A Halloween Though: Sir John Talbot and the benefit of being rigid

So we watched our obligatory annual viewing of the Wolf Man this year.  As we have for years, though not all of the boys are around when we do these things now.  A couple times a month get together is a big win, and that's understandable. 

Claude Rains as John Talbot

But this year something jumped out at those of us watching.   If you've not seen the movie - and what's wrong with you if you haven't - here's the gist.  Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) goes back to his ancestral home in Wales after a hunting accident claims his older brother.  Shortly thereafter, he tries to save a young woman being attacked by a wolf, but is unable to do so and is bitten himself.  Well, we all know what happens next.  As everyone, including Larry, tries to make sense of things, the inevitable happens. And, as with most gothic horror, it concludes tragically, since it ends up being Sir John Talbot, his father, who must slay the beast, who turns out to be his last son. 

Now, one of the story threads is the relationship between Larry and his father Sir John Talbot (played by the always wonderful Claude Rains).  Basically Sir John is old school.  A man of science, a man of faith, lord over the region. He admits he is a stiff-necked person as are all the Talbots.  And he stands firm on success and flaw alike. He's none too happy with the local doctor's suggestion that Larry needs committed.  No Talbot in his house is going to the funny farm.  Instead he takes it upon himself to cure his son's apparent mental collapse that has happened in the wake of the girl's death.  After the death of a local gravedigger, John straps Larry to a chair the next night, and turns him to look out the window and watch the hunt for whatever or whoever it is that is now killing people in the region.  This will prove all of his crazy notions about wolves and werewolves is nonsense.  

But he leaves Larry to himself, going out to take his rightful place among the people in his charge.  Nonetheless, while the hunt takes off and there is rumor that something has been seen in the fog draped woods, he runs back to the house.  While on his way, he encounters the old gypsy woman who pretty much knows everything that is happening and why.  It's a great scene with two strong actors showing what happens when power personalities with deep rooted beliefs clash.    

As guns begin ringing out, Sir John, carrying Larry's walking stick with the silver wolf's head handle, rushes back in the direction of the noise, as the gypsy simply bids him to 'run Sir John, run.'  Elsewhere in the woods, the werewolf appears, ready to kill Gwen Conliffe, the woman Larry loves, as all werewolves must apparently do.  She screams, which alerts John to the direction he needs to go.  She tries feebly to resist, but the terror of the encounter causes her to pass out and be at the wolfman's mercies - when in rushes Larry's father.  

The climatic death duel at movie's end

Here John Talbot  pauses, understandably taken aback by what he sees.  And this is the part that got us this time.  As the wolfman stops and drops Gwen to the ground then rushes toward Sir John, what does he do?  He charges forth!  He's just carrying a walking stick for crying out loud, he sees that creature of supernatural horror that sends men screaming into the night - yet he barrels straight into him for a one on one fight to the death.

I hadn't ever thought of that before.  I was always stuck on whether or not he knew now that it was Larry, and that he is the one who will have to kill his son.  But one of my sons noted it this time.  Wow.  Freaking bat crazy courage of the umph degree.  He sees an actual werewolf in all its horrifying appearance, having never believed until two seconds earlier that such a thing could even exist, and instead of running for his life, he rushes straight into the fight with a stick.  Not a gun.  A walking stick.  

Can we say bravery, courage, stones of steel? And yet, when you think on it, that is his character.  The movie tells you throughout that he's a man of strong principles, rock rooted beliefs, a man of faith and science with strong convictions in both.  He's not afraid to say it straight and out loud.  He doesn't cower, he doesn't tell it like it ain't, or talk out of three sides of his mouth.  He admits his faults and defends his principles with the same staunch convictions.  And when he sees a young woman in distress at the hands of an unbelievable creature born of living nightmares, what does he do?  Runs headlong into the fray without hesitation. 

I thought of that after my son noted it.  He is what Pope Francis would have said is rigid.  Which Pope Francis was, when it came to issues near and dear to his heart. As are most people. I realize the dangers of people who hunker down and decide it's their way or the highway.  We know what happens sometimes when that approach is taken.  But I've come to realize that almost all people have that tendency about things they care deeply about.  The difference isn't if they are more tolerant or not, or dare I say, more rigid or not, but if they are honest about it.  I believe that is a major cause of our problems today.  A lack of honesty.  And beyond the obvious problem of lies and mendacity that we see, people who lack the conviction and courage to speak plainly regarding what they are rigid about.  Just say it straight.  Even in the face of opposition or worse.  

Considering so many from various Christian traditions today pretty much giving up and going along, it's worth pondering.  I remember how, decades ago, a big kerfuffle was 'stop saying Jesus' in public.  You remember how this went along with 'out with Christmas trees, in with Holiday trees'.  In my ministry days that was a thing. If asked to give some invocation at a public event, we would increasingly be asked to not pray in the J-Name.  Some resisted.  I recall a colleague who said there's no sense sending an letter if he can't address it.  But most went along.

Same with sin.  Same with Hell or eternal consequences.  Same with salvation through Christ. Same with basic morality.  How often when the world pushed, did so many in the Faith buckle and accommodate?  How often did we see people increasingly change the message, or water down how the message was delivered, to avoid giving offense?  How often did they seem to speak in ways not in line with what they said they actually believed?  Of course at the time, the demand that Christians do so was farmed under the 'we simply must be tolerant, must not be judgmental, must embrace all views, and must never impose our values or religious beliefs on others.'  I suppose those who so acquiesced believed the World meant it.  Not  that they didn't continue teaching their various doctrines, at least on Sundays.  But increasingly on the World stage, you saw a sort of distilled 'let's not offend' version of that old Gospel message.

So when things began to reveal themselves, and that old message of diversity, tolerance and inclusion became 'convert and conform or watch your derriere', what have we seen?  Religious leaders charging against the monsters of this emerging movement even if they only have a cane?  Nope.  We've seen so many turn tail and run like scared rabbits, or throw down the cane and concede it's time to be bitten. 

All of this came to mind as I saw a story about the thing that used to live up to the name Christianity Today.  You know, the late Billy Graham's contribution to an Evangelical spin on the world of the day. Well, it's now the post-Western spins on the Left's mounting agendas.  Recently it published a story about how one of its contributors concluded a well known missionary, Elisabeth Elliot, might have been bi-sexual because pro-gay activists suggest it about an event form fifty years ago.  But nothing in her own writings appear to suggest it (a very modern progressive scholarship approach to history).  But that's what CT now calls careful research.  

Nonetheless, what people noted isn't the slipshod research, but that CT took an almost Entertainment Tonight approach.  Almost a 'gee, that's cool' vibe, rather than anything close to a traditional Christian understanding of the topic.  Just think on it.  Billy Graham's publication.  Now musing on the bisexuality of a beloved missionary because someone said so. Yet when I consider those who are contributors to the rag now, it makes perfect sense.  At least when applying the Talbot principle of strong convictions lead to stalwart courage.  Or, in the case of so many within the Faith over the years, as well as so many leaders today as a whole, quite the opposite. 

Where Peter Is and a great big lie

We all heard Pope Leo a few weeks back say he's not going to obsess about some minor issue like sexual sins because there are bigger fish to fry in the world.  That's like standing in Europe in 1944 and saying armed conflicts are not the big issue right now.  The death and suffering toll of the sexual revolution almost boggles the mind, if one is willing to step back and honestly assess what we've seen.  More than that, Pope Leo's statement seems in reaction to a popular narrative - a false caricature - that Christians ever and only care about sins below the waistline and not much else. 

One of my professors said that he was having dinner with Dr. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  During their talk, Dr. Mohler expressed frustration that the only time CNN or other news outlets wanted to talk to him was about sexual issues like the Lewinski scandal or homosexual marriage.  As a brilliant theologian and scholar in his own right, Dr. Mohler happily would have spoken to other, larger issues.  But no, not for the press.  They wanted sex or move on to someone else.  

Which is why I always chafe at the mendacity of so much modern progressive activism and its media talking points.  Who is it that only wants to talk about sex?  It's an age old pop culture stereotype that it's only those fundamentalist Christian puritan types obsessed with sex.  Which is laughable, as one need only look at pop culture to see who obsesses about sex above almost anything else including food and oxygen.  

Nonetheless, it's standard liberal tactics 101.  For example, kick down doors, leap through windows, shove gay everything in our faces, demand conformity, plaster gay everywhere, make every social function an outlet for advancing gay anything, and the second someone says 'But I sort of disagree', the liberal activist feigns indignation over the individual obsessing about homosexuality. 

So when I see a Where Peter Is headline that sexuality is not the only moral issue, I have to agree and happily report that no Christian I've met in the three major traditions - Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox - would disagree.  They never say that. Ever.  Oh, it might be a constant point of discussion, but only because of the 24/7 saturation of the topic in our modern world. 

Nonetheless, what this misrepresentation does is twofold.  For the secular, godless Sodom and Gomorrah era activists, it's a way of shutting down opposition by shaming people into thinking the real problem is thinking about sex when the only thing we're told to think about is sex (unless it's racism).  

The other boon of this falsehood is that it allows an out for those Christians who don't want to get within a mile of calling out our modern secular leftwing orgy of debauchery and narcissism (ahem, Pope Leo).  You see, all people ever want to do is talk about sex, so I'm boldly going to go a different direction that won't put me in the crosshairs of modernity.  And this isn't some assumption of malice or ulterior motives on my part. It comes from watching and listening these last many decades of my Christian experience. 

Oh, and just one more thing.  Before people say that sexual sin, as catastrophic as it can be, is still rooted in deeper, spiritual problems and eternal considerations, let me say I fully agree. The problem is, those who rush out and say 'it's about more than sex' almost never go there either.  Instead, it's off to this or that socio-political problem or policy issue that aligns strangely enough with the side that has used sex to entice followers for generations to begin with. Irony alert. 

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. 

The big winners in the Thoughts and Prayers kerfulfual

Is, as always, the secularists and atheists and non-believers of the modern godless world.  There is nothing better for them than to continually hear religious believers, including their leaders, affirm just how marginal and limited in effectiveness religious faith, practice and belief in God really is.  After all, when the Minnesota mayor belted out that the children killed were in the middle of praying, he did nothing but say 'see how utterly useless prayer can be!'  That those believers joining the 'sucks to your loser prayers' movement did nothing but circle the wagons around his speech shows how colossal the World now is versus the whimpering, emaciated Church. 

Now the whole 'sucks to your loser thoughts and prayers' line of attack came some years ago from gun control activists who were openly non-religious.  I remember this addressed on different Catholic sites.  At that time, there was obvious sympathy for the gun control activists making the charge.  But caution was advised with a gentle rebuke, reminding them (and us) that prayers are never to be seen as contingent upon worldly solutions or activism.  They shouldn't be seen as standing against such things as working to find a solution, as some either/or proposition. Likewise, at no point should we make judgments about the sincerity of those invoking prayers, since prayer is so much more than just asking God to solve our problems.  But mostly we want to be careful not to affirm the secular idea that God and all the religious stuff is worth nothing more than killing an hour on a Sunday morning versus looking for real solutions in the real world.

Well that's dead.  Now there are plenty of Christians saying just what those non-believer said, only more.  Taking the leap that nothing but the left's gun control advocacy can save us, and anyone who disagrees can be judged accordingly, it's Christians as much as anyone saying prayers and God are beneficial only within the context of proper political advocacy.

Which wouldn't be the first time someone charged forth and said my way or you aren't properly following God.  The irony, like so much we've seen in the last couple decades, is that it was the political and religious left that put the kibosh on such thinking.  After all, in WWII for instance, saying we will just pray for peace but not actually resist the Nazis would not have been seen as valid by a substantial number of people.  Yet look at all the horrible things we did to beat the Nazis. Hence those left leaning Christians I encountered warning the religious right about making one's religious life, devotion or sincerity contingent upon any worldly or secular matter, especially politics.

But again, that's dead.  The worst is, of course, that it plays into the modern narrative that Jesus is OK, God's OK, smoke'em if you got'em, but it's keeping up with the world that allows us to see the true nature of sanctification and righteousness and truth.  Something hammered home frequently during the papacy of Pope Francis.  Catholicism was OK, and Christianity as good as always.  But it was being properly ordered, which almost always looked like adhering to progressive and leftwing ideology and activism, by which we will see the good fruits.  Except for transgender activism, which Pope Francis pounded on more than once.  Odd that.  But that's for another time since right now nobody seems eager to address that particular topic.

No, I like what one fellow observed.  He said the big problem with this is how many Christian leaders now are undercutting prayer itself.  As any believer who has attended church more than a few times knows, prayer is more than a laundry list of requests we give to Santa God.  While supplications certainly have their place, prayer is so much more than just going to God with a list of demands and expecting results on our terms.  

In the MASH episode Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler, a B-52 bombardier has a meltdown and decides he is Jesus Christ.  It actually has some fairly honest theology for such a show.  But at one point, the villainous Frank Burns, who isn't buying this shell shock rubbish, says he knows he's not Jesus.  He prayed for something and it didn't happen.  To which Hawkeye quips 'just because you didn't get chocolate pudding for lunch doesn't mean anything'.  Of course it was a joke, and everyone got how stupid it would be to say 'it can't be God, because I prayed for something and didn't get it.'  Apparently those condemning the invoking of prayers because the children who were killed were praying missed that episode. 

So those who are saying your prayers are not enough have either two choices.  Either they are suggesting prayers are only good insofar as God answers them as we want, and since God hasn't saved the victims, the prayers obviously aren't enough.  Or they are saying the efficacy of prayer is entirely contingent upon one worldly solution and one worldly solution only.  I just don't see a third option here. But either way, again, the big winners are those who know religion, Christianity and certainly Catholicism are all a bunch of BS to begin with. Something our churches and leaders, and sometimes fellow believers, insist on inadvertently being the biggest cheerleaders for nowadays.  

FWIW, as for those Catholic leaders, bishops and others explaining that thoughts and prayers are fine, but must be accompanied by meaningful action?  Because meaningful action always sounds like it has been endorsed by the establishment media and DNC, while almost never daring to call out any possible part of the problem that might offend the left of center, I see that doing nothing to avoid the above concerns.  After all, even secularists and non-believers can tell court prophets when they see them.

But when it sounds like the US Catholic Leadership is taking its cues from Catholic tradition and not the latest Manhattan Democratic fundraiser, then I'll at least concede the obvious point that prayer does not negate the need for earthly action. It simply shouldn't be subordinate to political activism.  Remember, if the US bishops were 25% as passionate and zealous about calling out the border catastrophe during the Biden years as they have been condemning Trump's response to it, we might not have ended up with Trump being reelected in the first place.  The same goes for almost every other topic today, including this one. 

*Fun trivia.  In the MASH episode above, it was shown in season four.  Up until that time, the character of Radar O'Reilly had no first name.  But at the end of the episode, a young and innocent Radar asks Captain Chandler - taking at face value he might be Jesus after all - to bless his teddy bear.  At that point Captain Chandler says 'and bless you Radar.'  To which Radar responds 'I'm Walter.'  The writers had to come up with a name they thought would fit, and he became Walter as much as Radar for the rest of the show. 

Over at US Catholic

We have an excellent example of chipping away at the Gospel to conform to the Left's narrative of Oppressed v. Oppressor as the only way to understand reality.  Professor Kaye Oaks jumps into the growing post-2020 narrative that we Christians can have forgiveness, like almost everything else, all wrong.  

She employs a tactic very common in modern post-Western thought.  We're told that something generally considered a virtue has actually been a tool for the dreaded oppressor who alone has the power.  People use this virtue badly or wrongly and cause more harm than good.  

By now people trying to be of good will are getting nervous.  This is actually a powerful way to undercut traditional virtue and holiness.  People who want to do the right thing will begin questioning themselves. I thought forgiving someone was a good thing, but could I be causing harm?  Might I be doing it wrong?  Could I be guilty of aiding the oppression of the oppressed?  I ran into that a lot in counseling ministry.  People would tell me that so much was put on not doing or saying the wrong thing, they preferred to avoid the situations altogether.   

I think part of the destruction of basic human interaction we see in our era of loneliness today has been by injecting the fear of a million subtle wrongs done in the name of doing the right thing.  The road to hell and all, an oft quoted phrase in this context.    

Professor Oaks turns to Judaism, which has become an increasingly popular place to run for those who remind us why Christians have been missing the mark all these years (in defending legalized abortion, M. Shea has argued extensively that Jewish Americans aren't  hung up on all abortion being bad, so America shouldn't be either).  Like most non-Christian religions and philosophies, Judaism espouses the idea of forgiveness, but nowhere as broad or absolute as traditional Christianity.  The same goes for Islam.  The same goes for most philosophies and moral systems in the world that speak of the virtues of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is typically seen as a good thing, under particular conditions and within certain parameters.  

But it was Christianity that threw down the gauntlet and elevated it to almost unachievable levels.  For it was Jesus who said 'Father forgive them' as they nailed Him to the cross.  A lofty standard to be sure. And because of that elevation, we've had a civilization that, no matter how often it failed to live up to those loftiest of expectations, still ended up shooting mighty high in the annals of human redemption and reconciliation in the attempts to reach such a high standard.   

Since 2020, however, no small number of those on the Left openly excused and defended violence and harm and death for the worthy cause.  Likewise, they have stood by as the heroes, heritage and history of our civilization have been scorched under the presentism of unforgiving judgmentalism and condemnation.  Thus we're seeing people in the folds of Christianity scramble to tell us that when those in power say it's time to put the brakes on unfettered forgiveness, then clearly Jesus would agree.  And this article is simply one of a growing number of Christian outlets reminding us that forgiveness, like anything else the Church has taught for 2000 years, has been misunderstood and should only be applied when in conjunction with modern leftwing sympathies and agendas.     

Of course I'm not saying that forgiveness, like anything in the world, can't be abused or misused.  Just like care for the poor or the widow and orphan.  People can say they're doing the right thing or that they really care and it's obvious this isn't true.  After all, for four years liberals, including liberal Christians, stood idly by and ignored or outright denied the pain, suffering and misery under Biden because, well, he was their guy with the power, that's why.  Yet they still insist all was well and simply fulfilling the call to reach out to the least of these. 

So it happens.  And of course it can happen on any side of the debate.  But don't be burdened by our busy-body intellectual class.  The ones who endlessly tell parents everything they do will ruin their kids, who tell us everything we eat will kill us, the ones who tell us saying the wrong thing is so bad it's best to stand by and say nothing.  The ones who do it out of intellectual hubris or subtle agendas. Just ignore them.  

If you've been wronged, forgive.  Jesus said so. He said seventy times seven when the disciples tried to pin him down on the limits of the teaching.  He said God has forgiven us our tens of billions worth of sin, so it's the least we can do to forgive our neighbors their thousand dollar sins.  Because that's really what the teaching has always been about.  Our sins against God are grievous beyond our ability to understand, compared to what we do to each other in our worst of days, at least when seen from a spiritual, not a secular or atheistic, perspective.  

So trust Him.  Think as God thinks, not as men think.  He has forgiven us, therefore there is nothing anyone else could do to us that that should excuse us not forgiving them.  Forgive them in the same way God forgives us.  Which is a forgiveness far and away removed from articles like this, where if that is what God has in store for us in terms of forgiveness - assuming Ms. Oakes understands that to someone else she may well be the oppressor in power - then my confidence of bliss in the hereafter can't help but be shaken. 

I will give JD Vance credit

He is willing to call out the BS and mendacity that has come to define our post-Christian, postmodern era:

That we have taken an entire generation and told them that every word uttered should affirm them as the gods of their realities, or they should unleash endless hatred or commit suicide - either being an understandable reaction - shows just how low we've sunk.  The only thing worse is how so many of our institutions that should know better (ahem, hello Christian Church), have pretty much gone along with it.  And have done so no matter how disastrous the results. 

We'll see how it goes.  Vance better be good enough to die for the sins of humanity, because even the slightest discovered transgression will be hyped more than Pearl Harbor was.  And more than that, almost everyone left of center, and the bulk of those who have settled into our post-Christian status quo, will jump on him like rabid inquisitors.  

A Super Bowl Prediction

Everyone knew it - one of the best commercials of all time

It's really not a joke that a growing number of Americans are beginning to believe that sports, like so many things in our world today, are fixed.  Yeah.  It's true.  And it's not something that just popped up in the last year or so.

Years ago, the New England Patriots were the media's hoist team.  Rivaling the 49ers and Steelers dynasties, people couldn't figure out why, despite the media hoisting them with every ounce of effort, the Patriots didn't garner the love and even begrudged admiration that those teams did. 

Of course, like most things, there are many reasons.  One was that by the 2000s, the million cable channels, Internet and rise of Social Media had wrecked the easy way in which America could unite around a story without even trying.  For instance, as a kid who never watched the show, I still knew that somebody shot JR.  And my grandma, who hadn't graced a movie theater since Clark Cable was on the marquee, knew who Darth Vader was in 1977.  We were just a more homogenous culture and it was easier to get the whole country talking.  So even if I didn't follow the NFL back then, I knew the Steelers dominated, knew the reference when someone said 'Thanks Mean Joe', was aware that all the girls swooned over Joe 'Cool' Montana, and understood the Immaculate Reception.

That national breakfast table conversation isn't as easy to accomplish nowadays without strong, coordinated, even brutal, efforts - see Covid.  But there were also other factors behind the lack of national respect, like the Patriots caught cheating and being smug, rather than contrite, about it.  And, to be honest, even then, there were whispers that the Patriots just seemed to have it easier.  That odd things like bad calls on the part of the officials just always seemed to go their way.

After a decade or so of watching the NFL once I hit college, I stopped following it pretty much when the Browns shut down back in the 90s.  I would still watch the Super Bowl for some years after, but that was it.  Nonetheless, during the Patriots' fifth run for the Super Bowl - which would put Brady ahead of all quarterbacks ever - I decided to watch for myself. 

Yeah.  I could see what they meant.  There seemed to be a new rule in football called 'Tackling Tom Brady Penalty.'  And on the other hand, I do think Patriots defenders could pull out a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and blow a receiver's head clean off and the refs just always seemed to miss it. 

It isn't only the NFL.  Has there been anyone shoved down our national throats like Lebron James in recent memory?  Despite many saying he exemplifies the observation that statistics don't always tell the whole tale, the very openly left leaning James is all but treated like the greatest athlete god in history by the press because they say so.  He is mentioned sometimes just for the sake of mentioning LeBron James.  

Not that the press wouldn't pick its darling athlete or next new sports superstar over the years even before things happened.  But there was a glitch there, that in the world of sports the athletes in question still had to win.  So when Debbie Thomas crashed and burned at the 1988 Olympics, all the hype about her being America's next sweetheart faded away.  And even though the press more or less ignored the two skaters who won gold at the 1998 and 2002 Olympics and focused on the endorsement laden Michelle Kwan anyway, it just never took because in skating, it's all about the gold.

Nevertheless, sometimes it seems like in recent years the 'storylines' laid out by the press have strange ways of coming true, no matter what is happening on the field of competition.   From ESPN's promoting its own college conference and things often strangely going its way, to the odd World Series that just seems to fit that perfect scenario in a city ravaged by disaster, to, well, this Super Bowl this year.  Many are starting to wonder just how miraculous all of these coincidences really are. I mean, I've watched the clips of the officials' calls against the Chiefs, and either they are the luckiest team in history where all of the crazy bad calls just went their way, or, well, you know. 

Right now, the bets are that the Chiefs win, Travis Kelce retires but not before proposing to Taylor Swift, and Ms. Swift then launches another media promoted super tour based on her NFL inspired album.  Though it will be in another year, to give Beyonce room.  This coming year will be Beyonce's year if the press has anything to do with it.  After all, was anyone shocked that she won best album for her foray into Country Music, the criticism of which was immediately labeled racist, and her award being yet another 'making history in our racist nation' moment?  FWIW, people also see the awards shows with the same skepticism as the sporting world. 

Of course whether it happens or not is hard to say.  Some are suggesting the Chiefs must lose to allay the growing suspicion that the games were fixed.  But just the fact that this alternative theory is gaining steam, based only on how the fix needs to be played, is telling.  It suggests that a growing number of Americans are believing that the NFL, like sports, like pop culture as a whole, if not like our whole society, is one giant fix. And that shows where things have gone over the years since we stopped being like that bad country we were back in the day.   

Just don't

 This:

As seen on the Stumbling Toward Heaven blog

The thing hurting the proclamation of the Gospel most, at least in the dying West, is that up and coming youngsters just don't believe it.  Oh, they've heard the story most of their lives.  At least in the vaguest sense, filtered through the opinions and research of critics, skeptics and people hostile to the Faith.  Shocking no one, they just don't believe it.  Our atheist culture has told them the Christian Faith is worth no more than a Grimm's Fairy Tale at best, and the Marxist inspired Liberation Theology tradition can't get enough of pointing out how wretched and evil and racist and phobic sexist those old pages of "Holy" Scripture are.  The constant drumbeat among believers and leaders today of repenting for the first 2000 years of the Faith, and willingness to change on a dime when the World snaps its fingers, only plays into this. 

Plus, as has been said for years, many youngsters just don't believe anyone believes it anymore.  I've quoted many times that youth from ages ago who I first saw mentioned at Catholic and Enjoying It.  Why are youth formally rejecting belief in God and the Gospel and Jesus Christ?  Because they don't see anyone acting like they believe it's true.  Oh, on Sundays you get angels and demons and miracles and God and all.  But come Monday, and light can barely shine through the gap between the Christian and the Atheist in how life in this world is approached.  As someone quipped in a discussion some time back, the big difference between atheists and Christians today is that atheists can sleep in on Sunday. 

So there are few things worse in this hot mess context than admitting our faith and prayers and even God are utterly worthless unless they align with the actual solutions to our problems in the form of our political activism for the real world.  That tells these young people all they need to know to conclude that yes, Virginia, religion is dead.  Or at least pointless.  Politics and the state are all that matter.  The here and now counts, since there is nothing else.  And obviously material solutions are the only ones of consequence.  Why, you have plenty of good churchgoers who admit it.  See Mark's bold claims above.  When the guy who drags himself out of bed to show up to church on Sunday is willing to admit just how useless all this God and prayer garbage is next to our real world solutions, do you really think what goes on in that church is worth anything to our increasingly secularized youth?  I don't think so. 

And it's not just Mark and the godless secularists who claim that the efficacy of our prayers to God is contingent upon their adherence to proper political activism.  A staggering number of Christians and leaders, not just Catholic, have jumped on this 'God as a bad joke' bandwagon, even if they don't realize it.  And not just with gun control.  Sadly, nothing appears to help secular evangelism today more than modern Christianity.  More's the pity. 

Oh, and we won't delve into Mark attributing those turning to prayer's fruitfulness and God's sovereignty to the designs of the devil since it doesn't align with his political opinions.  That makes me think of no other passage in Scripture than this:

But when the Pharisees heard it they said, “It is only by Beel′zebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand; and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beel′zebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

I realize there is a lot of theology in that passage, but sometimes a superficial reading is enough to jar our senses.  Don't attribute appeals to God's providence to Satan. Unless Pope Francis and others are correct when they allude to the possibility that, like almost anything else in the history of the Faith, the whole 'eternal separation from God' is a bunch of bunk, you might want to slow down associating the working of God and his children with the Devil for any reason, much less political ones.  Prayers for his soul being in order in this case.

A nation led by Sodom

 And taught by Gomorrah 

Enough said. 

Our very Catholic president speaks

Yep:

In case you're wondering or even care, the Catholic Church technically teaches against IVF.  Just what that means today is open to debate.  Obviously President Biden has expressed his opinion. 

A vacant and hollow nation

Ours has become a sad, sad country.  We don't even care.  At least about anything that matters.  Youth are taught to hang their righteousness on vast, sweeping ideological crusades that cost them little in terms of self-sacrifice.  Like global warming.  Actual character or values barely make the grade at this point. 

I thought of this as my eldest - our resident sports guru - was commenting on the upcoming Super Bowl.  Before Sunday night's game, he said the real betting was over which narrative would come out on top.  Would it be the Detroit Lions, everyone's favorite worst NFL team, finally winning the Super Bowl?  Or would it be the corporate media's insistence on the Chiefs, with the lucrative tie-in of Taylor Swift Incorporated, that would win out?  Apparently that has dominated much of the chatter on sports sites and other outlets. 

And I though on that.  I mean, we realize what this means don't we?  It means people are discussing this with the assumption that the fix is in.  That it isn't a case of 'which team will be the best.'  It's which narrative will be sustained for the benefit of whoever benefits from it.  That is - it's rigged.  And more to the point, nobody cares. 

This has already been demonstrated by the cheating accusations against Michigan's football program.  If you don't know, Michigan University football has been accused of cheating for the last couple years.  It's being investigated, and I'm the first to say innocent until proven guilty.  But the evidence does look damning.  After all, Michigan's football program struggled up until Covid.  Then, suddenly, it flipped and became a powerhouse, this year making it to a victorious national championship.  The worst part is that the accusations of cheating match the turnaround for the program. 

Now, as I said, innocent until proven guilty. But what has shocked me is the Michigan fans who have said they don't care.  If it's true, so what?  A meteorologist who used to work here but moved back to her Michigan hometown said as much.  If Michigan cheated, it's on the dopes who were cheated - not on Michigan.   They won and they won.  That's what matters.  Even the press and sports media seem to have swept it under the rug, mentioning it only as an afterthought.  If it's mentioned at all.  I compare this to the outrage that arose when the New England Patriots were found to have cheated, and how that one scandal sort of tarnished the entire program no matter what they accomplished. 

Yet today?  Nah. Just like the discussions about which narrative will win the day at the Super Bowl.  It's as if we just accept corruption and corporate manipulation.  That people are talking about it like discussing the weather suggests a beat, lost, done nation.  Granted, this is only the internet and social media.  But I have always subscribed to the idea that where one example is found, hundreds of others haven't been.  And there were enough my son pointed to that suggests this is not some fluke from one site or another.  

I just thought on that.  Is it only football?  Yeah.  Is it life ending?  No.  Are there bigger things to worry about?  Sure.  And yet there seems to be a connection.  'Say it ain't so, Joe', became a veritable proverb and was often repeated in my youth even if I didn't understand the context.  So devastating was the news of corruption from that earlier period in time that the phrase passed down to my years as part of our national lexicon.  Yet today?  We seem to take it in stride. 

Isaiah says woe to those who call evil good evil and good evil.  Beyond the clash of good and evil, we have right and wrong.  We seem to have lost the ability to care, much less discern, the difference.  And I can't help but think that isn't a good thing.  Because if we no longer care about right and wrong, not caring about good and evil can't be far down the road - if it's not already here. 

Post-Christian Catholicism

Is best demonstrated here:

If we wonder why Ohio enshrined the sex, drugs and abortion culture into our state constitution, you need only thank the majority of Catholics.  

Always remember, the biblical narrative is, as often as not, a minority witness.  It's the majority of those called by God flipping God the high middle finger, and loathing those who remain faithful in the process.  It is not a story where the majority always does the right thing and follows the commandments given them by the God who loves them. 

David Carlin at The Catholic Thing goes crazy

And wonders if prayers might actually be effective.  In fact, he doth blaspheme our Secular age by suggesting the problem with mass shootings isn't too many guns, but too few prayers.  

Wow.  I feel like Carlin said he just saw Elvis working on a road crew in Houston.  It's amazing when you see something like that, which is A-B-C level Christian believing, and realize how radical it is, even within our churches.  When so much basic level Christianity is rejected and condemned by so many believers today.  But then you realize something else.  Many believers today are effectively atheistic in all but name.  Save for an hour or two on most Sundays, they increasingly seem to accept perspectives from a decidedly secular/atheistic point of view.  

So much so, that when the godless condemn 'thoughts and prayers', how many religious believers (and, indeed, their leaders) join the chorus of condemnation and mockery?  If we wonder why young people are leaving the Faith, and not a few older ones are joining them, I think the answer is easier than we make it. 

Since so many who grace the doors of the local church today don't appear to believe in the historical Faith in any practical sense, why should anyone?  The constant attempt to reshape the Faith to fit the latest - when on any given day we can be hit with a hundred new latests - mixed with constantly condemning the first 2000 years of believers as the irredeemable reprobates they were, is no doubt a big part of the problem.  

But no less is what a youngster said at a youth group years ago.  When asked why young people are leaving the faith, the answer was to the point: because most adults in churches don't seem to believe it, why should they? When you consider how many 'believers' employ the atheistic contempt for prayer and our relationship to God as a solution to our nation's (and our world's) problems, that sentiment makes sense. It might be tragic, but it's honest and does answer a lot of questions.  

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as men do.”  Matthew 16.23

Interesting point

I'm back!  It's been a whirlwind to be sure, as the previous posts demonstrate.  Thanks for all the well wishes and comments and emails everyone!  We certainly are blessed.  

As I've said before, I don't intend to keep up with the old pace of blogging, times being what they are, and obligations and family dynamics shifting and all.  Nonetheless, I'll still comment a time or two each week, though I hope to spend more of my blogging time on the finer things of life.  

You know, family fun and games, the latest book or movie, or just being glad about our new bishop who actually makes us think we are important to him.  The previous bishop - Bishop Brennan - also gave us that feeling, but he was sent back to his stomping grounds in Brooklyn before we had a chance to get to know him.  Nonetheless, our latest bishop more than rises to the occasion, and I can't say how nice it is to have a bishop who seems genuinely glad about not just his Catholic Faith, but its traditional roots as well (bonus point: he's also an official exorcist for the Church). 

Nonetheless, I thought I would throw out this little observation that caught my eye and has made me think. It was something that really made sense, is obvious, and yet something I hadn't put together.  It was pointed out that up until WWII, most of humanity believed two crucial things.  One, that there is something very important beyond this physical world.  And two, that there are things in this world that are more important than me.

After WWII, those assumptions began to collapse quickly.  Soon individualism became 'me, myself and I, as opposed to the rest of the world that is dead last in importance'. You can see this in those media psychiatrists who insist we owe it to our kids to put ourselves first ahead of them, or anyone else for that matter.  Heck, you can see it everywhere. 

And the importance beyond this world, which likely was already collapsing in the West among the upper classes before the World Wars, began to unravel fast across the board.  Really.  I wonder how many Christians today believe that one's religious confessions have anything to do with the afterlife.  For that matter, I wonder how many think anything has to do with the afterlife, other than the assumption it happens and we get to see our loved ones and cuddly puppies after we die, because of course we do. 

But those two beliefs, bigger than this world and a world bigger than me, were far from exceptional, even if humans had millions of different ways to unpack those beliefs.  But in the modern age, it's largely me as the center of my world, and nothing beyond this world of terrible importance, if there is anything at all.  The results of these perspectives speak for themselves.  

File this observation under 'solutions to the problem that the media will never cover.' 

What Sandy Hook taught us

Any connection to the age of mass killings is pure speculation

Is a lesson we don't want to admit.  Basically, it taught us what AIDS already taught us:  That we will never admit we have been wrong in recent years, no matter how many millions die or thousands of children are murdered. 

Guns. That's the thing.  AIDS?  Hardly ever mentioned, even if the number of Americans murdered by guns in an average year are only a few thousand more than those who die of HIV/AIDS each year.  Betcha I know which cause of death you hear more about from our media, our pols, our educators and even our religious leaders*.

Of course basic horse sense and concern for the common good would make it easy for us to realize guns existed aplenty when I was growing up, yet we didn't have regular 'mass shooter drills' in school.  That's because mass shootings in school didn't happen on a regular basis.  They do now.  

Common sense and good will would lead us to realize we might have made changes in our society, somewhere between the time when such horrors didn't happen regularly and the time when they did, that shouldn't have been made.  But that is something we will not do.  Ever.  We will not admit we've been wrong. 

One of the morning news shows earlier this year reported on a NYT article that basically said fewer parents than ever spank their children, while violence among our youth is at all time highs.  Don't let that fool you, however.  Turns out spanking still makes kids more violent.  Again, we will not admit we were wrong.  Ever.

If millions die of AIDS?  So be it.  We're not going to stop pushing our sex and drugs culture. 

If students by the hundreds are killed in school shootings?  So be it.  We'll deflect to guns or bigotry if possible. 

If suicide among children reaches all time highs?  So be it.  We couldn't be wrong about our changes in family and child rearing. 

If drug overdoses, non-gun related suicides and AIDS kill more than 100,000 Americans a year?  So be it.  Except for those haters over there, we're the best. 

If drug addiction, drug dependency and emotional and psychological problems continue to plague our nation and our children at unprecedented rates?  So be it.  Focus on opioids and ignore the rest. 

We'll talk of guns and laws and cabbage and kings.  But we will never, ever admit that we've been wrong over the last half century or so. That is a sacrifice we simply are not prepared to make.  Not our press.  Not our politicians.  Not our national leaders and celebrities.  Not our educators.  And with few exceptions, not our religious leaders.  And if a million children must be aborted and a thousand children killed and ruined to avoid the horrible confession?  That is a sacrifice we are more than prepared to make. 

God bless those killed at Sandy Hook and in all such violence that defines the society we have built.  Let strength and peace be given in abundance to the loved ones left behind.  And may God have mercy on a nation that would allow this to continue rather than in humility concede what we will never admit. 

*Except Orthodox Christian leaders.  I noticed that many of them are willing to step up and say there just might be a connection between the global cultural and sexual revolution of the 1960s and the sudden spread of a disease driven largely by drugs and sex that to date has killed over 35 million people.  

I'm not surprised

As I said here, this is why I have only passing allegiance to the GOP.  Much of the GOP operates on the same trajectory as the Democrats.  Wealth, power, worldly pleasure - that's the motivation.  I would never say they all go this way.  But enough do as to make the GOP a very unreliable ally in any fight, much less the important fights. 

The problem isn't sanctioning the gay marriage branch of the post-Christian sexual revolution.  Hey, last year the lion's share of new HIV cases was once again homosexual men.  No biggie.  The press will barely mention it.  Try to bring that into the discussion and watch how fast you are targeted and attacked.  We continue plodding along as suicides spike, STDs are on the rise, and millions continue to get infected or die from AIDS while millions of more lives are ruined from our age of Sodom and Gomorrah debauchery.  But those are small beans since the World has made these problems small beans compared to an unrestrained sex life.  

The real story here is that the Mormon Church buckled and caved.  When the Left is becoming more naked in its designs, and more appalling in its agendas, more and more defenders of the virtues and heritage of the Christian Faith are surrendering.  Years ago when it was just 'gee, can't we agree that homosexuality is completely normal', these people were willing to hit the beaches to resist.

Now they're caving before the idea that standing in the way of unlimited abortion must mean homosexual marriages is next.  And we can't have that!  This is the same movement that is pushing the mutilation of teenager's bodies over a crackpot psych agenda that insists anyone should be celebrated for their personal versions of truth, but we really need counseling to get us through the terror of Cicada Stress Syndrome.  As a former supporter of, and worker within, the mental health arenas of society, I freely admit it's gone off the rails and has become a major player behind the darkness we're seeing.  

Of course this legislation is less about protection gay or interracial messaging as much as reinforcing the narrative that pure evil is resisting any dogma of the Left.  Remember, this legislation came about after Roe was struck down by the Supreme Court. The premise being that if you let liberalism fail even once, then it's national lynchings and sanctioned rape cultures and gas chambers and Matthew Shepherds on a daily basis.  You are either 100% to the Left, or you are guilty of, and desire, all evils imaginable.  Each GOP senator, and the Mormon Church, approves this message.  That is, if they've even bothered to think it through beyond simply caving. 

When I was growing up, we watched those old black and white news reels of Nazi Germany and wonder how the German people could be swept up in such madness.  We used to watch and wonder why Germans who knew better didn't stand up to the clear and obvious evils sweeping their nation.  Well, now we know.  As my son has said that with each passing day it becomes easier to sympathize with those Germans who lived through the 1930s.  

Neither liberal nor Christain

I submit this link from our local Columbus Dispatch.  It's an editorial from several individuals criticizing a state resolution that would allow parents to know what their children are learning in public schools.  The bill would also make sure parents were in on discussions involving their own children and any gender topics.  Whether the bill delves into transgender athletes or bathrooms, I don't know. It might, given the references in the editorial.  

Rather than comment, I simply copied a few parts that jumped out at me.  I bold lettered things that I felt spoke louder than the words used, and underlined phrases that are particularly telling, IMO. 

All of this shows we are dealing with followers of a new, alternate reality; believers in a new universe with little in common with what we ever imagined to be true.  And it is a reality quickly being acted on and mandated in our society by threat or retaliation.  Any negative consequences of this new reality are ignored or dismissed. There is nothing Christian to this, and the below rhetoric shows it is no more liberal or tolerant than it is Christian. 

Click on the link (if you can - subscription usually required) and read the whole thing.  Though I think the below sections speak for themselves (the italicized part was the intro that describes the three authors of the editorial):  

Ben Huelskamp (he/they) is the executive director of LOVEboldly. Hank Osmundson (he/him) is the executive director of Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio and pastor of Community Engagement at St. John’s UCC in Columbus. Jon Osmundson (he/him) is associate pastor at Hilliard UMC and a father of six, four of whom attend public school

In his official biography on the State Board of Education website, [Brendan] Shea is described in terms of his faith as an “active parishioner in St. Patrick Church,” “the founder and president of the Madison County Right to Life,” and enjoying “Bible study” in his free time.

Shea may read his Bible, but he clearly needs to study it further. Because of people like Shea and their attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community from a perspective called “faith,” Christians have earned a reputation as anti-LGBTQIA+.

However, many Christians believe that a faithful Christian response does not allow for the homophobia and transphobia that Shea’s resolution demonstrates.

A Christian cannot hold a position that educators must out students to their parents based on any identity including sexual orientation and gender identity. [My note: this is key, and a revealing statement that shows exactly what they want]

As Christians, we believe that there is only one Savior [My note: From what, I wonder]. Given Shea’s bold pronouncement that he is a Christian, too, we can only assume that he agrees. Therefore, we are mystified why he and other self-proclaimed Christians are deeming themselves to be the saviors of cisgender children and adults from transgender people run amok, lest we forget the Target restroom uproar of 2016.

To be clear, we are an educator, a parent, theologians, and pastors. We are not scientists, psychologists, or medical doctors. We do, however, trust science. Thus, we feel it is important to point out that the fear-inducing rhetoric concerning the safety of cisgender people if trans people are allowed access to restrooms that match their gender identity is misplaced and false. Just one of the many examples is this 2019 study from Harvard University and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

When Shea next has free time and turns to his Bible, perhaps he will turn to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me

Expressing your individuality like everyone else

Is the mantra of our modern age.  It's worth noting that true non-conformity has never been vogue.  True non-conformists will always be outcasts.  It happens.  Societies have that which is acceptable, and that which is not.  Nonetheless, during the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s, the flower children of that age managed to systematize non-conformity in a way never really seen.  Presenting themselves as freethinking rebels with a cause, there are probably few cases of more like-thinking conformity in history than the entire 60s hippy movement.  I mean, you could see a free thinking flower child hippy rebel ten miles away because they all looked and acted the same.  

Since then, and with help from the good people at Madisen Avenue, non-conformity has become big business.  There's money to be made in convincing people that the best way to be a non-conformist is to get in line and do what all the other non-conformists are doing. 

I thought of this when I saw a story about some local police department changing its policy where tattoos are concerned.  I mean, how much of a rebel are you when the symbol of the oppressive machine is on your side?  More to the point, when the symbol of the oppressive machine is groveling at your feet and willing to change policy in the desperate hope that you apply for a job!  Perhaps that's why so many celebrities and rock stars grovel before the State Machine today instead of boldly rebelling against it - if they ever really did rebel against it. 

I have to say, based on the evidence around us, I'd call my sons about the most rebellious non-conformists I know.  And generally it was with little prompting from us parents. In most cases they were free to pursue their appearances and interests as they saw fit.  Long hair I would tolerate, though I wouldn't recommend it.  That's a battle I wasn't going to fight.  But I drew the line at piercing and tattoos.  Anything that could cause an infection would not be allowed as long as they were on my insurance.  They more or less accepted those  boundaries, and thus far, none of them have gotten the body art or piercing or goth this or dyed hair that is embraced by about 97% of their free thinking peers.  Which makes you wonder just who is the bold non-conforming rebel.

The end of the Age of Christianity

The Christian Era.  The age of Christianity.  The light side of the dividing line that followed the New Covenant revealed through Jesus Christ. That's what we grew up in.  Or at least we thought we did, not realizing we were witnessing the last breaths of that historical epoch.  I suppose if we were raised in church it never dawned on us that the world would move on past the Christian Era in our lifetimes.  Much less could we imagine that the world would revert to the pre-Christian era values of paganism and heathen gods.  Yet that is what happened.  

Rod Dreher called it in his book The Benedict Option.  Dreher might not be the messenger we need, but his message was loud and clear for a people who missed the memo: We are entering into something the Church has not encountered since the earliest years of its existence.  A pagan world in which paganism once again has the wealth and power and minds and hearts of the masses, and those who follow this first century messiah supposedly born in a stable are the fringe outcasts.  

Granted, it's a secular paganism.  It mostly accepts a very atheistic view of the universe.  That is, reality is matter and that's about it.  Perhaps there are parallel universes or such, and energy fields and all. Maybe there is some core energy field behind it all.  Call it God, Allah, Buddha, or Bill Pullman for that matter.  None of it maters because religions are just fairy stories invited by the ancients in lieu of having science.  If there is some  divine thing, it is as irrelevant as quantum physics is to most of the human population.  If we must personalize it, we do so only to affirm me and otherwise it may stay out of my way. A seductive gospel to be sure.

Which is why it's the one that has swept the West.  What the rest of the world will do with this post-Western, post-Christian society remains to be seen.  When Russia invaded Ukraine we initially said the whole world would rally against this naked display of barbarism and slaughter.  But it hasn't.  China, India, the Middle East, S. America - all are just sitting on the fence at best, likely waiting to see what happens.  I can't help but think that not a few people in the world would be happy to watch the West eat itself. 

Nonetheless, we in the West are so far gone that such a reality check barely registers.  That's because we are dead as the civilization we once were. At this point I would support someone who wants to remove 'In God We Trust' from our money since it's a bold face lie.  Whatever god our nation trusts in today has little to nothing to do with the God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophets, Christ and His apostles.  The God who was the default understanding of God until I was old enough to remember holds no more place in our social mindset than the tooth fairy. 

My son accepts the theory that the two World Wars did it in.  First Europe after the First World War, then America after the Second, it was the end of the Christian Era and the beginning of a new, godless, pagan, secular era of self-worship and hubris that would shame the Tower of Babel.  However long ago we trace the roots of this decline, it can't be denied that in the years following WWII, the decline happened like a row of tumbling dominos. 

It's fitting that by the time I was in high school the academic world was pushing to eliminate the designation BC/AD from our timelines.  Of course many Christians instantly complied.  By the time my sons were in public school, not only did their textbooks and resources exclusively use the non-Christian 'BCE/CE (that's Before the Common Era and Common Era), but they were taught exactly what they meant and why it was incumbent upon them to adopt the same designation.

I'll say this, at least the are honest.  Ever day we see the chipping away, if not the demolition, of values, truths, beliefs, virtues and views established by the biblical revelation of God.  Donald McClarey posted a NYT editorial pondering the virtues of cannibalism in light of our modern climate crisis and food shortage.  Abortion is increasingly a badge of honor, not something horrible to be hidden.  And our medical establishments are beginning to warm to the mutilation of youth based on the mental health industry's insistence that a person who says she is Napoleon must mean there is no such thing as an objective Napoleon.  The world of the modern paganism.   

Paganism, I'm convinced, is the at-rest position of the world.  Even a secular brand of paganism.  We invent our gods in our image and proceed afoot.  In paganism, there is no sanctify of life.  Humans exist as food for other humans born into various strata of power and privilege.  Unlike the ancient pagans, however, who could still achieve lofty and honorable accomplishments, we have reduced ourselves to animals in trousers with not much to seek except the latest physical pleasure or self-worshipping proclamation.  We are the privileged ones, able to hate with justification and support the extermination of those not-me types since we're sure such practices will never turn on us, simply because we are better than anyone born before us.  Nothing honorable, much less sensical, about that. 

What the near future holds is anyone's guess.  A growing number of believers are simply throwing off the shackles of the Old Time Religion and finding new and creative ways to do in Rome now that Rome is back.  If they won't lay a sacrifice at the altar of Caesar, they will certainly find ways to party at the ceremony afterwards (from Russ Moore's statement that he couldn't attend a gay wedding, but he would happily attend a gay wedding reception).  No doubt such compromises will suffice for the new paganism - for now.  Down the road the line in the sand will be moved again, and more believers will happily leap accordingly. 

Whether it's because deep down they haven't really believed the Gospel message or not, I don't know. I have a hunch there is less real faith in our pews than we might believe.  Heck, we all know how tough it is to believe when we've lived in a ruthlessly secular state for generations.  I imagine some long ago lost that faith, but since there was no cost for indulging in a fine Sunday fellowship, it was no problem. 

Now, as the new Caesars of the new paganism consolidate control, free believing and free worshipping aren't going to be as easy as it was.  I fear those who cling to that Old Time Historical Gospel will increasingly be the pariahs, the outcasts, the ostracized.  And many of the ones charging forward with rocks ready to stone the dissenters will be those we once sat next to in our pews. 

NBC shows us how it's done

In this piece, NBC goes to war over the importance of bringing sexual attraction to the world of young girls' doll collections.  The importance of sexing up our children so that we may bring our children into the sexual fold continues apace. 

I'll admit you have to love how the Left has all but thrown out the pretense of its post-war duplicity.  There is no room for debate.  There is no room for dialogue.  There is no room for discussion.  No tolerance.  No diversity.  You either conform 100% to leftwing same-think or you're a homophobic bigot.  Period. End of statement.  The old 'stop being divisive and admit you're a Nazi' that defines the leftwing concept of unity.

Think of it.  As long as you conform 100% to the Left's dogmatic definition of diversity, the Left is completely tolerant and open to anyone who thinks the way the Left demands you think under threat of retaliation.  Thus is the double-talk that is taught in schools and colleges, endorsed by the media, promoted by pop culture, reinforced by our publishing industry, mandated by our Wall Street corporate interests and increasingly injected into the Gospel Message in too many churches. Thus is life in our secular pagan age. 

I feel a great era of purging and pruning is on the way.  I fear too many of us believed we were on the  straight path heading toward the narrow gate. We're finding out now just how many had, all along, been trudging along the broad path toward destruction and didn't even realize it.  I believe the point  of what we're seeing is to make the distinction crystal clear. To give a clear warning of who might be the tares and who might be the wheat.  And if you're shrugging your shoulders over mutilating the bodies of youth in order to inject sexual desire into their pre-K minds, I'll leave you to figure out which side of the harvest you're likely on. 

Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and straight is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!  Matthew 7.13-14