Monday, August 31
Will You Be Damned For Refusing To Allow Religious Functionaries To Select Your Mate?
Still won't do you any good if church folk don't give a flip you exist either.
Sounds like a scam if love only comes to those deemed as having acceptable character according to the COMMUNITY.
Friday, August 28
"Christian Century" Selective In Pointing Out Historical Shortcomings
The editorial in the July 2025 edition of Christian Century is titled “Patriots: The church is called to be a loving critic, not a national cheerleader” by that publication's editor/publisher who holds that position in good measure because his daddy Martin held it previously.
In the opening of the essay, this particular Marty compares the United States and the celebration of Independence Day with Nazism and the ceremonial pomp he equates with both regimes in his mind.
Peter Marty begins this analogy by referencing a plaque hung on the gatehouse of the Buchenwald concentration camp brandished with the phrase “My country, right or wrong.” The opening paragraph concludes with the observation, “An uncritical love of country held a warm appeal to the Nazis. Authoritarian governments thrive on the people's unquestioning obedience, and uncritical patriotism usually follows.”
Yet it is not enough for the Marty lad to render such judgments against a presidential administration not to his liking.
To emphasize that his comparisons between Nazism and traditional American patriotism are quite deliberate and not accidental verbal over-exuberance, Marty invokes an additional verbal flourish in the sentence, “The all-night blitzkrieg of neighborhood fireworks is not for me.”
The entire essay pretty much consists of Marty virtue signaling just how much more he values reflective history resulting in a stifling sense of White guilt than hayseeds that rather spend the Fourth of July enjoying their country instead of flagellating themselves over what are the historical shortcomings of their genetic forbearers.
As such, it is not out of line to assume that Marty as the progeny of good Midwestern Lutheran stock and thus most likely of German lineage himself knows that the term “blitzkrieg” translates from that particular tongue into English as “lightening war”. The term gained a degree of infamy when invoked to describe the spread of Germany's overwhelming attacks during the early days of World War II.
As to why Rev. Marty believes it is his homiletical responsibility as a pastor to assume the role of wet blanket and scold in regards to celebrating civic commemorations, he writes, “If we're open to ...a constructive patriotism ... then we should know these injustices well.” He is referring to the sorts of events, of course, that no one alive today directly experienced or themselves bear responsibility for by any legal standard.
For example, in his liturgy of grievances, Marty references a book on voter suppression, a Frederick Douglas address from 1852 titled “What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July”, and a dairy entry by a Presbyterian missionary venting over President Andrew Johnson (a Democrat by the way) ordering the Cherokees off their land.
But aren't those finding themselves in settings such as schools, corporate workplaces, and an increasing number of churches already subjected to such mandatory chastisement especially during the month of February when it's scheduled on the calendar? What makes the most ardent virtue signalers think most Americans want another round of it at a time not agreed to by the complexities of civic temporal convention?
If Marty and those under his editorialship at the Christian Century want to be sticklers having history be an account of what actually happened rather than an ossified glorification of how the nation would nostalgically liked things to have been, does he intend to turn the resources of the venerable media institution under his guidance to expose the assorted shortcomings of the causes and personages that the publication has supported over the years and decades?
For example, despite the power of the Martin Luther King “I Have A Dream” Speech, does Christian Century in the name of historical accuracy intend to exhibit the moral strength necessary to examine the questionable Marxist ties King might have had through a number of associates or that he certainly wasn't husband of the year material as a result of his documented marital infidelities? To be honest, King wasn't even really that orthodox of a Christan given the number of fundamental doctrines he denied such as the Virgin Birth, the Bodily Resurrection of Christ, and even Jesus' divinity.
Over the course of the past decade or so, numerous articles have appeared in the pages of assorted publications of the leftwing Social Gospel mindset such as Sojourners and even Christian Century extolling the virtue of agitation front groups such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
In an 11/17/2011 column, Jim Wallis did far more than praise the ideology and activism of these sorts of organizations. In the piece titled “A Church Sanctuary For The Occupy Movement”, he demanded that congregations across America open their doors to these militant subversives.
However, this outreach was not part of some evangelization strategy in the hopes of confronting the Occupy Movement about the errors of that protest movement founded on an underlying socialist ideology manifesting in acts of vandalism. Rather the invitation called for by Wallis was one of pandering, capitulation, and solidarity. For instead of verbally reaming the Occupy Movement for their antics or even dispassionately detailing the errors of this subversive ideology in a rational manner, Wallis calls upon the congregations of his ilk to provide these activists with sympathetic succor.
Wallis writes, “If our mayors and police departments are making the Occupiers feel unwelcome, why don't we welcome them to stay on our church property if they need some place to go? Open our church basements and parish halls as safe places to sleep --- shelter and sanctuary as cold weather descends upon many of our cities.”
Maybe these activists brought into these houses of worship almost Trojan Horse style can do the exact same thing to the sanctuaries of these progressive religionists that a number of these hooligans did to the side of police cars. Namely pull down their pants, relax their sphincters, and smear their fecal slurry all over property that does not belong to them.
Effetes such as Peter Marty will recoil in horror at subjecting their genteel sensibilities to such a disturbing image. Yet that is mild compared to those these same progressives want to subject the minds of school children to in regards to raunchy library books.
In his column, the young Marty insists that what he is calling for is an embrace of history as it actually transpired rather than the Hallmark greeting card of how we would have liked it to have been. This sensitive thinker insists upon highlighting those sorts of events that spoil the good times and warm feelings inherent to most celebratory civic commemorations. As such, Christian Century ought to rank foremost among the publications eager to expose the profound moral and civilizational shortcomings of organized leftwing protest movements.
By Frederick Meekins
Wednesday, August 26
Tuesday, August 25
Monday, August 24
What Historians Should Know About Classical Education
Interesting how these academics that disparage this pedagogy for lack of factual accuracy or its bias in favor of a Eurocentric epistemology rank among a profession that downplays the importance of factual accuracy or even the existence of eternal verities when it comes to advancing their own preferred agendas.
Secularist historians have for decades insisted it is not their place to make moral judgements.
As such, who are they to dictate as to how those outside of this profession that analyzes the past teach virtue —- something more the domain philosophers and theologians —- to the youth under the guidance of parents and educators deciding upon this instructional approach?
Saturday, August 22
Wednesday, August 19
Vatican, Correct Thyself
Maybe if the ONE TRUE CHURCH had stuck with what had been delivered once to the saints rather than making much of it up as the organization went along, such would not have been the case of which this meme complains.
The basic teachings of Protestantism are a lot less man made than things such as clerical celibacy, indulgences, and bodily assumptions.
Think You Are Called To Ministry?
This video featured an image captioned “We Don’t Hire Lone Rangers”.
Maybe not.
But they really can’t prevent you from posting content and gaining an audience that way if you are not a groupish sort of individual.
If they won’t let you on the inside, subvert them where you can from the outside.
Too much indoctrination that one has to be dependent upon formalized organization in an era of systemic decentralization.
Monday, August 17
Sunday, August 16
Wednesday, August 12
Tuesday, August 11
Monday, August 10
Wednesday, August 5
Tuesday, July 14
The Performative Virtue Preening Of Cornel West's Redistributionism
Cornel West in a social media post wrote, “To my dear brother Eric Adams, my dear brother Zohran Mamdani has got it right! Based on Acts 2:45 and Acts 4:35, a call to abolish poverty and redistribute wealth downwards is a moral and spiritual matter. In this way, Karl Marx is building on a rich prophetic tradition of Jerusalem shot through the best of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”
The texts referenced by Professor West document the practice in the early church where Christians freely shared of their bounty to assist the less fortunate among their number.
According to West's interpretation, this is the source's dictum referenced by Zohran Mamdami in a tweet posted 5/27/20 reading “Each according to their need, each according to their ability.”
For supposedly being one of America's foremost public intellectuals, West's exegesis is disturbingly incomplete.
For starters, these particular scriptural texts are descriptive in that these passages detail what these particular believers did.
The actions are not extolled as binding upon all Christians in every conceivable circumstance.
While the narrative can inspire emulation, other admonitions in the same book extolled by West clarify that not everyone is obligated to respond with the same degree of eleemosynary.
If Professor West had not allowed his grandiose virtue signaling to get in the way of his study of the Scriptures, he would have encountered the account of Ananias and Saphirra.
In the anecdote of the couple struck dead not for financial avarice but rather for deliberate deception in the hopes of gaining the sort of public acclaim of which Dr. West is himself a connoisseur, the Apostle Peter explains that the proceeds raised from the sale of their land was their's to do with as they pleased so long as they did not make a spectacle.
Yet the Marxism, celebrated by West as a rudiment of divine revelation despite Marx ranking as a foremost blasphemer and his ideology being a justification for religious persecution on the part of regime's built upon his thought, does not grant any freedom like Peter the Apostle did as to whether or not the individual participates in these income redistribution campaigns.
For example, Zohran Mamdani is on the record as proposing that White neighborhoods ought to pay higher taxes than jurisdictions populated by residents of other phenotypes.
So if the form of wealth redistribution advocated by Mamdani is a Biblical one, as Dr. West assures by his accumulated knowledge in the realm of religious studies, then a Mamdani administration would have no issue with Whites refusing to comply with these punitive assessments.
It is revealing to the extent to which West advocates despotic intervention in the lives of citizens when it comes to confiscatory asset seizure in the name of religion.
Yet as a reflexive progressive, West would probably recoil in horror at the mere suggestion that the rights enjoyed by free people do not stem from the state but rather as a gift imbued by God as an inherent part of being made in the Creator's image.
Despite his considerable ballyhooing about the ethical beauty of invoking the threat of force in the name of resource redistribution in pursuit of radical egalitarianism, Professor West is as capitalist as anybody else when it comes to jockeying for his own economic advantage with the least amount of effort possible.
Something of an academic diva, Professor West is not so much about what is best for the discipline he espouses or even his students.
First and foremost, Cornel West is about what is best for Cornel West.
For example, rather than picking a single Ivy League institution and dedicating his life to it for the benefit of the student body and the expansion of human knowledge, Dr. West bounces back and forth clamoring for position and individual recognition.
Such is not idle speculation that cannot be backed up with evidence.
In a high-profile dispute with the then-president of Harvard Lawrence Summers documented by sources no less esteemed by the circles in which West attempts to ply the racial guilt from which he finances his posh lifestyle such as the New York Times and the Associated Press, the celebrity academic was accused of ditching classes and failing to produce serious scholarship in favor of more “financially lucrative” projects such as a spoken-word CD.
So apparently Dr. West thinks that he should not only be able to accumulate wealth but also keep it for himself.
It must be remembered that West is something of a preening virtue signaler in not only condemning those doing so as capitalists but also condemning those not eager to do so for violating key tenets of the Gospel message.
For it seems giving away other people's money is one of the few allegedly Biblical virtues that Professor West vocalizes any degree of enthusiasm in support of.
From texts such as Luke 16:18 and I Corinthians 7:15, those unlike Dr. West who are not educated beyond the point of wisdom and common sense come away with the impression that God is not really all that keen on most of those having gotten a divorce getting remarried while the former spouse is still alive.
After all, Malachi 2:16 informs that God hates divorce.
Yet God is also a forgiving God.
With fallen people and societies already hobbling through life as it is, nearly all but the most hardline of Christians and congregations are willing to overlook failed marriages in the lives of fellow believers so long as some harsh lessons are learned from the heartache and such souls go on to make betters lives for themselves should they find love again.
But despite his knack for education, it seems Cornel West has learned very little in this regard. For it seems this otherwise homely academic that women would otherwise recoil in revulsion from if he did not labor in a vocation that afforded him a degree of celebrity has been able to pull off five marriages interspersed between four divorces.
Among the circles in which Cornel West orbits, if one proves useful to the elites undermining sound tradition and good morals, such wanton libertinism is not frowned upon. Secularist education has often been at the forefront of encouraging the erotic exploration of almost every bodily orifice in nearly every possible permutation of titillating stimulation.
Sophisticates might posture so as to overlook shortcomings such as carnal promiscuity. However, it cannot be overlooked that a number of liaisons and concubines accuse West of abandoning the children resulting from these dalliances when much of West's public persona is predicated on his vocal concern for those marginalized and neglected as a result of what he critiques as a free market economy run amok.
Yet another common tactic to divert attention from what is the scandal of a father abandoning his children --- a number seemingly sired with women he was never married to --- is the invocation of the adage of let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
By this, it is meant that most in one way or another have led less than exemplary lives in regards to relationships, matters of the heart or even family. For these concerns rank among the most subjective aspects of all of human existence.
Though it falls woefully short of the stated public objective, unlike the vagaries of human romantic and erotic impulses, the United States tax code is alleged to operate by a logic that would leave Mr. Spock cold. One is either in compliance with a given regulation or not.
One might sympathize with the average individual found ensnared in these Byzantine regulations.
However, Cornel West is celebrated as one of the nation's keenest philosophers not only schooled at and employed by the most elite universities but (as noted in his posted social media remarks) but for possessing what might be considered prophetic insight into God's plan as to how resources accumulated by others ought to be redistributed as to how the government sees fit.
If that is such a moral profundity (the kind of thing Professor West is lavished with accolades for his ability to point out) why at one point did he owe over $500,000 in delinquent taxes?
For if Cornel West really believed that the destitute have a claim to the resources of the privileged such as himself (but a deceptive rhetorician such as himself would probably insist that such a categorization can only be applied to the White devils) wouldn't he be chomping at the bit to get things squared away with the IRS well before any deadline after which he would stand in default?
Another of the few Biblical admonishes favored by those from the leftwing of the political spectrum is “judge not, lest ye be judged”. Usually this is invoked to deflect criticism regarding any number of carnal debaucheries wallowed in by those downplaying traditional moral standards.
In the case of Professor West, perhaps his time would be better spent ensuring that his own finances are in compliance with the dictates of the revenuers rather than grandstanding in condemnation of you simply wanting to keep more of your own.
By Frederick Meekins
Thursday, July 2
Tuesday, June 30
Saturday, June 27
Sunday, June 21
Contemporary "Racism" Not Necessarily The Unpardonable Sin
Now it seems the meme bandwagon many are getting on goes something like "racism disqualifies you from being a Christian."
Yet how is this being defined? Failure to denounce White people and to advocate Marxist redistributionist reparations propaganda?
Many of the posts are directed at MAGA which despite the movement's shortcomings is not racist.
Ironic to see professed Universalists endorse this given to them being a Christian is no big deal since their schtick is that we all get to Heaven anyway.
By Frederick Meekins
Friday, June 19
Friday, June 12
Friday, May 29
The Rise Of Apologetics Influencers
This speaker looks down on the holders of Master’s degrees in Apologetics as generalists.
So there is no place for someone that is not a pastor or a professor?
Why isn’t it our role to point out how often those types are so full of it? Isn’t this attitude one of the primary reasons organized religion has pretty much lost the culture war?
Friday, May 22
Navigating Cohabiting Elderly Couples
He’s not wrong.
But I wonder how enthusiastic he’d be about the beauty of couples sacrificing for love it if that meant fewer coins slipped into the collection plate.
As an alternative, why not suggest being a committed couple that lives apart and do most activities together apart from sex?
Are You Called To Counsel?
It is God’s money as this podcaster states.
However, that does not mean that the majority of it belongs to organized religion or to distant family members that live like whoremongers, drunkards, and over all profligates either.
If I have to go to work irrespective of how blah and blue I feel, there is no reason their lazy backsides can’t either.