even
overwhelming numbers of Catholics who not only embrace the changes but want
more.
Francis has not enacted any major doctrinal changes but he
has altered the tone and change is certainly in the wind. The innumerable scandals
as well as the rapid and seemingly unstoppable social changes are building
momentum and some traditionalists are beginning to despair.
24 February 2019
The Den of Iniquity
Recently I encountered an episode of The Wonder Years, a
television show that was on in the late 1980's and early 1990's. To be honest I
didn't watch it much at the time and in subsequent years my feelings about it
are mixed. On the one hand it is both a humorous and reflective period piece
that has some occasional value. On the other hand its humour is often out of
bounds and reveling in Middle Class Americana is not exactly my cup of tea.
That said what struck me the other night was a shift in
culture and a profound one at that. In the episode the Arnold family's daughter
Karen has (while away at college) moved in with a boyfriend and the episode is
about how this comes to light and the reaction on the part of the family.
13 February 2019
The Third Rome Brings Down the Hammer
The Kremlin, seemingly at the behest of or in collaboration
with the Moscow Patriarch continues to wage its war against all 'sects' as well
as groups with perceived ties to the West.
The Watchtower Society also known as the Jehovah's Witnesses
have been banned and forced underground and now some of their leaders are being
sent to prison.
10 February 2019
Interpreting Providence
Sarah Huckabee Sanders assures us that God wanted Donald
Trump to be president. Indeed in terms of God's Eternal Decree, it's true,
Donald Trump was ordained to win the 2016 US presidential election.
But what exactly does this mean?
08 February 2019
Italian Isolationism: A Cardinal Sin
This latest move by the Italian coalition government is sure
to anger Washington. One thing the United States won't stand for is Non-Alignment.
During the Cold War it led to serious opposition on the part of the United
States.*
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