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For those unfamiliar with William Shakespeare’s masterpiece, King Lear is about an old British king who decides to leave his kingdom to his two older daughters. Lear’s older daughters flatter him while he repudiates and disowns his youngest daughter because she tells him the truth. Sure enough, the older daughters quickly seize their inheritance and kick their father out, leaving him to wander the countryside with his court jester. As this happens, the daughter whom he rejected works to save him despite his former behavior.
Something similar is happening with Francis, an old and distinguished monarch who has surrounded himself with shameless yes-men. These advisers are inept ideologues with ample personal baggage. They have absolutely no clue how to address any of the challenges facing today’s Christians. Sadly, Francis evidently prefers the sweet nothings of his circle to the harsh truths of men like Strickland. His circle has kept him safely insulated from reality for years now. This fact was recently revealed in his bizarre rant on priests acting like dandies.
Just as Lear and his kingdom could only be saved by the daughter he spurned, Francis and his church can only be saved by Catholics who remain loyal despite it all.
Most Catholics, if they are paying attention, can see that the Catholic left’s supposed victories will soon evaporate. They will pass away with the Boomer generation. Francis is 86, and the average cardinal is in his early 70s.
Waiting in the wings are much more conservative clergy ready to swing the ideological pendulum the other way. According to a recent report from the Catholic News Agency, “a full 85% of the youngest cohort describes itself as ‘conservative/orthodox’ or ‘very conservative/orthodox’ theologically. Only 14 percent described themselves as “middle-of-the-road.” //
Thus, for the foreseeable future, the best thing Catholics can do is to exercise the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Our king is out in the wilderness, and his evil daughters are in charge, making a mess of things. Moreover, his advanced age has not made him wise but has only caused him to double down on his folly.
I would be remiss in not providing an example of getting it right, as written by the 20th-century British minister Frederick William Pitt, and recently beautifully voiced by Rachel Wilhelm and Phil Keaggy:
The maker of the universe as man for man was made a curse
The claims of laws which He had made unto the uttermost He paid
His holy fingers made the bough which grew the thorns that crowned His brow
The nails that pierced His hands were mined in secret places He designed
He made the forests whence there sprung the tree on which His body hung
He died upon a cross of wood, yet made the hill on which it stood
The sky that darkened o’er His head by Him above the earth was spread
The sun that hid from Him its face by His decree was poised in space
The spear which spilled His precious blood was tempered in the fires of God
The grave in which His form was laid was hewn in rock His hands had made
The throne on which He now appears was His from everlasting years
But a new glory crowns His brow and every knee to Him shall bow //
There are few things more abhorrent than attempting to weaponize Christianity, or should I say, trying to use Christianity as a weapon against others. //
The true believer says “Christ is King” not as an assault against others but as an admittance of personal failure. The valid believer names Jesus as their Lord and not only their Savior. Accepting Christ’s Lordship is acknowledging the utter need for that Lordship. Even as He welcomes us into the fellowship bought at the ultimate price, we must bow before Him and follow His command to serve others, not exalt ourselves. There is no pride in being part of the Lion of Judah’s pride.
Ali has come to the realization there can be no liberalism apart from the Christian faith from which it emerged. She’s right. //
Over the weekend, Ayaan Hirsi Ali revealed in an essay at Unherd that she has become a Christian. For Christians, this is welcome and joyous news. But it’s also instructive. A former Muslim who very publicly rejected Islam and became an avowed atheist in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Ali has been speaking and writing in defense of Western civilization and liberal values for decades.
Now she has come to the conclusion that there is no way to maintain Western civilization and no way to preserve its liberal values apart from Christianity. Just as she came to discover the fundamentalist Islam of her youth was a dead end, she has also discovered the atheism she adopted in response to it is also a dead end. //
She’s also right about that but wrong to think Christianity is primarily about countering those forces or preserving a particular civilizational or political project. As great as Western civilization is, it arose as a byproduct of the Christian faith, the sole object of which is communion with Almighty God by means of salvation through Jesus Christ. Things like freedom of speech, rule of law, and human rights are fruits of the Christian faith, but they are not what Christianity is about. '//
There was a lot of discussion after 9/11 about how Islam needed its own Reformation to tame and secularize it, as Christianity had supposedly been tamed and pacified by the Protestant Reformation (never mind the century of continental war that it triggered). What the atheists promised Ali and other disillusioned Muslims was rationalism, freedom of inquiry and expression, and scientific objectivity — all of which would flourish in Muslim societies just as it had in the West, if only Muslims would set aside their backward religion and embrace the secular humanism of Western elites.
According to this theory, Christianity itself had served its purpose in the West, bestowed all its gifts, and could safely be discarded. We could live forever, drawing on its capital, which we assumed would never run out. The Islamic world needed to do likewise, and all would be well.
But something very different happened instead. It turns out, the capital was gradually spent and never replenished. Liberalism always depended for its vitality on something it cannot itself supply: the Christian faith, active and alive among the people. As the French philosopher Rémi Brague wrote back in the 1990s, “Faith produces its effects only so long as it remains faith and not calculation. We owe European civilization to people who believed in Christ, not to people who believed in Christianity.”
Ali’s conversion, which is laudable on its own (even if she doesn’t quite yet grasp the true object of her new faith), is a stark reminder that the liberal, secular West cannot survive without the Christian faith from which it emerged. Indeed, the secular elites who once promised apostate Muslims like Ali that they could have all the benefits of Christianity without Christianity itself are now abandoning the principles they once espoused.
In recent weeks, we have seen this abandonment most potently in the Red-Green alliance between the global left and the pro-Hamas crowd, who have been marching through the streets of Western cities in a show of force reminiscent of the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. The naked antisemitism of the Hamas people, together with the deafening silence of the elites of the global left, tells you everything you need to know about the durability of secular humanism.
There is no room anymore for freedom of speech, open inquiry, or rational debate among the people and institutions that once espoused these ideals. There is only the brute force of the mob. It’s easy to see this at work throughout Western society, not just on the Israel-Hamas issue.
Helsinki prosecutor Anu Mantila argued Finnish courts should ban from the internet the booklet, Rasanen’s tweet, and an audio recording of Rasanen defending Christian views. Mantila also seeks punitive fines. “Male and Female He Created Them” was published in 2004, several years before Finland adopted the antiterrorism laws now being used to prosecute the two Christians for “hate speech.”
“With the right police and prosecutor, we could expect to see similar cases crop up across Europe and in fact around the world,” noted Alliance Defending Freedom International lawyer Paul Coleman, who is assisting the Christians’ legal defense. Hate crimes laws like Finland’s are on the books in many European nations and American states and cities.
Rasanen said the most difficult part of her prosecution has been the prosecutor’s false accusations against her, including that Rasanen considers homosexuals inferior. She said that is “against my conviction” as a Christian. Christianity teaches that every human is made in God’s image and so beloved by God that He sacrificed His own Son to wash away every sin ever committed.
“We represent the common traditional classical understanding of family and sexual ethics, and now this has been labeled widely in our society and also in the established Lutheran church as something which is … not only offending and extremist but it’s also criminal,” Pohjola said.
Pohjola is the bishop of a small non-state church body that adheres to the Bible’s teachings, which Finland’s state church has in large part abandoned. The Federalist interviewed Pohjola in person in 2021, and Rasanen in person in 2022.
anon-89ic
8 days ago edited
It's not just evangelicals. One of the weird things about Israel is that you have to view it through a biblical lens or you miss the point. The IDF truly believes its hand is guided by G-d in this war, which means that no one is going to convince the government to stop what its doing, because this is blasphemy, and the Bible is full of people who got bonked for that conduct. Example: tomorrow, millions of Jews around the world will be celebrating Yigal Amir Day. November 4 is the day that Amir executed Rabin for his existential crime against the Jews. As a reminder of what happened, Rabin had succumbed to demands of the Clinton Administration to a cease fire and halt of military campaigns against the PLO, and raised a stink about proportionality and humanitarian "pauses." As a result, Amir, much like Pinchas in the Torah, rose up amongst the Jewish people and slayed Rabin. And the people rejoiced because they had been spared Rabin's ongoing crimes. How is the Biden Admin celebrating this event? By sending the Secretary of State to Israel to the Prime Minister for a cease fire and halt of military campaigns against the PLO, and raising a stink about proportionality and humanitarian "pauses." If you are Bibi, how do you react to the cluelessness of this timing? The Progressives see what Blinken is doing as "progress." The Israelis view it as "sin." If the United States can't figure this out, and figure out how to work around it, which means not trying this foolishness on Nov 4, then we are nothing more than a paper tiger here in the US while Israel remains the lion of Judah. That's why the evangelicals love Israel and the progressives do not. In the old days, this is why I advised political leaders in Washington, because Washington used to know how to listen. Today, its the bull in the china shop and consequences be damned and Amir had to the bear the burden off Clinton's sins.
To examine why this is, and also to assist in understanding why there is such astonishing contempt for Israel among today’s anti-hoi polloi, a brief history lesson. ... //
Considering all the above, it is little wonder that progressives hate Israel and Jews with such passion. Progressives believe they must despise whatever, or whoever, the other side loves. Evangelicals, i.e., conservatives, love Israel and demonstrate no bias against Jews? We must do the opposite! And so, in its zeal to disdain everyone and everything held dear by those believed inferior, progressives have revealed the fatal flaw in their reasoning. They preach love and tolerance yet exhibit neither. Instead, they are miffed to the point of madness by the notion that the God in Whom they seldom believe has deemed someone other than themselves as His elect. As Jesus Himself said to His disciples just before His arrest and crucifixion, ironically speaking of the Jews in the psalmist’s words that today find themselves used against Jews, “They hated Me without reason.” //
anon-wyrw
8 days ago
Jerry,
While I agree with your basic review of the reasons that evangelicals support Israel, I believe that the progressive opposition to Israel vigorously defending itself runs much deeper than the typical knee-jerk reaction of the progs that whatever conservatives/evangelicals are for they are against. Time and again, the progs have sided with pure evil in all of its forms but have successfully masked their true intent. The attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7 has ripped off the mask. Now the world can clearly see that the progressives stand for evil in the same way that after Nazi Germany attacked Poland the world could see what they were actually about. Progressives hate the Truth because the Truth comes from God whom they also hate. They are against any authority that claims to be above and beyond their reach. If you begin with that premise, it explains much of why they behave the way they do and what groups and causes they support. //
Temujin
8 days ago
Evangelicals love Israel because of the Bible. Leftists hate Jews because of their "bible," which is Marxism. Marx wrote some of the most vicious anti-Semitic trash ever seen. Conservatives need to read Marx and Satan, by Richard Wurmbrand, a Jew who became an evangelical Christian.
Cosmic Charlie -> Temujin
8 days ago
And went thru hell for it. I was fortunate to see him once. He came to our synagogue.
We were all left speechless for days.
I have met few people who manifest in the moment the truth of love and hatred to such a degree. //
Cafeblue32
8 days ago edited
Why Evangelicals Love Israel and Progressives Do Not
Because Evangelicals who have read a bible know that their God is the God of Israel, created for Himself, and it is the Christian church that has been grafted into the family of Israel through the shed blood of the rabbi Christ's sacrifice and not the other way around. Christ didn't do away with Judaic law. He fulfilled all its points so we don't have to. But the standard of accountability is the same now as it was then: mess with Israel, and things will go very bad for you. Maybe not in our lifetime, but God will not be mocked nor tempted for long. If he takes his time with it, it is only to give the guilty a chance to repent before he goes all medieval on them.
Here's Gods take on it. Israelis the olive tree in this analogy.
Romans 11:17 ...
Free will
God created a perfect world, yet gave Adam and Eve a way to reject him by accepting something that would remove their innocence. Why offer them a choice? Why not leave it perfect?
Because without a way to reject God, their love would have been meaningless.
God goes to great lengths to make sure people can choose to love Him without violating their free will. That plays heavily into the idea of deus absconditus, or "hidden god". God is hidden, but wants to be found. Thus, you ensure that the majority of those who find Him are actually those looking.
Predestination
I think the confusion that surrounds this issue is largely rooted in the question of free will. If God wants us to be saved, will we not be saved? If God wants you condemned to Hell, will you not be condemned? There is some level of truth there, but it misses that God does not throw Free Will out the window to accomplish this.
God orchestrates the universe. He knows every decision that can be made, and what decisions will, in fact, be made. Take Luke 13
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Jesus is speaking here, and this verse illustrates predestination perfectly. Jesus spent time doing miracles in two cities that bore no fruit. Indeed, we see Jesus do many things that do nothing to promote faith. What is positively mind blowing is that Jesus is saying that if he had done those same miracles in Syria they would have repented wholeheartedly. So... why not go and do those things there?
Jesus' ministry was primarily to the Jews. Other miracles will be done in those places later, but Jesus was trying to get the Jews to repent first and foremost. In other words, God was showing love to the Jews by giving them miracles He knew they would reject, so they could be seen from a different perspective later.
Music shapes our hearts and minds. What we fill our ears with—for better or worse—forms who we are and what we love. This is one reason why music has loomed large in Christian worship and catechesis throughout church history. In church, we don’t only rehearse our confession by speaking creeds and hearing biblical truths preached; we sing these confessions and biblical truths. And as we sing, God’s truth roots down deeper in our souls. //
New adult believers unfamiliar with (or understandably skeptical of) Christian music might not know where to start.
That’s why I put together this playlist of 100 songs with a catechetical flair to them: songs that teach Christian truth and yet do it poetically, with excellence.
[Deconstruction] has little to do with objective truth, and everything to do with tearing down whatever doctrine someone believes is morally wrong. //
it was very personal and it focused on the human beings who have come out of this, rather than on whether a certain kind of theology is right or wrong. //
If deconstruction means nothing more than changing your mind or correcting bad ideas, then I can say I deconstructed by switching from AT&T to Verizon. //
Deconstruction is not about getting your theology right.
What is worshipped is God’s conquering of death, which allows that bond to go on forever. The idea of a recognition of the community of the living and the dead, a spiritual community that exceeds the community we see in the material world of our present lives, is deeply consistent with Christianity.
The Christian underpinnings of the Day of the Dead are what make it of interest to those who are, for good reasons, uninterested in multiculturalism in its current relativist and divisive forms. For they reveal a ritual deeply consonant with the Christian view that death is not the end and that our loving bond to those who have gone before us is perhaps the most important social tie we have in this world.
A love for the past and for those who came before us is consistent with a holistic view of the human world. That world is made of three communities: those here now, those who have lived and died and await us, and those yet to come. Our unity is in the spiritual life that animates us all, and the truth of the Christian claims about life and death are not merely one more claim in Relativism Land. They are a truth that unites believers across cultures and time. Day of the Dead is a wonderful opportunity to recall this unity.
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