I was going to write a lengthy screed

 But decided just to post the headline and have folks take it all in:

A reminder to Christians of the modern age: We are not, repeat not, in Kansas anymore, and it's high time we stop pretending otherwise. 

Attention Christians: Be like the squirrel

This is making the rounds.  I admit it's pretty awesome (according to the cameraman, the squirrel survived):

That's one brave squirrel.  A bravery it would be nice to see among the world of Christianity. 

I've said post-Christian era secularism has had its winning streak of sowing seeds of doubt and largely running roughshod over the Christian Faith for generations, if not centuries.  Partly because it forever seized on the idea that there are problems in the world needing fixed, which is true.  But then it always made sure those problems were hung around the neck of the Christian Faith, religion, and eventually all of Western culture.  

Likewise, the solutions were almost always wrapped up in the need to admit how wrong the Faith, the Bible, religion in general, the miraculous, and values and heritage of the West always were.  And nothing takes the fight out of the fighter more than doubting the legitimacy, much less the reality, of the cause at hand. 

Which is likely why it worked so well.  Just think how much godlessness, debauchery, decadence, blaspheme and assault on almost every cherished virtue or moral standards were able to be hoisted up and imposed our our society, our children, our Faith, one decade after another.  Sometimes it boggles the mind. 

Only now, you are beginning to see some pushback.  Perhaps too late for the matters of this age.  But at least where the spiritual side of the tracks is concerned, there is never too late as long as we have breath to take. 

Why we homeschool

Because I don't want my sons taught that they are second rate citizens who deserve what they get because they are 1) Christian, 2) white, 3) male, 4) heterosexual, 5) American.  That's why.  For instance, the Minneapolis teachers union has negotiated a contract whereby any staffing cuts would cut white-skin teachers before non-white-skin teachers.   A school that treats its staff that way will treat its students that way. 

Yeah.  It's as Jim Crow as Jim Crow.  It's also based on attitudes and agendas fully embraced by our corporate interests, pop culture, education systems, news media and not a few of our religious traditions as well.  Remember, the majority will always follow the easy way. If the easy way is singing God Bless America and waving the flag, then so be it.  If the easy way is labor camps and ghettoes for the undesirables and wrong thinkers, again, so be it. 

Granted, not that Christianity equates to White, but one must understand the real target here.  It's none other than Jesus Christ, as He said it would be.  It's not us that the world hates, it's Him.  The purpose is the destruction of the saving message of the Christian Faith.  The destruction of the civilization it helped build is the most logical, and easiest, approach.  If we have to generate race-hate against those who were the majority ethnic group within this civilization, again, so be it.  That so many willing to do this are themselves white shows it's probably not a desire to punish or retaliate against white people in general that is their main goal.  

Again, the main goal is the destruction of the historical Christian Faith.  The destruction of the Gospel.  The crucifixion of Christ.  It's been done before.  It will be done again.  We're about to learn what it was to live the Gospel in a majority pagan land that sees the Gospel as a threat to its earthly designs. 

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."  John 15.18-19

Don't shoot the underlings

So I saw this story float by.  A young social media user claiming that there was no such place as Ancient Rome.  Nope.  The whole thing was a giant conspiracy of Spanish Inquisitors. What?  Welcome to 21st Century scholarship. In the end, she's merely an intellectual underling parroting the level of scholarship that has come to dominate academia in our generation. 

For instance, while scholars who are sympathetic to any attempt to tarnish Christianity gave kudos where they could, many still thought that Candida Moss's assertion that there was no real Roman persecution of Christians in ancient Rome was stretching things a bit.  Her claim is that, save for about twelve years of very limited persecution, the whole story of martyrs to Rome was lies and propaganda.  A twist on Holocaust denial aimed at the Christian Faith.  FWIW, critics say she relies on a torture of the historical record that makes Jack Chick's appraisal of Dungeons and Dragons seem spot on. 

Yet these are hardly new.  My whole life I've seen tabloid scholars chasing after this or that headline under the calling that one must publish or perish.  The best way to do this is to insist you've made some bold discovery that nobody has ever thought of before - whether it is true or not.  Never mind the biases and agendas that can be behind such dribble.  In the age of the Internet, however, something like Ms. Moss's book, or even this misguided child in the above story, can suddenly become prophets of revealed truth - because of course they are.   Remember, what passes for scholarship, research and even science can at times have less objectivity than a poetry reading in Greenwich Village.

Nonetheless, we laugh at such things at our own peril.  After all, the young girl in the story is simply a misfired bullet of stupid that went off a little too early.  If she backed up and said there was no Ancient Roman persecution of Christianity, she could be on her way to awards and honors and doctoral degrees in any one of a thousand of our fine institutions of higher learning today. 

And tomorrow the next generation will begin to catch up with her.  After all, if I went back twenty years and told you people today could risk official retaliation for claiming that there is such a thing as boys and girls, you'd likely have laughed me out of the room.  So much for laughter. 

Pope Francis - Culture Warrior

Heh. Read it here.   The Church has spent the better part of the last few generations losing.  Protestants were ahead of the game and started their surrendering some generations earlier.  The defeats have been a string of battles large and small, but all adding up to one thing: Convincing people that the Gospel is false, therefore to be abandoned. 

'Happy Holidays' and 'Seasons Greetings' have been around for many moons. There was nothing wrong with them.  And people with advanced sensitivities no doubt dropped a generic greeting in mixed company, or if they were in the presence of someone who, for instance, is Jewish.   That was no problem and I doubt too many gave it much thought.

But somewhere, at some point, it started to be insisted upon.  And among the earliest mischief makers were Jewish activists who rode the 1970s wave in America's reassessment of itself.  Perhaps it happened at another time in Europe.  But here in the colonies, it was when I could remember that suddenly we were told to say the non-Christian version of the greeting.

This reached a zenith back when our wonderful corporate brothers got caught telling their employees to drop the J-Word or any overtly Christian terminology at this time of year. Keep secular in Christmas, or so were the directives.  That was when FOX branded it the 'War on Christmas.'  An over the top phrase to be sure.  And false.  It wasn't just a war on Christmas, but on Christ and His Church, as it ultimately always is. 

But these are not small things.  Forcing people to speak words is a classic way of control.  All societies have their taboos and polite language that excludes certain words or phrases.  But forcing people to say things they disagree with, especially when they are true, is a good indicator that something seriously wrong is happening. 

Those who poo-poo such worries (I'm looking at you Russ Moore) are often found to be people who are giving up the fight.  Compromise, surrender, giving up - whatever.  We've seen many who, decades ago, laughed at worrying about such trivial things jump ship or in some way or another find ways to suck up to this new world order.  That is, they shouldn't have been trusted.

In this case, I agree with Pope Francis.  It's a sign of dictatorships to control people on this level.  It's not a laughing matter.  Remember, we're looking at the state of things today for a reason.  It wasn't some sudden massive attack on our civilization.  It was the death of a thousand cuts.  And this little gem, this 'War on Christmas', was merely one of those thousands too many ignored or downplayed when we could have stood up for the cause. 

On the other hand

You have this opinion piece from FOX.  Worry less, thank Jesus more. No doubt a hundred years ago such an editorial would be nothing unusual.  Today it stands out like a sore thumb.  

Problem is, it's FOX.  And just like the old movies and publications that pandered to our Christian sensitivities because that's where the money was, but no longer do, FOX may stop such stories when it's no longer convenient.  Christians are going to have to learn the hard lesson that being Christian in a non-Christian culture means being Christians in a non-Christian culture.

Grabbing for the hope of sympathetic power structures is a fool's errand.  FOX is about one third what conservative and traditional Christians would value, and two thirds keeping up with the World. It might be best for Christians to find greener pastures rather than wait for that to become one tenths.  

Congress shall make no law

Liberals and Democrats approve this practice

Blocking the veneration of pagan religions by brutally crushing the right to practice the Christian religion thereof.  I'm no Constitutional Lawyer, but that's the First Amendment if I'm remembering correctly.  Or at least the First Amendment as currently understood. 

Not that we should care.  Per a CBS report from all the way back in 2018, well over 40% of Americans think it's time to ditch the old Constitution anyway.  That fits with a recent survey that found 48% now support the government stepping in and working with Tech Barons to censor free speech misinformation. And since we know only conservatives haven't read the Constitution, you can bet those surveyed have done their homework.  

I guess that's why a school would ask its students to chant to the glorious gods of the Aztecs.  The same reason we've seen stories about schools taking their kids to hear the Dalai Lama, or teach the kiddos the Five Pillars of Islam.  Or do Yoga.  Or basically any darn religious/spiritual/cultic lesson or exercise as long as it's not that vile Christianity thing that is the only religion the First Amendment apparently spoke to. 

As an aside, this story about the school puts me in mind of my son's cultural anthropology class that I've mentioned a few times.  You know, the one where the class broke out into a thoughtful debate about the human sacrifice of the Aztecs.  You know, where they concluded apart from the silly religion gibberish, the need to cull the human herds in light of Global Warming demands we could do worse than looking to the Aztecs and other cases of human sacrifice for inspiration. 

Thus is our world. We're being taught to be the Nazis redux, with a peppering of Communism for taste and effect.  Race hate?  Sure, as long as you hate the right race.  Erasing history?  You bet, as long as it's the history of those unforgivable reprobates from the West.  Judging others?  Sure, just judge the right sinners for the right sins. Banning books and censoring speech?  Alrighty then, just make sure it's the really bad stuff.  Ethnic discrimination?  That works, as long as you are doing it to the right ethnic groups.  Presumption of innocence, equality, burden of proof, redemption, forgiveness?  The Leftist cares not for these things.

But the Leftist controls the institutions of our culture, so the Leftist gets its overthrow of life, liberty and democracy.  Truly we are the worst generation. 

Fun bonus: Snopes "fact checks" this story and gives it a mostly false.  Why?  Because apparently the school has the students chant based on the meaning of the gods' names, rather than the gods.  You see, because the students are chanting in the name of the Aztec concepts that the gods represent rather than the gods, it's OK.  Fact checkers; the Snake Oil Saleswomen of the modern age.  Since apparently the name of a god meaning something must mean you're not speaking about that god?  Again, to be the Left is to be filled with pride, slander, BS, and denial. 

Rod Dreher gets the leftist Iconoclasm

Read it here. Yep.  It's his response to my old classmate Russ Moore's rejoicing over the end of Robert E. Lee.  Rod realizes that in another time and place, such a conversation might be appropriate.  Heck, such a solution might have its place.  

But you are either a leftist, or a fool, to think it has anything to do with Lee, or Jefferson, or Washington, or the Slave Trade, or a host of Western signposts.  Its end goal is the destruction of the Western Tradition and its Western and Christian values and principles.  That is the goal.  

I know this because I pay attention to my sons and what they hear in their world and among their peers. From their classroom discussions a cool 50% of their classmates see the United Stats as a 400 year old Nazi regime.  Its entire history one of racism, slavery and genocide.  Nothing more.  Nothing less. 

The books and handouts they show me make it clear that the whole of Western Civilization was a net zero for the world - at best.  In most cases it was a negative, being the sole cause of the suffering and evils in the world today. For their college, Critical Race Theory is the gospel. 

That Christianity is a myth and lie is also the official teaching, and many classes present that view.  My son took a class on mythology and what was added to the fraternity of Greek, Egyptian and Norse myths?  That would be the Bible.  Right between Thor and Perseus was standing Jesus Himself.  And his is a state university.  Which is fair and honest at least.  I learned that the Bible was just what the biblical authors stole from surrounding religions and myths back in high school.  Seeing it now as nothing but an ancient set of folktales and fake stories makes perfect sense.  Classes in anthropology, sociology and history present the same picture. 

So consider that these kids, learning on the tax payer dime that religions are just folk tales, the West is a net evil, and the US particularly is a racist Nazi state in serious need of extermination, are the face of the next generation of leaders in our world.  The move to eliminate almost anyone and anything to do with this most horrid of all civilizations - including the art, philosophy, religion, literature, and its foundational principles - is well under way. And the ones officially being taught that the whole of the civilization should die aren't even out of college yet. 

Since the official Catholic - and general Christian - response to this is more or less accepting its premises at face value, don't expect it to slow any time soon.  Since our leaders seem to think there is some common ground net neutrality viewpoint that we can work with, the line of the Faithful will be drawn backwards and backwards and backwards again. 

Why the speed with which this is happening?  I dunno.  My sons might have some insight.  They have said before that if it was any other generation discussing a radical departure from the last centuries of Christian ideals, it might seem credible. But as it is, you get the impression of a bunch of people unable or unwilling to stand up and fight, so they wrap their surrender in a Jesus flag and hope that disastrous results of their cowardliness and apathy don't come before they've passed from this mortal realm. 

Once again Pope Francis calls out the sin of gluttony in an age of anorexia

Yep. Says so right here.  One thing that has perplexed me since I became Catholic is the obsession many Catholics have with bashing puritanism and fundamentalism.  While I'm sure those exist in some pockets of Catholicism, they are hell and gone from the problems plaguing the majority of modern era Catholicism.

I've quoted before an old - and Catholic - classmate of mine.  When it came to chasing girls, he used to quip that it's better to find an atheist girl than a religious girl ... but Catholic girls are a safe bet.  Sadly, in my meager contribution to the 1980s social scene, I found little to suggest his appraisal was wrong. 

And it's not just historically rooted Catholic moral teachings that the majority of modern Catholics happily flip the bird to.  Study after study shows that a growing number, and in some cases majority, of modern Catholics in the dying West no longer believe in a swath of theological doctrines as well. 

The Trinity?  Virgin Birth?  Transubstantiation?  Yeah, right.  Hell?  Where the hell did that go?  Universalism, implicitly contemplated if not openly endorsed, is all the rage.  I've seen it in multiple Catholic forums as well as our parish, where removing references to hell in traditional prayers has become as Catholic as fish fries during Lent. 

Despite all of this, Pope Francis joins the common lament that the problem we have in 1930s Germany is all the damned communists.  I'm sure communists in Germany in the 30s were a problem.  But were they the problem?  Picking on someone or something of little consequence in order to avoid like the plague a real problem is as good as being a major contributor to the real problem.

Catholics - including Pope Francis - are going to have to admit the narrative of the Global Left is wrong, and it isn't those isolated pockets of traditional (though not leftwing) fundamentalists who are the problem, but the growing swaths of post-Christian, Marxist inspired revolutionaries hell-bent on eliminating life, liberty and the pursuit of the Gospel who are the problem.  Until they do, expect the Vatican II era Church to continue to be defined by its gushing numbers and impotent stance against the real problems plaguing the world today.  

It's that time of year again

Celebrating our third boy's birthday and kick off to 'our part of the year'

As I said here, the second half of the year, starting with our third son's birthday, is 'our year.'  It's the half in which we get to celebrate the parts of the heritage of our family nationally, religiously, and culturally.

This year may not prove to be an easy go of it.  The biggest shock of this shocking year has been the speed with which so many who boasted a brave talk of resisting the Marxist Left have collapsed, grovelled and debased themselves before the onslaught of anti-Western Marxism: 'I'm sorry I'm white, I'll never do it again!  Gee, maybe white Jesus is bad and we should destroy sacred art based on ethnicity!  Freedom?  Overrated.'  And on and on.

So who knows where the rest of the year will go. This was supposed to be our youngest's initiation to Ohio State Football at the stadium.  It's unlikely to come about.  Even if it does, it won't be the same.  And again, a growing number of Americans are fine with that.  Perhaps all of these fun and game pastimes we've focused on weren't so important after all.

Nonetheless, this is still our half of the year, and lasts until the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (as practiced in the West, for those who still follow that).   We expect to do our usual, celebrate the memories of a once great county, indulge in quickly fading pastimes, embark in a little nostalgia around the holidays, watch pagans and anti-American/Christian radicals call to change or eliminate Halloween and Thanksgiving, watch the usual war on Christmas, though now on full octane, but still hold to the core of our Faith nonetheless. 

It won't be as easy as in years past.  Though as I said, already we felt we had lost half the year anyway, as we watched our society marginalize a growing number of things that define us and what we believe and who we are.  Perhaps it was inevitable it would come to the rest of the year.  Until it does, however, we'll enjoy what we can with the time we have and thank God that once all of it has blown away like chaff, we'll still be rooted in the Gospel and the God who revealed His ultimate love for us in a time no worse than today. 

Governor Mike DeWine wins one for Religious Liberty

A hateful thought to many 21st Century Americans

By signing a law that will allow religious students in public schools to express their religious beliefs freely.  Naturally that great opponent of non-secular progressive values, the ironically titled ACLU, has fought this like a mad dog.  As have most open minded and tolerant liberal activists.

Their fear is that this will allow students to dismiss science and state their fanatical belief in the world as the great Earth egg goddess.  Which, of course, is ridiculous .  That's simply the same hysterics, stereotyping and fear mongering that progressives always engage in when someone wants to think freely.  Fact is, the law does not allow students to answer the wrong answer in a classroom. If the class taught evolution and evolution is tested, the student must answer what was taught.

No, this will allow students to wear religious symbols, refer to their faith where appropriate in school, stand up for religious perspectives where secular perspectives have alone been given, and generally be free of being barred and banned due to their religious faith.  You know, a freedom of religion thing. 

Which, of course, is anathema to the secular left.  To the left, there is only the freedom to tear down the Christian West and America in deference of a strong Marxist inspired totalitarian state that will shower me with endless free things, including the right to define my gender and abort six million prenatal babies while pursing endless narcissism and decadence. 

That is what the left wants taught in school.  What Mike DeWine did was take an important step in allowing those who don't see such things as the highest values for which to strive a chance to speak out and express themselves accordingly.

Time to say goodbye to Hollywood?

Why do traditional Christians and Conservatives patronize Hollywood when it is largely a propaganda organ for the  radical paganism of modern secular agnosticism?  Even the award shows are nothing but hate and contempt fests in which the powers that be spew their loathing on things that the conservative and the traditional Christian hold dear.  Maybe it's time to say enough.

It's been asked how modern Christians could align with the political Left when so much of the Left is centered on eradicating historical Christianity.  Setting aside that some modern Christians would happily do the same, it's a question worth asking.  But no less a question is why Christians of any traditional stripe continue to pour money into the coffers of an industry almost entirely centered on the destruction of their most cherished beliefs and values.  Not only that, but these consumers will actually pay money for the very shows, songs, and movies that are made for the sole purpose of accomplishing that goal.

So food for thought.  I've often wondered why Hollywood, back in the glory days of my youth, seemed to hate and deride the simpler pastimes, or those family moments, or the gathering of friends for a good game or two around the table.  I realize now that Hollywood exists on the back of the populace's dead creativity and inability to self-entertain.  Only when we are creatively dead zombies glued to the screen or headphone are we truly fulfilled since only losers would try to find creative ways to entertain themselves.  So says the underlying entertainment industry narrative.

So break the addiction.  Learn to tell stories or play board games or cards, or spend time among nature, or anything that doesn't require taking your hard earned cash and handing it to an industry that I believe could easily say in return, "Thanks chump, we still hate you and hope you convert or die soon, but we'll take your cash all the same.'

Beto o'rourke calls for an end to tax exempt status for churches if they oppose gay marriage

Yep, you read right.

The problem is, among those most loudly proclaiming a need to cleans the world of the unclean evil that is the white Christian conservative, are white Christians who are decidedly not conservative.  In addition, almost every day I'm seeing non-whites and non-Christians jump on board, casting hatred and contempt on Westerner type white Christians, and  even guffawing when some ill fortune comes their way. 

I get that Beto is at the bottom of the pile.  He won't be president.  He's nothing but an empty husk in a JFK suit.  But listen to the audience.  That is the same cheers and rejoicing Hillary Clinton got when she gave her disastrous 'Irredeemable Deplorables" speech.  This is a side that hates the opposition and wants that opposition taken out, one way or another.

To think it can't go anywhere bad is to deny Christian doctrine and historically based common sense.  It will go bad.  Because it is the ultimate alliance: white liberals have called upon all other peoples in the world to join them in the extermination of the whites, particularly Christian, who won't conform.  The only thing they're hoping is that once the ashes settle, the rest of the world won't turn on them.  It will serve them right if the rest of the world does just that.

Good for Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard

A Democrat, she has called out the flagrant, naked anti-Christian bigotry that Democrats have displayed of late.  It's not just the obvious anti-Catholic bigotry we recently saw, as two Senators essentially said membership in the Knights of Columbus should be a disqualifier for government jobs. We saw it when Bernie Sanders said that believers in the historical Christian Faith should not hold high office (and Muslims rights group CAIR cheered him on).  It's the stuff of Nazis telling Jews they can't be real citizens.  It's the old Jim Crow telling Blacks to use a different drinking fountain.  And it goes to show that 21st Century America is what McCarthyism looks like when the press is on McCarthy's side.  That's why you've heard little to no manufactured outrage over these assaults on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Christian Faith as a whole.

Good for her. May more Democrats fight the Soviet. 

It's worth noting, however, that the worst of Democratic Bolsheviks are hunkering down, declaring a war on Christians and all who won't apostatize and convert to the Political Left.  Be warned.  Support Ms. Gabbard. Resist the Alt-Left.

A movie celebrating post-Christian civil religion

Are you there God?  It's me, Margaret, a much celebrated embrace of Western Liberalism's civil religion, is going to become a movie.  Hurrah!  Yes, the book that embraced the Oprah view that one religion is as good as another - which means pointlessly wrong - is well known to many my age. In it, we learn that God is merely an abstract concept by which we measure our pain (John Lennon 3:16);  no affiliation is needed, it's wrong to push people into religion (but not out of religion), it's certainly wrong to guide a child toward any religious belief (other than no religious belief), and of course the self is the all important point of reference.

All faithful within the world's traditional religions should understand that we face a completely new religious revolution.  It is a revolution driven by a very zealous and intolerant religion.  It calls upon religions to abandon any doctrines or dogmas that run afoul of its own teachings.  And it seeks a world where all are forced, preferably by the iron gauntlet of a powerful state, to bow before its altar.  Like Christians coming together to resist the secularization of the Faith, even if it means setting aside traditional and denominational differences, so the great world religions may someday be forced to do the same.

To Christians who see compromise as our hope for the future

That is, those Christians who have concluded traditional and conservative Christianity was the only mischief, and we need to embrace the priorities and values of the postmodern world.  To those Christians I have one simple request:  Stop saying nobody is being persecuted in our country when you have people being told they will be punished, even legally, even financially, if they refuse to publicly compromise their Christian values.

I know, I know.  The left, and those who didn't have the stomach to keep fighting the good fight, have long focused on the fact that store clerks saying 'Happy Holidays' or businesses not putting Christmas symbols on coffee cups is not persecution.  Fair enough, even if we could argue, as a priest from W. Africa did a couple years ago, that such is how thing usually begin.  But telling people they must publicly compromise their Christian beliefs, or pay the price through financial ruin or other legal repercussions, is a form of persecution.

This is especially true because it is many of those same acquiescing Christians have made things like 'a living wage' and 'income equality' into pro-life issues.  I mean, even thinking of not giving people a financial viable living was akin to hating Jesus.  So if that's the case, then filing lawsuits and running people out of their businesses, taking their salaries, hurting them financially should be seen, not only as naked persecution, but based on the sacred right of a viable income, it ought to be a pro-life issue as well.

I say this because Mark Shea posted a reflection on the whole gay wedding cake issue.  Let's be honest, the LGBTQ is being used to drive a wedge between those who will compromise their faith to conform to the modern Left, and those who won't.  And it's doing a bang-up job.  Unlike the first few decades of modern liberalism, the Left is now putting teeth into its attacks.  It seeks to convert all to its gospel, and is willing to use the power of the State to achieve that end.  For several generations, the most the Left did was mock, laugh at, make fun of, deride, belittle and sometimes spit upon Americans of a traditional moral and religious framework.

But with homosexuality, it now has a way to demand conformity to its moral dictates at the expense of religious exercise and religious liberty.  That's what this is about.  And already we're seeing plenty of rats jumping that sinking ship.  Mark himself once called this a naked assault on religious liberty.  He pointed out the obvious, that gay couples scouring the neighborhood, ignoring dozens of businesses that would gladly serve them, in order to find one Christian business owner to drag before the courts, is nothing but a deliberate effort to strip away the right to not be liberal.

But that was then.  Now Mark casts scorn on those business owners who would not concede the modern morality, judging them as either 'Christianists', or likely hypocrites who have no business complaining.  His solution?  Passive resistance.  Make the cakes, make the cards, take the pictures, affirm the pure love within a gay relationship, and find some other way to say 'but I still don't agree.'  Fair enough.

But to take Mark seriously, Mark must admit a couple truths.  First, let's stop pretending like the only evangelizing force in the world is Christianity.  There are many evangelizing forces, including the modern Left.  It is actively seeking to get Christians to renounce their faith and values and conform to its dictates.  Its effectiveness can be seen by doing an analysis of Mark Shea c. 1998 and comparing it to Mark Shea c. 2018.  I can't think of two individuals with less in common, and it is a testimony to the effectiveness of the Left's evangelizing tactics.

The second, however, is no less important.  Stop, as I said above, stop saying nobody is being persecuted.  They are.  Having the goverment walk into your shop and demand you compromise your freedom of religious exercise under threat of financial ruin is - at best - persecution.  What are you waiting for?  Christians with shaved heads marching into the gas chambers?   Just stop.  The Left has been moving lines in the sand forward for decades, and Christians have fallen back and fallen back time and again.  Now it is actively seeking to punish, with the power of the State, those who don't conform.

To ignore this is no longer a case of denial.  It's an outright lie that smacks of cowardliness or treason, rather than principle.  So just stop.  Admit we are being converted, and admit that the Left is taking it to the next level and seeking to persecute those who resist.  And don't let those who once insisted they would never punish anyone for opposing homosexual marriage insist there is nothing wrong with punishing people for opposing homosexual marriage.  At some point credibility needs to take a hit or two.

Do these two things, and I will consider the suggestion of passive resistance.  Otherwise, it comes off less as a bold suggestion in the tradition of St. Barnabas, and more a retreat, hoping against hope that it will be other Christians who pay the price; that when they come for them, that's all they will do.

BTW, the comments in Mark's post are a potpourri of all the reasons why we are losing the fight for the heart and soul of the Dying West, as well as showcasing the clear and obvious desire to convert Christians to the New Faith. I might do a post on those in the future.  Right now, perhaps the best example is this comment.  Note the solution the comment proposes: you can refuse to bake the cake, just lie about why; don't publicly admit that it has to do with your religious principles.  It will be interesting to see where Mark comes down on this particular solution:  keep your religion under the bushel and lie about why.  If nothing else demonstrate a society of religious persecution, it is seeing that as some form of compromise. 

Masterpiece Cakeshop and future life in the Catacombs

Rod Dreher is not optimistic.  Neither am I.  The inevitable loss of freedom and liberty in America, if not the world, is coming.  It can't be denied.  Much of the world would gladly live in a more timeful age, when God made rulers and kings and subjects to grovel before them.  In the West, the leftist desire to eliminate any freedoms that our self-proclaimed betters don't bestow upon us has been inching forward.

Regarding homosexuality, I'm of the opinion that there are three groups.  There are those who fully support anything to do with sex.  That is a growing segment of society since everything in our culture preaches it: scientists and scholars, academics and educators, the press, the entertainment and arts culture, many religious and political factions.  They say the emperor is not naked, and so it is true.

The second group makes up that dying breed of orthodox (little 'O') Christians, and others in the great religions, who reject such a model of humanity.  They are simply dying by generational elimination.  They aren't going to change, but their time - it appears - is coming to an end.

The third group is seldom acknowledged, but I have a feeling it is larger than we think.   That's the group that personally, deep down, doesn't think the various digressions from heterosexual normality are healthy, right, normal, or whatever, they just don't want to be pegged a Nazi bigot, lose their jobs, or face lawsuits or prison time.  These are the ones who were pretty sure about 70 years ago that something was wrong in the German woods, but went on with their days, insisting they didn't smell anything strange.  Nothing, it turns out, encourages apathy like threatening people.

There is a fourth group of course.  That would be those in the second group who can tell the way the wind is blowing.  While technically they don't accept the coming storm, they aren't going to give up suffering for Jesus on six figures a year either.  They believe that they can compromise just enough so that if the barbed wire fences ever go up, they'll own a plot of land on the outside looking in.  If they have to turn on their brethren and sistren, that's the price they have to pay.  But we won't talk about them because you have to exercise a certain level of judgmentalism in order to presume who makes up this group, since naturally they won't be admitting their true motives.

That third group is the group you want.  They're not bad, evil, or dumb.  They just don't have the time to care.  I'm not saying those in the first group are bad or evil, but with each passing day, they make it clear that this country - if not this world - is not big enough for them and those who don't conform 100% to their world view.    It's that third group, however, that makes it possible for them to essentially overthrow the 2500 year march toward democracy, equality and freedom, and replace it with yet another Utopian vision doomed to fail.

BTW, if you're waiting for the Left to stand up and declare that an elimination of freedoms is the end game, then you're going to wait until it's happened.  Nothing in history occurs that way.  Nobody ever says 'follow us, and we promise we'll put you in shackles and send you to the cotton fields.'  They get there by the ages old tendency we have of wanting to hope against hope that the obvious that is happening isn't really happening.  Or, to be blunt, it happens because enough people decide that when the team is losing, it's time to jump ship and join the winning team, even if it's the one they used to oppose.

One more thing.  For those poo-pooing this idea that Christians are in any way being persecuted, consider this story.  A gym owner in Indianapolis chose not to host a Gay Pride event.  A significant number of his staff quit over that.  He's now out of business.  Merely one of a growing number of similar cases regarding those who refuse to accept liberal values.  The whole 'nobody is hurting Christians' comeback that keeps our Group #4 and Group #3 blissfully apathetic is only going to last so long.  Eventually, they'll need to admit the obvious.  You can't wait until people are rounded up and sent to camps before you finally admit to things.  That's because if you wait until then, it's too late.

Bonus if you notice Mark's typical embrace of the modern acceptable racism that will get you invited to all the best parties and accolades from all the beautiful people.  But that's how evil often works, and it's why Christians have so often embraced it through the ages.

Chik Fil A phobia sweeps America

At least New York City.  At least among the ever close minded and zealous Left.  Fr. Longenecker enjoys a good laugh at this screed against those who fail to conform to that New York state of mind.

The problem is, the joke is on us and our posterity as it is this radical leftism that is seizing the heart and soul of our nation.  Really.  With almost pride, more and more on the Left are convincing Americans that we'd be a better nation without all this free speech and liberty rubbish.

Update: Rod Dreher has fun with this laughable thing as well.  He does, however, see the dark side of it, and states it in no uncertain terms:

this Piepenbring piece is not only an example of laughable cosmopolitan hickishness, it is rank anti-Christian bigotry.

FWIW, I had no idea that Mayor de Blasio proposed boycotting Chik Fil A.  I guess that dream liberals have of making it illegal to not be liberal is still on the march.  Liberal tolerance.  That's like saying Kosher Ham.

When Christians join non-Christians in mocking thoughts and prayers

You get this.  If the non-believer looks at Christians who make it clear that prayers to God don't matter unless set behind fealty to a political policy, don't blame them for assuming that prayer ultimately doesn't matter.

When a Hollywood star of CGI comic book movies shows more devotion to faith above the world's chariots than those paid to represent the Christian faith to the world, it's time to rethink where we've gone in the world of apologetics. 

Remember when liberalism was all about not judging people?

Or criticizing their religions?  Yeah, so do I.  Seems like another age in another world.  Today there are few things in the world less judgmental, less close minded, less arrogant or less intolerant than what liberalism has become.

Nonetheless, I don't begrudge Joy Behar.  There's an ugly and altogether false narrative, born of lazy credulity on the part of those who believe it, that liberals are smart and conservatives are dumb (except for William F. Buckley, Jr.  He was always smart).  Ms. Behar, co-hosting the one show capable of raising doubt about the 19th Amendment, does all the heavy lifting needed to dispel that little myth.