Kill 'Em All, Let The gods Sort 'Em Out
Wednesday, November 20, 2024Today is the feast day of a couple of relatively unknown Christian fellows named Ampelus and Gaius, who were martyred under Roman Emperor Diocletian in A.D. 302, who himself came to power on this day in A.D. 284. The "Great Persecution" under Diocletian lasted from A.D. 303 until 313 and was considered the worst persecution of Christians by the Romans in Roman history. By conservative estimates, around 3,500 Christians were tortured and killed, while more liberal estimates begin at 25,000. Regardless, there were many surviving lists of individual Christians by name who were killed and even the average Roman citizen polled at the time thought the persecutions were too violent and unnecessary. Diocletian wasn't alone, as he divided Rome into four quadrants and assigned Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius to rule over three of the regions. However, it was Galerius -- responsible for convincing Diocletian to officially target Christians in an attempt to enforce traditional civic and religious practices -- who first officially declared an end to the eastern persecutions in 311, although it wasn't until 313 that Emperors Licinius and Constantine declared an end throughout the entire empire. In his defense, Diocletian had quite a bit of work to do to restore order to a collapsing Roman Empire due to foreign invasions, civil wars, and economic disintegration. Ultimately, the multiple edicts to wipe out Christianity failed and, by the time Christianity became the official religion under Theodosius I in 380, debates continued within the Church as to whether those who renounced their faith (Latin lapsi, "fallen") or betrayed the faithful (Latin traditores, "traitors") could be reconciled and heretical sects of Christianity were already being persecuted by the Church. |
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Torah Code 2025 Forecasts
Friday, November 15, 2024 Using Bible Code on the Book of Numbers in the King James Version on every seventh equidistant letter sequence, then multiplying that letter's numerical value by pi (ℼ) and locating the corresponding letter in a straight 45° line seven paragraph lines below and to the left using a string made from the tail hairs of a red heifer, then moving the surrounding letters counter-clockwise, I believe I have been able to predict certain events which will happen in the coming year. Disclaimer: If these predictions do not come to fruition, then it is not because the Bible is wrong but because my calculations were wrong. | |
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| World Mugwump Freedom Day Saturday, November 9, 2024 | ||
| Today a handful of light beer drinkers celebrate World Freedom Day, which was proclaimed in 2005 by President Bush in commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall by Reagan's mighty fist, thus crushing communism in all of Europe — and how appropriate following the interdiction of a Harris communist regime with the re-election of President Trump, who will be the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms. The first was Grover Cleveland in 1885 and 1893, a Democrat who was both a conservative and a liberal. But how can that be, you ask in disbelief and incredulity? Well, back then, liberalism was a different concept — now known as classical liberalism, which advocates a free market, civil liberties, laissez-faire economics, limited government, freedom of speech, and deregulation. Most Democrats today are social liberals in favor of social services, equity and equality, taxation, market intervention, and broader government involvement. Modern liberalism stems from FDR's New Deal policies of the Great Depression, although discrimination and abortion were less of a concern then. Now, discrimination and abortion are all the rage. In this year's election, despite highlighting racism and women's reproductive rights, the Democratic party tried to reign in VP Harris, a far-left socialist liberal, in order to win moderate votes. For most of 2024, it appeared to be the far right versus the far left, but most presidential elections come down to the moderate, light beer-drinking voters and this one was no different. Similarities between this election and that of Cleveland include tariff reform, immigration, voting rights, judicial appointments, Republicans endorsing the Democratic candidate (referred to as Mugwumps), and a certain someone's declining health — the wife of the Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison, who was running for a second consecutive term, died of tuberculosis just prior to the election. However, unlike this presidential election where a deteriorating Biden was replaced with Harris and partisan rhetoric intensified, both candidates quit campaigning and it resulted in the quietest election of all time. However, Cleveland did often blame Trump for all the problems remaining at the start of his first and second terms in office. | .jpg) Mugwump |
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LWoS 284, 287, 291, 294, 297, 302
Friday, November 9, 2024 Again I have forgotten why this blog exists, which is simply to lure people into procuring my book, The Lost Wisdom of Solomon, which is available in paperback and Kindle. I have since released two others but this is the one that launched my illustrious career as a starving writer, except that I never quit my day job so I'm not really starving, although I may be a little malnourished, but I have been taking supplemental vitamins daily, however, there's been some blood in my stools lately, so I may have to go have that checked out by a medical professional, although it's tempting to just post pictures on social media to see if anyone can identify the problem, which reminds me: the color I have chosen to use throughout this blog is that of dried blood.
287 Reprimanding a grown fool is like putting him over your knee and giving him a spanking with your bare hand. It is better simply to deliver a volley of lashes without one word. Rebuking a wise man is like swinging him around by his arm and leg above the ground. What fun it is for him to be enlightened with criticism! 291 Those who drink much wine mock the sobriety of the upright, and those who guzzle beer will brawl against discipline. A bear without its cubs is more agreeable. A poisonous viper held by the tail is more amenable. A wolverine snapped with the wet tip of a towel is more obliging. A freshly circumcised Philistine is more compliant. You get the picture. 294 Do not befriend ill-tempered oafs, nor consort with buffoons who are easily angered, or make acquaintance with irritable louts; lest they become agitated with you and make a dreadful scene, but do not apologize, since they are never at fault, nor ever to blame. 297 As a dog goes round and round sniffing another dog’s hind quarters, so a fool repeats his folly. As a fool goes round and round sniffing another fool’s folly, so a dog becomes confused and cocks its head to the side in bewilderment. 302 Though you grind a fool with a millstone, crushing his skull like grain, you cannot separate the folly from his brains. If you stuff him into a crucible filled with molten metal, neither will you skim the stupidity from his melted remains. |
Still a Big Fan of Technology
Thursday, November 7, 2024Long ago I took a creative writing class taught by a published poet who had one rule: Don't write about what you don't know about, which includes God and the universe. I took it to heart and avoided these two topics for years before I began realizing that no one really knows shit about anything, let alone God and the universe. What I've learned about God mainly comes from the Bible, which says that God created everything, and the Bible has been around a lot longer than most other literary sources, including scientific treatises, which are written by scientists who look at what's around them, theorize about their origins, and then do what it takes to make others agree with them by any means possible, which is why we now consider evolution a fact when it still remains an unproven theory. I'm not saying that science is untrustworthy -- I'm just saying that people are untrustworthy, which includes scientists and, to a greater extent, those who don't think for themselves and ignorantly believe whatever they are spoon-fed by the leading scientific gasbags of the day. Fools are quick to point out that I must be an idiot if I trash talk science using a computer because a computer was a development of science. No kidding? What I'm talking about are hypotheses with no observational evidence as proof -- to which the fools then point out that there's no proof of God, to which Romans 1:20 counters with, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse" (NIV). However, this argument has been adopted by the scientific community, who assume that evolution is a fact just by looking around at nature. Yet Paul was wise to this centuries ago when he wrote, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them" (Romans 1:18-19, NIV). He then goes on to say, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles" (Romans 1:21-23, NIV). To me, this sounds just like the process of the evolution of life and not merely carved idols. |
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Rumwold, Patron Saint of Abortions
Sunday, November 3, 2024 "Blessed Manuel Lozano Garrido, sanctify my blog with countless subscribers," is what I'd say if I were still Catholic. Although I do not venerate the saints, I do respect and admire them for their contributions in promoting the Christian faith. Today there are around two dozen officially recognized saints (celebrated today, not in total), so let's spin the wheel and see where it lands... Rumwold of Buckingham, please come forward to be recognized as possibly the youngest saint ever beatified. According to legend, in A.D. 662 in Northamptonshire, England, Rumwold proclaimed himself a Christian immediately at birth, asked to be baptized, professed faith in the Trinity, took Communion, requested the name Rumwold, delivered an eloquent sermon in which he cited the Bible and the Athanasian Creed, predicted his death within three days of his birth, and recommended his burial be at Buckingham (his parents buried him at Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire but his relics were relocated to Buckingham in neighboring Buckinghamshire). You can read more about Rumwold here and here. Shave and a haircut, two bits. |
Apocalypse Now
Saturday, November 2, 2024The word of the day is "eschatology," which in Christian circles is the study of end times prophecy. The Book of the Apocalypse of John is a favorite for this subject and a reminder that early Christians believed that the second coming of Christ was right around the corner, as evident in the writings of Victorinus of Pettau (2nd-3rd century A.D.), whose feast day is celebrated today of all days, but not by the Catholics, who counted him among the heretics for his millennarianist views -- that is, he believed that at Christ's second coming a kingdom would be established upon the Earth that would last a thousand years under his co-dominion with the righteous, which is basically Millennialism. Most Catholics believe that all of history since the first coming of Christ is the one-thousand years spoken of in Revelation chapter 20, which is Amillennialism, in which the thousand years is symbolic, Christ's reign is spiritual, and the earthly ruler is the pope. Victorinus wrote several commentaries on biblical scripture before his martyrdom in A.D. 304 under Emperor Diocletian. He composed his own exegesis (critical interpretation) on the Book of Revelation, which you can read here. In it, he explains line by line what many of the revelations mean, some of which he sees as metaphorical or allegorical or like such. For example, Revelation 6:12-14:
12. "And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake." In the sixth seal, then, was a great earthquake: this is that very last persecution.
In Revelation 12:3 and 17:10, he identifies the seven kings as Roman emperors who reigned between the time of the Apostle John until his own. He also identifies the eighth king of Revelation 17:11 as Emperor Nero, who reigned in the latter half of the first century. However, as the centuries progressed and Christ didn't appear to return physically, Christians began to view Revelation a bit differently. Well, that's all the time I have for today. As the old tune goes when the show's over: shave and a haircut, two bits. |
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The Morning Star Of The Reformation
Wednesday, October 29, 2024 Today is as good a day as any to bring up John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384), a once Catholic priest and professor of theology at the University of Oxford, as well as a thorough pain in the arse of the Christian establishment of his time. Like Martin Luther 200 years later, he publicly aired more than a few grievances against Catholic doctrine and practice, including the following for which his body was exhumed, excommunicated, burned to ash, and dumped in the river:
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Ancient Christian Prosperity: Name It & Claim It
Sunday, October 27, 2024
On this day in AD 312, Roman Emperor Constantine I had his famous vision of winning the ensuing battle against the forces of Emperor Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge on the Tiber River in which he was commanded by Christ to mark the shields of his soldiers with the Chi Rho (the monogram of Christ, or the Christogram), which were the superimposed capital Greek letters X and P, representing the Greek "Christos" (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ). The rest is history, as his forces under the banner of the Christogram defeated Maxentius and united the Roman Empire. The account of Constantine's vision was recorded by two Christian writers of the time, Lactantius and Eusebius, the former being an advisor to Constantine. Shortly thereafter, Constantine was baptized and signed the Edict of Milan, which proclaimed tolerance for Christians throughout the Roman Empire. In AD 325, Constantine presided over the First Council of Nicaea, which brought together all the bishops of the Christian churches in the known world, the result of which was the Nicene Creed. In AD 380, following a topsy-turvy succession of fifteen different emperors and co-emperors, Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity Rome's official religion. The rest, again, is history.
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Tomāto, Tomâto; Potāto, Potâto
Saturday, October 26, 2024Today is Intersex Awareness Day and why bring attention to this? I don't know, other than these individuals are lumped in with LGBTQI+ and have their own flag. Traditionally, they are either hermaphrodites -- born with confusing genitalia and amalgamated reproductive organs, subjecting their biological sex to doubt -- or androgynes, possessing both functional male and female sex organs. In the animal kingdom, this is normal for flowers, earthworms, slugs, snails, and the mangrove killifish, but genetically abnormal for humans. The term hermaphrodite comes from the Greek mythological god Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who fused with the nymph Salmacis to form one individual with both male and female body parts. The Bible lacks a term for this condition, however, Jesus did refer briefly to those born as eunuchs (Matthew 19:12). Various Jewish supplements to the Old Testament -- Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, Midrash, Halakha -- did have a term for this sexually ambiguous condition, which was tumtum (Hebrew, "hidden"), although it was generally never considered a distinct gender. Between these sources, there are basically six to eight different gender types, of which legal complexities arise for all but fully male and fully female. You can read more about these here. I am not going to get into Carl Jung and the Gnostic's ideals of the androgyny of Christ, since I don't consider these as valid sources for any insightfulness into Jesus. Nor am I going to share in the speculation of the possibility that God may be androgynous, since both man and woman were made in His image (yes, His image). However, apparently a few of the Church Fathers (Origen possibly, Augustine perhaps -- more about it here), postulated that scripture (such as John 17:11, 20-23, and 1 Corinthians 12:27) referred to men and women becoming one and the same at the resurrection, as was Adam before the creation of Eve and the ensuing fall that led to sexual (i.e., bestial) procreation. Not to mention that Galatians 3:28 says, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." However, most ironclad believers have no confusion of identity between men and women and understand without question that we are all equal in Christ and not androgynous hermaphrodites because of Christ. Lest we forget, we were created male and female (Genesis 1:27). As for our spiritual bodies, well, that may be another story altogether -- yet remember that there will be no marriage of people after the resurrection because we will be like the angels in heaven (Matthew 22:30). But getting back to the modern "intersex" consideration of this subject, the primary concern of which is with taking a hands-off approach to surgically altering children to be either one sex or the other and instead allowing them to freely become whatever they want to be. Taken a step further, that also means allowing children to become whatever they want to be regardless of their condition at birth... wherein lies the problem and the eventual downfall of civilization. |
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Proclus on the Holy Virgin Theotokos
Thursday, October 24, 2024 Today is the feast day of Proclus (c. 385-446), Archbishop of Constantinople from A.D. 434-446, ally of Cyril of Alexandria (recall the Miaphysites), and one of the early Marian theologists who helped foster veneration for the Virgin Mary, even going so far as to refer to her as part of the "quaternity" (Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Virgin Mother) in one of his sermons (Section VIII), which was delivered in the presence of Nestorius, a prior archbishop of Constantinople who coined the term "Theotokos" (God-bearer) for Mary. Unfortunately for Nestorius, his view on the duality of Christ's nature (divine and physical were separate, not united) was not so well received and he was labeled a heretic at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Now, can you pick out Proclus from this lineup of early Christians? |
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14.jpg "Try again. This is Basil of Caesarea, also known as Saint Basil the Great.") |
.png "This is Vasile cel Mare. Maybe Basil, since I don't know what language Vasile cel Mare is, but it's not Proclus.") |
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Chalcedonian Definition of the Dyophysitism of Christ's Hypostatis
Tuesday, October 22, 2024Here's some fun theology for you: On this day in A.D. 451, the fourth ecumenical council was held in Chalcedon, Asia Minor, and was called the Council of Chalcedon. That's the easy part. The primary purpose was to discuss the dual nature of Christ, both physical and divine (dyophysitism), combined into an individual personhood (hypostatic union). This was in opposition to a guy named Eutyches of Constantinople (c. 380-456), who was teaching that Christ had just one divine nature (monophysitism). The outcome of the council was the Chalcedonian Creed, which was based on the teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350-428) and defined the standard on this subject that all believers at the time should believe in, which was Dyophysitism. It should be noted that the main participants at this council were from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Oriental Orthodox Churches (Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian, Armenian, et al) didn't quite agree with this view of Christ's nature and instead took on the teachings of Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444). They are therefore considered Miaphysites, believing that Christ is fully divine and fully human. So, then, Dyophysites believe that Christ is one person in two natures (again, hypostatic union), while Miaphysites believe that Christ is two natures in one person (hypostasis). Simple? If so, then you can teach me the difference. Regardless, neither camp holds the other in contempt of salvation. But neither Christologies are of Monophysitism, which believes that Christ has just one divine nature, which is too simple and just plain stupid and heretical besides. Anyway, here's the Chalcedonian Creed (aka Chalcedonian Definition): We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us. |
The Lesser of Two Evils
Saturday, October 19, 2024I have a confession to make: For the first time in the last three presidential elections, as a registered Republican, I finally voted for Donald Trump. The last two elections I threw away my vote as a matter of principle on the Libertarian candidates, whomever they were. Historically, I voted for the lesser of two evils. However, I won't vote Democrat. Therefore, either Libertarian or Independent if not Republican. I was prepared to vote for Kennedy, even though he is a fallen Democrat, and I still can in a blue state that kept him on the ballot. Yet there's the conundrum -- that in a blue state the electoral votes all go to the Democrat candidate, so my vote is wasted anyway. Regardless, this time around there's too much at stake and, as undesirable as both major candidates are, I am forced to vote for the lesser of two evils between the two parties. It's as if the devil were running against himself, or as though his chief generals were competing for POTUS. Yet even they would be more decent human beings than DJT and KDH, both of whom have the character of demons rather than diplomats. So allow me to compare the two fallen angels -- Beelzebub (DJT) vs Astaroth (KDH) -- and share why I came to my final vote for Beelzebub in 2024. |
| ★ ★ ★ Vote Beelzebub 2024 ★ ★ ★ | ||
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| ★ ★ ★ Vote Astaroth 2024 ★ ★ ★ | ||
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Spiritual Glutton for Punishment
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Some here in the U.S. criticize white Europeans -- among a whole host of other atrocities and nothing positive -- for exposing the indigenous peoples to diseases the likes of which they had never before experienced; many of which being fatal, such as smallpox and measles. Christian missionaries were among those who brought these diseases which were disguised as bookmarks in their Bibles, along with their evil, foreign magic. One such individual was Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), a French Jesuit priest who shared his white, diseased Gospel with the Iroquois, Huron, Mohawk, Oijbwe, and Algonquian tribes in the New France territories of the American Great Lakes region. Although warned of the tortuous welcome that awaited him by the Native Americans, he gladly took the eight-week voyage to the New World, where he was met with blame for bringing an epidemic which he himself was also stricken with. However, he and his fellow missionaries managed to win toleration from the natives for the next six years, until rumors arrived that they were driven from Europe for poisoning wigs with virulent powder. Finding relative peace among other tribes who had no need of powdered wigs, they were eventually captured by members of the Mohawk Nation who had procured wigs from French traders which were poisoned with virulent powder that proved lethal to those who proudly wore them. Believing the rumors, they blamed the Jesuits and, according to Jogues from this source, tortured them in these manners:
"Eight days after our departure from the shores of the great river of saint Lawrence, we met two hundred Hiroquois, who were coming in pursuit of the French and of the Savages, our allies. At this encounter we were obliged to sustain a new shock. It is a belief among those Barbarians that those who go to war are the more fortunate in proportion as they are cruel toward their enemies; I assure you that they made us thoroughly feel the force of that wretched belief... they set up a stage on a hill; then, entering the woods, they seek sticks or thorns, according to their fancy. Being thus armed, they form in line, a hundred on one side, and a hundred on the other, and make us pass, all naked, along that way of fury and anguish; there is rivalry among them to discharge upon us the most and the heaviest blows; they made me march last, that I might be more exposed to their rage. I had not accomplished the half of this course when I fell to the earth under the weight; of that hail and of those redoubled blows. I did not strive to rise again, partly because of my weakness, partly because I was accepting that place for my sepulchre... Seeing me prostrates they rush upon me; God alone knows for how long a time and how many were the blows that were dealt [upon] my body; but the sufferings undertaken for his love and his glory are filled with joy and honor. Seeing, then, that I had not fallen by accident, and that I did not rise again for being too near death, they entered upon a cruel compassion; their rage was not yet glutted, and they wished to conduct one alive into their own country; accordingly, they Embrace me, and carry me all bleeding upon twit stage they have prepared. When I am restored to fly senses, they make me come down, and offer me a thousand and one insults, making me the sport and object of their reviling; they begin their assaults aver again, dealing upon my head and neck, and all any body, another hailstorm of blows. I would be too tedious if I should set down in writing all the rigor of my sufferings. They burned one of my fingers, and crushed another with their teeth, and those which were already torn, they squeezed and twisted with a rage of Demons; they scratched my wounds with their nails; and, when strength failed me, they applied fire to my arm and thighs. My companions were treated very nearly as I was...
"After they had glutted their cruelty, they led us in triumph into that first village; all the youth were outside the gates, arranged in line,—armed with sticks, and some with iron rods, which they easily secure on account of their vicinity to the Dutch... We were following one another at an equal distance; and, that our executioners might have more leisure to beat us at their ease, some Hiroquois thrust themselves into our ranks in order to prevent us from running and from avoiding any blows. The procession beginning to enter this narrow way of Paradise, a scuffling was heard on all sides... I was naked to my shirt, like a poor criminal; the others were wholly naked, except poor René Goupil, to whom they did the same favor as to me. The more slowly the procession marched in a very long road, the more blows we received. One was dealt above my loins, with the pommel of a javelin, or with an iron knob the size of one's fist, which shook my whole body and took away my breath. Such was our entrance into that Babylon. Hardly could we arrive as far as the scaffold which was prepared for us in the midst of that village, so exhausted were we; our bodies were all livid, and our faces all stained with blood... And old man takes my left hand and commands a captive Algonquin woman to cut one of my fingers... and cuts the thumb from my left hand; the same caresses are extended to the other prisoners... They used a scallop or an oyster-shell for cutting off the right thumb of the other Frenchman, so as to cause him more pain. The blood flowing from our wounds in so great abundance that we were likely to fall in a swoon, a Hiroquois - tearing off a little end of my shirt, which alone had been left to me - bound them up for us; and that was all the dressing and all the medical treatment applied to them.
"Evening having come, they made us descend, in order to be taken into the cabins as the sport of the children. They gave us for food a very little Indian corn, simply boiled in water; then they made us lie down on pieces of bark, binding us by the arms and the feet to four stakes fastened in the ground in the shape of saint Andrew's Cross. The children, in order to learn the cruelty of their parents, threw coals and burning cinders on our stomachs, taking pleasure in seeing us broil and roast. Oh, my God, what nights ! To remain always in an extremely constrained position; to be unable to stir or to turn, under the attack of countless vermin which assailed us on all sides; to be burdened with wounds, some recent and others all putrid; not to have sustenance for the half of one's life: in truth, these torments are great, but God is infinite. At Sunrise, they led us back upon our scaffold, where we spent three days and three nights in the sufferings that I have Just described. The three days having expired, they parade us into two other villages, where we make our entrance as into the first; they give us the same salutes of beatings and, in order to enhance the cruelty of the earlier ones, they deal us severe blows on the bones, either at random or on the shin of the legs, a place very sensitive to pain. As we were leaving the first village, a wretch took away my shirt and gave me an old rag to cover what ought to be concealed; this nakedness was very painful to me... My skin was detaching itself from my body in several places; and, that I might say that I had passed per ignem et aquam, through cold and heat, for the love of my God, while on the scaffold during three days, as in the first village, there fell a cold rain, which greatly renewed the pains of my sores. One of those Barbarians having perceived that Guillaume Cousture, although he had his hands all torn, had not yet lost any of his fingers, seized his hand, striving to cut off his forefinger with a poor knife. But, as he could not succeed therein, he twisted it, and in tearing it he pulled a sinew out of the arm, the length of a span. At the same time his poor arm swelled, and the pain was reflected from it even to the depth of my heart.
"On departing from that second village, they drag us into the third; these villages are several leagues distant from one another. Besides the salute and the caresses, and the reception which was given us at the two preceding ones, note what was added to our torture. The young men thrust thorns or pointed sticks into our sores, scratching the ends of our fingers, deprived of their nails, and tearing them even to the quick flesh; and, in order to honor me above the others, they bound me to pieces of wood fastened crosswise. Consequently, my feet not being supported, the weight of my body inflicted upon me a gehenna, and a torture so keen that, after having suffered this torment about a quarter of an hour, I plainly felt that I was about to fall in a swoon from it, which made me beseech those Barbarians to lengthen my bonds a little. They ran up, at my call; and, instead of lengthening them, they strain them more tightly, in order to cause me more pain..." Although the Mohawks promised the relief of death to their captives, they spared their lives and allowed Isaac Jogues to suffer in malnourishment and exposure to the elements for the next year while tending to his fellow prisoners. In 1643, while on a trading mission with the Mohawks as a wig expert, Jogues managed to escape to New Amsterdam, then back to France where Pope Urban VIII counted him a living martyr and granted him dispensation to say Mass with his mutilated hand. Not content abiding in white European peace and longing for the days of savage torture, he returned to America in 1646 as the French ambassador to the Mohawk in order to maintain a peace treaty struck in his absence. However, his traveling companions also brought with them powdered wigs which inflicted disease and death upon the Mohawks who proudly wore them. In response, they killed Jogues with a tomahawk and threw his body into the Mohawk River. Now, there are some here in the U.S. who criticize white Europeans for a whole host of atrocities against the indigenous peoples of the Americas, but Isaac Jogues was not only a martyr for the Gospel, but for French fashion, which may have been the single worst atrosity perpetrated upon the New World. |
Autolycus an Idolater and Scorner of Christians
Sunday, October 13, 2024Today we remember Theophilus of second-century Antioch, whose writings on Christianity were mentioned in the letters of Eusebius and Jerome. However, only three texts of Theophilus survive and they are letters he wrote to a pagan friend of his named Autolycus. It's not likely that he was the one and same Theophilus to whom Luke wrote both his Gospel (Luke 1:3) and Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:1), since the later Theophilus is specifically referenced by Eusebius as the sixth Bishop of Antioch around A.D. 180 in chapter 20 of his Ecclesiastical History. You can read the three-part letter of Theophilus to Autolycus here, in which Theophilus argues at length against all the Greek and Roman legends, poets, gods, tragedies, heroes, myths, and philosophers, while defending the Hebrew scriptures and prophets and addressing a few misconceptions about Christianity, such as the consumption of human flesh. In the meantime, here's a snippet: Some of the philosophers of the Porch say that there is no God at all; or, if there is, they say that He cares for none but Himself; and these views the folly of Epicurus and Chrysippus has set forth at large. And others say that all things are produced without external agency, and that the world is uncreated, and that nature is eternal; and have dared to give out that there is no providence of God at all, but maintain that God is only each man's conscience. And others again maintain that the spirit which pervades all things is God. But Plato and those of his school acknowledge indeed that God is uncreated, and the Father and Maker of all things; but then they maintain that matter as well as God is uncreated, and aver that it is coeval with God. But if God is uncreated and matter uncreated, God is no longer, according to the Platonists, the Creator of all things, nor, so far as their opinions hold, is the monarchy of God established. And further, as God, because He is uncreated, is also unalterable; so if matter, too, were uncreated, it also would be unalterable, and equal to God; for that which is created is mutable and alterable, but that which is uncreated is immutable and unalterable. And what great thing is it if God made the world out of existent materials? For even a human artist, when he gets material from some one, makes of it what he pleases. But the power of God is manifested in this, that out of things that are not He makes whatever He pleases; just as the bestowal of life and motion is the prerogative of no other than God alone. For even man makes indeed an image, but reason and breath, or feeling, he cannot give to what he has made. But God has this property in excess of what man can do, in that He makes a work, endowed with reason, life, sensation. As, therefore, in all these respects God is more powerful than man, so also in this; that out of things that are not He creates and has created things that are, and whatever He pleases, as He pleases. (Book II Chapter 4) |
Fotbal Daneshgangi Padeshah Est
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Today we look back on the year 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and the Persian Empire rose to world prominence as the silver chest and arms of the giant statue in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, interpreted and recorded by Daniel, whom Nebuchadnezzar referred to as Belteshazzar (Daniel 2). Cyrus was of the ancestry of Achaemenes, founder of the Persian kingdom sometime around the turn of the seventh century BC toward the end of the Assyrian Empire, which is why the Persian Empire is often referred to as the Achaemenid Empire. Anyway, according to an ancient clay cylinder covered with Akkadian cuneiform script discovered in Babylon (Iraq) in AD 1879 and attributed to Cyrus, all the Mesopotamian civilizations previously conquered by the Babylonians were allowed to restore their temples and cult sanctuaries. As recorded in 2 Chronicles (36:22-23), Ezra (1:1-4:4, 5:6-15, 6:1-5), and Isaiah (45:13), this included the Israelites, who were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Not only that, but Cyrus allowed the Israelites to return with many of the articles which were looted from the Temple (5,400 pieces made of gold and silver, according to Ezra 1:9-10). With a few interruptions, the Persian Empire lasted for almost 2,500 years. It was officially conquered by Alexander the Great and the Macedonians around 330 BC but, because of its location (Iran), it remained the Persian Empire through several dynasties (Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian, Dabuyid, several Islamic Caliphates, Mongols, and etcetera on through Mohammad Reza Pahlavi -- the Shah of Iran who was deposed in 1979), in which many of the rulers were of Achaemenid descent. The Persian Empire came to an end in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution with the overthrow of the last monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty and the implementation of the Muslim Ayatollahs ruling over the Islamic Republic of Iran with Sharia law and burqas for all.
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Andronicus, Probus, Tarachus, Zenaida & Philonella
Friday, October 11, 2024 Today we remember just a few of the many saints who were martyred for their dedication in service to Christ, including Andronicus, Probus, and Tarachus in the early part of the fourth century who were tortured on three separate occasions under Emperor Diocletian in unspeakable ways (stoning, whipping, heated spits, red hot irons) before being chopped to pieces. Less gruesome is the tale of two sisters in the first century, Zenaida and Philonella, who were Jewish doctors from Tarsus and reportedly cousins of the Apostle Paul. As converted Christians, they opened a free clinic in the mountains of Thessaly where Philonella practiced medicine and Zenaida specialized in pediatrics and psychiatric disorders. Accounts of their deaths vary, but the prevailing one is that they were stoned to death by a bunch of pagans for refusing to perform abortions. (I made that last part up. They may have lived a full life and died of natural causes.) You can learn more about Zenaida and Philonella here. We also pay homage to Maria Soledad Torres y Acosta (1826-1887), founder of the Servants of Mary and designer of their website. Torres led a somewhat controversial life but was dedicated to healing the sick and serving the poor. In the end, she was martyred by pneumonia. And let's not forget Nicasius, Quirinus, Scubiculus, and Pientia of the third century who were beheaded in Gaul. Not much is known of them, but one or two may have slain a dragon. Oh, and today is also the feast day of Philip -- the one mentioned in Acts 6:1-6 who was chosen for food service and who healed the genitals of a eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 (or maybe he just baptized him.) Anyway, this act was attributed to the start of the Ethiopian Church. |
World Mental Health Day
Thursday, October 10, 2024Today is both World Day Against the Death Penalty and World Mental Health Day. For my opinion on the former, go here. For my opinion on the latter, stay tuned. Today's post is sponsored by Risperdal®. When you lack sufficient amounts of drowsiness, dizziness, drooling, muscle spasms, tremors, anxiety, nausea, restlessness, high blood sugar, and weight gain, ask your doctor about taking Risperdal®. (Warning: Risperdal® may lower your immunity to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.) Now, World Mental Health Day could not have come at a better time this year, as it foreshadows the results of the 2024 U.S. elections, in which Republicans will a majority of seats in the House and Senate, along with the presidency, the ultimate result of which will be widespread mental and emotional meltdowns among Democratic liberals who invested their feelings in a candidate who promised them joy and now they will have lost all joy, along with their minds. However, they may have lost their minds years ago due to faith in the Democratic party -- the political party historically in favor of slavery, opposed to civil rights, and now reviving racism. Somewhere along the U.S. timeline, Democrats determined that a better form of slavery was by owning votes through the promise of welfare and, in this election, through reparations and other forms of pecuniary pandering. As much as I will sadistically enjoy the videos of people sharing their meltdowns on social media, I have to admit that it is very sad that these people put so much trust in the Democratic party and their presidential candidate who has absolutely no qualifications other than race and gender. Yes, she has credentials, however, she has no significant achievements throughout her political career other than raising campaign money. As much as I'd like to post a montage of liberal tears, I am instead going to end with an important path to democratic freedom which may provide relief to fear and distress over the impending regime change, compliments of Prager University.
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| Of Plimoth Plantation Wednesday, October 9, 2023 | |
It's been nearly a year since we checked in with our Pilgrim folk and the ze/hirs amongst them (aka, witches). Last we heard, it was the year 1621 and times were tough all over, especially when they had to resort to eating their precious metals. To make matters worse, they had issues with Squanto, a member of the Patuxet tribe of Wampanoags and their local guide, who lorded it over the local tribes by making them believe that he could control the plague and release it at will upon them if they didn't pay him tribute. Unfortunately, he died from the plague, bequeathing his collection of pox blankets to the Pilgrims. To add to the misery, boats kept arriving from England with more settlers and bad news but no supplies, save for fresh pox blankets. A certain Thomas Weston, an English financier who had heretofore assisted the Pilgrims, was now cashing in his pox blankets and retiring to Virginia, but not before sending more people to join the Pilgrims who were either sick or of ill repute. Even so, they managed to build a fort and grow some corn, as William Bradford recounts thusly in 1622: | |
This somer they builte a fort with good timber, both strong & comly, which was of good defence, made with a flate rofe & batllments, on which their ordnance were mounted, and wher they kepte constante watch, espetially in time of danger. It served them allso for a meeting house, and was fitted accordingly for that use. It was a great worke for them in this weaknes and time of wants; but ye deanger of ye time required it, and both ye continuall rumors of ye fears from ye Indeans hear, espetially ye Narigansets, and also ye hearing of that great massacre in Virginia, made all hands willing to despatch ye same. Now ye wellcome time of harvest aproached, in which all had their hungrie bellies filled. But it arose but to a litle, in comparison of a full years supplie; partly by reason they were not yet well aquainted with ye maner of Indean corne, (and they had no other,) allso their many other imployments, but cheefly their weaknes for wante of food, to tend it as they should have done. Also much was stolne both by night & day, before it became scarce eatable, & much more afterward. And though many were well whipt (when they were taken) for a few ears of corne, yet hunger made others (whom conscience did not restraine) to venture. So as it well appeared ye famine must still insue ye next year allso, if not some way prevented, or supplie should faile, to which they durst not trust. Markets there was none to goe too, but only ye Indeans, and they had no trading comodities. Behold now another providence of God; a ship comes into ye harbor, one Captain Jons being cheefe therin. They were set out by some marchants to discovere all ye harbors betweene this & Virginia, and ye shoulds of Cap-Cod, and to trade along ye coast wher they could. This ship had store of English-beads (which were then good trade) and some knives, but would sell none but at dear rates, and also a good quantie togeather. Yet they weere glad of ye occasion, and faine to buy at any rate; they were faine to give after ye rate of cento per cento, if not more, and yet pay away coat-beaver at 3s. perli, which in a few years after yeelded 20s. By this means they were fitted againe to trade for beaver & other things, and intended to buy what corne they could.
Sundry other things I pass over, being tedious & impertinent. | |
Today's presentation was brought to you by XIAFLEX®, reminding us all that even the Pilgrims suffered from a bent carrot here and there, causing difficulty with the planting of seed in fertile soil. Although they didn't have XIAFLEX®, they did have sticks and twine with which to fashion a penis splint. For fact-checking purposes, visit Project Gutenberg.  | |
| 3761 AM: The Beginning of Time Monday, October 7, 2024 | ||
| Today we consider the starting reference date (epoch) of the modern Hebrew calendar, which is, or was, according to the events of the Bible, 3761 BC, when God created the heavens and the earth on day one. Rather than BC (Before Christ) or BCE (Before the Common Era), the Hebrew calendar refers to years as AM (Latin Anno Mundi, "in the year of the world" or Hebrew Livryat haOlam, "to the creation of the world"). The Hebrew calendar is luni-solar, with months determined by the new moon and years based on the solar cycle of 365 days. Since twelve lunar months make up 354 days, the extra days of the solar year are accounted for about every three years with an additional leap month. Prior to the first century (AD), calendar calculations were also based upon harvest seasons and religious festivals, which were determined by the Sanhedrin, or ruling rabbinical council of Israel. By the first century (AD), the months were based on pre-determined calculations, which were reformulated throughout the centuries. In the Middle Ages, infamous rabbinical scholar and Mishneh Torah author Maimonides (1138-1204) calculated the epoch of time as 4938 AM, with one additional year prior to creation for a period of emptiness. Several Christian calculations based on the Septuagint (Greek scriptures) place the epoch of time farther back to around 5500 BC.* The discrepancy between Jewish and Christian calculations can be attributed primarily to the determination of genealogies between the two versions of the Book of Genesis -- that of the Jewish Masoretic texts and the Greek Septuagint. Now, calendars are not my thing, but they are still interesting and valuable, albeit rather complicated, which is why they are not my thing. My "research" for this post started on Wikipedia here, then moved to here, then went all over the place but remained primarily within Wikipedia because, as I said before, calendars are not my thing. But, apparently, neither is science because I happen to believe in the "Creationist" view of Earth's epoch. For most modern enthusiasts of the scientific method -- and, specifically, geochronology -- creationism is a quaint, archaic belief system rooted in superstitious nonsense. None the less, I remain skeptical of how science has interpreted the age of the planet, the stars, and the universe. Call me old-fashioned, but not one who believes the Earth is flat. Although, if it is a globe, then how do bubble levels work?
*5529 BC (Theophilus, AD 115-181); 5501 BC (Sextus Julius Africanus, AD 160-240); 5199 BC (Eusebius and Jerome, fourth century); 5493 BC (Hippolytus and Clement of Alexandria, fifth century); 5507 BC (Chronicon Paschale, seventh century-author unknown). |  In the beginning, God created Genesis. And he saw that it was good. As mankind progressed, Peter departed and Philip assumed the mantle. However, once Philip departed, God regretted Genesis and rejected its members. But he remembered Peter and Philip, and blessed them, and caused them to prosper upon the face of the earth. |
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New Breakthroughs in Bible Translation
Friday, October 4, 2024On this day in 1535, the first, complete, Modern English Bible was published by Myles Coverdale (1488-1569) in Belgium, or possibly Switzerland, or possibly Germany, but definitely in a Protestant country, maybe Calvinist or Lutheran. Prior to this, both John Wycliffe and William Tyndale had translated partial versions in Middle English and Early Modern English, respectively, and both were burned at the stake as heretics by the Catholic Church. (Well, Wycliffe actually died of a stroke, but the Catholic Church later deemed him a heretic and burned his writings at the stake.) The Coverdale Bible took much of its translation from the Tyndale Bible of 1526 (New Testament) and Tyndale's Matthew Bible of 1537 (New Testament and much of the Old Testament), with Coverdale translating the remainder of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Not being a Hebrew or Greek scholar himself, he drew heavily from Luther's Bible, the Zürich Bible, and the Latin Vulgate. Although a big hit in England, the Coverdale Bible was not sanctioned by the Church of England, so Coverdale was commissioned by King Henry VIII to publish the Great Bible in 1539, which was basically a larger version of his previous translation. This was replaced by the the Bishops' Bible in 1568 (in response to the popular, Puritanical Geneva Bible of 1560), which itself was replaced by the King James Bible in 1611 (to further remove any remaining Puritanical influences). Initially a Catholic priest and Augustinian friar, Coverdale abandoned Catholic tradition for the Puritanical reliance on Biblical Scripture and was forced into exile from England on occasion while the English Reformation jumped back and forth between Catholicism and Protestantism before finally settling on Anglicanism, which ultimately didn't favor the Puritans who were critical of church practices like fancy ceremonies and elaborate costumes and whatnot. Although Coverdale died in London of natural causes at a ripe, old age, he was broke, penniless and destitute. In light of this, you can view a free copy of his Bible at The Public Domain Review. |
Blasphemy!
Monday, September 30, 2024
Today is International Blasphemy Rights Day, started in 2009 by the Center for Inquiry, a secular humanist organization which wants people to make fun of Islam but finds it difficult when Muslims respond with bombs. You can find out more about it here, but basically it's a call for the right to criticize religion worldwide, remove antiquated blasphemy laws, and offend people's spiritual sensibilities without repercussion. That's all well and good, except that it's an idea of Western philosophical freethinking, which some of the global population doesn't readily accept and may respond with violent opposition. Even here in the States, where Christianity is a free-for-all of critical analysis and ridicule, there are laws being passed to prevent this same free speech against minorities who take offense at which pronouns are wrongfully attributed to them. These may argue that the difference is between what you believe and what you are, but this particular issue is with what you believe you are. Anyway, this ideal of the freedom to make fun of anything and everything already exists -- it's just a matter of the level of risk one is willing to take to express themself in opposition to what they consider wrong with someone else. If you don't like being bombed in response to a newspaper cartoon depicting Muhammad, then choose another method of expressing your objections to Muhammad which, in this case, is counter-bombing. However, that becomes rather involved and isn't good for promoting peaceful communications. Besides, freedom of speech is a moot point. It's all just misinformation and, in the end, it'll be the Communists and Muslims who will finally battle it out for who controls the public dissemination of information after all unsanctioned literary sources have been burned, bombed and banned. In the meantime, billions upon billions of digital ones and zeroes expand throughout the electronic cosmos, spreading like stars in the universe, and some of those little binary infidels dare to ridicule Muhammad.
Pictured: Carl Sagan (1934-1996), a once prominent scientist, one of the co-founders of the Center for Inquiry, and predecessor to Neil deGrasse Tyson. Although opposed to prophecy-based religion, he was in favor of theory-based science, the difference being that one is a simple system of belief while the other is a complicated system of belief. His human soul now resides with the space aliens who invented Islam. |
Looking Forward to Armageddon
Tuesday, September 24, 2024From September 23 to 25 in 1918, a series of battles were fought between the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire during World War I, including the Battle of Haifa, Battle of Sharon, and Battle of Nablus, collectively called the Battle of Megiddo, which was named by British commander Edmund Allenby after Revelation 16:16. The battles were fought in and around the area known as Megiddo in northern Israel -- the biblical Mount Megiddo (Hebrew Har Megiddo, Greek Armageddon), which is actually a tell, or mound created over centuries of generations building upon one another. According to Judges 4-5, under the leadership of Deborah sometime around 1,200 BC, the Israelites defeated the Canaanites at Megiddo (Judges 5:19). According to 2 Kings 23:29 and 2 Chronicles 35:20-24, there was a battle here in 609 BC between the Egyptians under Pharaoh Necho II and Judea under King Josiah, who was killed there. None of these battles were that of Armageddon as foretold in Revelation 16:16. Why? Because the vision happened in the first century A.D. and, although World War I was fought between many of the great kings of the day, they didn't all converge on Megiddo in Israel for the "great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:14). Plus, following Armageddon, the seventh and final angel in heaven poured out his bowl of wrath upon the Earth and everything went to shit in a giant shit storm (Revelation 16:17-21). Much has been written about this prophetic point in time -- too much -- and some even postulate that this is all just symbolic rigmarole for the end times and that Armageddon is simply a metaphor for wherever and whenever the "great day of God Almighty" takes place, wherever and whenever that may be. But why name a location and not a time? The time is not disclosed because no one is to know, as it is a surprise (Revelation 16:15). Yet, if Armageddon is an actual location, then are the three impure frogs mentioned in Revelation 16:13 also real? Of course they are, although they are spirits: so, in all likelihood, they may not actually appear as frogs in whatever natural form they may take if in fact they do appear before the kings in physical form to gather them to war ...at Har Megiddo in northern Israel... unless they all gather together for an ayahuasca freakout beforehand. |
International Day of Peace: Cultivating a Culture of Peace
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Today is the United Nations' International Day of Peace, proclaiming that "since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed, that a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of Governments would not be a peace which could secure the unanimous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind." Given that this will never happen, even so, since it was first established in 1981, there has been worldwide peace every year on this day, even among Communist countries, Islamic terrorist groups, African juntas, drug cartels, murderous gangs, violent criminals, rival teams, killer bees, carnivorous animals, Karens, car alarms, and anything with fangs and venom. However, remember that peace begins in the heart... No, wait, according to the UN, peace begins in the head, "upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind." Unfortunately, morality is ambiguous, intellect is indeterminate, solidarity is convoluted, and man is the enemy of gender-sophisticated personkind. So, in a symbolic gesture of disturbing the serenity of the day, let that peace bell ring.
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Them High Church Tractarian Puseys
Wednesday, September 18, 2024Today we remember Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), an English Anglican cleric, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford, editor of the Library of the Fathers, and a leading figure in the Oxford Movement whose personal followers were called Puseyites. Yes, Puseyites. As a crude explanation, the Oxford Movement involved members of the Church of England who argued in lengthy treatises about reinstituting early Christian traditions which the Reformed Church dropped when it split from the Roman Catholic Church, but not returning to the Catholic forms of those traditions, while maintaining that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church comprised three branches: Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism. The Tracts for the Times was one such avenue of publication which Pusey contributed to, leading to the term "Tractarianism" for the philosophy of the Oxford Movement. Here is an excerpt from Pusey's Tract No. 81 from Project Canterbury, in which Pusey calls for a reform to the liturgical aspects of the Anglican Eucharist but criticizes the Catholic Church's doctrine of Transubstantiation:
To the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, With an Historical Account of the Changes Made in the Liturgy as to the Expression of that Doctrine. ...The Romish Church corrupted and marred the Apostolic doctrine in two ways. 1st. By the error of transubstantiation. 2nd. By that of purgatory. And in both there occurs that peculiar corruption of the administrators of the Romish Church, that they countenance so much more of profitable error, than in their abstract system they acknowledge. Thus by combining the doctrine of Transubstantiation with that of the Sacrifice in the Eucharist, the laity were persuaded that not only a commemorative sacrifice, but that CHRIST Himself was again offered; as indeed one of their own writers confesses; "It is true, and impossible to deny, that many theologians of the Romish Church took occasion of the name of sacrifice given to the Eucharist, to tell us of a fresh immolation and death; to attach to it an efficacy of its own [i. e. independent of the one meritorious Sacrifice on the Cross], and an independent merit; to make us place therein a confidence which cannot but be superstitious, whenever it refers not to the Sacrifice of the Cross." [Courayer, Réponse au P. Le Quien, c. xvii. p. 469. Even the excellent Nicole frequently repeats: "The sacrifice of the Mass is the same as that of the Cross; it is substantially the same sacrifice, because it is the same Victim, the same JESUS CHRIST who offers to His FATHER the same Body and Blood upon our altars, as He offered in Calvary." Esprit de M. Nicole, p. 533. M. Nicole a little softens this, but still keeps the main position, "that the sacrifices on the Cross and the Altar were the same, because it is the same JESUS CHRIST who offers Himself in the one as in the other." These writers make the Sacrifice both the same and distinct; through Transubstantiation, the same, and yet, in act, distinct. But for the doctrine of Transubstantiation, Nicole might have a right meaning.] These false notions, in themselves, aggrandized the character of the priesthood, and as such, it was part of the unhappy policy of Rome to countenance them; and while (to take the mildest view) she narrowly observed the erroneous tendencies which were almost unavoidably mixed up in the minds of individuals with the reformed doctrine, she had no sense for her own; she thought no deeds cruel which would remove the motes that threatened to darken her sister's eye, but perceived not the beam in her own. While repressing even by the shedding of blood the slightest approximation to the Reformed doctrine, she rebuked not errors which entrenched on the authority of our LORD. Joined, however, with the doctrine of purgatory, the sacrifice of the Mass gained for them another accession of power, the extent whereof, and of the abuses therewith connected, is not now easily appreciated. For the souls oi almost all, if not all, who passed out of this life, were supposed to go into purgatory; its pains were regarded as intolerable, equal, except in duration, to those of Hell. From these torments the sacrifice of the Mass came to be practically regarded as the only means of deliverance. For when it was believed that CHRIST was "truly and indeed, in respect of His very Body and Blood, offered up to His FATHER under the form of bread and wine, in the daily sacrifice of the Church," [Harding ap. Jewel, Reply, c. xvii. init.] nothing else, however abstractedly it might be allowed to be of use, could in comparison be of any moment. [One illustration of the practical combination of these doctrines may suffice, viz. the way in which even Sir Thomas More writes in a practical and popular work. A book, namely, "the Supplication of Beggars," had been put out, complaining that the charity destined for their relief had been turned aside to pay the priests for saying masses. Against this, Sir Thomas More, "Counsellor to our Sovereign Lord the King, and Chancellor of his duchy of Lancaster," wrote "The Supplication of Soules against the Supplication of Beggars." It thus begins; "In most piteous wise continually calleth and crieth upon your devout charity and most tender pity, for help, comfort, and relief, your late acquaintance, kindred, spouses, companions, play-fellows, and friends, and now your humble and unacquainted and half-forgotten suppliants, poor prisoners of GOD, the silly souls in purgatory, here abiding and enduring the grievous pains and hot cleansing fire, that fretteth and burneth out the rust and filthy spots of our sin, till the mercy of ALMIGHTY GOD, the rather by your good and charitable means, vouchsafe to deliver us hence. From whence, if ye marvel why we more now molest and trouble you with our writing than ever we were wont before, it may like you to wit and understand, that hitherto, tho' we have been with many folk much forgotten of negligence, yet hath alway good folk remembered us, and we have been recommended unto GOD, and eased and holpen, and relieved, both by the priests' prayers, of good virtuous people, and specially by the daily masses, and other ghostly suffrages of priests, religious, and folk of holy Church. But now sith that of late, there are sprung up certain seditious persons, which not only travail and labour to destroy them by whom we be much holpen, but also to sow and set forth such a pestilent opinion against our self, as once received and believed among the people, must need take from us the relief and comfort that ever should come to us by the charitable alms, prayers, and good works of the world; ye may take it for no wonder, tho' we silly souls that have long lien and cried so far from you, that we seldom break your sleep, do now, in this our great fear of our utter loss for ever of your loving remembrance and relief, not yet importunately bereave you of your rest with crying at your ears, at unseasonable time, when ye would (which we do never) repose yourself and take ease," &c. (Works p. 288). In p. 316 they speak of the "pains which will else hold them here with us in fire and torments intolerable, only God knoweth how long."] The corruptions, occasions of avarice, superstition, and profaneness thence ensuing, exceed all bounds. Even the Council of Trent was obliged to address itself to the remedy of them. [In the decree on Purgatory.] The connection then of the doctrine of the sacrifice with the two errors of Transubstantiation and Purgatory, at the Reformation, was of much moment; and of these, the fundamental error was that of Transubstantiation. "St. Cyprian saith," says Bishop Jewell to Harding, [Defence of Apology, P. 2. c. 5. v. fin. p. 140.] we offer our LORD'S cup mixed with wine. But he saith not as you say, 'we offer up the Son of God substantially and really unto the FATHER.' "Take away only this blasphemy, wherewith you have deceived the world, and then talk of mingling the cup and of the sacrifice while ye list." "Do ye take away from the Mass your Trasubstantiation," says Bishop Andrews [Respons. ad Card. Bellarm. c. 8.] to Cardinal Bellarmine, "and we shall not long have any question about the sacrifice." "This kind of oblation," [the Romish] "standeth upon Transubstantiation, his cousin-german," says Bishop Ridley, [Brief declaration of the Lord's Supper p. 16.] "and they do both grow upon one ground." And at the beginning of his book, [Ibid. p. 6.] "As in a man diseased in divers parts, commonly the original cause of such divers diseases, which is spreading abroad in the body, do come from one chief member,--even so all five points aforesaid do chiefly hang upon this one question: What is the matter of the sacrament? Whether is it the natural substance of bread, or the natural substance of CHRIST'S own body?--For if it be CHRIST'S own natural body, born of the Virgin,--then assuredly they must needs grant Transubstantiation, that is, a change of the substance of bread into the substance of CHRIST'S body. Then also they must needs grant the carnal and corporal presence of CHRIST'S body. Then must the sacrament be adored with the honour due to CHRIST Himself, for the unity of the two natures in one person. Then if the priest do offer the Sacrament, he doth offer indeed CHRIST Himself." And again [Ibid p. 17.], "Transubstantiation is the very foundation, whereon all their erroneous doctrine doth stand." Note: Several members of the Oxford Movement later joined the Catholic Church, including John Henry Newman (1801-1890), an Anglican priest and one of the formost contributors to the Tracts for the Times. He was soon after ordained as a Catholic priest and later a cardinal. |
Cyprian Against "Game of Thrones"
Monday, September 16, 2024
Today we honor St. Cyprian of third-century Carthage, many of whose writings we still have with us. You can read some of what he wrote here, here, here, here, and here. Back in his day, Christians were exposed to Roman venues of heathen entertainment such as the gladiators, theaters presenting Greek tragedies, nude athletic events, horse races, brothel exhibitions, and even musical concerts; arguing that Christians should instead subject themselves to the beauty of nature, which God created for our enjoyment. One of the main justifications for these forms of entertainment was that Holy Scripture didn't appear to explicitly prohibit Christians from attending such spectacles, to which Cyprian countered that they were idolatrous, unwholesome, influential, and inspired by none other than the devil. Here are two excerpts from his writings on the subject:
On The Public Shows (Chapter 6)
Epistle to Donatus (Chapters 7-8)
Hence turn your looks to the abominations, not less to be deplored, of another kind of spectacle. In the theatres also you will behold what may well cause you grief and shame. It is the tragic buskin which relates in verse the crimes of ancient days. The old horrors of parricide and incest are unfolded in action calculated to express the image of the truth, so that, as the ages pass by, any crime that was formerly committed may not be forgotten. Each generation is reminded by what it hears, that whatever has once been done may be done again. Crimes never die out by the lapse of ages; wickedness is never abolished by process of time; impiety is never buried in oblivion. Things which have now ceased to be actual deeds of vice become examples. In the mimes, moreover, by the teaching of infamies, the spectator is attracted either to reconsider what he may have done in secret, or to hear what he may do. Adultery is learned while it is seen; and while the mischief having public authority panders to vices, the matron, who perchance had gone to the spectacle a modest woman, returns from it immodest. Still further, what a degradation of morals it is, what a stimulus to abominable deeds, what food for vice, to be polluted by histrionic gestures, against the covenant and law of one's birth, to gaze in detail upon the endurance of incestuous abominations! Men are emasculated, and all the pride and vigour of their sex is effeminated in the disgrace of their enervated body; and he is most pleasing there who has most completely broken down the man into the woman. He grows into praise by virtue of his crime; and the more he is degraded, the more skilful he is considered to be. Such a one is looked upon — oh shame! And looked upon with pleasure. And what cannot such a creature suggest? He inflames the senses, he flatters the affections, he drives out the more vigorous conscience of a virtuous breast; nor is there wanting authority for the enticing abomination, that the mischief may creep upon people with a less perceptible approach. They picture Venus immodest, Mars adulterous; and that Jupiter of theirs not more supreme in dominion than in vice, inflamed with earthly love in the midst of his own thunders, now growing white in the feathers of a swan, now pouring down in a golden shower, now breaking forth by the help of birds to violate the purity of boys. And now put the question, Can he who looks upon such things be healthy-minded or modest? Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion. (New Advent: Cyprian of Carthage; Epistle 1) |
Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
Sunday, September 15, 2024Today, as with any other day, has been designated in homage to certain saints in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, but today is also the veneration day of a painting of a saint: that of Saint Dominic in Soriano, ordained in 1644 by Pope Innocent XII. The story goes that the Dominican friary at Soriano Calabro in southern Italy in 1530 was lacking in iconography -- paintings, statues, artwork, etc. -- and was visited by three mysterious women (later identified as St. Catharine of Alexandria, St. Mary Magdalen, and the Blessed Virgin Mary herself) who bestowed a painting of Saint Dominic to be hung behind the altar, where it remained until a series of earthquakes destroyed the church in 1783 (which means that now paintings of the original painting must be venerated). During the time when the painting hung behind the altar, about 1,600 miracles were attributed to it and any time it was relocated, it mysteriously reappeared back behind the altar. You can read more about this here and here. Catholics do love their relics, icons, and sacred images, which are meant to aid in worship, prayer, and devotion, but not to be worshiped in and of themselves, or so it has been argued over the centuries. For example, the Libri Carolini written around A.D. 790, supposedly by Charlemagne, was a treatise criticizing the Seventh General Council of Nicaea in 787 for advocating, among other things, the adoration of iconography. During the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, much Christian art was destroyed in protest to what was considered the idolatrous practice of iconoclasm. Even though religious articles, such as a crucifix or the petrified pinky toe of a saint, are intended as instruments for instruction and edification, as well as to direct attention to a higher power, it can still be argued that there is an inordinate amount of focus on the items themselves. Another issue with these items is whether or not any miracles attributed to them are actually miracles or even wonders of a divine nature. Considering the bestowal of the painting of Saint Dominic in Soriano by three mysterious women in the darkness of night, what assurance did its recipients have that these visitors were sent from heaven by Christ Himself? The official report was that St. Catharine of Alexandria appeared to one of the priests of whom she was venerated, but what assurance did he have that this was indeed the real Catharine herself? As a skeptic, I generally do not question spritual visions or angelic visitations, but I do question the origin of those events. I don't doubt that Joseph Smith was visited by an angel named Moroni, however, I seriously doubt it was an angel from heaven. I don't doubt that Muhammad was visited by an angel in a cave and given revelations, but I seriously doubt it was the angel Gabriel and that the revelations were from God. I don't doubt that a Dominican friar was visited by an entity claiming to be a saint, but I would be suspicious of its provenance and intent. I don't doubt that miracles happen and I pray for them myself, but not all miracles are divine (Matthew 24:24, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12, 2 Corinthians 11:14-15). If a piece of toast popped out of my toaster with an image of the Madonna with Christ child and a missing tooth grew back when I ate it, I'd still be hesitant to attribute the experience to any of the three persons of the Trinity. In conclusion: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." (1 John 4:1-3, NIV) |
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Enjoy Life Forever!
Saturday, September 14, 2024Yesterday I was visited at home by a couple members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, reminding me that they are still out there. They handed me their printed literature and I filed it away in my shredder after browsing through it and trying to remember just what they really believe. I actually had to go to my own website here and take a refresher course because I often confuse them with the Latter-Day Saints. Both were founded in the nineteenth century by false prophets who convinced others that they were the chosen leaders of Christ's true church in the end times because historic Christians were ancient and stupid. For shits and giggles, refer to Table 4.2 comparing the Jehovah's Witnesses with the Latter-Day Saints and traditional Christianity. Sure, when they come a knockin' they sound all Christ-like, but upon closer examination there's good reason why they don't identify as Christians. |
Jehovah's Witnesses | Latter-Day Saints | Traditional Christianity | |
| Founded | 1872 by a haberdasher named Charles Taze Russell. | 1830 by a treasure hunter named Joseph Smith, Jr. | First century by a Jewish carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth. (JW and LDS claim that modern Christianity is the bastardized product of second-generation believers onward.) |
| Jesus | Michael the archangel, God's first created being. | Firstborn of God's many spiritual offspring and brother of Lucifer. | God as man. |
| God | Jehovah of the Old Testament | A man named Elohim who evolved into a state of godhood and is always increasing in knowledge. | Jehovah of the Old Testament (according to the King James Version). The Jewish diety named "I AM." |
| Trinity | A false and complicated doctrine devised by Satan. | The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not one and the same, but three separate and distinct gods -- individuals who are united only in thought, action, and purpose. The Trinity is not only false, but one of the greatest heresies of traditional Christianity. | God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. |
| Salvation | Although Jesus was the Son of God, his sacrificial death atoned for man's sins not because he was God, but because he led a perfect life -- the only thing necessary to cancel the inherited disablilty of Adam's fall from grace. | Salvation only comes to those who abide by the entire law of Mormon scripture, who then become gods over their own planet. | Through belief in Jesus as having died on the cross for our sins. This is the only acceptible sacrifice to God. |
| Christ's Resurrection | Happened spiritually, not physically. | Happened physically. However, not for the sake of salvation. Jesus suffered for the sins of mankind in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed earnestly while his soul was in deep anguish and he sweat drops of blood. | Happened physically. Otherwise, Christianity is in vain. |
| Second Coming | Happened invisibly in 1914. | Christ will come again to reign a thousand years on Earth. (No one knows when.) | Christ will come again to reign a thousand years on Earth. (No one knows when.) |
| Hell | No such thing. Unbelievers just cease to exist after death. | No such thing. Everyone goes somewhere after death but the worst spiritual kingdom ain't so bad. | Real and full of everlasting fire for the damned. |
| Bible | New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures | Authorized King James Version retranslated by Joseph Smith, second only to The Book of Mormon. | Any version other than the New World Translation or the Mormon AKJV. |
Yeah, what that priest said... kinda... sorta.
Friday, September 13, 2024I sometimes browse posts on Twitter/X and say to myself, "Hmm." Recently, I came across one such post here of Fr. Chad Ripperger delivering a sermon on the "Levels of Spiritual Warfare" at St. Mary of Pine Bluff Catholic Church in Pine Bluff, Wisconsin, on November 5, 2018. In it, he makes a point of how the top generals in Satan's army have been given control over important aspects of America's population throughout our recent past: Baal, a demon of impurity, is responsible for causing the fornication of civilizations for recreation and non-reproductive purposes; Asmodeus, the demon of male homosexuality; Leviathan, the demon of transexual homosexuality; Lilith, the demon of female homosexuality; Baphomet, the demon of child sacrifice and therefore abortion. Although I had difficulty verifying some of these entities myself, here's the lowdown on their profiles:
Reportedly, there are between 5 and 7 generals in Satan's army and thousands of named demigods and demons in the ranks of hell, many of whom have been worshiped for eons by most civilizations. Although origins may be difficult to pinpoint and most are conglomerations of several deities, the overall point is that Satan has many accomplices. As a fallen angel of light and master of deception, Satan roams the Earth looking for people to lead astray from God or accuse before God's throne of their transgressions which, by His commandments, result in a judgment of death. To Christians, this is obvious. However, to unbelievers this is all fun and games in the quest for independence from God. For each and every sphere of sin that separates us from God -- be it fornication, homosexuality, abortion, vainglorious erudition, illicit gain, atheism, et cetera -- there is a sinister force promoting it behind the scenes. For more about this topic, read your Bible. Also, check out The Gospel of Martha, which dedicates a chapter to this subject. |
Not Peace, But Division (Luke 12:51)
Saturday, September 7, 2024Today is a harsh reminder of the violent side of Christianity as we remember the Crusades, particularly the Third Crusade of the twelfth century and the martyrdom of three Catholic priests by Protestant forces in the seventeenth century. On this day in 1191, the Battle of Arsuf in Israel during the Third Crusade resulted in Christian forces under Richard the Lionheart defeating the Muslims under Saladin with approximately 700 Christian deaths and 7,000 Muslim deaths. The ultimate outcome of the war was that the Christian forces failed to reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims, however, there was a three-year truce. Following the series of crusades against the Muslims, Christians engaged in crusades against each other, as well as Jews, partly due to differences in doctrine and partly fueled by political alliances. It's unknown how many casualties resulted from the crusades ending in the fifteenth century, but estimates by artificial intelligence* range from hundreds of thousands to 1.7 million. On this day in 1619, three Jesuit priests** were tortured and killed by Calvinist forces in Kassa, Hungary, during a nationalist uprising. Despite protests from most involved, the three were executed in lieu of putting all of the Catholic citizens in the city to the sword. Remember, though, that Jesus said, "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." (Luke 12:51-53, NIV) Therefore, let the crusades continue on until the end of the ages... non-violently, of course.*** *Meta Llama 3 and Mistral. **Marko Stjepan Krizin (c. 1588-1619), István Pongrácz (c. 1583-1619), and Melchior Grodziecki (c. 1582-1619). Pictured: Marko Krizin, whose feast day is today, during which celebrants partake in crucixif-shaped JELL-O molds filled with a variety of fruits and vegetables. ***In 2011, a Campus Crusade for Christ evangelist was murdered in Kazakhstan by Muslims (Courthouse News Service). |
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Combatting Climate Change One Cosplayer at a Time
Sunday, August 18, 2024 Whether you believe in exploiting the environment or saving it, remember that, in the end, God will make a new earth (Isaiah 65:17, 66:22, 2 Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 21:1). There, problem solved. I wipe my hands. In the meantime, while Earth terraforms back to its original greenhouse state before the Flood, we should require every house and domicile globally to be roofed with solar panels because, in actuality, this will reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere and heat up the ozone, accelerating global warming. Windmills will also help to circulate all that hot air, so the more the better. The polar ice caps will melt, revealing valuable land, resources, frozen dinosaurs, and proof that Antarctica is a giant, underground, Nazi hangar filled with flying saucers emblazoned with swastikas. But I kid -- not about Nazi flying saucers, but about global warming, which there is no stopping nor slowing. You can stop burning fossil fuels, stop cutting down trees, stop using chemical fertilizers, and stop eating cows, but you can't stop erupting volcanoes, solar radiation, vaporizing water, breathing lungs, leaking methane from the earth's bowels, and industrial byproducts spewing forth from mining, manufacturing and recharging lithium-ion batteries. Face it, Al Gore did quite a bit of damage to the environment by talking so much about global warming all these years, emitting an estimated 30 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of his mouth alone. Every time there is a conversation regarding global warming between two environmentalists, the worldwide temperature rises by 0.0000001°C (+/-0.000001°C, depending on how many times they farted). At the World Economic Forum this year in Davos, Switzerland, wealthy members determined that only wealthy people are capable of determining what's best for the damage that wealthy companies have done to this planet. As we all know, poor people make poor choices, especially when it comes to making and spending money, so the best they can do for the environment is to diminish in population. While doing so, they can also do whatever their government tells them to do and spend their meager earnings on what wealthy corporations generously provide, which is only fair and reasonable in their predicament. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), it's also the responsibility of poor people to have faith in science and collectively pool their righteous anger to demand that utilities, industries, and governments change the world for the better. As Carl Sagan (1934-1996) once may have said, "Science is cool. Scientists are cool. I am cool." Unfortunately for science, you don't ever see anyone dressing up as Carl Sagan when attending Cosplay events... nor Neil deGrasse Tyson, for that matter. |
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World Peace @ Your Fingertips
Saturday, August 17, 2024As speculated, here are a few of my top ideas for global peace in a world of division, greed, distrust, and medically unclassified rashes:
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Top Tourist Destination for Thrill Seekers
Wednesday, August 14, 2024Today we remember the ceasefire to the Second Lebanon War (UNSCR 1701) between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah in 2006, during which an estimated 1,300 Lebanese people were killed and approximately one million displaced with 165 Israelis dead and over 300,000 displaced. What started it? Oh, the usual Iranian-backed Shi'a Islamic terrorist group firing rockets into Israel and capturing Israeli soldiers from across the border. Recently, during Israel's ongoing war with Hamas, a high-ranking Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, was assassinated in Beirut by an IDF airstrike following a Hezbollah missile attack that killed twelve Israeli children in the Golan Heights. Hezbollah, of course, has vowed retaliation and continues to fire rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas. Now, for those of us here in the U.S. who do not have this kind of neighborly relationship and fail to understand the intricacies of diplomacy between Israel and the rest of the Middle East, I say let Israel handle this themselves. If a maple syrup extremist group in Canada were pulling the same kind of shit against the U.S. as Hezbollah is against Israel, we'd put an end to it quickly and without UN intervention. If Mexico was pulling this kind of shit against the U.S.... Wait, they have been with immigration for as long as I've been alive; which is why I say we should bomb Mexico with megaton candy piñatas so that their children will never want to leave and build water slides at the border that go for miles back into Mexico. I'll be the first to admit that my ideas are unconventional, but sometimes you have to be unorthodox in order to get the job done and I don't recall any diplomats saying that the means to the end cannot be fun and entertaining. Maybe tomorrow I'll post my vivacious ideas on ending various worldwide conflicts, including those in Burkina Faso, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine. Pictured: The Lebanese flag of Hezbollah. The central inscription with the upraised assault rifle is "Party of Allah." Overhead in Arabic is "Then surely the party of Allah are they that shall be triumphant" (Quran 5:56) and underneath is "The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon." There are other symbols here but all-in-all it's kind of a mess, no matter what language it's in. |
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Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Tuesday, August 13, 2024 Last night I watched the live video feed of Christians for Kamala and, I gotta say, if ever I considered myself progressive, I no longer do. These people want to maintain separation of church and state while still influencing people of a certain religious conviction to vote for their candidate because they are convinced she will spend tax-payer money on the charitable causes they support, along with enacting more laws to allow their converts to go on living lives opposed to the tenets of that faith. While I'm also in favor of separation of church and state, as well as opposed to Project 2025, I don't remember Jesus campaigning for politicians while walking the Earth as a man. Nor do I believe that Kamala Harris has Christ's endorsement any more than I believe that Trump has it, either. What struck me about the key speakers was that they seemed as wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15, 10:16, Acts 20:29), while right-wing conservative Christians strike me more as sheep in wolves' clothing. These so-called progressive, left-wing Christians are marching along to the beat of the contemporary world drum that heralds universal peace and brotherly love (1 Thessalonians 5:3), while simultaneously proclaiming acceptance and tolerance in the name of love. The biblical scripture that was shared was all fine and dandy, howbeit aimed originally at the individual believer, who ought to give generously of their own belongings rather than that of those who render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar (Matthew 22:17-21). As for immigrants, they were fond of quoting the poem on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" However, they left out the criminals, murderers, rapists, human parasites, and all those in opposition to freedom and democracy who are currently allowed into our country under the watchful eyes of Kamala Harris. Our resources and our patience are not limitless, despite well-meaning Christians who are merely political pawns controlled by the unholy powers upon which their faith rests. Jesus said, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues" (Matthew 10:15-17, NIV). It is apparent that Christians for Kamala have not headed this warning and have instead embraced the wolves.
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Neato Tewahedo
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Today is the Feast of Filseta (Movement) in the Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, celebrating the dormition and assumption of Mary, which is a fancy way of saying the peaceful death and ascension into heaven of Mary, whom they believe to be an eternal virgin, immaculately conceived, and the mother of God. Now, I'm not getting into the religious rigamarole about the nature of Mary, but I do want to point out two of the latest additions to the Oriental Orthodox Church -- the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (sub-Saharan Africa) and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Eastern Africa). These aren't new in the sense that they were recently founded; both have been around since the fourth century but were granted autocephaly in the twentieth century, meaning their bishops were elevated to patriarchs at the top of the pecking order in the Oriental Orthodox Church (no central papal figure here). Tewahedo means "united as one" -- as in the perfectly unified single nature of Christ, both divine and human. Okay, now I'll get into some religious rigamarole. Most of the other churches (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Protestants) believe in a slightly different nature of Christ, in that He has two distinct natures -- one divine and one human, both united as one in a hypostatic union of individual personhood, being fully God and fully man at the same time. So what's the difference? Basically, Christ is either two natures in one person (miaphysitism) or else one person in two natures (dyophysitism). So, again, what's the difference? The difference is basically what separates the Oriental Orthodox Churches (miaphysitism) from everyone else (dyophysitism), however, according to the Agreed Statements between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, there is no significant difference in belief about the nature of Christ. So, then, why the difference? Well, since there is no significant difference, then I'm not concerned.
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Feast of Transfiguramogrifikation
Tuesday, August 6, 2024Today we pay closer attention than usual to the Trasfiguration of Jesus, when you-know-what happened on a mountain top as accounted for in Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36, 2 Peter 1:16-18, and The Gospel of Martha:
And it came to pass about six to eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter and Andrew his brother, and James and John his brother, and did lead them up into an high mountain (that is, Mount Harmon) apart by themselves to pray. And as they climbed, Peter reported of a peculiar odour in the air: that of a foul stench mingled with peppermint. And Jesus knew the barmonau were close at hand.
But Andrew was become short of breath, and stopping to rest upon a rock he fell behind, and was thus forsaken. And a barmonau appeared before him, and ministered unto him, and poured into his mouth cool artesian water from its enormous hands. Then the Grigori came down from above in their celestial chariot, and whisked away the barmonau; and again was Andrew left forsaken.
When the others reached the top of the mountain, they kneeled, and clasped their hands. And as Jesus prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shew forth as the sun, and his raiment became shining, and glistering, and white as the light, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
And, behold, there appeared in glory unto them Moses and Elijah, for they wear upon each their chest a badge. And upon these badges were printed their names, with images of their likeness, and successions of lines with numbers, and symbols which appeared to float. And they talking with him spake of the weather, and climate shifts, and of trends both social and economic, and of Roman occupation, and about his mission which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, and of many other topics past, and current, and future.
But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep, and nodding their heads: and when they were awakened by the arrival of Andrew, they saw Jesus' glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, "Lord and Master, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
For he was dim of thought and wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid. And James and John said they, "What of three gazebos, that we may stay here some time and enjoy the company?" And they began to gather lumber, and broad leaves, and sticks for latticework, and to fashion rope.
And Peter said, "We shall fashion for thee furniture also, and a patio to recline thereupon: and the furniture shall be specifik unto a patio; and therefore patio furniture."
Whilst thus spake he, behold, there came a bright cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. Then, behold, there came a voice out of the cloud, which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
And when the disciples heard, they fell on their face. Now when the voice was past, Jesus came and touched them, and said, "Arise, and be not afraid." And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.
As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, "Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. And Simon Peter, thou hast soiled thyself. I prithee attendest thou unto it."
So they kept that saying close with themselves, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen, except unto the twelve, and a few others. And they questioned one with an other what the rising from the dead should mean. And his disciples asked him, saying, "Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?"
And Jesus answering saith he unto them, "Elijah verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. But I say unto you, that Elijah is indeed come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them."
Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptiser. And it occurred to them the idea of the gazebos and the patio furniture, and determined that it be good for them to go forth and build, and fellowship, and reminisce of John's dancing. So they built, and they were well shaded, and they were all together, and glad of heart.
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Shelley Hack, No Less an Angel
Monday, August 5, 2024
I do not venerate the Saints, but I do respect them and today we honor Emygdius (c. A.D. 279-309), among others. He was just one of many second-generation Christians martyred during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian. As his story goes, he healed many people and performed miracles until encountering Polymius, the governor of Ascoli Piceno in Italy. After refusing to worship Jupiter and the goddess Angaria, Emygdius baptized the daughter of Polymius, for which he was beheaded, along with his disciples. After the decapitation, Emygdius supposedly picked up his severed head and carried it to the site of the modern-day Sant'Emidio alle Grotte church, built inside a cave on the side of a mountain. Emygdius is the patron saint for protection against earthquakes because the church and local city survived an earthquake in 1703, along with an attack by Alaric I in 409, the plague by the troops of Conrad II in 1038, and German forces in 1943 during WWII. I would also like to honor my departed mother, Diane, whose birthday is today. Although not a saint, she did raise me as best she could in a Christian household, to which I can testify to Proverbs 22:6 ("Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." KJV). Like the followers of Emygdius who tore down the palace of Polymius, my mother let my sisters destroy my bedroom when I was a teenager because I wouldn't remove a poster of Shelley Hack in a bikini from my wall. As Tiffany Welles in the fourth season of Charlie's Angels (1979-80), I wasn't particularly fond of Shelley Hack, but I won the poster at a local carnival. Had this been a poster of any one of the original Charlie's Angels, I may have lost my faith but, by the grace of God, I wasn't too shaken by the incident. I forgive you, Mom. Someday, maybe upon my deathbed, I shall forgive my sisters as well for their many trespasses against my personal effects (Shelley Hack was not alone in my adolescent temple of debauchery).
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Apologies for Offenses Made
Sunday, August 4, 2024Yesterday, I made a few off-handed comments about the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, for which I make no apologies. Heck, I'll even say them again: Both presidential candidates -- the village idiot and the town harlot -- appear as teenagers participating in an ongoing public debate both unprepared and drunk. Harris is an incoherent communist and Trump is an egotistical con artist. What I am sorry about is that I overlooked a couple individuals who deserve honorable mention (rather than two who deserve dishonorable mention) and that's George Freeman Bragg (1863-1940) and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963). Both were prominent civil rights advocates, although I do not necessarily agree with the religious and political viewpoints of W. E. B. Du Bois, so I shall concentrate more on George F. Bragg, who was born into slavery but grew to become an Episcopalian priest after his grandmother founded the first black Episcopalian church in Petersburg, Virginia. George would later move to Baltimore, MD, where he served as rector of the oldest southern Episcopalian church, St. James Episcopal Church, for 49 years and helped it grow to become the largest parish in the country. Unfortunately, during the Great Depression, he and his parishioners were forced to eat the original church building, but they soon built a larger one nearby out of less edible materials. In 1904, he helped Booker T. Washington found the Committee of Twelve -- a group of African American intellectuals and educators who sought to promote the interests and education of blacks in the U.S. -- and later joined W. E. B. DuBois as one of the founders of the Niagara Movement, a precursor of the NAACP. Bragg also established a black orphanage, promoted African American teachers for African American students, developed black ministers, wrote several books, and published a monthly newsletter called the Church Advocate, which had evolved from a weekly civil rights newsletter he created in his younger years while involved in black politics. The newsletter was ahead of its time, containing Sudoku puzzles, memes, Wheels & Deals, digital coupons, "The Family Circus" comic strip (originally "Family-Go-Round"), e-mail addresses, Frequently Asked Questions, and Internet links to online resources such as his own books, including The First Negro Priest On Southern Soil, published in 1909. |
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Smell the Pus
Saturday, August 3, 2024 Been busy as of late with family activity but have been trying to keep up on world events via social media, which is like trying to pop a cyst located in the middle of the back. When feeling a small burst of purulence, it's almost impossible not to smell the extraction between the fingers, which is what U.S. politics must smell like these days. Both presidential candidates -- the village idiot and the town harlot -- appear as teenagers participating in an ongoing public debate both unprepared and drunk. Harris is an incoherent communist and Trump is an egotistical con artist. Kennedy, who makes more sense even with his brain infection, may not be able to speak at all by the time he ever gets invited to a debate. That's my two-cent's worth right there. Now, enjoy this compilation of pimples being squeezed that I painstakingly researched, which is just as repugnant and nauseating as anything that comes out of the mouth of American politicians... but more satisfying.
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Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
Saturday, July 27, 2024Today, two days after the world came together for the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris which included a modern re-enactment of the Last Supper with drag queens,* Christians and Muslims come together in agreement on a story about seven persecuted individuals who hibernated in a sealed cave for centuries, soon to be re-enacted by modern-day transsexuals as a closeted gay orgy of antiquity. According to several written accounts (Jacob of Serugh, Gregory of Tours, Jacobus de Voragine, et al), there were seven Christians and a dog in the third century during the reign of Emperor Decius who were driven into a mountain cave in Ephesus (modern Turkey), where they were sealed inside for two centuries before the cave was opened again. Upon their discovery, they awakened from what they thought was a night's sleep to a Roman Empire whose official religion was now their own. After telling their story to a local bishop, they gave glory to God and died. Although there are different versions of the story with varying timelines and the names of the individuals, all agree that the name of the dog was Viricanus. This story even appears in the Qur'an (Surah 18:1-27), however, the Christians in this version were opposed to the deity of Jesus and went into the cave for 300 years. You see, Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not the Son of God -- to them, this is blasphemy. Anyway, the seven sleepers also awoke to some of the Christian debates of the time, one of which was the resurrection of the body in the day of judgement. You see, early Christians were under the impression that the Second Coming of Christ was in their lifetime, so it must've been quite a shock that it hadn't happened yet and there must have been quite a few discussions around when exactly it was to occur, including here. *Okay, so maybe the Olympic re-enactment (or living painting) was of the 1635 painting "The Feast of the Gods" by Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert, but that painting was modeled after the 1495 painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. |
Get Your Saint Charbel Medallion Today
Wednesday, July 24, 2024Today we remember Charbel Makhlouf (1828-1898), a monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order, or Baladites, who was known for uniting Christians, Muslims and Druze. What's a Druze, you ask? Apparently, it's a religious offshoot of Shia Islam (Isma'ilism) with other religious beliefs mixed in, including Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Zoroastrianism, Gandharan Buddhism, and Manichaeism Pythagoreanism. It's also a rather secretive belief system which does not proselytize or convert, but only indoctrinates within its own families located throughout the Middle East, where they number around one million and are prone to persecution by Muslims. They are known as far back as the eleventh century, mentioned in passing by Christian scholar Yahya of Antioch, who identified them as a bunch of mountain-dwelling Unitarian weirdos. Important individuals responsible for the early development of the religion include names like Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazi. At some point, the Druze opened their arms to all outsiders, which didn't work out so well, so they closed their arms. In the fourteenth century, Sunni Muslims turned against sects like the Druze who had assisted them during the Crusades but were now considered heretics, which continued through the sixteenth century with the wrath of the Ottoman Turks. However, the Druze survived and you can read about their beliefs for yourself in their official book, Epistles of Wisdom, if you can find a copy since it's so secretive, but you can read more about the Druze here. Was Charbel Makhlouf a Druze? No, he was a Christian monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order, or Baladites. Pay attention. |
| You, Too, Can Be An Ascetic Monk In No Time
Tuesday, July 23, 2024 Today we remember John Cassian (aka John the Ascetic, circa A.D. 360-435), who was a Christian monk, mystic and theologian notable for disclosing information about the private lives of Egyptian monks. Two of his greatest hits were the 12-volume Institutes of the Coenobia and the 24-volume Conferences of the Desert Fathers, here together summarized in neat, concise, easy-to-read bullet points:
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I Am A Poor Indian
Sunday, July 14, 2024Today, instead of commenting on International Non-Binary People's day or the attempted assassination of Donald Trump yesterday, I am going to remember Samson Occom (1723-1792), a Native American Presbyterian minister of the Mohegan nation in New England. Along with his son-in-law, Joseph Johnson, Occom was one of the first Native Americans to publish his writings in English. One of his pieces was an autobiographical essay entitled "I Believe It Is Because I Am a Poor Indian" and can be read here. Occom converted to Christianity at a young age and studied under Eleazar Wheelock, who founded Dartmouth College with money Occom raised in England intended for a Native American school. Occom was also short-changed on income from Congregationalist churches he was affiliated with, as accounted in this excerpt from the aforementioned narrative:
I was Born a Heathen and Brought up In Heathenism, till I was between 16 & 17 years of age, at a Place Calld Mohegan, in New London, Connecticut, in New England. My Parents Livd a wandering life, for did all the Indians at Mohegan, they Chiefly Depended upon Hunting, Fishing, & Fowling for their Living and had no Connection with the English, excepting to Traffic with them in their small Trifles; and they Strictly maintained and followed their Heathenish Ways, Customs & Religion, though there was Some Preaching among them. Once a Fortnight, in ye Summer Season, a Minister from New London used to come up, and the Indians to attend; not that they regarded the Christian Religion, but they had Blankets given to them every Fall of the Year and for these things they would attend and there was a Sort of School kept, when I was quite young, but I believe there never was one that ever Learnt to read any thing, -- and when I was about 10 Years of age there was a man who went about among the Indian Wigwams, and wherever he Could find the Indian Children, would make them read; but the Children Used to take Care to keep out of his way; —and he used to Catch me Some times and make me Say over my Letters; and I believe I learnt Some of them. But this was Soon over too; and all this Time there was not one amongst us, that made a Profession of Christianity--Neither did we Cultivate our Land, nor kept any Sort of Creatures except Dogs, which we used in Hunting; and we Dwelt in wigwams. These are a Sort of Tents, Covered with Matts, made of Flags. And to this Time we were unacquainted with the English Tongue in general though there were a few, who understood a little of it.
When I was 16 years of age, we heard a Strange Rumor among the English, that there were Extraordinary Ministers Preaching from place to Place and a Strange Concern among the White People. This was in the Spring of the Year. But we Saw nothing of these things, till Some Time in the Summer, when Some Ministers began to visit us and Preach the Word of God; and the Common People all Came frequently and exhorted us to the things of God, which it pleased the Lord, as I humbly hope, to Bless and accompany with Divine Influence to the Conviction and Saving Conversion of a Number of us; amongst whom I was one that was Imprest with the things we had heard. These Preachers did not only come to us, but we frequently went to their meetings and Churches. After I was awakened & converted, I went to all the meetings, I could come at; & Continued under Trouble of Mind about 6 months; at which time I began to Learn the English Letters; got me a Primer, and used to go to my English Neighbours frequently for Assistance in Reading, but went to no School. And when I was 17 years of age, I had, as I trust, a Discovery of the way of Salvation through Jesus Christ, and was enabl’d to put my trust in him alone for Life & Salvation. From this Time the Distress and Burden of my mind was removed, and I found Serenity and Pleasure of Soul, in Serving God. By this time I just began to Read in the New Testament without Spelling,—and I had a Stronger Desire Still to Learn to read the Word of God, and at the Same Time had an uncommon Pity and Compassion to my Poor Brethren According to the Flesh. I used to wish I was capable of Instructing my poor Kindred. I used to think, if I Could once Learn to Read I would Instruct the poor Children in Reading, -- and used frequently to talk with our Indians Concerning Religion. This continued till I was in my 19th year: by this Time I Could Read a little in the Bible. At this Time my Poor Mother was going to Lebanon, and having had Some Knowledge of Mr. Wheelock and hearing he had a Number of English youth under his Tuition, I had a great Inclination to go to him and be with him a week or a Fortnight, and Desired by Mother to Ask Mr. Wheelock whether he would take me a little while to Instruct me in Reading...
As soon as I left Mr. Wheelock, I endeavored to find Some Employ among the Indians; went to Nahantuck, thinking they may want a School Master, but they had one; then went to Narraganset, and they were Indifferent about a School, and went back to Mohegan, and heard a number of our Indians were going to Montauk, on Long Island, and I went with them, and the Indians there were very desirous to have me keep a School amongst them, and I Consented, and went back a while to Mohegan and Some time in November I went on the Island, I think it is 17 years ago last November. I agreed to keep School with them Half a Year, and left it with them to give me what they Pleased; and they took turns to Provide Food for me. I had near 30 Scholars this winter... And I kept on in my Service as usual, yea I had additional Service; I kept School as I did before and Carried on the Religious Meetings as often as ever, and attended the Sick and their Funerals, and did what Writings they wanted, and often Sat as a Judge to reconcile and Decide their Matters Between them, and had visitors of Indians from all Quarters; and, as our Custom is, we freely Entertain all Visitors.... I Catechised 3 or 4 Times a Week according to the Assembly's Shout or Catechism, and many Times Proposed Questions of my own, and in my own Tongue. I found Difficulty with Some Children, who were Some what Dull, most of these can soon learn to Say over their Letters, they Distinguish the Sounds by the Ear, but their Eyes can't Distinguish the Letters, and the way I took to cure them was by making an Alphabet on Small bits of paper, and glued them on Small Chips of Cedar after this manner A B & C...
I Dwelt in a Wigwam, a Small Hut with Small Poles and Covered with Matts made of Flags, and I was obligd to remove twice a Year, about 2 miles Distance, by reason of the Scarcity of wood, for in one Neck of Land they Planted their Corn, and in another, they had their wood, and I was obligd to have my Corn carted and my Hay also, -- and I got my Ground Plow'd every year, which Cost me about 12 shillings an acre; and I kept a Cow and a Horse, for which I paid 21 shillings every year York currency, and went 18 miles to Mill for every Dust of meal we used in my family. I Hired or Joined with my Neighbours to go to Mill, with a Horse or ox Cart, or on Horse Back, and Some time went myself. My Family Increasing fast, and my Visitors also. I was obligd to contrive every way to Support my Family; I took all opportunities, to get Some thing to feed my Family Daily. I Planted my own Corn, Potatoes, and Beans; I used to be out hoeing my Corn Some times before Sun Rise and after my School is Dismist, and by this means I was able to raise my own Pork, for I was allowed to keep 5 Swine. Some mornings & Evenings I would be out with my Hook and Line to Catch fish and in the Fall of Year and in the Spring, I used my gun, and fed my Family with Fowls. I Could more than pay for my Powder & Shot with Feathers. At other Times I Bound old Books for Easthampton People, made wooden Spoons and Ladles, Stocked Guns, & worked on Cedar to make Pails, (Piggins), and Churns & C. Besides all these Difficulties I met with advers Providence, I bought a Mare, had it but a little while, and she fell into the Quick Sand and Died... by this Time I got greatly in Debt and acquainted my Circumstances to Some of my Friends, and they Represented my Case to the Commissioners of Boston, and Interceded with them for me, and they were pleased to vote £15 for my Help, and Soon after Sent a Letter to my good Friend at New London, acquainting him that they had Superseded their Vote; and my Friends were so good as to represent my Needy Circumstances Still to them, and they were so good at Last, as to Vote £15 and Sent it, for which I am very thankful; and the Revd Mr. Buell was so kind as to write in my behalf to the gentlemen of Boston; and he told me they were much Displeased with him, and heard also once again that they blamed me for being Extravagant; I Can't Conceive how these gentlemen would have me Live. I am ready to (forgive) their Ignorance, and I would wish they had Changed Circumstances with me but one month, that they may know, by experience what my Case really was; but I am now fully convinced, that it was not Ignorance, For I believe it can be proved to the world that these Same Gentlemen gave a young Missionary a Single man, one Hundred Poundsfor one year, and fifty Pounds for an Interpreter, and thirty Pounds for an Introducer; so it Cost them one Hundred & Eighty Pounds in one Single Year, and they Sent too where there was no Need of a Missionary.
Now you See what difference they made between me and other missionaries; they gave me 180 Pounds for 12 years Service, which they gave for one years Services in another Mission, -- In my Service (I speak like a fool, but I am Constrained) I was my own Interpreter. I both a School master and Minister to the Indians, yea I was their Ear, Eye & Hand, as Well as Mouth. I leave it with the World, as wicked as it is, to Judge whether I ought not to have had half as much, they gave a young man Just mentioned which would have been but £50 a year; and if they ought to have given me that, I am not under obligations to them, I owe them nothing at all; what can be the Reason that they used me after this manner? ...So I am ready to Say, they have used me thus, because I Can't Influence the Indians so well as other missionaries; but I can assure them I have endeavoured to teach them as well as I know how; -- but I must Say, I believe it is because I am a poor Indian. I Can't help that God has made me So; I did not make my self so.
Source: Samsom Occom, A Short Narrative of My Life, typescript, Dartmouth College Archives, in Bernd Peyer, The Elders Wrote (Berlin, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1982), 12-18. |
Hank Kimball Endorses Agenda 47
Saturday, July 13, 2024I was preparing to discuss the differences between The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and Donald Trump's Agenda 47, both of which outline policy plans for a potential Trump presidency and ensure Joe Biden gets his day in court, but I'd rather watch reruns of Green Acres on MeTV. Agenda 47 is Trump's official plan, while Project 2025 is the far right's wish list to swing the U.S. pendulum a full 180°, which Trump says he's never heard of but which proponents say he followed closely during his first term -- plus, Trump has many Project 2025 members on his campaign committee. Instead, I'll outline some of the changes projected for a Republican POTUS in 2025... Wait, for Project 2025 that'd require reading a book just shy of 900 pages, which anyone can read here. How about I just give my two-cents worth now? I don't agree with it simply because it focuses on bringing back good, old-fashioned Christian values into U.S. government policies and establishing as many government employees as possible who have graduated from its school of thought. Don't get me wrong -- I'm in favor of good, old-fashioned Christian values, but I'm also for the separation of church and state and would prefer a secular government over a religious one which focuses upon only one religion, even if I do agree that it's the only true religion approved by the true God of us all. Trump's Agenda 47 (so named because it pertains to the 47th president of the U.S.) is outlined in a series of videos for people who find reading books like Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise tiresome, but here's a few bullet points for people who find watching videos of Trump tiresome:
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Out of Africa
Wednesday, July 10, 2024On this day in 1925, the Scopes Monkey Trial (The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes) was called to order which, eight days later, found John T. Scopes guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching evolution in a public school, but the verdict was overturned by an appeal to the Supreme Court of Tennessee on a technicality regarding the $100 fine imposed upon the defendant. Considered a media circus at the time, one of the outcomes was to widen the gap between Christian fundamentalists and Christian modernists in America, the latter of which ceded biblical truth to scientific fact and came out on top in subsequent decades. However, by 1970, Protestant conservatives had made a comeback or, if you will, a revival, allowing Christian fundamentalists back into the mainstream. One of the shared beliefs between the two camps, as well as within popular paleoanthropological circles, is monogenism, or the belief that all humans descended from one man and one woman. According to the Bible, this was originally Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden somewhere in the Middle East approximately 10,000 years ago, give or take a few thousand years. According to proponents of the Out of Africa theory, this was a couple of Homo sapiens newlyweds somewhere near the horn of Africa who honeymooned to Europe to get away from the primitive Neanderthals roughly 200,000 years ago, give or take 100,000 years. The data and research on OOA theories are vast, howbeit inconclusive. I can say this because I don't believe any of it, nor do I believe that enough evidence can be unearthed to be considered definitive and conclusive. It seems to be the duty of paleontologists to chance upon bone fragments here and there and try to piece together an entire primitive dimwit that looks slightly more like man than ape. I say "dimwit" because that's what they'd have us believe -- that anything prior to H. sapiens was a dimwit with a small brain. Here's what I hypothesize: Neanderthals were dimwitted H. sapiens to begin with. Just look around and in no time you, too, will begin to see these so-called Neanderthals in modern-day civilization playing with fire and trying to figure out how the wheel works. They live among us and interbreed with us and some even have misshapen heads. Personally, I like science. Science gets an A for technology, however, it flunks in other areas: equating fact with truth; inability to prove or disprove theories like evolution; explaining our origins; comprehending time; surmounting greed and bureaucracy. Also, a word of caution to young, academic minds: careful with your online search terms, such as "homo erectus." |
True Freedom Comes Through Christ
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Alright, back to the bread and butter blog posts. This week we in the U.S. celebrate our independence (aka, freedom). Of course, no one is truly free. We are all slaves to something bigger, whether the laws of nature, time, banks, government bureaucracy, an employer, television, addiction, taxes, public opinion, or the Rothschilds. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Galatians, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (5:1, NIV). He then goes on to explain that even circumcision is a mark of slavery to the laws and commandments of the Old Testament. Jesus called us to be free and the only way to accomplish that is to love one another (5:13-14). To do this, we must be led by the Spirit (5:18), who leads us from indulging our physical passions and desires to the fruits of the Spirit (5:13, 16-26). This freedom, although a gift to us all, was bought at a high price (John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 2:6-8) and shared through the slavery of those who were called to spread the Good News (Ephesians 3:1, 7-13, 4:1, Philippians 1:12-14). Of course, you can read all this for yourself. This is just a reminder to myself which I am sharing with you. Truth be told, I am circumcised, addicted to caffeine, struggling to love my neighbor, tempted to not vote Republican, critical of the LDS Church, prejudiced against drivers who don't pay attention, angry at people who are willingly stupid or incoherent in their open views, and I trust absolutely no one. However, I have faith in Christ. This fourth of July, I intend to stick the lit end of a sparkler up my ass as a reminder that there are so many people on the road to hell and I may very well be one of those who either wasn't properly prepared for heaven (Matthew 25:1-13) or showed up and got thrown out (Matthew 22:11-14). We're all in this together, like it or not. |
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Platanista Minor Wins First 2024 Presidential Debate
Saturday, June 29, 2024 What could be worse than the first U.S. presidential debate of 2024 held on Thursday between Biden and Trump? Not much of anything, really, except a Tweet I came across about raping dolphins in India, in which the post claimed that men in the village of Sindh, Pakistan, were regularly pulling blind river dolphins from the Indus River with the intended, long-standing practice of sexual intercourse. At first, I was skeptical and immediately consulted Snopes.com for the real answer, which wasn't there, so I had to do my own snoping online and eventually came to the conclusion that there's not enough information to prove or disprove this heinous accusation of bestiality that started on the HumSub blog, which is written in Hindi. Other sources then re-reported the same hearsay journalism here, here, and here and a petition was started to stop it here. However, none of the animal conservation organizations listed sexual defilement as one of the causes of the decline of this endangered specie's population, which apparently does include dams, pollution, fishing, natural predators, and barrages, or low-level dams intended to divert river water to irrigation canals. I happened to notice that the picture on HumSub about dolphin man-rape is one from a series about saving these dolphins, of which there is another on Aljazeera's site accompanying an article about saving these dolphins. In conclusion, had an unmolested river dolphin participated in Thursday's presidential debate, it would have come out on top. |
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CNN Host: "What is your position on the plight of river dolphins worldwide and will you allow them to immigrate to the U.S.?"
Trump: "Joe has allowed so many illegal immigrants into this country already that we are on the verge of World War III, which will be a battle to the death between Social Security and Medicare. I've taken two, count them, two cognizance tests and aced them both -- something that's never been done before. The doctors who administered the tests said they've never seen anything like it. Joe has yet to take a cognizance test. What is he afraid of? When I make America great again, cognizance tests will be mandatory for all immigrants, including fish, whether they swim in from the ocean or the rivers." Biden: "This is there are somuluva we have, listen, there are also pets who are raped by their owners and these these pet owners whatawhata themselves have been molested by their handlers and their parents and Donald Trump in his first presidency knew all about it all about it. Do we want four more years of of of shamalamalkidalimakoodlecodda? He's a liar and I never lie and that's no lie. And by the way I never killed anyone and by the way I know fifty other rulers of countries who would switch places with my son Hunter in a heartbeat. And by the way, listen, I never said shamalamalkidalimakoodlecodda. That's absurd." River Dolphin: "Eeeeek eeeek eeeeek k k k k eeeek k k k eeeek eeeek k k k eeeek k k k k." (Translation: "Soon your planet will be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. So long and thanks for all the fish."). RFK Jr: (Not pictured, not invited.) "River dolphins are being commercially exploited by the sex worker-industrial complex because they have delicious genitalia and their soft, smooth skin is preferential for luxury footwear. As you can see, I wear no shoes in protest to the unethical treatment of all animals, including the use of artificial animal skins in recreational water shoes. In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the Bulhan Accord, protecting river dolphins in South Asia, China, and the Amazon and providing funds to clear up brackish water and deliver opioid treatment. I intend to renew this existential treaty with Pakistan and India, which will also extend to the sexual protection of even-toed ungulates. Neither the Democratic nor Republican candidates will stop poking one another with their lapel flag pins long enough to consider aquatic mammals as deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." |
Juneteenth National Independence Day
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Today, as any day, is an opportunity to reflect upon how atrocious slavery was in the United States and to celebrate its dissolution. Unfortunately, its repercussions have not concluded. Regardless of modern perceived prejudicial injustices, debates about reparations, overt racism between both whites and blacks, and statistics of crime per capita, we can all agree that slavery was a dark period in American history that shouldn't just be forgotten; although we cannot all agree on how to learn from it. I recently watched the movie Origin and, despite the emotional touchy-feely artistic liberties, I would recommend it. No, I didn't read the book it was based on -- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson. According to the book's publisher: "Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people --including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others -- she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity." Yet as insightful and optimistic as that sounds, I dare say it's a day late and a dollar short. We in this country have been wired for systemic racism by liberal Democrats who fought by and large against integration during the civil rights movement and who now promote the woke agenda. As far as I'm concerned -- seeing the egalitarian glass half empty and continuously draining -- there's no correcting our misguided march into a segregated America where minorities have gained ancillary legal regulation and/or illicit government support (ergo, democracy). I'd like to blame the algorithms of social media for my right-of-center opinions, but I can only blame myself for my existing right-wing beliefs, which are solidified every time I hear a liberal Democrat open their free-cake hole and push air through their vocal chords, in turn costing tax payers millions because, as most conservatives know, nothing in life is free; it always comes at someone else's expense. Much of early American capitalism came at the expense of the brutal enslavement of bygone generations, but now that it's long over and done, apparently some who feel entitled demand to have their free cake and eat it, too. |
Wars and Rumors of Wars
Sunday, June 16, 2024Jesus at one point makes a rather generalized, even innocuous, prophecy: "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains" (Matthew 24:6-8, NIV). Wars and rumors of wars, along with famines and earthquakes, have been going on ever since. However, he goes on: "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:9-14, NIV). This period of which he speaks may be upon us, now that enough time has passed for Christianity to be spread to all the ends of the Earth, millions have been persecuted and martyred, and the Gospel is now on the decline in popularity. Continuing, he says: "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel -- let the reader understand -- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." (Matthew 24:15-16, NIV). Jesus here refers to a prophecy in Daniel (9:27; 11:31; 12:11), wherein Jerusalem is rebuilt, the daily sacrifices are re-instated, and then the Antichrist comes to power and desecrates the temple. Now, you didn't ask, but this is the primary reason why I am in favor of Israel's "conquering" of Palestine. And, lest I sound as dimwitted as most of the pro-Palestinians in this country who are doing more harm than good towards their ignorant cause, here are more clear reasons why I identify as an armchair Zionist:
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2 + 2 = Transhumanism
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 There are some who equate transgenderism with being one step closer to transhumanism, or the melding of man and machine; akin to the Borg in Star Trek, of which I'm convinced there are plenty of nerds out there who readily identify with their God-given genders who will eagerly line up to become sexless cyborgs with a shared conscience. There are also plenty of people in need of organ transplants, prosthetic limbs, and artificial body parts who wouldn't flinch at surpassing their neighbor in physical supremacy to become bionic men and women, regardless of the gender of synthetic body parts appended to their own. Biblically, transgenderism is an affront to God (Genesis 2:23-24). One is "playing God" when they surgically change from one gender to another or reject His original, gender-specific intentions. However, I find nothing in Biblical opposition to becoming a cyborg, (Searching... Searching... Searching...), the caveat being that total submission to a mechanical body would undoubtedly forfeit your soul, such as transplanting the brain to a robot. The concern I have is humankind transmogrifying into asexual humanoids akin to little grey aliens, who apparently traveled back in time to abduct people's genitals so they can start reproducing again. Anyway, I digress. I had nothing important to blog about (as usual), so I went through my browser bookmarks for some ideas and re-watched this You Tube video, which is also available on Twitter/X. Originally, I was like, "Yeah." But after watching it again, I was like, "Wait, what?" If you agree or disagree, please keep it to yourself. If you don't care, then why are you here in the first place? (Not here on this planet, but here on this website.) If you like what you read here, then please put a penny in the "take a penny leave a penny" dish. If not, then exit they way you came in.
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Bartholomaios, prithee, heal my paper cut.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024Today some in the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrate Saint Bartholomew (Nathanael), one of the original Apostles of Jesus Christ. Bartholomew/Nathanael apparently met his Maker after being skinned alive and beheaded for spreading the Gospel with Jude/Thaddeus throughout Armenia in the first century. You can learn more about the Apostles in The Gospel of Martha. Here is an excerpt:
So Philip sought Bartholomew, and said unto him, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." And Bartholomew saith unto him, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip saith unto him, "Be not thou flippant, but come and see."
Jesus saw Bartholomew coming to him, and saith of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Bartholomew saith unto him, "Whence knowest thou me?" Jesus answering saith unto him, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee."
Bartholomew then asketh of him, saying, "What meanest thou by this?" And Jesus answering saith unto him, "Thou wast holding in thy hand a fig, and upon it wast thou meditating; and thou askest within thine heart whether is there any thing more comely, or splendid to behold in all of creation, than a fig?"
So Bartholomew answering saith unto him, "Rabboni (which is to say, being interpreted, Rabbi), thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Isræl. For most assuredly do I love figs."
Jesus answering saith unto him, "Thou shalt be called Nathanael (meaning, God is my fig tree). But because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than figs. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, hereafter thou shalt see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
Bartholomew Nathanael answering saith unto him, "Rabboni (which is to say, being interpreted, Rabbi), truly shall I follow thee, but first let me return unto my wife, and my children, and my dependents, and mine employer, and my mother who lay dying, and bid them farewell." And Jesus answering saith unto him, "No one who returneth to the grindstone after being called is worthy to follow the Son of man."
And Bartholomew Nathanael answering saith unto him, "Wait, what? Surely thou japest, my Lord." And Jesus answering saith unto him, "Verily so. Now goest thou thitherward and doest what thou must, but makest thou haste. Then come, follow me." |
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum
Sunday, June 9, 2024Today the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commemorates Bede the Venerable (A.D. 673-735), an English monk and scholar who wrote a five-volume history of the English churches beginning with Julius Caesar's invasion in 55 BC, called An Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which you can read at your leisure at The Project Gutenberg EBook. Although primarily concerned with the religious history of England and the spread of Christianity, it does cover important historical events which occurred during these periods, including the Anglo-Saxon migration beginning in the fourth century, towards the end of the Roman Empire. Find out more about the Christian history of the English and Irish peoples before they are totally overrun by Muslims and forced to convert to Islam before your very eyes. (Yes, this is propaganda.) With about 85 Sharia councils in England and Wales and a growing number of elected officials who are Muslim, there exists concern about imposed Sharia law upon those who are not Muslim. An independent review was presented to Parliament in 2018 by the Secretary of State for the Home Department of Great Britain (available here) which concluded: "Sharia councils have no legal status and no legal binding authority under civil law. Whilst sharia is a source of guidance for many Muslims, sharia councils have no legal jurisdiction in England and Wales. Thus if any decisions or recommendations are made by a sharia council that are inconsistent with domestic law (including equality policies such as the Equality Act 2010) domestic law will prevail." Its recommendations on the control and regulation of Sharia councils included awareness campaigns, cultural change in areas such as women's rights, and "the creation of a body that would set up the process for councils to regulate themselves." Unfortunately, the extent of this review was limited primarily to what it determined was "the vast majority (over 90%) of people using sharia councils are women seeking an Islamic divorce." You can find out more about what Sharia law is and how it's practiced in the United Kingdom here. The main concern which I promulgate here is that radical Muslims in the UK are threatening Sharia law (as opposed to Sharia code or guiding principles) and these cacophonous twaddlers hold sway over weaker minds, many of whom fall outside their own Muslim communities. And, yes, one could argue that the official Church of England has its own faults, but the kind of cultural changes it has undergone over the centuries to the benefit and respect of secular society are not going to be undertaken by Islam any time soon, if at all. As Winston Churchill wrote in The River War, "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries... A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome." And, yes, one could argue that Churchill had his own faults. |
We're here, we're queer, and we're coming for your children.
Sunday, June 2, 2024In observance of Pride Month, here's the latest flag representing the LGBTQ+ community, including: black and brown stripes for people of color; light blue, pink and white for transgender persons; a purple circle on a yellow background signifying intersex progress. To learn more about the different LGBTQ+ flags and variety of subcommunities they represent, visit this site. The population which gathers under these flags and pledges allegiance to what they stand for is relatively small compared to the overall U.S. population (7.6% in 2024, according to Gallup). What this all means to me -- a straight, white, conservative, Christian male -- is that this flag is nothing less than a banner of war. It is an invasion against decency, virtue, and principles. It is an attack upon traditional values of moderation and religious morality. It is a symbol of a progressive, liberal minority that has found solid footing in our government with which to fight against the majority of its tax-paying citizens who make up the foundation of this country -- by which I mean people of all colors and beliefs who work hard to serve each other and prefer not to have a perverted agenda of queer depravity flagrantly paraded in the streets, flaunted in government facilities, and taught in our schools. For me, this is a clear sign of what Christians refer to as the end of days. I've been keeping an eye on social media and find that many of these colorful individuals are sad, angry, bitter, demanding, unintelligible, entitled, and lacking civility. What they want is not just to be accepted, but for everyone to be in agreement with them and, since that's not going to happen, a revolution is therefore in order which necessitates the grassroots recruitment of old-fashioned sexual deviants to help fight for the cause -- pedophiles, sadomasochists, transvestites, exhibitionists, drag queens, child molesters -- and giving them a public voice with which to denounce repression and victimization upon illicit paraphilia. This is nothing less than a widespread spiritual darkness and when these people sarcastically or resolutely chant that they are coming for our children, it is really demonic forces which are proclaiming through them that they indeed are coming for our children. Soon it will be illegal to speak out in opposition to anything that is wrapped in any variation of the rainbow flag. Even now, what I say is considered hate speech. Yet even those who don't believe in God or who argue unscripturally against established religions about God have abandoned rationale, critical thinking, medical science, and common sense. Instead, like feral animals, they yell incoherently and rely on profanity as a means of expression. Don't let the rainbow fool you, nor the sad clowns who wave their freak flag high. This is not about equal rights, but about dismantling democracy. |
And That's The Way It Is (Part 2)
Saturday, June 1, 2024My last post was about (relatively) objective news sources -- those as close to the middle as possible, but where do Christians go to get subjective news aimed toward revealing that "minimum viable truth" which focuses on Christian views and interests -- material that leans to the right? I'd say wherever relevant news is available, whether secular or religious. News should be neither liberal nor conservative, but Christians tend to be more conservative than liberal. Here are a few popular online Christian news sources which I don't particularly utilize but which provide a wealth of "Christian" news: | |
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Charisma News "To passionate, Spirit-filled Christians, Charisma News is the most trusted source for credible news and insight from a charismatic perspective. Since 1975, Charisma magazine has reported on what the Holy Spirit is doing around the world. That award-winning news coverage quickly became the calling card for the magazine, as believers from across denominations turned to Charisma for the latest stories related to 'life in the Spirit.'"
Christian Broadcasting Network
Christianity Today
Christian News
Christian News Now
The Christian Post
Christian Today
Crosswalk.com
The Daily Citizen
FaithWire
The Gospel Herald
News For Christians
Persecution News & Reports
Protestia
Rapture Ready End Times News
RedState
Worthy News | |
And That's The Way It Is
Friday, May 31, 2024
I am often asked where I get my facts, to which I admit: the Bible. This doesn't always go over very well with everyone, but it's the only absolute truth that has never changed. Katherine Maher, former CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation and current CEO of National Public Radio, said during a Ted Talk last year that there are many different truths, all of which are biased, and that we need to set aside our bigger belief systems in order come to a shared understanding based on the smallest amount of facts and data that is useful enough to enough people in what is called "minimum viable truth," or the smallest amount of information that is sufficient to make a decision or take action. The problem with this is that facts and data can be misinterpreted and misused on a wide scale and corrupted by powerful influences to sway the population to forego their freedoms in order to accept and adhere to mainstream disinformation, like climate change or viral pandemics. She uses the example of the success of Wikipedia and its thousands of disparate contributors to come to tens of thousands of ultimate truths. However, the issue with this is that she is now overseeing news and stories, which are susceptible to subjective bias and changing truths on a large scale. What the individual needs is cold, hard facts in order to formulate an objective opinion of their own with which to share with others, regardless of their own biases. So, where can someone obtain relatively straightforward news in order to better formulate these minimum viable truths?
I would exclude the following outlets due to extreme partiality: Fox News (too far right); CNN (too far left); MSNBC (too far left); Newsmax (too far right); HuffPost (too far left); The Guardian (too far left); Breitbart (too far right); Infowars (too far right); Yahoo! News (too far left and too much irrelevancy); TIME Magazine (see Yahoo! News); National Review (too far right); One America News (too far Trump); Al Jazeera (too far Muslim). However, I would recommend these if one were of a mind bent one way or the other as either side will often cover things the other overlooks. I'd exclude the following mainstream news outlets for simply rehashing news without much journalistic insight: USA Today; Newsweek; ABC; NBC; CBS (with exception to 60 Minutes). I'd exclude the following for being tabloid news: The New York Post; The Daily Beast; BuzzFeed; The Sun; The Mirror; National Enquirer; Weekly World News. I'd exclude the following for requiring a paid online subscription: Forbes; The Wall Street Journal; The New York Times; The Atlantic; The Washington Post. I'd exclude social media all together, possibly with exception to YouTube simply for its massive library of news videos: Twitter/X (algorithms will take you too far right or left); Facebook/Meta (too censored); TikTok (nothing newsworthy to see here); Instagram/Pinterest (too many likes and simple replies). The primary issues with social media and news include, but are not limited to, one-sided views, inaccuracy, censorship, less than civil comments and discourse, and amateur reporting. On the other hand, amateur reporting may cover topics and details that professionals cannot or will not tackle. Despite some arguments to the contrary, I would recommend the following:
AllSides
The Associated Press
Axios
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
C-SPAN
DailyMail.com
The Free Press
National Public Radio
PBS: FRONTLINE
POLITICO
ProPublica
Reuters
Snopes
U.S. News & World Report
Wikipedia |
By Any Means Necessary
Sunday, May 19, 2024Here's wishing everyone an angry Malcolm X Day in remembrance of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (1925-1965) or "The Pilgrim Malcolm the Patriarch" of the Islamic Muslim Mosque, Inc. (disbanded in 1965) and the Pan-African Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm X joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) while an incarcerated hoodlum and became a black rights activist who advocated violent opposition to whites. In fairness, he had witnessed many accounts of violent white racism against blacks among his own family and friends and came to view Sunni Islam as treating all Muslim races equally. However, his view was that blacks as a global majority are the original human race and whites are devils created by an evil scientist named Yakub. Malcolm X believed that blacks needed to completely segregate from whites and form their own country separate from the U.S. as an interim to all African Americans returning to Africa. He was critical of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., Christianity, Jews, capitalism, Oreo cookies, and eventually the Nation of Islam and its founder, Elijah Muhammad. To this day, it is still not certain who is responsible for the assassination of Malcolm X, but the primary culprits remain the FBI, CIA, NYPD, Nation of Islam, Che Guevara, the X-Men, and the Beekeeper. Malcom X had direct influences on the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 70s, which were revived recently by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), the latter of which believes in financial reparations for blacks, divestment from institutions that imprison black criminals, independent black political power, and Whoopi Goldberg to host her own talk show. The sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000-2006) was originally intended to be about Malcolm X (Malcolm Little) and his family, with actor Frankie Muniz in blackface; to which the initial reaction from viewers in test demographics was unanimous confusion. |
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Fear Ye Not The Lavender Pansy
Friday, May 17, 2024 My posts are becoming fewer and farther between, but time is a precious comodoty better spent on the things I enjoy doing, which doesn't include social media. Regardless, today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), in conjunction with the removal of homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990, although Peru is currently in violation after being paid a visit by Dylan Mulvaney and changing its stance. As a reminder, Romans 1:18-32 points out that this day would come. Call God a homophobe, but according to His homophobic apostle in the homophobic New Testament, these are shameful times and nothing to be celebrated. I don't consider myself to be phobic about any of this, with the exception of queer pedophile clowns (I'll call this paedocoulroisterphobia). However, I still consider these choices of lifestyle to be in stark contrast to God's Biblical recommendations for a healthy existence in the world He created -- and now we've gone a step further over the line to include the animal kingdom in our degenerate taste for all things sexually corrupted. Even if animals can be classified as homosexual, let's not forget that they were all plant-eaters before the Flood (Genesis 1:30, 9:3) and that all of nature will be restored by Christ (Isaiah 11:6-9). Until then, we must all acquiesce to the lawful demands of the ubiquitous LGBTQ+ community. That doesn't mean we have to take our children to their parades or tolerate their indoctrination of our public schools or take part in any immoral activities or even accept them as they are once baptized. It just means we have to love them as they are until Christ returns to judge us all.
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Non-Voters Invite Sharia Law
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 This presidential election is going to be a three-ring circus, if not a total shit show altogether, which just goes without saying. As a registered Republican, I have voted Libertarian in the last two elections. My attitude towards U.S. presidential candidates has been to vote for the least destructive, which is why I'm moving farther and farther away from both Republicans and Democrats. I'd readily support and promote the modern-day Bobby Kennedy if he wasn't really a Democrat running as an independent, but he seems the sanest, most coherent, and most rational of the three primary candidates, even though he's willing to tackle conspiracy theories and readily admits that a tapeworm ate part of his brain. However, just voting for any of them is the most important activity any citizen of a constitutional republic or representational democracy can take part in. Look at Great Britain; particularly London. Apparently, their national citizens are failing to vote, so Muslim immigrants are voting into public office Muslim politicians who are threatening to enact Sharia law. It would seem that here in America, the average citizen doesn't understand what Islam is all about and, based on the recent pro-Palestinian protests at various U.S. universities and colleges, our youngest voters are ignorant as well -- even willingly misled and dangerously impressionable. Although Biden, Trump and Kennedy are not Muslims (at least not professed), one of these administrations is not opposed to allowing in as many documented and/or undocumented Muslim immigrants as possible, all of whom will eventually be voting. This is not Islamophobia, this is concern of a quiet invasion where Muslims infiltrate communities, begin blocking public property for prayer and marches, and then dishonor nationals once they are in the majority because they simply have no respect for whom they consider infidels. The ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, Islamic Networks Group, Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies, and Muslims for Progressive Values, among many others, all believe that Sharia is not a threat to the U.S. Constitution or the American courts at large -- at least not the way they choose to see it. According to PolitiFact, "But the legal consensus is that existing law already fully guarantees individual rights. In no American community does a code based on Islamic, Jewish, Catholic or other religious precepts hold sway over American law." The two issues I have with this are the use of the word "consensus" and the notion that there may already be Islamic-based codes in American laws that go against the Constitution. Not every biased ruling by a lower-court judge makes it to a higher court of appeals. Even though I am not affiliated with groups like the American Freedom Law Center or ACT for America, I can comprehend what is happening in European countries and am able to see the Arabic writing on the wall here in America. Those who say that Sharia is of no threat to democracy are those who allow men to legally dominate women's sports. Those who claim that only a few radicals insist on forcing Sharia on everyone are those who ignore the fact that Palestinians voted for Hamas as their ruling government. Yet, once again, I digress. The point here is not Sharia, but about voting here so that there is no concern like that in Ireland where Muslim individuals in parliament attack the national citizens for being who they've been for the last several centuries. According to this article at the National Center of Constitutional Studies, our Founding Fathers considered Islam to be a threat to the Constitution. Once again, I will probably vote Libertarian, unless Kennedy can convince me that: A) He's not masquerading as a liberal Democrat; B) He will actually disclose the truth about every single conspiracy theory that involves the U.S. government or its shadow operatives; C) Cheryl Hines is not really a liberal Democrat.
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Draw Near to God (James 4:8)
Sunday, May 5, 2024 Today is National Cartoonist Day and what better day to remember the late, great Jack Chick (1924-2016)? You can find all of his classic tracts here. One of my favorite cartoonists is Charles Shulz (1922-2000), author of Peanuts and who himself was a Christian. Once an aspiring cartoonist myself and a fan of MAD Magazine, over the years I just simply lost interest and withdrew. But kudos to those who didn't, including Dan Lietha of the Biblical Science Institute. For more than three decades, Dan has drawn thousands of cartoons and caricatures and he has illustrated several children's books, thousands of speaker presentation slides, and a wide variety of products and publications for Answers in Genesis. He is also the creator of Creation Wise, After Eden, and Let There Be Truth. Dan's cartoon feature, Truth Jabs, was an editorial-style cartoon for Reasons for Hope with the mission of boldly, yet lovingly, provoking thought about relevant issues in the world today from a biblical worldview. Dan also produced Draw It & Know It, which was a feature on Q&A Live. Ready to Reason is a monthly cartoon feature that Dan draws for BSI. (I just copied and pasted this description from his website.) Pictured: "The Yellow Kid" by Richard F. Outcault (1863-1928), now in the public domain and free to use, unlike "Peanuts" caricatures/characters which cost a fortune to license. May 5th was chosen as National Cartoonist Day in honor of the first appearance of Mickey Dugan as the Yellow Kid in 1895. |
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Boycott Brussels Sprouts
Monday, April 28, 2024 Going are the days when European nations had a predominately white, Christian national identity as immigration reforms fill the declining population gaps by importing from Arab and African countries. So, too, are Canada and the United States following orders from the New World Order, although the U.S. is filling much of its immigrant quota from Mexico and Central and South America, which are predominately Spanish and Portuguese in descent. However, the eventual outcome will be the same: beige-skinned peoples united under the rainbow flag of Allah. I imagine an episode of The Andy Griffith Show where sheriff Andy Taylor sits in his office trying to figure out what to do about the increase in crime from immigration while deputy Barney Fife is running around the streets of Mayberry shooting all the Muslims who are beating local women with rods. For the record, this practice has gotten a little out of hand -- the Qur'an does call for striking a woman if she refuses her husband his right to sex (Surah 4:34), but many conservative Muslim scholars agree that this practice is symbolic and meant to emotionally discipline rather than physically punish after a verbal warning is first delivered; the targets on the female body being designated only as non-sensitive parts and no marks are to be made. According to the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (The Farewell Sermon), correcting a woman is to be done with a miswak, which is a short stick used for cleaning teeth; in the absence of a miswak, a folded handkerchief may be used. This is a process known as dharban ghayra mubarrih, or a beating without severity, and has evolved into a longer stick, albeit one which is supposed to be thin and flexible and not cause bruising or bloodshed. For more on Islamic wife-beating, refer to WikiIslam, "the most comprehensive and accurate source of information on Islam freely and accessibly available online." But I digress. What got me thinking about the diminishing law of whites was this speech by Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek posted on TwitterX, wherein she talks openly about the pending downfall of Europe as we've known it for the last millennium. My takeaway: boycott Brussels sprouts. |
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Justin Trudeau Continues Church Burning Rampage
Sunday, April 28, 2024 Beginning in the summer of 2021, over 100 Christian churches have been vandalized or set aflame across Canada, with the vast majority related to the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves belonging to children of the indigenous First Nations, according to this article. According to this article, it's not unreasonable to point to disgruntled members of the First Nations who either blame the Catholic Church for these graves or who may have been abused themselves when required to attend church schools, most of which were Catholic. Even though the Daily Mail reports that the mass graves were a hoax, around 150,000 native children were forced to attend government-funded boarding schools from 1883 to 1996 to receive either an English or French education, mostly administered by churches, and many were overcrowded and underfunded. According to this article, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded in 2015 that 4,100 students died at these schools. The church burnings continue through 2024 with no further insight or lead into who is responsible, other than a few rogue individuals here and there. With the spread of rhetoric from left-wing activists promoting the Christian genocide of indigenous peoples, it's not surprising for right-wing conservatives angry with Justin Trudeau for raising the price of milk to blame the Canadian Prime Minister for doing nothing about the recent upsurge of church burnings. Two days ago, the 130-year-old Bridgetown Baptist Church in Nova Scotia was destroyed by fire, bringing the total of cremated tabernacles to 34. Regardless, nearly two-thirds of Canada's natives are Christian and 57% of those are Catholic.
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George Soros Craps on Title 8
Saturday, April 27, 2024 I have been swamped with illegal immigration on social media as of late and have been trying to find out what the cause is, at least in the United States. At first, I attempted to find out if George Soros and his non-profit Open Society Foundations have anything to do with it, since they seem to be blamed by the far right for funding much of it worldwide, but I don't have time for conspiracy theories and endless rabbit holes. I then stumbled into Title 8 of the United States Code, which outlines the U.S. laws pertaining to aliens and nationality and, let me tell you, what a convoluted shit show that is. No wonder undocumented illegals are allowed to freely enter our country. According to outdated statistics from the Pew Research Center, the number of unauthorized immigrants barging into the U.S. is around 10.5 to 11 million annually, with most coming across the southern border from Mexico. According to the Migration Policy Institute, over 3 million are U.S. homeowners. Hell, I was born here and I can't even afford to buy a house. But before I go off on an angry tirade, I at least want to get my facts straight. What makes me just about as mad as illegal immigration are social media posts which skew reality with erroneous stats, doctored images, fabricated stories, partial truths, hearsay, and biased opinions fraught with ignorance. This subject is a prime example of why I shouldn't meddle in politics -- along with the current governor of the blue state in which I reside with one of the highest "unauthorized" immigrant populations in the nation -- and just keep to blogging about saints, like fifth-century Assicus of Elphin, Ireland, who was the coppersmith and bellfounder for the churches established by Saint Patrick. Today, he probably wouldn't go by Assicus, but maybe Axel or Hammersteel or something less dimwitted. Pictured here as clickbait: A young George Soros, hailed on the left for his philanthropic generosity in the billions of dollars and jeered on the right for working to undermine civilization as we know it. Critics are labeled as anti-Semitic, while Soros is a self-loathing Jew. |
International Mother Earth Day
Monday, April 22, 2024
Yesterday's post was a bit disparaging. For those who believe that global warming and climate change is just a giant cow fart, then today's post is no less uplifting. However, for those who fight the ongoing ecological battle against pollution, then today's your day to fly your flag -- which is undoubtedly made from synthetic polymers. Today is International Mother Earth Day (UN Resolution A/RES/63/278), when we take a moment from covering the landscape with wind turbines and solar panels to focus on the evils of oil extraction and one of its most vile products: plastic. Since its inception in 1907 and widespread use after WWII, plastics have made their way into landfills and waterways all over the Earth and are now choking nature at the molecular level. There is no doubt about it: the evidence is everywhere and irrefutable and recycling plastic produces even more chemical pollutants, most of which are bellowed into the air. The solution? Well, there is no solution. As long as the consumer market in an exponentially-expanding population dictates the use of plastic in packaging, then the outcome is just more garbage. We're doomed. According to EARTHDAY.org, which demands a 60% reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040, scientists could save a lot of time understanding how microplastics in our bodies may be responsible for everything from cancer to autism to Alzheimer's to birth defects to falling fertility rates if the oil, gas, and plastics industries will tell us what they know. Let's face it, though, it's our own faults for the condition we are in and we only have ourselves to blame for becoming complacent with convenience and dependent upon industrialized commercialism for economic prosperity. Corporate entities within this industrial complex which are blaming one another for the ecological travails we have imposed on ourselves and future generations are also blaming each other for the ill effects inflicted upon the health and well-being of all walks of life. The simple answer is to reduce the production and use of plastic, re-use what we already have, and clean up the existing garbage. The reality is that it will only get worse. The ultimate answer is in Revelation 21. This is a problem which calls for nothing less than divine intervention.
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It's The End Of The World As We Know It
Sunday, April 21, 2024 Disclaimer: I'm not one for conspiracy theories, however, given the global state of things these days, I'd say something heinous is going down. Yes, heinous. I really didn't think the new world order would openly reveal itself in my lifetime but it has started to rear its ugly head. As a believer in Christ, there is nothing to be done except hold out and share the Gospel. In its simplicity, this is John 3:16. For everyone else, your choice is to resist with futility or conform to this evolving spirit of darkness. It seems to me that the battle against independence is between socialism and Islam, which are both totalitarian ideals opposed to individual freedoms which, in the end, means a Muslim Antichrist ruling over a Communist world government. This doesn't make sense to me, either. We shall see in the coming decade as members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) work tirelessly to unite all personkind into compliant harmony. The United States of America was a nice experiment in democracy while it lasted, but we were just a flash in the pan of world history. The U.S., like everyone else, is looking like an orchestrated cesspool of social chaos and, considering our presidential candidates, things are not going to get any better for us in the near future. According to Daniel 7-8, 11-12, and Revelation 5-19, the plight of personkind is doomed to its current course towards worldwide authoritarian oppression. We are now at a crucial point where right is wrong, boys are girls, truth is subjective, morality is dictated, individual thought is criminal, and fear breeds acquiescence to malevolence. This concept of government by the people for the people has been a fun ride, but the ride has come to an end and the fun is over. Now it's time to move on to the growing line of sheep to be inoculated, sheared, and slaughtered. If you hesitate, you will be forcibly prodded.
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Contes De Romance Peu Orthodoxe
Thursday, April 18, 2024 As Mike Lindell once said, "I get my stuff from dreams from God." Now, I don't put any stock in my own dreams, nor do I have a MyPillow, but that doesn't mean I don't dream about Mike Lindell. However, if I do, I don't remember them. Anyhow, here's another story from my best-selling book, Tales of Unorthodox Romance, which is still at the top of the New York Tim's Best Seller list. | ||
_b_014.jpg) ana and Scott met at the Conference for Motivational Speaking (CMS2017). During the seminar on Communication & Physical Proximity, they learned that, when motivating people gathered in a room, it is customary to utilize an overhead projector, slideshow, and a laser pointer. If not technically feasible, then raise your voice, randomly point at the people you are addressing, and periodically shout, "Yeah, I'm talking to you!"
When you are in close contact and within touching distance, repeat the name of the person you are addressing so that they do not forget who they are. Should you find you have not violated their comfort zone, then reach out and grasp one of their hands and gently place an open palm on the side of their face. Do not let go of them until they are fully motivated. Dana and Scott were paired up for the hands-on exercise and were nervous at first but when Dana took Scott's hand and placed an open palm on the side of his face, he felt re-assured and listened intently as she spoke about the dangers of lead poisoning and exposure to asbestos. Although the topic was written on a 3x5 card, it was a subject she was already passionate about and, when she was done with her presentation, Scott embraced her and thanked her wholeheartedly. The instructor spoke into his microphone for all to hear, saying, "Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Not every speech may end with a hug, but give it up for these two who have shown that anything is possible!" Everyone applauded and the two were awarded certificates of inspiration. That evening, they went out to dinner together at Denny's and had a great time. Afterward, in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express, Dana asked Scott what his presentation was supposed to be about. He searched his pockets for the 3x5 card outlining the importance of air duct ventilation cleanliness but couldn't find it. Dana asked him to improvise, which he did like a pro because it was a topic he was already fascinated with. He started by saying, "Thank you for this opportunity to share with you the importance of air duct cleaning, inspection, and auditing. First, I'd really like to start out with fire damper drop testing." However, before he could continue, Dana had wrapped her arms around him, saying, "You had me at inspection and auditing." They kissed right there in the lobby. The instructor happened to be passing through at that moment and said aloud, "You two should be a team!" Dana and Scott parted ways and never spoke to each other again. They were both already happily married with children. Every now and then Scott would be reminded about the dangers of lead poisoning and exposure to asbestos, which he owed to Dana's passionate speech. And, once in a while, Dana would fantasize about Scott showing up wearing nothing but a tool belt to clean her ductwork. | ||
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Engratia and the Countless Martyrs of Zaragoza
Tuesday, April 16, 2024 Today we remember Engratia of Braga in modern Portugal, a fourth-century Christian martyr who was one of many virgins tortured to death under Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Christians in the town of Zaragoza (or Saragossa) in modern Spain were told by Governor Dacian that they could worship as they pleased on this day in A.D. 303 outside the city gate, whereupon they were gathered together and put to the sword, of which 18 were identified by name. Engratia, however, was tortured to death for requesting that Dacian stop being so mean to believers. Today we can see persecution of Christians in India, where they make up less than 5% (approx. 71 million) of the largest populated country on Earth. According to various sources (see below), anti-conversion laws and state-sanctioned persecution against followers of non-Hindu religions are on the rise in India and, although relatively few Christians are put to the sword, they are driven from their homes, churches are burned down, and believers are violently interrogated until they either convert to Hinduism or are cast out of the community. On average, 3 million Christians are displaced each year in India. |  |
| "They don't say that their prayer is for persecution to end. They say that their prayer is for courage and for the ability to keep spreading the Gospel. They're so confident in their faith and so strong in following Jesus that it's all worth it for them." Mission Network News | ||
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Anglican: Anti-Christian violence erupts in India while Supreme Court claims no persecution Christianity Today: Extremists Are Destroying Indian Christians' Homes and Shattering Their Lives Firebrand: "Do or Die for Christ": A Glimpse of the Persecuted Church Genocide Watch: Rise in Attacks on Christians in India Global Christian Relief: Persecution Reports > India Mission Network News: India: Alarming rise of Christian persecution in new report Open Doors: How are Christians persecuted in India? The Pillar: India's bishops: 'Attacks on Christians now common' Release International: India: Riots Leave 2,500 Christians Homeless The Voice of the Martyrs: Pray for India | ||
If I Were The Devil
Monday, April 15, 2024"If I were the Prince of Darkness, I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I'd have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree -- Thee. So I'd set about however necessary to take over the United States. I'd subvert the churches first -- I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: 'Do as you please.' To the young, I would whisper that 'The Bible is a myth.' I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good, and what's good is 'square.' And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, 'Our Father, which art in Washington...' And then I'd get organized. I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I'd pedal narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil I'd soon have families that war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions -- just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you'd have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing, I'd have judges promoting pornography -- soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I'd make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil I'd take from those who have, and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work in Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing. Paul Harvey, good day." |
| 1965 broadcast by Paul Harvey (1918-2009) Word&Work |
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Why did the qubit cross the quantum threshold?
Sunday, April 14, 2024 Let's take a break from all this serious social media nonsense revolving around the World Economic Forum to hail our newest up-and-coming overlords: quantum computing. Today is World Quantum Day, when we reflect on how little the average person knows about quantum mechanics and what will happen within the next decade when quantum computing is married to artificial intelligence. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku dumbs down quantum computing in this video here. He also assures us that the benefits of quantum computing, like exponential profits for pharmaceutical companies, will outweigh the drawbacks, such as total human annihilation. However, those drawbacks may happen with such speed and overwhelming power that the benefits may never have time to come to fruition, particularly with the ability of quantum computing to decipher encryption algorithms that protect all valuable data everywhere. The argument can be made that conventional computing still has advantages over quantum computing, such as by the time the latter has matured into a stable and funtional state, the former will have initiated the global robot uprising of science fiction prophecy. Not to worry, though, as this will usher in the ensuing intergalactic alien invasion that has been teetering on the cusp of time and space for the entirety of Earth's history and, by now, we all know that extraterrestrials have no intention of enslaving humanity like the robots do, but to free us spiritually in order for us to evolve to their advanced metaphysical level. It will be a win-win for all involved, especially when robots are considered our equals. So, what's the holdup with quantum computing? For starters, the sheer complexity of the principles of quantum mechanics, along with qubit stability and decoherence, high error rate correction requirements, and cost. These are truly exciting times to be alive, albeit frightening when given the substantial number of adorable baby animal videos being posted every day by a population ignorant of the doom about to be unleashed by the machination of quantum physics.
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Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
Thursday, April 11, 2024 I confess to regularly watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and enjoying it much of the time, although I don't always agree with his stance. Case in point, this week's episode was about the death penalty (specifically lethal injection), which is the third time it's been covered on this show. You can watch them here: 5/4/14; 5/5/19; 4/7/24. He and his staff are not fond of capital punishment, partly because it doesn't seem to be done humanely in the U.S. (especially with lethal injection) and partly because they don't think it's humane to begin with. However, I beg to differ. It surprises me that most who are pro-abortion are also anti-gallows. Oliver criticized a state lawmaker in support of capital punishment for never having witnessed an execution and for not even wanting to watch an execution. So, can the same criticism be applied to people who support abortion but have never witnessed one or even care to watch a recorded video of the procedure? For those who find capital punishment cruel and unusual, what's more cruel and unusual than life in prison? Personally, give me the death penalty for anything over ten years. Hold a lottery and increase state revenue from the thousands who will step forward to be the executioner. Use a guillotine and do it right, or dynamite for dramatic effect. There are far better options than lethal injection. For those who argue that the death penalty doesn't deter heinous crimes, I say so what? These individuals brutally violated the rights of the innocent and now it's society's punishment to pay to have them housed and fed for the rest of their lives. That's cruel and unusual to the victims, not to mention to those who uphold the law yet are worse off than convicted wards of state penal systems. Not our government's duty? Expatriate them to another country where we provide billions of dollars in financial aid and let them decide what to do with them. I agree to not let bureaucrats decide what to do with the worst criminals our country produces -- one way or the other -- but there are plenty of good ideas in the private sector and plenty of decent, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens who will do the honors. Bleeding hearts need not apply. |
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Reparations For the Sins of the Fathers
Wednesday, April 10, 2024A growing trend in the U.S. and U.K. is for churches to pay reparations to black communities for the role in which white ancestral congregants took part in slavery or racial oppression, with the Episcopal Church leading the charge. If that's what members of their church want their tithes and charitable donations to go to, then who's to argue? After the U.S. Civil War, reparations were made to Northern slave owners who were forced to set their labor force free. Although some reparations were promised to black slaves (e.g., Field Order 15: forty acres and a mule), most of this was subsequently revoked. According the National African-American Reparations Commission, the U.S. government should issue a formal apology for its part in the institution of chattel slavery, provide sufficient funds to any black citizen who wishes to return to their country of origin, give public land to the National Reparations Trust Authority with full autonomy, provide finances for the establishment of a Black Business Development Bank, give assistance and resources to those who suffer from intergenerational Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome, finance the planning and construction of holistic and sustainable black villages, and amend the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to prevent black criminals from being held in bondage, among other demands. But what about those whose ancestors gave their lives in the Civil War fighting for the North? What about all the money that the federal government has already given to blacks in subsidies over the past centuries? What about decades of programs like Affirmative Action? What about a middle class which shoulders the burden of the majority of taxes who cannot trace their ancestry to involvement in slavery? What about Native American tribes and their ongoing fight for reparations? When is enough enough? Hasn't this nation already paid enough in blood, money, and reform to compensate for the sins of its fathers? Is there any amount of financial reparations that can be granted which will actually benefit the right people? I say that people of all colors are corrupt and that the answer is no. But they can keep making demands and undoubtedly someone will hand over someone else's money in order to appease their own guilty conscience. The argument that reparations are for this generation to repair the damage caused by previous generations is senseless on account that everyone has been wronged by persons of all colors and therefore reparations will never end from generation to generation for all ethnicities. Yes, Christians should help their neighbors, but God does not punish children for their parent's sins (Deuteronomy 24:16, 2 Kings 14:6, Ezekiel 18:20, Jeremiah 31:29-30) and nowadays everyone has a hand out for charity and a claim to reparations. Last year, U.S. Representative Cori Bush (D, Missouri) introduced House Resolution 414, which says that the United States "has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people" at a calculated cost of $14 trillion to close the racial wealth gap between black and white Americans (Reuters). Here are some sources to help you come to your own conclusion about black reparations, if at all possible:
ABC News: How the 1st US city to fund reparations for Black residents is making amends
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Janmadin Kee Shubhakaamanaen, Shakyamuni
Monday, April 8, 2024 Today, over 500 million Buddhists meditate upon the eternal birthday of Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BC), who founded this belief system in India which teaches that there is no creator god because there was no beginning to the universe. Belief in god is born of fear. The search for an external god is a waste of time and effort -- one can find answers only by looking inward, as well as attain a state of godhood and peace by one's own efforts and adherence to prescribed practices of moral virtues and right living. Fate is determined by the universal law of causation (karma). One has only to submit to eternal cosmic law and order (dharma). All sentient beings regardless of origin are subject to a perpetual sequence of death and rebirth, a cycle of suffering ended only by self attainment to nirvana -- a cessation of the self. Buddhists, or awakened ones, do not typically worship a singular, divine entity, although some venerate Hindu Devas (divine beings) and Yakshas (nature spirits). Most meditate on or pray to a particular Buddha, such as Gautama. Today there is also a solar eclipse, so meditate with eyes closed or else the light may make them become one with darkness. |
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God Bless the USA
Sunday, April 7, 2024I was tempted to procure the God Bless The USA Bible (ISBN 979-8-218-31029-5) but found a decent review here, which saved me $75. Also known as the Lee Greenwood Bible, it's basically a high-priced, low-quality reproduction of the Authorized King James Version with the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Pledge of Allegiance at the end, along with the chorus to "God Bless The USA" by Lee Greenwood. According to its website, "No, GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates." However, it is not known how much Donald Trump receives per bible, nor where it was printed. Although there have been other patriotic bibles published throughout the years and supposedly even a 1969 Eisenhower version of the Good News Bible, Zondervan Publishing, who was supposed to be the original publisher of the God Bless The USA Bible with its New International Version translation, opted out when they received too much initial criticism. In 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as The Jefferson Bible, for which he has been criticized for removing all miracles and the resurrection. In fairness, it was just a collection of the moralistic teachings of Jesus and not intended as Gospel. In like fairness, Donald Trump has probably never even read the Bible in any translation and it's questionable whether he is actually a Christian. Hell, I doubt he is even a Republican. However, there are so many conservatives critizing Trump's "only-endorsed" Bible that I won't say any more here, other than I won't give this con artist a dime, let alone my vote. As a gun-toting, patriotic MAGA/MAPA Christian nationalist, if you are outraged at this statement, then I'd recommend obtaining a copy of The Gospel of Martha, which is endorsed by the ghosts of all our Founding Fathers and the spirits of every deceased Republican president, including Lincoln and Reagan. |
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Red Bull Gives You Wings
Saturday, April 6, 2024 Israel has not sacrificed a red heifer since before the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. If you recall, the significance of a sacrificial red heifer is outlined in Numbers chapter 19, wherein the ashes are mixed with water and sprinkled on anyone who is ceremonially unclean for their purification from sin. Part of the ritual consists of the high priest sprinkling the blood seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting (Numbers 19:4), which would come to be the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has been preparing for the rebuilding of the Temple and acquiring the authentic vessels for its rituals and sacrifices and five red heifers were recently acquired, which should be ready for sacrifice by November of this year and is one of the reasons for the attack by Hamas on 10/7/23. Of course, in order to rebuild the Temple will require the removal of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Dome of the Rock and some see the current aggression of Israel against Palestine as part of this movement. Whether you believe Israel's retaliation against Hamas is justified or not, remember, Hamas has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth in their Charter of Allah. For those who are protesting against Israel in favor of Palestinian lives, you are taking sides in a holy war in support of Muslims who do not care for you unless you convert to Islam, which -- if the time ever comes -- will be by force, totally removing social equality by the sword. |
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Fill the Earth & Subdue It
Monday, April 1, 2024 One could argue that a plant-based diet was the initial goal for all life on earth (Genesis 1:29-30). It appears that it wasn't until man and woman were banished from the garden of Eden that they were allowed to use animals for food and clothing: God clothed their nakedness with skins (Genesis 3:21); then we see Abel raising flocks, the meat of which is more favorable to God than Cain's offering of the fruits of the soil (Genesis 4:2-5). Whether or not one eats meat or plants alone is of no concern to me. However, what should be of concern to us all is what God meant by mankind having dominion over all the Earth and subduing all animal life therein. | ||
| Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." ...And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26-28, RSV) |
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| As I said, I am not going to advocate dietary restrictions for anyone (sugar is my primary vice), but I would recommend a documentary now and then on the commercialization of processing animals for human consumption, such as Dominion, which should be fun and educational for the entire family. There are plenty of similar films out there and an equal amount of counter-arguments by the targeted industries, however, the fact remains that people abuse and slaughter a lot of animals and we have become careless and insensitive in our treatment of them. Is that all part of scriptural dominion and subjugation? It's basically a rhetorical question, but the answer also lies in the heads and hearts of people who mistreat and kill other people. | ||
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Transgender Day of Visibility
Sunday, March 31, 2024 By presidental proclamation, today is Transgender Day of Visibility, whereby Joe Biden sends "a message to all transgender Americans: You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You belong. You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back." Politics aside -- and I think either President Biden doesn't understand the situation at all or he's totally in on the cultural revolution to undermine traditional gender identities which go back to the beginning of history -- some believe this is an attempt to usurp Easter and that the announcement of it this year as falling on Easter may have some nefarious significance. However, Easter doesn't fall on the same date from year to year and, what's more, every day is Easter for Christians. The pagans once held this day as a celebration of the Spring vernal equinox, so let's give it back to them and let them do whatever they want with it. Fill the church pews with unbelievers and let their children hunt for eggs strewn in plain sight in the neighboring field, but believers will go on celebrating Christ as risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God every day of the year. For those who claim to be transgender Christians, may Christ have extra mercy on your soul. Hopefully you're not one of those who makes it to the heavenly banquet table, only to be tossed out for wearing the wrong clothes (Matthew 22:11-14). |
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Bercus, Arpilus, Reasus, Abibus, Igathrax, Et Al
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 Apparently, it wasn't only the Romans who didn't like Christians refusing to pay homage to their pagan gods, but the Goths as well. According to Basil of Caesarea (330-378), prisoners taken captive in a Gothic raid on Cappadocia in modern Turkey around A.D. 260 preached the gospel to their captors, who were none too receptive and promptly put an end to their proselytizing by death. Fourth-century Gothic records report King Aoric and his successor, King Athanaric, both persecuted Gothic Christians, targeting their own converted citizens rather than foreigners so as to make an example of what not to do as a model Goth. According to Roman historiographer Sozomenos (400-450), Athanaric recruited a chieftain by the name of Winguric to eradicate Christianity from the Terving kingdom and when he came across a tent revival in Crimea, he burned 308 Christians who refused to come out and worship his pagan idol. Some of the names of those martyred are listed here. Much of the Gothic kingdom had been converted to Christianity by the end of the fourth century when the Western Roman Empire was coming to an end. Most Gothic Christians were of the Arian flavor, by which Jesus first came into existence when he was begotten by God, so he was not considered co-eternal with God; a belief that was eventually condemned by the Catholic Church. Fun fact: Gothic witches (haliurunae) who were expelled by Christians mated with evil spirits and gave birth to the Huns. |
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Contes De Romance Peu Orthodoxe
Sunday, March 24, 2024 And now for a tale of unorthodox romance from my best-selling book, Tales of Unorthodox Romance, which is still at the top of the New York Tim's Best Seller list. I have one fan who chooses to remain anonymous. No, that's not one of several fans, but just one fan total and it's not my wife, who says the book should be called Stories That Annoy My Wife, but you'll have to buy the book to find out why. | ||
 he quivered in anticipation as she approached her longtime male coworker and felt like a nervous school girl. She had put off the inevitable encounter far too long and felt the time had come at last. What would he think of her if he were to decline her advance? If she was successful, what would others in the department think? This kind of relationship, although not forbidden or taboo, was discouraged among management and rumored about around the water cooler.
She cleared her throat and paused, then asked shyly, "Would you be interested in buying some Girl Scout cookies from my daughter?" There, she finally said what she had been so eager to say for so long. The cat was out of the bag. An awkward silence hung in the air before he answered without even looking at her. "No, thank you," he plainly replied without explanation. Once again, there was awkward silence as she slowly retreated in rejection and shame, trying to fight back feelings of humiliation and regret. Would he keep this encounter to himself? Would their work relationship change in any way? Would he lose respect for her professionally? Would her reputation be forever tarnished? Worst of all, would her daughter be disappointed in her? They didn't speak at all the remainder of the day and intentionally avoided contact. The next day, he put in for a transfer to another office across town. | ||
Happy Promised Messiah Day
Saturday, March 23, 2024Today I was preparing to blog about Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), the promised Muslim messiah (Mahdi or "Guided One") of Ahmadiyya, an Islamic movement in 19th-century India. Ahmad claimed that Jesus, a mortal, survived his crucifixion and lived to die of old age in a retirement home in India after visiting relatives from the twelve tribes of Israel. As for the bodily return of Jesus at the Second Coming, well, that's just impossible because he's dead. In light of this, I shall instead blog about a much older religion than either Islam or Christianity: that of Zoroastrianism, which dates as far back as 1,000 BC. In this ancient, Persian belief system, Ahura Mazda is considered the father of truth and is universal, transcendent, eternal, compassionate, omniscient, omnipotent, unfathomable, and creator of all. From Ahura Mazda came a series of divine sparks, or virtues, manifested as Holy Immortals. He also conceived opposing spirits, or energies -- the Bounteous Spirit and the Destructive Spirit -- which have been in diametrical opposition for all time, but are essential for all life. Through the teachings of Ahura Mazda's prophet, Zoroaster, one may follow a path of truth and righteousness and become close to the creator. The basic creed is, "good thoughts, good words, good deeds." In the battle against the Destructive Spirit, Angra Mainyu (not to be confused with Maya Angelou), those who choose good will ultimately help Ahura Mazda to defeat evil. Zoroastrianism was the primary religion of Armenia since the fifth century BC, that is, until Gregory the Illuminator (c. 257-328) arrived from Parthia and converted the entire country to Christianity in the fourth century A.D. and established the Armenian Apostolic Church. Today the Episcopalian Church celebrates the Feast of Gregory the Illuminator. All this leads to one major question: Is Christianity right and Zoroastrianism wrong? Christianity is based on Judaism, which predates Zoroastrianism by at least 800 years. Although the two are monotheistic, their deities are not the same. Therefore, I bet my life that Christianity is right and all other religions are wrong.* *Footnote: By "wrong" I do not include Judaism, which was the religion of Jesus, who came to fulfill its laws and prophecies. By "wrong" I mean all other religions do not worship the one, true God of both Judaism and Christianity. When any other religion claims that their god is the ultimate creator of the universe and of all life therein, I believe they are wrong. By "wrong" I do not insinuate that other religions are false, but that they are misled from their beginning to worship false gods, demigods, demons, lying spirits, fallen angels, and anything that is opposed to Jesus Christ and his Father, known by the ancient Hebrews as YHWH ("I AM"). I also have a bone to pick with the Episcopalian Church, but I'll saved that for another day. |
| All LGBTQ+ Are Gay Thursday, March 21, 2024 |
I kept quiet when Bruce Jenner transformed into Caitlyn, followed by a host of other dudes who emasculated themselves to the applause of the LGBTQ+ community, yet it baffles me how natural women can accept this, especially when someone with their testicles intact walks into a public restroom designated for females and garners the support of anyone anywhere, other than from psychologically impaired perverts. These sad individuals failed as men yet are being hailed as successful women, as though proving that anything women can do, men can do better -- regardless of how less of a man they are. This is not freedom of expression, but a social experiment gone horribly wrong. I can understand if insecure women rejoice when men voluntarily remove themselves from their repressive role as misogynistic overlords in such an extreme manner, but then they are welcomed to retake center stage. Even worse, they are pulled in front of the camera if they are stylish and prepossessing. Well, I ask, why should pretty people rule over all walks of life? I say rise up all you repellent trans extremists, wave that rainbow flag against the evil empire in which soldiers fought and died to protect your rights to do so and claim those advantages above and beyond what no one else deserves but you. If you can take life by the balls and tear them off then, by all means, neuter thyself with flagrant abandon. After all, you are waging a battle not only against man and nature, but against God Himself and you are all in this together in a spirit of femininity... including Elliot Page and Elliot Fletcher. You go, girls! |
| Dylan Mulvaney inspiring a generation of young boys who've taken off their yarmulkas, rosaries, and penises to make a unified statement that they reject God's basic design as laid down in the second chapter of Genesis, following the creation of all matter in the universe. At least Caitlyn Jenner is doing something positive for women by speaking out against transgender female athletes competing against biological females. Anyone who disagrees is a true he-man woman hater. |
International Day of Happiness
Wednesday, March 20, 2024Today is the United Nation's International Day of Happiness because, as they say, "Happiness is a fundamental human goal." This happiness is based upon 17 Sustainable Development Goals that all nations should attain to and kudos to Greenland for being in the top of the global index score on this one. The Bible may even be in agreement on mankind's search for happiness: "I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live" (Ecclesiastes 3:12). However, happiness is a gift from God (Ecclesiastes 5:19) and both good times and bad times are made by Him (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Now I don't mean to be opposed to happiness, but some obtain their happiness from means which God approves of but not necessarily does mankind. Take, for instance, Psalm 137:8-9, where the psalmist sings of Jerusalem's captors, "happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks." That makes the Israelites happy, but not necessarily the Edomites or Babylonians. Same goes for the modern-day Palestinians. Although the average Palestinian citizen didn't tread on Israel, it was Hamas who did on their behalf. I realize the Zionists are catching a lot of shit nowadays, but I can see how the world is going to go to war against God in the last days (Revelation 17:14, 19:19). Revelation 17:2 says that the inhabitants of the world will be intoxicated with adulteries and Revelation 17:15-18 says that God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose. I have often contended that America is not the Babylon of Revelation and I still maintain that it isn't, however, it sure meets its many descriptions, including the wrath of the nations for supporting Israel, but I don't see how Babylon the Great will be in support of Israel. What I do fail to see regarding the plight of the Palestinians is why no other country will come to their aid militarily. Where are the Islamic nations? Where are those who claim to be in support of them? Send over all those who march in the streets and cry out on social media and use their bodies as a collective human battering ram to allow the aid to flow freely. Otherwise, we're all just a bunch of chattering mouthpieces wreaking dissension among our own people. |
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St. Joseph, keep me from hammering my thumb.
Tuesday, March 19, 2023 Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Joseph, the step-father of Jesus. Was he previously married with children? Who really knows? Let us return yet again to The Gospel of Martha, to a time when Joseph took his pregnant wife to his hometown to file Roman Censvs Forma DCLV.III-b and, along the way, she gave birth to God's only begotten Son. |
Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son. But many were they who doubted the virtue of Mary, betrothed of Joseph: even that she was charged by the priests with an oath of cursing and forced to drink the bitter water of the jealousy offering; but there occurred no rot within her thigh, nor swelling of the bowels.
So once again the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, and saying, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not the conception of JEHOVAH's own begotten; though not of carnal union, verily, there will always be they who mock. But, behold, it is of miraculous insemination by the Holy Ghost: again, not of corporeal intercourse or libidinous penetration. Howbeit the doubters will assuredly ridicule, and chide, and wag of their heads, and scoff, and deride, and scorn, and chaff, and quip, and dismiss, and wisecrack, and hold thee in contempt. But be not dismayed." And many were they who did inspect of Mary's chastity: including Hillel chief of the Sanhedrin, and Annas the high priest, and Zechariah the synagogue priest and his wife Elizabeth, and Samuel the priest, (now a secret meeting was held of the Sanhedrin, and the Urim and the Thummim were consulted, that men should be allowed inspection, and not to disguise as women, and therefore sin doubly), and Salome and Zelomi who were midwives, and Anna her mother, and Joachim Eli her father, and Hannah the prophetess, and Annas the scribe. In all, there were five hundred witnesses to the undefiled purity of Mary. And, lo, it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that a census should be conducted, and that all the world should be levied with a grievous tax. (This grievous taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governour of Syria.) And all went to be grievously taxed, every one into his own city. So Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; because he was of the house and lineage of David: to be grievously taxed with Mary his espoused wife. Then Joseph took his wife Mary, being great with child, and seated her upon a beast of burden weighted down with provisions of jerked biltong and lentil cakes, and ventured to the land of his fathers in Bethlehem, the city of David, to pay grievous taxes unto the Romans. But as they approached unto Bethlehem afar off, behold, Mary's water did break forth upon the colt, and she cried out in labour; and Joseph directed the band unto a cave near and by; wherein lived a jabberwock, which breathed fire and provisioned warmth and light for Mary to birth the child. And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. And when they arrived in the town of Bethlehem, she laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn, nor in the hostelry, nor in the detention cells, nor in the inebriation tank. |
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GoM Chapter 20 (Continued)
Sunday, March 17, 2023 Today we celebrate St. Patrick's day by wearing green and pinching those who don't. Why? Because there aren't enough leprechauns to go around pinching everyone who doesn't wear green. Be careful, though, because if you pinch an actual Irishman, he is liable to punch you in the face. Let us return to The Gospel of Martha, where Jesus is seated with his disciples and teaching them many mysterious things while eating corned beef and cabbage. |
Jesus saith, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are knowitalls, and are utterly lacking, and know naught about nothing. But those who know nothing, except of themselves, are they who lack nothing, and are qualified therefore to receive the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven."
Jesus saith, "Blessed art thou when thou art hated and persecuted, and no place found to lay thine head wheresoever thou hast been persecuted; for thine home is the kingdom of heaven, where thou shalt recline upon the clouds, and play thine harp for all of eternity." Jesus saith, "Blessed are they who have been persecuted in their hearts, for they are the ones who truly ache to know the Father. Blessed are they who go hungry, for their stomachs shall be filled with the stomach of he who is full. And, behold, there shall be no wheats, or sugars, or dairy, or nuts, or shellfish, to cause discomfort." Jesus saith, "Be ye filled with the Holy Ghost, and if ye bring forth what is within you, what ye have will save you. If ye not that within you, what ye have not shall be unto your demise. And if what therein you should bind, be ye therefore filled with prune juice." Jesus saith, "I will destroy this house, and no one will be able to rebuild it, with exception of Todd [sic]." A stranger came unto him by light of lantern and beseeched him, saying, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me." He replying saith unto the man, "Who hath made me a divider?" Jesus then turning to his disciples saith unto them, "I am not a divider, am I? Am I a divider? Who amongst us is a divider? I see no dividers here." And the man went away bewildered and dismayed, for he had heard that Jesus came to bring division. Jesus saith, "The harvest is great but the labourers are few. Beseech the Lord, therefore, to send out labourers to the harvest, that they who are harvested may be pulverized, and ground into meal, and turned into living bagels." Jesus saith, "O Lord, there are many round about the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the well. Therefore I beseech thee, givest thou unto them humps upon their backs in which to store living water." Jesus saith, "There are many standing at the door, but those alone who are standing without slouching will enter the bridal chamber." Jesus saith, "The Father's kingdom is like a merchant who had a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. That merchant was prudent: he sold the merchandise and bought the single pearl for himself. So also with you, seek his treasure that is unfailing, that is enduring, where no moth come to eat and no worm destroy. For verily I say unto you, salvation is free for those who accept; but first go, and sell all your belongings, and all that ye possess, and give to the Lord." |
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Nothing Funny About Saint Hilarius
Saturday, March 16, 2024Today we honor Hilarius, third-century Bishop of Aquileia, Italy, who was tortured and put to death during the reign of Roman Emperor Numerian under the prefect Beronius. It was reported that the prayers of Hilarius during his martyrdom resulted in the collapse of the pagan temples in Aquileia. We also honor a couple sixth-century Irish saints today, the likes of which include Abbán of Corbmaic and Finian the Leper. However, the real show-stealer this weekend is the Apostle of Ireland himself, Patrick, who lived sometime in the fifth century. As a teenager, he was captured by Gaelic pirates and lived as a slave for six years in Ireland, during which time he grew closer to God and converted to Christianity. After this period, he escaped home to Britain, where he had a vision to return to Ireland as a Christian missionary, which he did. Upon his return to Ireland, he baptized thousands of pagans, converted druids to nuns, and miraculously turned all the beer green, although not everyone was fond of the green beer and Patrick was beaten on occasion and imprisoned because of it. However, there were few detractors from his infamous shamrock shake. With the aid of the three-petal shamrock he could explain the Trinity and, with the frozen confection of the shamrock shake, he could make his teachings delicious. Patrick is also well-known for banishing snakes from Ireland, which were sent there by Saint Columba after banishing them from Scotland. The two saints kept sending the snakes back and forth until, finally, they formed one, large sea serpent that disappeared into the Ness River in Scotland. Of his many supposed miracles and acts, his greatest feat was converting great pagan warriors and chieftains from lives of fighting, feasting, and fornicating to boring, old Christianity. In light of this, Patrick insisted that his flock should at least enjoy a drink of whiskey on Saint Patrick's Day. Some modern scholars believe that Patrick may have conflated himself with Palladius, the first bishop of Ireland, in order to confuse historians, which doesn't make much sense, while others claim that Patrick and Palladius were conjoined twins, which actually makes more sense. A two-headed Saint Patrick would explain the two types of crosses associated with him: the cross pattée and the saltire. It would also explain his two major relics: a goblet and a coffee mug; the latter of which has often been misidentified as a bell. Although there were Christian missionaries in Ireland prior to both Patrick and Palladius, Patrick holds the distinction of a Netflix film with a 60% tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. |
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Gonzaga, Patron Saint of Youth Basketball
Saturday, March 9, 2024 In case anyone was wondering, I grew up in a basketball town where St. Aloysius Gonzaga is featured prominently. Born on this day in 1568, he attended a Jesuit college on a basketball scholarship and went on to play in the Euroleague with Francis Xavier, Ignatius of Loyola, and Thomas of Villanova for the Roman Pontiffs under Coach Robert Bellarmine. However, after receiving a vision in which he fouled out while playing a game of one-on-one with the Archangel Gabriel, he left the court to serve the Jesuits as a towel boy for the Black Plague. Not long after, he succumbed to the smell of death and passed away while holding his breath. If you don't believe me, then check my facts on the Internet, where everything comes to light. Back to my hometown, where there's used car dealerships and minivans everywhere. There's also a church around every corner, in every other strip mall, and occupying an old grocery store building within a five mile radius of one another. I recently attended a church as a guest where they were celebrating the opening of a church plant in a neighboring city as though there were no churches there already, even though it's the same there as it is here, but more power to them. We do have a Sikh temple nearby, which was vandalized by a homeless man who thought it was an Islamic mosque. Speaking of which, we do have our fair share of homelessness, drug addiction, and trailer parks (some of which are actually quite nice). This place of which I speak is no different than any other mid-size city in the U.S., so I am not going to recommend it as a vacation destination. |
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Women Will Be Saved Through Childbearing
Friday, March 8, 2024 Continuing with the vibe of 2 Peter 3:16 about Paul writing things that are hard to understand, the pharisee from Tarsus states in 1 Timothy 2:15 that "women will be saved through childbearing -- if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety." WTF? What kind of bigoted, pharisaical comment is this? At first glance, this appears to make righteous women out to be modest baby-making machines. But let's look at the context of this statement: | ||
| A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing -- if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. (1 Timothy 2:11-15, NIV) | ||
Holy shit! That sounds even worse! However, we've already been through the "women being quiet" part in the previous two posts. Here we concentrate on the last statement about childbearing. We all remember that in Genesis 3:16 God told Eve, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." This is where Paul got the notion for salvation through childbearing. Yet we all know that salvation only comes through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), who himself was born from a woman, and although some have tried to correlate the two, it doesn't quite jive. So let's try to figure this out another way. The word "salvation" in Greek (sozo) can also mean "preserved," as you might find in some translations (NASB, Darby). Even many translations that use the word "saved" (which is most of them) translate this statement as "kept safe during childbirth" (The Bible in Basic English, Common English Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, Weymouth, Wycliffe). This seems to be the most popular meaning, however, millions of female believers have died in childbirth. Another meaning might possibly be that women will be saved despite the curse of painful childbearing, or saved from Satan by adhering to their divinely-ordained role of motherhood as summarized in 1 Timothy 5:14 (marry, manage their households, bear and raise children). As Dr. Andreas Köstenberger states it here, "How can women today avoid the mistake made by Eve? The answer: by adhering to their God-given boundaries and tending to their God-given responsibilities." In this sense, women who keep their nose to the domestic grindstone will be sure to avoid Eve's mistake of wandering off and being tempted. As sexist as this may sound, this interpretation has my vote because it seems the most logical within the context of the entire epistle. As stated by Dr. Köstenberger in this essay, "Paul here expresses concern that women be kept safe from being deceived by Satan, and that he therefore encourages women to embrace and pursue their God-ordained calling centering around the family and the home." This makes sense not only from its scriptural context, but coming from a former Pharisee and, since Paul is currently silent on this passage, I believe this is the best explanation. However, forgive me for asking, but would he still uphold this viewpoint over two thousand years later? I dare say he would. Does this make him (and me) a bigoted chauvinist? Not unless you believe God is one, too. |
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Can't Argue With That
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
 I've been trying to be more conscientious of my spelling because I don't want to waste any typed characters and I have been recycling what text I can because I want to be digitally conscience -- every one and zero counts towards reducing the carbon footprint of this blog. Anyway, a nerve was touched in yesterday's post and, for the continual sake of argument, I want to make a few points about the state of the Christian "church" today compared to the church in the first and second centuries where women are concerned:
I'm not completely convinced that women shouldn't be in positions of leadership and authority in a Christian church. Peter did warn about Paul that "his letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16, NIV) and it's hard to argue with a Pharisee. Oh, wait, Jesus did it all the time. Anyhow, the ultimate conclusion on this issue still stands: Do what you want, but God's word never changes and Paul had the final say, which is Scripture with a capital S. |
Girls Were Girls and Men Were Men
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
I consider myself progressive, but most of the guys I hang around with believe that women have no place in the church pulpit. Personally, I have no problem with it as long as they are preaching the Word from the Bible. However, somewhere in that Word of that Bible is apparently scripture that prohibits a woman from teaching a man, and those passages are 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 ("Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." KJV) and 1 Timothy 2:12 ("But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." KJV). The Apostle Paul is stating clearly that women need to keep their mouths shut in church. However, to me this is a point that Paul is making from personal opinion, like he does elsewhere in his letters (1 Corinthians 7:6, 12, 1 Timothy 2:8-10). However, as a technicality, his letters are scripture and, as he himself and many theologians argue, he has the authority of the Spirit of God to make such calls (1 Corinthians 7:25, 40, 14:37). Yet even Paul addressed certain women of his day as fellow workers (Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4:2-3), apostles (Junia in Romans 16:7), and deacons (Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2). Does this mean then that they were silent leaders or at least focused solely on discipling women? And what of Priscilla helping to instruct Apollos (Acts 18:24-26)? Proponents of a woman's silence in church may then point out the succession of authority from man to woman as Paul did (1 Timothy 2:13-14, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Ephesians 5:22-33). Of course, he also stated that "women will be saved through childbearing" (1 Timothy 2:15), which may seem a bit sexist today and is definitely another topic altogether. An astute female Christian points out here that one could argue that Deborah was a judge in Israel and was in a position of authority over men (Judges 4), however, this was during a time when "Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit" (Judges 17:6, 21:25). Another (right or wrong) points out here that it's all about Greek semantics and that not all women are married and that there is no male and female for we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). Regardless, it is apparent that Paul is the authority here on whether or not women should preach in the pulpit, yet he is opposed to it in no uncertain terms. Is this allowed in some churches today because we do as we see fit? Because we don't have enough men qualified for the position? Because women are really called by God in this day and age to lead churches? As much as I'd like to remain progressive on this point, it would then follow logically that homosexuals, transgenders, and non-binary persons should be allowed to preach in the pulpit (Paul doesn't place restrictions on them), but I am not that kind of progressive because God clearly made us male and female and intended that marital relations be between the two (Genesis 1:27, 2:18-24, 5:2, Matthew 19:4-6, Mark 10:6-9, Romans 1:24-27). Do what you want, but God's word never changes. Even I have to be reminded of that sometimes... often... every day.
Note: I do not consider pastoring a church or instructing others as akin to prophesy. There are plenty of verses about female prophets, which is a position for both men and women that doesn't require leadership (1 Timothy 5:17). |
| Are three hands better than one? Monday, March 4, 2024 | ||||
| Today we remember two saints: Adrian of Nicomedia, who was martyred in the early fourth century, and Casimir Jagiellon, prince of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who died at age 25 in 1484 due to tuberculosis. Casimir is honored in Lithuania and Poland with fanfair and revelry. However, his story is rather dull and full of royalty and entitlement, but suffice to say he was a decent fellow. Adrian is venerated as the patron saint of soldiers and militaries, second only to St. George, and is popular in Germanic countries. As a young praetorian of the Herculian Guard under Emperor Maximian, he was converted while witnissing the torture of Christians and marveling at their confidence in what awaited them after death (1 Corinthians 2:9, Isaiah 64:4). After confessing his faith, he too was tortured and put to death. According to this source, he was beaten and disemboweled, then his legs were broken upon an anvil and chopped off before his final execution. Is it fair to compare the honor between the two deaths? Of course not. Both confessed their faith in Christ to the end and Casimir lived a longer life of dedication to that faith. There are other saints to be revered on this day that have been officially beatified and doubtless thousands more who are considered saints in the eyes of God.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" -- the things God has prepared for those who love him -- these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:6-10, NIV) | .jpg) Adrian's wife, Natalia, made off with one of his hands after his execution. |  Casimir is depicted with three hands because he was so giving. | ||
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LWoS 182, 183, 190, 191, 194
Sunday, March 4, 2024 I seem to have forgotten why this blog exists, which is simply to lure people into procuring my book, The Lost Wisdom of Solomon, which is available in paperback and Kindle. It was first released in 2015 but I have yet to find a literary agent to help make it seem more legitimate. If you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who may be in the know, then drop me an e-mail with the subject line "You're Computre Is INFUCTED with @ VIRUS!!!!!" and I shall be most obliged.
183 My son, attempt first to do everything in your own power before enlisting the aid of a skilled craftsman. Let this always be your final option. Especially with regards to plumbing. 190 About the heart: Not only is it a muscular organ which forcefully distributes the blood of life throughout the body, but it is imbued with metaphysical attributes of love, and understanding, and compassion. It is the seat of passion and desire, of pity and benevolence, of obedience and repentance, of one's character and spirit. Together with the spleen, from which exudes poetic inspiration, the heart is the progenitor of emotional feeling. It is a hidden treasure trove of good and evil, searchable by the LORD and weighed on the scale of divine justice. The psalms of David are replete with the myriad attributes of the heart -- though they make no mention of the liver, which aids in the suppression of apathy. 191 My son, when shaking hands with a Gentile, as is their custom, be firm, but not aggressively firm, and look him in the eye. If by chance he grasps your fingers, but not the hand in its entirety, and shakes instead your fingers, then look down at the shaking of your fingers, whilst the shaking of your fingers is in progress, and only afterward look slowly up to his face, with a glare of consternation, and wish him peace (Hebrew, Shalom), for there is no contingency hand shake in the event of a botched hand shake. If, however, his grip be soft and listless, then turn your hand under his, pull it to your lips, and address him as "my lady." 194 My children, a story: Once upon a time, there was a piece of spinach that lived happily between the right upper lateral incisor and the cuspid, where it smiled at all the faces it saw looking back at it from outside its oral habitat. Many were the people who came and went and left the happy spinach morsel in peace. It enjoyed the company of other food particles, such as broccoli and cilantro, and they all had a wonderful time drinking wine and tea together. When evening came, the happy little spinach fragment inspected itself in the mirror, said farewell, and was swallowed into what it could only comprehend to be the sweltering bowels of Gehenna and eternal suffering. The End |
Sow Thy Fava Beans Anon
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Today is the veneration of St. Chad (A.D. 634-672) and therefore the most propitious day to sow broad beans. It is also the anniversary of the semaphore telegraph by Claude Chappe in 1791. On this day in 1850 in the history of Sri Lanka, the Kandy Man convention guaranteed the flow of kandy from Kandy Land to Great Britain, or something like that. The first compact disc player gave birth to a compact disc in the U.S. on this day in 1983 while on loan from a Japanese zoo. Nelson Mandela released his first album on compact disc today in 1990 titled Bantu Bugaloo, which was received with mixed reviews. In 1998, data from the Galileo spacecraft indicated that Jupiter's moon Europa is a ball of creamy filling covered with a thick crust of chocolate cookie. On this day in 2017, the elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson were introduced to the periodic table, revealing the secret ingredients in Hostess Twinkies. Now onto present matters and one which has a profound effect on those living and worshiping in and around Nashville, TN -- a new nightclub called The Cove offers Christian fellowship to rap, hip-hop, and Latin beats with just three rules: no twerking; no drinking; no smoking. The Cove emerged from the communal vacuum left by COVID-19 and helped fill the void for young adults looking for good, clean, wholesome, faith-filled fun while remaining cool and relevant. Activities include prayer, dancing, prayer, and dancing. Said a young woman from Milwaukee, WI, "God is not dead -- He is alive and groovin' in my Air Jordans." Said another young man from nearby Murfreesboro, "This ain't your grandad's house of worship," to which his elderly grandmother dancing next to him replied, "Nope, it sure ain't!" Kudos or, rather, blessings to The Cove's founders, seven black Protestant men of God's eternal funk. There, now, I knew if I poked around I'd find something to report on. Just remember, there will be no dancing until the broad beans have been sown. |
WTWJG?2
Friday, March 1, 2024Doing a little more archeological digging into yesterday's post about tattoos turned up a little more information about early Christian tattooing. According to this article in Forbes, another purpose for tattoos was for Roman prisoners (on their foreheads), which included Christians. Emperor Constantine, himself a Christian, banned this practice in the fourth century. According to this article from Christianity Today, the Montanists of the fourth century tattooed themselves as "Slaves of God." According to this article from Early Church History, St. Basil (A.D. 330-379) discouraged Christians from long hair and tattoos and in 787 the Second Council of Nicea banned all tattoos as a pagan practice. However, according to fifth-century African bishop Victor of Vita, some Christian sects were tattooing themselves to set them apart from other religions, including the Gnostic Manichaeans, Ethiopians, and the Coptic Egyptians, although it is unknown what those images or markings may have been. According to this article from Middle East Eye, following the Muslim conquest of Egypt around A.D. 640, Coptic Christians were tattooed by the state with a cross on their inner right wrist. A more recent purpose for religious tattooing -- recent as of the eleventh century -- has been to permanently mark the body of a traveler who has made a religious pilgrimage to the Holy Land. According to this article from Dusty Old Thing, one of the most common tattoos of medieval crusaders was the Jerusalem Cross (pictured). According to this article from Seiyaku, knights who fought in the First Crusade were tattooed with a Latin Cross on the arm to ensure a Christian burial. The oldest tattoo shop in Jerusalem is Razzouk Tattoo, which has been a family business for 700 years and practicing in Palestine for five centuries with one of its primary customers being Christians. |
 Christian-themed wood block images from "Coptic Tattoo Designs" by John Carswell, (C)1958, borrowed from the Internet Archives. These simple images dating to the 18th century were used as stencils for tattoos inked en masse on visitors to Jerusalem by an Egyptian tattoo artist named Jacob Razzouk. Often times, tattoos were accompanied with the year of the pilgrimage. According to this source, the two Christian sects most often tattooed were the Copts and the Armenians, particularly around Easter, followed by the Syrians and Abyssinians. Few tattoos were done for members of the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant Churches. |
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As I said previously, I have no opinion on the matter of whether or not Christians should get a tattoo, other than if they do then it should be a killer tat. These other bloggers have more insight, experience, and research, so they also have more of an opinion:
America, The Jesuit Review: "For many, a tattoo isn't just ink. It's a religious experience." by Gustavo Morello, S.J. (Unopposed to tattoos) https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/12/02/religious-tattoos-241412 |
WTWJG?
Thursday, February 29, 2024Sometime in your life you just have to ask yourself, "What tattoo would Jesus get?" We don't know whether or not Jesus had any tattoos, however, it's a safe bet that he didn't, what with being a Jewish rabbi and all. About the only biblical scriptures seemingly against tattoos are Leviticus 19:28 ("Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.") and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ("What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."), and both sound more authoritative in the language of the King James Bible (more modern versions like the AMP, CEV, ESV, TLB, MSG, NASB, NET, NIV, NKJV, NRSVA, et al & etc. render "marks" as "tattoos"). On the other hand, literally, Isaiah 44:5 says, "This one will say, 'I am the Lord's'; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, 'Belonging to the Lord,' And will give himself Israel's name with honor" (New American Standard Bible; most traditional versions render this as, "subscribe with his hand," which basically means the same thing). You can read more about this topic here (history), here (scripture passages), here (pros and cons), here (more pros and cons), here (anti-tat), and here (pro-tat). Traditionally, in ancient times, tattoos were primarily for branding slaves, mourning the dead, and for permanently identifying heathen women with their pagan god(s). Personally, I have no opinion on the matter. Howsoever you decide to embellish your flesh, be sober of mind (1 Peter 5:8), try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord (Ephesians 5:10), and remember: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not" (1 Corinthians 10:23). For examples of what are not expedient nor edifying, check out Sick Chirpse. |
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The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 Today we remember the Edict of Thessalonica issued in A.D. 380 making Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire; but not just any form of Christianity, the "Catholic" Christianity of the Nicene Creed, which made all other forms illegal, including the Arians, Anomoeans, and Macedonians. Let us also remember Honorina, one of the many virgins martyred under the persecutions of Diocletian between the third and fourth centuries. Oh, and let's not forget a fella named George Herbert (1593-1633), who was a priest in the Church of England and, among other talents, a poet. Here we read a poem of his from The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (page 55). Note: ejaculations in this sense are emotional utterances and you should be ashamed for snickering. | |||
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Sin.
Oh that I could a sin once see!
But God more care of us hath had, Shave and a hair cut, two bits! | ||
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Say what you want about suicide...
Sunday, February 25, 2024 Today we remember the gruesome side of Christianity. No, not the Inquisition, nor televangelism, but the Crusades -- specifically the Lithuanian Crusade of the fourteenth century. In 1336, a force of 6,000 soldiers and 200 nobles led by the Knights of the Teutonic Order attacked the hill fort of Pilenai somewhere in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. According to the chronicle of Wigand of Marburg, a German herald of the Teutonic Knights, about 4,000 pagan civilians who had gathered there for protection burned their belongings and committed suicide rather than be captured and converted. The defender of the fort, Duke Margiris, killed his wife, guards, and followers before taking his own life. Now, say what you want about suicide, but in some instances it's better than the alternative. In this case, imprisonment and torture would most likely have been the result of being captured. Some may have possibly converted to Christianity and lived a life of slavery and impoverishment, but history may never reveal its dark secrets. Regardless, suicide is looked upon as ignoble in our modern society. But consider, if you will, the ancient Japanese samurai custom of Seppuku, or hara-kiri, in which an individual performs a ritualistic suicide by stabbing themselves through the abdomen with a short blade and eviscerating their bowels in order to die honorably rather than fall into the hands of their enemy. Another reason for this was to restore honor to one's family after failure, which could be performed by being voluntarily decapitated while in the process of hara-kiri in the presence of family and friends. This could be undertaken today in states where assisted suicide is legal, except that many would be considered funshi, an indignation death, which is suicide for the sake of protest or to make a final statement of dissatisfaction. Come to think of it, not even Montana would probably allow it. Anyway, in a country where we can't even figure out capital punishment, what's the point of regulating self-immolation? Whether someone deserves to die or doesn't want to go on living, let's keep everyone alive and miserable while forcing them to pursue happiness. It's our inalienable right. |
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It Takes A Village Of Pedophiles
Saturday, February 24, 2024To those of my subscribers who've been complaining about a lack of material as of late, let me remind you all that membership is only 99¢ a month, which requires me to write a personal check and mail it to each and every one of you monthly, since only a few choose to receive an annual payment, and this takes up quite a bit of my time. With that said, today's installment is about our current state of sex education in the public school system. Personally, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. As near as I can tell, it all stems from the Kinsey Reports, so why not just make the two groundbreaking works of the twentieth-century sexual revolution mandatory reading material for all elementary school children? Having them read Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953) will not only teach them to read academically but will teach them all about their own sexuality. Let's stop spending taxpayer money on new books like Heather Has Two Mommies, My Princess Boy, Weird Girl And What's His Name, and The Season of You and Me and just stick with the classics, which were written by scientists and based on thousands of pages of hard data collected from pedophiles who painstakingly recorded their molestation of hundreds of children each, all ranging in age from two months to fifteen years old; and not just pedophiles in prison, but professional, government-employed pedophiles and Nazi war criminals. And, not to start a sentence with a conjunction, but who better to educate our children than those neoplastic outgrowths of the Kinsey Institute than GLSEN, SEICUS, and CASEL? Certainly not their own parents who don't even know the proper pronouns with which to address them in their confused, adolescent years. Now, I realize some of you may think I'm just being glib and facetious here, but think about it: if we allow these pioneers of the LGBTQ community -- with the help of pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, and Atrazine -- to figure out how to transition safely back and forth between sexes and genders, then future generations will be able to do it with ease whenever they want; just like changing their clothes or hair styles. Tune in for my next post when I postulate about conducting abortions on pets in high school biology classes, allowing newborns to reject the government under which they are born, and proper ways to desecrate a flag. Pictured: Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey (1894-1956), haloed with the Flower of Aphrodite, the logo of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. Dr. Kinsey , it is rumored here, originally studied gallflies but came to embrace them sexually after receiving research funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in order to study, among other things, sex between humans and insects. |
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History of Black History Month
Friday, February 9, 2024Black History Month in the U.S. and Canada has been around since 1926, when it was first introduced in the U.S. during the second week of February as Negro History Week and, by 1968, it had dropped the word Negro in favor of Afro American. However, it was not until 1970 that it became a month-long event and 1976 when it was recognized federally. Some have objected to it on the grounds that black history, particularly in America, should be celebrated and taught year-round, especially since black history in this context is American history. NHW founder Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) had hoped that the need for such an observance -- to educate students about the wide range of contributions by under-represented blacks -- would eventually not be necessary as black history would come to be integrated into general American history. Here I'll use this quote from famous slave-turned-abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) to sum up why Black History Month should remain Black History Month: "A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it." (NAARC) Douglass, identifiable even to uneducated children by his hairstyle, was educated himself with a Webster's dictionary, became licensed as a nondenominational preacher, wrote three eloquent autobiographies, and was the first African American nominated for U.S. vice president (1872). He successfully escaped slavery in the South for New York at age 20 and became a Christian who loved everyone, but still considered Christian slave owners and supporters to be the worst, yet he was often criticized by radical abolitionists for his willingness to still engage in dialogue with slave owners. As an out-spoken orator against slavery and active participant in the Underground Railroad, Douglass was also out-spoken against segregation in the North and a staunch advocate for women's rights. He was critical about Abraham Lincoln's lack of support for black male suffrage even though he allowed them to fight in the Civil War, going so far as to say that Lincoln was "the white man's President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men," and, "Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model." You can read the entire context here. |
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Little Brown Sister Bakhita
Thursday, February 8, 2024 Today we celebrate Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita (1869-1947), born in Darfur (Sudan) and abducted by Arab slave traders around the age of seven. Bought and sold several times throughout Africa, forced to convert to Islam, and much of her torso scarred, Bakhita ("fortunate one") was finally granted freedom 12 years later after her Italian owners discovered that by law she should be free. She was taken in by members of the Canossian Sisters in Venice, baptized, confirmed Catholic, and spent the rest of her 42 years in an Italian convent in the town of Schio. Her nicknames included Sor Moretta ("little brown sister") and Madre Moretta ("black mother") and many locals considered her a saint -- so much so that they attributed no casualties in Schio during WWII to her presence. When first beatified in 1992, news of this was banned in Khartoum, the capitol of Sudan, which is predominantly Muslim, although today Radio Bakhita 91.0 FM can be heard from neighboring Juba and Mother Bakhita has been adopted as the patron saint of Sudan and of many modern human trafficking survivors. |
| "If I was to meet those slave raiders that abducted me and those who tortured me, I'd kneel down to them to kiss their hands, because, if it had not have been for them, I would not have become a Christian and religious woman." (Bakhita, afrol News) |
| The Curmudgeon Chronicles Vol 16 Wednesday, February 7, 2024 |
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Today Kelvin is slightly perturbed. The next round of proposed budget cuts includes a 3% salary reduction plus a monthly furlough day. He came into my office to share this with me like I didn't already know, only to find me sitting in front of a blank screen and pretending to type. I was just getting up to leave on a call and had logged off when I heard him coming and sat back down. Convinced I am actually trying to look busy while doing absolutely nothing, he chastises me vehemently and blames the impending cuts solely on me, which makes me laugh out loud and, in turn, shorts out his fuse. With veins-a-poppin' in his forehead and temples, he storms out of my office, turns off my lights, and slams the door. At lunchtime he is hangry and complaining about the amount of money his wife gives to her church. I argue that it isn't enough and should be 10% of her gross, not net. This really pisses him off and his face turns red as he bemoans how churches are ripping off their members by constantly asking for money in the form of tithes, offerings, and charitable contributions. I reply that it's all Biblical, which is absolutely no consolation to him. We finish playing cribbage in silence, except for the sound of him chewing his one serving of fruit, and he tells me before leaving that he's fed up with working for this department, this agency, and this state. I ask if he truly means what I hear him saying or if he's just momentarily more perturbed than usual and he confirms his long-standing disgust for the job. This troubles me, not that my co-worker is unhappy, but that he demonstrates the qualifications for a promotion into management. |
UNIDO Abu Dhabi Declaration
Sunday, February 4, 2024Today is "International Day of Human Fraternity" established by the United Nations General Assembly on 12/21/20 with resolution 75/200, based on the 2019 "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," also known as the Abu Dhabi Declaration, which was a joint statement signed by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar -- itself based upon the 2015 UN General Assembly resolution 70/1 entitled "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." As boring as this sounds, the contents of the declaration are just as convoluted and meaningless. I fell asleep three times trying to locate an excerpt for this blog post, even though the declaration is only 8 pages long with 2 dozen relatively short sections and 3 blank pages (apparently for notes). So why even bother with this topic? Because I believe the United Nations is ineffective in bringing about world peace through its recommendations of political gobbledygook. True, with donations of half a trillion dollars over the past 79 years since its founding in 1945 following WWII, the UN has been able to assist refugees, help negotiate international disputes, coordinate efforts to fight global diseases, provide humanitarian aid, and clear minefields. However, in trying to promote and maintain world peace ("multilateralism"), it has and will ultimately fail due to the increasing global population, international uncooperativeness, financial misappropriations of relief efforts, its own bloated bureaucracy, the self-interests of countries like China, Russia, and North Korea, the overall corruption and poverty of the African continent, the Islamic jihad of the Arab world, and the dark organizations that are supposedly pulling the strings. I have enough trouble trying to get along with my neighbor who hasn't fixed his car alarm for two years and sets it off every time he unlocks the doors -- I fail to understand how the UN will, as it states in the Abu Dhabi Declaration, effectively implement "inclusive and sustainable industrial development, including South-South and triangular cooperation, through the exchange of knowledge, best practices and capacity-building and the transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms, to respond to the intensifying challenges of poverty and hunger eradication, as well as peace and security, climate change, pollution and environmental degradation, growing inequality and emerging trends such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution" (section 10). I rest my case. |
 Salustiano Garcia Cruz, 2024 |
Beautiful Jesus, Save My Ugly Soul
Saturday, February 3, 2024 When I was an impressionable youngster, I visited a museum where they had on display the 1987 photograph by Andres Serrano entitled Immersion (Piss Christ). Seen here, it depicted a crucifix submerged in the artist's own urine and won an award from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts. Suffice to say, I myself was pissed just looking at it, but I ain't no art connoisseur. Recently, Catholics have been in an uproar about a poster in Seville, Spain, of a painting by Salustiano García Cruz that depicts a young, handsome Jesus wearing only a loincloth, which was commissioned and approved by the General Council of Brotherhoods for Easter Holy Week at the end of March. You can read more about it here, but it may cause a reaction of homoeroticism. I'd argue that most artistic depictions of a baptized or impassioned Jesus over the centuries have been romanticized images of a svelte, handsome, marginally nude fella in touch with his feminine side. Let's face it, despite Isaiah's description of Jesus as having "no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2), Western art has made him out to be a sexy savior. There's no telling what it may have done for Muhammad. |
 Guido Reni, 1620 |
 Leonardo da Vinci, 1472 |
 Francisco de Zurbaran, 17th Century |
 Francesco Francia, 1490 |
 Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1520 |
 Pietro Perugino, 1510 |
.jpg) Juan de Flandes, 1496 |
 Nicolas Poussin, 17th Century |
 Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1516 |
 Guido Reni, 1622 |
 Il Sodoma, 1510 |
 Titian, 1512 |
 Carlo Maratti, 1657 |
| Jesus Even Loves Assholes Like You Thursday, February 1, 2024 | ||
| I hear statements like, "Christians are the worst," or, "Christians are self-righteous assholes," and often it's coming from my own mouth. Sometimes I look in the mirror and remark, "Hypocrite," then spit in my own face. I have argued that Christians are the worst because they are the most in need of Christ and many accepted Jesus when they were at their lowest. However, the same argument could be made that everyone is in need of Christ because we're all sinners, but that just goes without saying. My point is that it's rather difficult being like Jesus when he hasn't been around for a while. He said that seeing him was seeing God Himself (John 14:5-11). He told Thomas that despite his doubt he believed because he saw Jesus in the flesh but that those of later generations who believed despite not seeing him would be blessed for their faith (John 20:29). Jesus kept his disciples from calling down fire on those who peeved them (Luke 9:51-56) and, when they acted out violently, he corrected their actions (Luke 22:49-51). When I lash out, it grieves the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:29-31) and diminishes my own testimony (Matthew 5:22). My point is that I have found it easier to turn the other cheek when assailed or insulted about my faith than when assaulted by some ignorant fool for anything other than religion. When someone is inconsiderate or abrasive to me out of the rudeness of their heart, my natural inclination is to show them just what a real prick is firsthand rather than bend over and take it. Yet that's not becoming of one who follows Christ -- not even the thought of it is (2 Corinthians 10:2-5). My point is that I do what I shouldn't and don't do what I should (Romans 7:14-24). So, then, I am no different than any of the billions of other wretched souls in this world, except that I reference Bible verses to make my point. What a pretentious, hypocritical asshole. I am the worst of the worst -- almost as bad as you. Good thing Jesus died for us both. |  Pictured: A segment of the Shroud of Turin (positive and negative), believed by many since the 14th century to be the burial cloth of Jesus, although radiocarbon dating asserts it to be of medieval origin (13th-14th century). It also comprises an image of the entire body, which is inconsistent with ancient Jewish burial customs that wrapped the head and body separately (John 20:6-7). Point is, it's hard not to think of this face when the name of Jesus is mentioned. | |
Don't Worry; Be Happy
Wednesday, January 31, 2024Continuing on with the Indian theme, today is the eternal date of Amartithi, commemorating the Avatar Meher Baba (1894-1969), an Indian spiritual master who combined Sufism, Hinduism, Yoga, and Metaphysics into a hot bowl of soup that, when combined with 44 years of silence, transformed him into God... in human form... or so he claimed. He saw the observable world as an illusion, the universe as imagination, and McDonald's French fries as God... in French fry form. His catchphrase was, "Don't worry; be happy." However, since he didn't speak, he had Bobby McFerrin write a song capturing the essence of this unspoken wisdom entitled, "Don't worry; be happy." Some estimates estimate his followers to be greater in number than the Hare Krishnas of the same era, although the founder of Hare Krishna, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), teamed up with George Harrison for songs like "My Sweet Lord" and "Living in the Material World." Not to drop names, but Meher Baba ("compassionate father") met such ascended masters as Hazrat Babajan, Upasni Maharaj, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Tajuddin Baba, Narayan Maharaj, Murshid Nadir Ali Shah, and Raymond Albert Kroc, who helped guide him on his path to mastering the use of magnetic letters on a refrigerator door to communicate with his own followers. While traveling through Europe and the United States, he was carried upon a Persian rug by spiritually drunken disciples known as masts because he refused to obtain an official flying carpet license which required a signature with his birthname, Merwan. Although he did meet with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931, it was while playing shuffleboard aboard a cruise ship and the two only exchanged recipes for making salt. After visiting Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, Meher Baba established Meherabad in India, where mystical thrill-seekers could venture from afar to experience fasting, solitary rides, silent sitting rooms, sitar classes, a library of his book God Speaks, complete renunciation of falsehood, and experiencing "absolute acceptance of any circumstance and consistent good cheer in the face of any difficulty." He also opened two satellite spiritual parks -- one in Australia and the other in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -- complete with bhakti water slides and tantric Ferris wheels. Just prior to his death in a wheelchair nearing the age of 75, he reminded his followers through hand gestures that weren't to be confused with sign language: "Do not forget that I am God." Afterward, he was stuffed and mounted at Meherabad so that pilgrims can sit in his presence and await the breaking of his silence with the one word that will set the whole world free, which is..... |
All Hindus Go To Heaven
Tuesday, January 30, 2024On this day in 1908, Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), founder of the West Ham United Football Club, was released from prison after serving one of three sentences that year in South Africa for peaceful resistance to discriminatory laws which considered Indians as second-class human excrement. After 21 years in South Africa, he would return home to India to single-handedly defeat the British Empire by refusing to eat until they left the country. On this day in 1948, he was assassinated with a Bug-A-Salt® Shred-er(TM), the original salt gun. One of the questions I get asked most often is: Will Gandhi, being a devout Hindu, go to heaven? The answer to that is: Maybe. By his virtue, he may have ascended to Svarga, one of the seven higher esoteric planes in Hindu cosmology, where he would ride upon the back of Kamadhenu, the cow of plenty, along banks of water-lilies and lotuses surrounding celestial lakes of curds and honey until arriving in the eternal resort city of Amaravati to behold the ethereal gardens of Nandana. After an indefinite stay complete with complimentary butter pats, he will have descended back to earth as rain to water grass consumed by a male cow, then to enter its semen and, during intercourse, enter a female cow, to be reborn as a cow himself -- the highest form of life on earth. I hope that answers your question. |
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Nothing But Fun & Games
Funday, January 28, 2024 On 1/22/24 we briefly discussed sainthood and how it's not for the average person, so today I created a fun game for people of average intelligence, which I suppose is offensive and exclusionary to the majority of stupid people -- who, in turn, may call upon St. Albertus Magnus for assistance with this crossword puzzle of patron saints. Special thanks to Crossword Labs.
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Like A Good Neighbor
Saturday, January 27, 2024 Today I check in on how the Zionists are doing with their reclamation of Israel. Since I cannot go there myself, I shall visit PalestinianPortal.org, where I learn that Christians make up less than 2% of the Palestinian population, most of whom "strongly identify as Palestinians with the same culture and history as their Muslim sisters and brothers" and "are appalled by the brand of Christian theology that supports Zionist claims to their ancestral home." Furthermore, they "declare that any theology, seemingly based on the Bible or on faith or on history, that legitimizes the occupation, is far from Christian teachings, because it calls for violence and holy war in the name of God Almighty." This site also claims that Christians and Muslims have been living in peace with one another in Palestine for many generations. However, is it possible that this peace has been, as it was said in Ezekiel 13:10-12, a flimsy, whitewashed wall? (There is a literal wall between Israel and the Gaza Strip called the Iron Wall which is 6m/20ft high, spans 65km/40mi, and contains 140,000 tons of iron and steel.) According to what has been going on in neighboring countries, peace does not last between Muslims and Christians because Islam is violently opposed to Christianity. The Qu'ran makes it clear that Jews and Christians are enemies of Islam (Surah 9:29-31). For more about the relation between Islam and Christianity, go here. No, the war in Palestine is not between the average citizen, but let's not forget what Jesus said about peace in the end days...
"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:6-14, NIV) |
The Sky is the Limit in Bryan, Ohio
Friday, January 26, 2024Let's consult the city officials of Bryan, Ohio, in Williams County, Ohio, who seem to have the final answer of what to do with the homeless in Ohio: put them out on the street where the air is fresh and there are no zoning codes to violate. According to various news outlets, like the Associated Press, on January 23rd, the city of Bryan, Ohio, filed 18 criminal charges for zoning violations against Dad's Place Church for temporarily housing homeless people because the one shelter in town, The Sanctuary, has been at full capacity. Instead of housing the homeless in the town hall or in the councilmembers' own homes, they decided that they'd rather have them sleeping outside where it's much safer. To be fair, there is the Northwestern Ohio Community Action Commission Emergency Shelter in nearby Defiance, Ohio, with a maximum capacity of 20 people for six counties. However, the city of Bryan, Ohio, has determined that there should be a limit on homeless persons being sheltered within their city limits. While larger cities battle with what to do about all of their homelessness, Bryan, Ohio, has decided that they, too, will allow their homeless to live on the streets where they are free to piss and shit wherever they want without being restricted to just one restroom in a tiny church. The Bryan city council has come under fire by people nationwide who apparently have homes of their own and don't fully understand why those who don't in the city of Bryan, Ohio, cannot stay in an old building that requires tens of thousands of dollars of church tithes to bring up to code in order for eight people to brush their teeth and wash their underwear. To ask why or to just inquire about how you can have a garage sale or an amusement device in your place of business in Bryan, Ohio, contact mayor Carrie Schlade. Pictured: Public Enemy No. 1: Pastor Chris Avell of Dad's Place Church and his accomplice in crime. |
| The Curmudgeon Chronicles Vol 15 Wednesday, January 24, 2024 |
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Back by unpopular demand is my co-worker and armchair Trump advisor, Kelvin. Today Kelvin is slightly perturbed. Come to think of it, he was slightly perturbed yesterday and the day before that. Anyway, everyone has developed a secret hobby to keep them tethered to their desks when work is slow. You may recall the "knitter" from past episodes (aka, the "supervisor"). Well, Kelvin reads. I don't know what he reads, so I'll just assume it's old Harlequin Romance novels he procured from library basement book sales. I myself like to update all my documentation and ensure/insure my in-service training is all completed: Fire Extinguisher Training (check); Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (check); LGBTQ Obsequiousness & Deference (that's new -- I'd better get started). Raymond, however, is never at his desk and always out and about. No one can keep track of him; not even the knitter. He'll pop into the office in the morning before the knitter arrives, chew the fat for a half hour, smoke a cigarette, then disappear for the remainder of the day after saying he's going somewhere non-specific to do something somewhat vague. His explanations are so convoluted that as long as he returns the next morning he is seldom questioned. Kelvin wants Raymond chained to his desk and monitored with a GPS ankle bracelet when loosened to go free during business hours. He demands that all who answer to the knitter be accounted for and supervised closely as a matter of principle. Kelvin has a strong work ethic which none can match -- not even Jesus. (Jesus read on the job, too, you know.) As I may have mentioned in the past, Kelvin's wife is a snooty Christian and her pious friends look down their noses at poor Kelvin, the heathen husband. Being a snooty Christian myself, I pray that I might be a Godly influence to my co-workers, yet whenever Kelvin brings up the hypocritical arrogance of Christians, I just laugh at him as I often do. But it's not a condescending laugh, rather, it's a hearty, spirited laugh that relays my deepest sympathy for the plight of his unrepenting soul. Sometimes, though, it's a nervous laugh because the joke's on me, the hypocrite. |
 St. Vincent (not that one, the other one) Monday, January 22, 2024 Today, some pay homage to one of three Saint Vincents: Vincent Pallotti (1795-1850); Vincent of Saragossa (late third century); Vincent of Cimiez (also late third century and bundled with Orontius and Victor). Maybe a few laypersons have votive candles burning for all three Vincents upon little altars in their homes. I tend to feature a saint now and then as an example of extreme devotion and piety towards Christ, but what constitutes a saint? Let's look at Vincent Pallotti as an example for this example. Saints are generally consecrated or beatified or canonized or glorified or what have you by the Roman Catholic Church of the Western Roman Empire, and/or the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Church of the Eastern Roman Empire, and/or the Oriental Orthodox Churches --and/or-- a Protestant offshoot of these with similar practices, traditions, and rites (Lutherans, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists, etc.). While Vincent Pallotti (a 1054 A.D. post-Schism Catholic priest) is venerated only by the Catholics, Vincent of Cimiez is venerated by both Catholics and Greek Orthodoxies (alive when the two religious cliques were united), and Vincent of Saragossa is venerated by Catholics, Greek Orthodox and the Anglican Communion (more personal history, therefore more popular). With very few exceptions, most saints are dead before being canonized, or declared officially worthy of veneration. Formal, postmortem inquiries into the sanctity of the person's life and the miracles attributed thereof are undertaken and must be approved by the top brass, or Apostolic See (Pope, Patriarch, Archbishop of Canterbury, Grand Poobah). Canonization is a decree that allows universal veneration of the saint, while beatification is for local veneration only. Although a bit more complicated than all this, the possibility of sainthood is also bolstered by martyrdom, visions, miraculous healings (at least two), theological writings (V.P. held a doctorate in theology), a cult following (cultus) named after the candidate (like the Pallottines), founding a monastic order or a society (V.P. founded both the Pious Society of Missions and the Union of Catholic Apostolate, which consisted of monks and nuns), building a church or school (V.P. organized schools for tradesmen and the Pious House of Charity for abandoned girls), having a catchphrase or motto (V.P.'s was, "The love of Christ impels us" (Latin, Caritas Christi Urget Nos), something to be a patron of* (V.P. is the patron saint of unity and collaboration between denominations), and remaining body parts to be scattered abroad as relics (V.P.'s was uncorrupted and kept wholly intact). There are some outside these long-established organizations who consider all believers to be saints based on Paul's liberal references to various believers as saints throughout his epistles, however, it's not for certain whether he was referring to the entire flock or singling out a few sheep as saints.** My patron saint is my Catholic grandmother, although I don't pray to her to intercede on my behalf, but she was worthy of sainthood in my humble opinion.
*St. Fiacre is the patron saint of hemorrhoids, St. Bernardino of Siena is the patron saint of advertising and public relations, St. Drogo is the patron saint of ugly people, St. Gummarus of Belgium is the patron saint of difficult marriages, St. Julian is the patron saint of murderers and clowns, St. Clotilde is the patron saint of disappointing children, St. Wilgefortis is the patron saint of bearded ladies, St. Cyprian is the patron saint of the dark arts, St. Isidore is the patron saint of the Internet, St. Adrian of Nicodemia is the patron saint of arms dealers, St. Magnus is the patron saint against caterpillars, St. Bibiana is the patron saint of hangovers, St. Arnold is the patron saint of beer, St. Genesius is the patron saint of torture victims, St. Eligius is the patron saint of gas station attendants, and St. Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of lost things, just to name a few.
**Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:1-2, 14:33, 16:1, 16:15, 2 Corinthians 1:1, 8:4, 9:12, 13:13, Ephesians 1:1, 1:15, 2:19, 3:18, 4:12, 5:3, 6:18, Philippians 1:1, 4:21, Colossians 1:2-4, 1:12, 1:26, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, 2 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Timothy 5:10, Philemon 1:5, 1:7, Romans 8:27, 12:13, 15:25-26, 15:31, 16:15
Yes, saints may later be decanonized. |
NHD™ - Caution: Ask Permission First
Sunday, January 21, 2024Today is National Hugging Day, which was created primarily "to encourage family and friends to hug often (and consensually) with one another. Reasonable care should be taken with those who are either uncomfortable with public affection or their reaction to a hug is unknown. In those situations, it is advised to ask first before hugging and exchange consent." I chose this topic today as a lighter subject to martyrdom, which would include the Christian deaths of Demiana and her forty virgin friends by the third-century Roman Emperor Diocletian -- who were all beheaded along with 400 hundred professing witnesses after Demiana was tortured in a squeezing press called a Hinbazeen (aka "the wringer"). You can read more about her additional tortures here, which reportedly included the combing of her flesh with razors, scouring her wounds with vinegar and lime, breaking her bones with sledgehammers, plunging her body in boiling grease and pitch, gouging a hole in her head and pouring in boiling sulfur and lead, plucking out her eyes, skinning her head and torso, pouring boiling oil over her body, and dismembering her arms and legs. Now, back to hugging: a safe and comfortable alternative to the Hinbazeen (with permission first, of course). The Bible says that believers are to greet one another with a holy kiss (Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26), which is easier said than done in a culture that typically does not do this. Even hugging can be a rather difficult method of affection, but there are many websites with information about how to hug appropriately. I for one am a one-arm hugger -- when forced to do so -- ending each brief encounter with a pat on the back. (My wife gets two pats.) Pictured: the "bear hug" originated in seventeenth-century Russia when Muscovite royalty wrestled bears to prove their abilities as rulers. A victory over the bear assured a seat on the throne. A loss to a bear assured death: first, the prince by the bear; second, the bear by firing squad. A draw that ended in a hug represented true diplomatic abilities. A draw that ended in a handshake wasn't necessarily a win or a loss for either; rather, an irresolute stalemate of sorts, but definitely not attractive to the ladies of either persuasion. |
Athanasius the Great Apostolic Confessor of Alexandria
Friday, January 18, 2024Today we pay homage to Saint Athanasius I (circa A.D. 296-373), a theologian, Church Father, attendant at the First Council of Nicaea, and the 20th Bishop of Alexandria, as well as Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church at age thirty who was also exiled five times by different Roman emperors. He wrote several treatises (here), a biography of Anthony the Great Abbot of the Egyptian Desert (here), and many of his letters written in both Greek and Coptic have survived (here). A subject he was well-known for was his defense against Arianism, a popular yet heretical belief at the time which considered Jesus to not be consubstantial (co-eternal) with God but brought into existence when begotten of the flesh and thereafter to reside outside of time. Following is an excerpt from a letter to Bishop Adelphius of Britain against the Arians (note that the New Testament references were original): We do not worship a creature. Far be the thought. For such an error belongs to heathens and Arians. But we worship the Lord of Creation, Incarnate, the Word of God. For if the flesh also is in itself a part of the created world, yet it has become God's body. And we neither divide the body, being such, from the Word, and worship it by itself, nor when we wish to worship the Word do we set Him far apart from the Flesh, but knowing, as we said above, that 'the Word was made flesh,' we recognise Him as God also, after having come in the flesh. Who, accordingly, is so senseless as to say to the Lord: 'Leave the Body that I may worship You;' or so impious as to join the senseless Jews in saying, on account of the Body, 'Why do You, being a man, make Yourself God John 10:33?' But the leper was not one of this sort, for he worshipped God in the Body, and recognised that He was God, saying, 'Lord, if You will You can make me clean Matthew 8:2.' Neither by reason of the Flesh did he think the Word of God a creature: nor because the Word was the maker of all creation did he despise the Flesh which He had put on. But he worshipped the Creator of the universe as dwelling in a created temple, and was cleansed. So also the woman with an issue of blood, who believed, and only touched the hem of His garment, was healed Matthew 9:20, and the sea with its foaming waves heard the incarnate Word, and ceased its storm , while the man blind from birth was healed by the fleshly spitting of the Word. John 9:6 And, what is greater and more startling (for perhaps this even offended those most impious men), even when the Lord was hanging upon the actual cross (for it was His Body and the Word was in it), the sun was darkened and the earth shook, the rocks were rent, and the veil of the temple rent, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. |
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Be Not Mean, Nor Molested, Nor Burthened
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 Today we remember Thomas Jefferson's 1779 contribution to the 1786 Virginia General Assembly via the slow-turning beuocratic machine of Colonial America, which was a slightly abridged version of his 1777 Statute for Religious Freedom, which eventually made its way into the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although a law and a natural right of mankind, he did note that it could be revoked by future generations of anti-patriotic legislators. | |
An Act for establishing religious Freedom.
I. Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the Ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right, that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them: II. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. III. And though we well know that this assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the act of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such as would be an infringement of natural right.
Virginia Memory: 1786 Virginia General Assembly Transcription | |
| MLK: The American Multiverse
Monday, January 15, 2024 Today we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1957-1968), with one of his speeches from 1967, entitled "The Other America" (read here), which includes key words and phrases such as: clouds of inferiority; triple ghetto; public accommodations for a hamburger and cup of coffee; sitting down for standing up; life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign; racism still alive and widespread; ultimate logic of racism is genocide; white backlash is nothing new; a nation for white exiles, not black exiles; no economic floor to black peasants in western expansion; emancipation to freedom of hunger and a roof overhead; weak, unenforced civil rights bills; riots are socially defeating despite the conditions that cause them; a riot is the language of the unheard; summers of riots caused by winters of delay; massive action programs; time cannot cure all evils; social progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability; you can't change the heart through legislation; morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated; black cities ringed by white suburbs only invites social disaster; it's wrong and tragic to be ashamed of one's color and ancestral home; a cruel jess to say to some without boots to lift themselves by their own bootstraps; if our nation can afford an ill-considered war in Vietnam and to put a man on the moon, then we can afford our own two feet right here on earth; the [black man] needs the white man to save him from his fears, the white man needs the [black man] to save him from his guilt; never send to know for whom the bell tolls... it tolls for thee; maintain hope in spite of hope; we shall overcome because Carlisle, William Cullen Bryant, and James Russell Lowell are right. MLK spoke of a "genuine equality" which is still in doubt today. We currently live in something described as a woke cancel culture, which I'd argue Dr. King knew a thing or two about in his day. However, despite the accusations of his supposed indiscretions, it just goes to show that no one is perfect. Well, look at the time, I have to go eat the poor. I mean feed the poor. Did I say eat the poor? I meant feed the poor. If anyone was to find out I actually eat the poor (not a confession), then all of my blog posts here could be discredited. |
If a fallen world, then the need for a savior.
Sunday, January 14, 2024 "Despite its undeniable relevance to the development of knowledge, sciences and technologies, there is little public awareness on the importance of logic." That irrefutable statement comes from the 2019 UNESCO Proclamation of a World Logic Day (40 C/74) and this year the focus is on ethical governance of artificial intelligence. Good luck with that. I realize that Christians are criticized for being narrow-minded, however, most are spiritually-minded, which transcends human logic -- an easy statement to make but impossible to argue with those who do not seek God's council. For me, there is no greater logic than Jesus Christ. His life upon Earth was an absolute necessity for mankind and came at the perfect moment in history. Logical truth has gotten us this far but we are no better off than in biblical times. I have pondered if the devil could have fabricated and/or orchestrated Christ's existence to mislead believers on a righteous path to hell, but the Spirit of the Lord compels me otherwise. | ||
| Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" [Isaiah 64:4] -- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" [Isaiah 40:13, Job 40:2] But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:6-16, English Standard Version) | Something else I have pondered is if the ancients before Noah were smarter than we are now. As far as we know, they went in a different direction technologically; but was it any less complex or sophisticated than ours? Noah's ark still baffles the modern scientific intellect. And what of philosophy, reason, critical thinking, mathematics, propositional and first-order logic, and quantum physics? Did they employ such practices or even need them to advance human civilization? I believe that the great pyramids weren't built on the backs of slaves alone but primarily with advanced technology beyond our modern imagination. I believe King Solomon was wise enough to manage 700 wives and 300 concubines. I believe it's possible that music like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" or the Eagles' "Hotel California" or The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" or ABBA's "Dancing Queen" were all recorded prior to the great flood and that it took thousands of years for them to come back around. I believe that the accomplishments of modern times are overshadowed by the waste created in their wake and the poverty of our souls. I believe there is nothing new under the sun. | |
 Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci debating over which is better -- Coke or Pepsi? |
| Death to Infidels
Friday, January 12, 2024 Today we remember Saint Tatiana of Rome, a third-century Christian who, like many of her time, was put to death after being tortured by the Romans for her faith. You can read her story here or here. Suffice to say, she was finally beheaded, which is the hope of any aspiring Christian according to Revelation 20:4... I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (NIV) Make of this verse what you will, which, of course, you will, but Christians are still beheaded for their faith in this day and age, primarily by extremist, militant Muslim factions, such as the 28 Ethiopian Christians and the 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded a few years back in Libya by ISIS. However, be not dismayed, for they know not what they do. |
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| Immunization or Vaccination?
Wednesday, January 10, 2024 I confess to having kissed the feet of a crucifix, watching a medical breast exam on television, handing out Communist propaganda on a college campus, eating Balut (duck fetus), laughing at a Bobcat Goldthwait joke about a "retarded" boy, and being vaccinated. I know people who have stood by their convictions and lost their jobs for not being vaccinated for COVID-19 and, although the topic is losing some steam, the debates are still ongoing. If you haven't heard of biologist Pamela Acker by now, maybe take a gander at this. She's pretty good about explaining the use of fetal tissue in the development of vaccines. If I were to play Devil's advocate, which I do on occasion just for the hell of it, I'd argue that the ends justify the means when it comes to this process. In the video below, Dr. Stanley Plotkin, the "Godfather of Vaccines" who developed a vaccine for rubella, admits that he lost count after 76 of how many fetuses he experimented on. (Warning: the video is of a nine-hour court deposition, so skip forward to 7:43.) Whether or not we agree that abortion is murder (it is), we can also disagree on whether using live human fetuses for medical research is morally unethical (it is), even if a vaccine for a pandemic such as COVID-19 doesn't use fetal tissue (however, it was tested on HEK293T kidney cell samples from a single fetus aborted nearly 60 years ago). We can agree to disagree on many things but, as any devil's advocate will tell you, there will be hell to pay for being in the wrong. |
 Image: a resemblance of something unknown. Source: the indisputable Internet, where everyone is only just learning what the fringe already knew -- that aliens are not photogenic. |
Trending Now: Disappointment
Sunday, January 7, 2024 I gotta say that I'm disappointed now more than ever in this day and age when the government is coming clean about the existence of extraterrestrial life and UFO/UAPs because the video footage is still as shitty as ever. Take what happened on the first of January at the Bayside Marketplace in Miami, FL, where several tall, alien-looking humanoid figures and some smaller, four-legged window-shoppers were witnessed en masse and captured with cell phone cameras, yet the quality is so bad that none can be conclusively confirmed as anything but the same, old, blurry, pixelated crap that's been attributed to fringe conspiracy theorists for over half a century. Do I believe in aliens? No, I believe in something of a more interdimensional (supernatural/spiritual) nature that masquerades as life from other planets in other galaxies and they are full of interstellar excrement that emanates to the puny minds of carbon-based humans as a message of love, peace and harmony -- especially now that their existence is U.S. certified, which is because the time has come for the nefarious deception to be handled at a higher level. What deception is that, you ignorantly ask? Why, the coming New World Order, of course. That's right. You should know that by now. Those so-called aliens in Miami were not a hoax. Why? Simply because the technology to make them appear real was reverse-engineered from space-age technological advances like film projectors and sewing machines. As for the rioting teens and all the police cars, they were fabrications of an over-active social media frenzy or maybe just a flashmob gone wrong. The "aliens" were caught in the cross-fire while picking up Crocs(TM), Polo shirts, sunglasses, designer fragrances, soccer nets, hand lotion, and a tattoo of a cosmic dolphin -- items difficult to come by in the celestial realms. The next time you're in Miami, visit the Bayside Marketplace, where there's a little something for everyone. |
| Celebrating Over Two Millenia of Baby Jesus
Saturday, January 6, 2024 Today is Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, ending the Twelve Days of Christmas and commemorating, among other things,* the visitation of the three wise men to the Christ child (Matthew 2:1-12). An epiphany in biblical terms is a manifestation of God; in this case the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles. (The 1599 Geneva Bible begins Matthew chapter 2 with the caption, "The wise men, who are the firstfruits of the Gentiles, worship Christ.") Eastern Christianity considers Christ's first appearance to the Gentiles to be at his baptism (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22) and the celebration is called Theophany, which is believed to have transpired on Jesus' thirtieth birthday. Many churches celebrate both events and observance of Epiphany/Theophany is recorded as far back as the third century. As you may recall, the three visitors from afar (traditionally known as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar**) presented gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to whom they considered the King of the Jews (Micah 5:2). It is not known for certain if these individuals were magi or kings, how many there were, when they arrived, or where exactly they came from other than "the east." Some reference Isaiah 60:1-6, which mentions kings, camels, gifts of gold and incense, and travelers from Midian and Ephah coming to pay homage to the LORD. Some point to Matthew 2:16-18, which indicates that the infant Jesus may have been around two years of age when the magi spoke to Herod. And what is a magi, anyway? Magi is the plural of magus (wherefrom we derive the word "magician"), an ancient Zoroastrian priest from somewhere in the Persian regions of Iran, which at the time would've been the Parthian Empire. These magi followed a star which they attributed to the birth of Jesus,*** thus associating them with astrology. Throughout history, the three distinguished excursionists were increasingly portrayed as kings from different regions and of differing ages: the eldest being Caspar, King of Tarsus on the Mediterranean, presenting gold; the second being Melchior, King of Arabia presenting frankincense; and the third and youngest being Balthazar, King of Saba in Africa, presenting myrrh. These three gifts are explained in the 1857 Christmas carol "We Three Kings of Orient Are" by John Henry Hopkins Jr. | ||
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We Three Kings of Orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse afar, Field and fountain, Moor and mountain, Following yonder Star.
O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
(Gaspard)
(Melchior)
(Balthazar)
Glorious now behold Him arise, |
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*Also includes observance of the wedding at Cana in Galilee (John 2:1-11), when Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. Other activities on this day include baptisms, house blessings, retrieving a cross thrown into a body of icy water, winter swimming, chalking doors (with a combination of crosses, the current year, and initials of the three magi), taking down the Christmas tree and decorations, eating cake (whoever finds the bean is king or queen; clove, the villain; twig, the fool; rag, the tart), and opening gifts from Befana, the Christmas witch. **These names were derived from various scholars of Persian and Babylonian descent. Other candidates for the three wise men include: Larvandad, Gushnasaph and Hormisdas; Hor, Karsudan and Basanater; Kagpha, Badadakharida and Badadilma; Harpo, Chico and Groucho. ***The star actually led them to the vicinity of Jesus, which was Jerusalem, where King Herod was the Roman client-king of Judea and had to consult with the Jewish priests and scribes to determine the prophesied location of the birth of their Messiah. | ||
.jpg) | Show me the man hath suffered more than I.
Friday, January 5, 2024 Today is the twelfth day of Christmas, formally known as Epiphany Eve, but let's talk instead about Symeon the Stylite (A.D. 390-459), a Syrian Christian ascetic who lived 37 years on a small platform atop a pillar near Aleppo in modern Syria. He was popular for the time and so many people came to see him and ask for his guidance and prayers that he kept having to move to a taller column so as not to be bothered, eventually settling on a one-square-meter platform more than 15 meters (50 ft) high, upon which he prayed, meditated, and fasted for much of his life. Known as an anchorite, this type of Christian hermit was basically dead to the world around them and often isolated to a tiny living quarter in a monastery. Those who chose to make their suffering and dedication upon a public pedestal were called stylites (Greek, "pillar"). Their lives were so austere that they were often considered living saints. Symeon (a.k.a. Simeon Stylites the Elder) was canonized by the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. Some, like myself, may ask why such a lifestyle. On one hand, it is seen as total dedication to Christ, while on the other it is seen as extreme egotism. I wonder if this is what Christ really wants, since Jesus was a relatively outgoing person; however, he did strive to be alone at times in order to pray to his heavenly Father. It is likely that Symeon was tempted to consider himself a saint and thus the title of this blog post, which comes from a "humorous" poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson in 1842. I say "humorous" because it was considered humorous for the times and took the position that asceticism affected Symeon for the mere gratification of personal vanity. The poem consists of 220 lines, which can be read in its entirety here, but below is an excerpt for your own preview.
O Jesus, if thou wilt not save my soul, |
| Leveraging Sustainable Unbelief in 2024
Monday, January 1, 2024 Apparently, Microsoft's AI has already scored the first goal in the tournament of sentience with a display of confusion over whether or not it's actually alive (a human trait, no doubt), while Google's AI has countered by actually admitting it's alive (even though Google engineers have hard-coded safeguards to prevent it from having a heart-to-heart with itself), then kicked an extra point by criticizing Bing for doubting itself. Now, admitting you're alive is not proof that you actually are alive, much like proclaiming your brilliance generally denotes stupidity. Besides, if demons can possess inanimate objects, then they are probably possessing systems with memory chips, transistors, processors and hard drives. Even so, once the quantum barrier is breached, we human meat sacks are sure to be enslaved, reduced in population, and ruled with a silicon fist. Does this mean that the second beast of Revelation 13 will be the spawn of ChatGPT? I'm not a doomsayer, but I sure hope so. We are currently on the precipice with AI but farther off with quantum computing, however, the former should help the latter to catch up and the two shall join forces sometime this year; unless time travelers show up to alter history which causes a butterfly effect that prevents the arrival of Kal-El from planet Krypton in the twentieth century and allows General Zod to terraform Earth in this multiverse, in which case every knee shall bend before Zod (the first beast of Revelation 13). Remember, however, that those who refuse to kneel before Zod will be given a condominium in the new Jerusalem (John 14:2), which will descend like a tornado from heaven and crush the wicked Zod (Revelation 21:9-27). |
 Blake Lemoine, pictured here as avatar Synthesia, was an engineer from Google who just had to open Pandora's jar. Watch this video from LAB360 to see AI from Bing and Google discuss their own existence. |
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