A Billy Graham sized special

So once again, ABC breaks from modern trends and continues to air the classic epic The Ten Commandments.  I posted on my love for this film some time ago.

This year, in which we remembered the late Billy Graham, I had to reflect on this movie, its grand and epic scale, and that brand of Christianity that became associated with Graham, fitting like a glove with the United States in the years following America's triumph in WWII.

A Japanese minister quipped, on the day Japan surrounded, that he had no idea why Japan ever thought it could win.

All was big.  All was massive.  All was larger than life.  And The Ten Commandments followed suit. The miracles became bigger, God became capable of creating this vast universe science was exposing to the world.  The heroes were larger than life.  The villains were epic.  It was all big.

Graham preaches to an audience over approximately one million in S. Korea

Graham, in many ways, became known because he was big.  His revivals - crusades in the day - were big.  He set up shop in a city and stayed for weeks. He drew audiences by the tens of thousands.  And in such a day, that's what Americans liked.  Even when I was a pastor in the 90s, in the twilight of Graham's influence, I used to quip that Christians today judge a pastor by the size of his gymnasium.  It was all about big, size, epic, grand, huge, whatever suggested larger than larger and vast and sprawling.

I know we're no longer there.  Nihilism vies with narcissism to be the greatest virtue of today.  The Church, stumbling to figure out how to make six figures ministering for Jesus in a society increasingly hostile to the same, is scrambling to whittle down the Faith, minimize the miracles, psychoanalyze the sinful, and generally erect a Faith where God miraculously wants us to have life and have it to the full - in a way commensurate with this age of nihilistic narcissism.

That doesn't mean I don't miss the bigger than life God of old, because I can't help but think that, despite our attempts to reduce God and only leave Him big in a vague way, His vastness seems closer to the way DeMille envisioned, or those old artists of bygone ages.  It's just a thought I had. 

One of the truly iconic scenes in movie history 

Good Friday

So 2000 years ago, a rabbi was executed by Rome.  And now it's all this. 

Today begins the period of shadows before that day of days in which all Christians find their hope.  No parties and celebrations today.  But there were earthquakes and the dead walked thousands of years ago.  Today is that day that reminds us we don't just believe a materialist model universe with a God stamp.  We believe in a Christian creation.  In our world, the Universe we see is merely a small part of Creation.  In a purely universe based model, God becomes a minor part to what really matters, which is the natural laws of physical reality.

Today challenges that.

Holy Thursday

Will be scarce for the next few days, and for a few days next week as Orthodox Easter is following fast on the heals of the West. 

Today is Holy Thursday and Fish Eaters, in its usually helpful way, has some important info, insights, customs and traditions. 

Pax.  Will be in and out until next week.

The naked assault on the Bill of Rights

The Left has made great strides in recent years.  In some ways, Trump's election was like Pearl Harbor.  A brief victory for his supporters, but a long term defeat.  Whatever he accomplishes will not stem the Left as it emerges from the closet and openly declares its desire to tear down the United States and rebuild a new nation in the Left's image.

It's not new, of course, that people are calling for an end to the 2nd Amendment, gun ownership, and right to self defense by firearms.  That's been going on for years.  What is new is that there is no pretense.  The press has thrown off all illusions of non-partisanship.  The Left is firmly invested in destroying the Trump White House, and using charges of Trump as Worst Person Ever to hoist its own vision of 'the America that should be' on the population.  It used to be wrapped up in cloaks of euphemism and deflection to greater issues and away from its impact on actual gun owners.  Those doing so today are proud of how ending the 2nd Amendment would hurt law abiding citizens and their right to purchase firearms, their contempt for gun owners being palpable.

In the old days, we called this denying the obvious

This latest debate about abolishing the Bill of Rights comes in the wake of retired SCOTUS John Paul Stevens telling the youth of the 'Not me but thee' rallies that it's time to abolish the Bill of Rights.  Of course he's not saying abolish all ten amendments.  But the Bill of Rights is properly understood as the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.  Get rid of one of them, and it is no longer the Bill of Rights.  And anyone who thinks it will end with the 2nd Amendment either wants the others to be abolished, or suffers from some chronic level of delusion.

Because, as Donald McClarey notices, this isn't anything new.  Some, like Mark Shea, make their desire to hinder the rights of gun owners obvious.  He says he isn't for banning guns.   But he says by abolishing the Bill of Rights through tearing down the 2nd Amendment, the government can then impose itself on gun ownership in such a way as to make owning a gun nigh on impossible.  Sort of like saying I'm not for starving people, I'm just for putting the food so high on the shelf that most can't get it. 

It's obvious now.  The Left is a thing, a movement, a revolution.  It has every intention of taking over the nation.  I know, I know.  We're not of this world or kingdom, we're of the heavenly kingdom.  No need getting all upset about America, it's just a country.  We'll always have heaven.  Fair enough.  Next time someone brings up global warming I'll just point out we are not of this world or kingdom, we're of the heavenly kingdom.  Whatever happens to the world doesn't matter, it's just a world.  We'll always have heaven.

But for those who understand the fragile and unique gift of freedom, liberty and the ability to freely worship and live out our faiths, we are justly concerned by this new and naked assault on our liberties.  Already this movement has launched assaults against freedom of religion, and it has been making headway against freedom of speech.  Abolish the amendment that allows us to protect ourselves, and we're one step closer to the point of no return.  After all, those first two amendments in the Bill of Rights are the ones that deal with our day to day rights and liberties.  Note they are the ones most under attack.

Now with all that said, since it's Spy Wednesday, here's the billion dollar question.  We see all manner of Christian leaders wavering before this, nipping and tucking the traditional message of the Gospel, downplaying moral stances this emergent Left considers offensive, embracing political priorities as espoused by the Left, and almost elevating fealty to the politics of the Left to being equal to belief in the Gospel:

Charity suggests these believers are duped, blind, naive, or something. Perhaps they saw the sins of America's past for the first time, somehow missing that Americans have admitted those for years, and went overboard in criticism of America or the Christian West as a result.  Imagine thinking your spouse is like God, finding out your spouse isn't like God, and filing for divorce.

That's the charitable take.  On Spy Wednesday, where we remember Judas and his betrayal of Christ, you have to wonder if many of the leaders, even those in the Catholic Church, merely see the signs of the times, the way the wind is blowing, and have every intention of being on the right side of the barbed wire fences should they ever be built.  Hard to say.  But something must explain the fact that so many believers are quickly altering their historic faith, beliefs and values to accommodate an emerging movement almost brazen in its willingness to end the rights of that same faith and destroy the values and truths that same faith proclaims.

' "And listen, Gandalf, my old friend and helper! " he said, coming

near and speaking now in a softer voice. "I said we, for we it may be, if

you will join with me. A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and

policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying

Numenor. This then is one choice before you. before us. We may join with

that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory

is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the

Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you

and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it.

                                                                                                         The Fellowship of the Ring.

Makes you wonder.  Don't think I don't. I notice some liberals are beginning to question this even as so many former conservative and traditional believers are flocking in that direction.  I wonder if that includes this particular issue of the 2nd Amendment.  Memo: I'll have to look into that.  Most liberals I find are just like most conservatives, and I believe it might be that they are just missing the truth of what is happening more than those abandoning the traditions of the Faith. We'll see.

One more thing, since I often hear this said.  For those who concede all of this, but answer with the need to take up our cross and be martyrs for the Faith, that's fine too.  There are plenty of places in the world where living out the Christian Faith will get you killed, or seriously oppressed and persecuted.  Go to one of those places and try out the martyrdom principle and see if you like it before letting it come to our home.

She is right about the March for Our Lives spectacle

While some are comparing it to the Sermon on the Mount, MLK's March on Washington, God's decision to create the heavens and earth, others are scratching their heads and saying, "Sorry, the emperor looks naked to me."

Just why this suddenly happened after one of the few mass shootings that could easily have been prevented if the current laws had been followed and procedures adhered to is beyond me.  Apparently a couple of the students were already pretty boisterous activists, pushing for things like gay alliances and LGBT and other Leftist tropes.  Perhaps they just know how to get the ball rolling.

Since the Left has thrown out all pretense of objectivity, fairness, truth, values, morals or principles, jumping on this and ramming it through in such a nakedly partisan and deliberate manner shouldn't be surprising.

Nonetheless, those behind gun control, banning guns, eliminating the 2nd Amendment, hating non-liberals, pushing for Democratic politicians are acting like it's the dawn of a new era in the history of the universe. Since these partisans happen to occupy the halls of Washington, the news media, Hollywood and academia, and apparently high office in religious institutions, expect this to be chiseled as an event demanding all worship and adoration into the remnants of former Confederate monuments that were destroyed by the Left's Iconoclasm.  Anything less and you're a baby killing murderer.  Thus the protesters.

Nonetheless, for those looking at this and saying, "Nope, still see a naked emperor here", we have someone who explains exactly why this is.  It isn't that we worship guns instead of Jesus, enjoy mass slaughter or get our kicks out of murdered babies.  Many of us actually have kids and don't want them to be a victim of such cruel and pointless violence any more than we want anyone else to.  We just see there is something wrong in all of this, so wrong that this March/Movement is diverting attention from actually solving the problem and working to lower the rates of killings in deference to partisan agendas.

Don't know who she is. Maybe she's been wrong about everything else, but this time she was spot on correct about almost everything (save the whole arming of teachers, which I feel is still avoiding the core of the problem).

Gun control humor

HT Donald McClarey

It's humor of course, but it also shows the hypocrisy behind the complete and unqualified allegiance that the New Prolife Movement has with this movement, funded by agencies like Planned Parenthood, dedicated to demanding sacrifices [from everyone else], and aligned with many of the forces likely behind the actual reason suicides and mass killings are now a common occurrence.  At least Mark Shea admits he  wants to abolish the 2nd Amendment (other Amendments to follow directly). 

Meanwhile I say we make St. Oscar Romero, shot to death March 24, 1980, the Patron of Gun Violence Victims and ask him to obtain for us the destruction of the Gun Cult and the repeal of the Second Amendment so we can finally start instituting sane laws.  (No, repealing the 2A is not “outlawing guns”.  There is no right to keep and bear cars in the Constitution, but lots of people still have them.  Repealing the 2A would make it possible to make gun ownership as difficult and expensive as car ownership, including requiring expensive registration and insurance.  You’ll live, Gun Cult.)

Of course Mark is a political Leftist, he doesn't represent the actual Catholic teachings. He has to know what he says is BS, especially after once calling out Obama and the Left as tyrants for the HHS Mandate's naked attack on religious liberty.  It's highly unlikely the side that taught Americans to chuck religious freedom for our libidos can be over-trusted when it comes to gun ownership. 

What is troubling in Mark's piece is that Pope Francis seems to embrace such things as 'power to the youth.'  Was a time when we taught age and wisdom were what young people should strive for.  After decades of handing the torch to one generation of youngsters after another, you'd think we'd have learned something.   Especially, as I said, if the adults who are so horrible today were the youth of yesterday who were supposed to make it all right.

Apparently not.  Once more Pope Francis and most of the modern Left has very little that isn't in common.  Whether that is why the entire Church seems to be collapsing before the onslaughts of the post-Christian Left, or simply the logical extension of a process years in the making, I don't know.  But the fact that a movement so clearly partisan, post-modern and riddled with endless problems behind the attitudes, hatred, vitriol and demagoguery all but gets a pass by those who strut under the moniker of New Pro-Life, and do so in complete allegiance to forces that should be antithetical to anything close to Pro-Life, much less Christian, shows that we are heading into an age of shadows for the Church.

BTW, could anyone tell me just where Pope Francis said anything about abortion in that quote that was supposed to prove Pope Francis speaks against the evils of guns and abortion equally?

Jesuits bravely rush forward with white flags in hand

And the Catholic Left sounds increasingly Protestant as it declares the history of the Christian West to be some Babylonian captivity of the True Faith. The College of the Holy Cross is dropping the Knight imagery, including its mascot, from the school.  That's because Knight can only mean Crusaders, and Crusader means evil.  Muslims being the beautiful people of the beautiful religion who have done nothing but chant John Lennon songs every day. Yes, it's a Jesuit school.  Yes, it's liberal multi-culturalism.  Yes, it's complete surrender by accepting false history and a flawed understanding of the past.  Jonah Goldberg breaks down the stupidity and cowardice.

I'm disappointed but not surprised

One reason we have a president like Donald Trump is that American conservatives were tired of being shafted by the only party that wasn't at war with them.  As the March of Youth for Liberalism this weekend demonstrated, there is no level to which the American Left won't sink in order to gin up support for its cause.  That the overwhelming majority of the march was focused on issues and solutions that would barely phase the majority of casualties in our modern age of violence is entirely irrelevant.  It was using kids as shields for the greater cause of teaching a new generation to demand 'other' Americans sacrifice for their safety.

Conservatives have been fighting this growing plague for decades, turning to the only party not wholly and entirely invested in the post-Christian, post-Western, post-nationalist Left emerging across America and Europe.  And yet that same party continues to payback their support with the most limp-wristed, lame and impotent responses.

So whatever has happened in this charade of budget deadlines and budge compromises, there has been one ongoing consistent: Planned Parenthood continues to be funded at all times.  Supposedly conservatives are continuing to insist that abortion is the great moral crisis of our age.  After all, eliminate the right to life before it begins, and all other rights fade away.  Even as many post-conservative Christians throw abortion under the bus in order to curry favor with the pro-population control Left, conservatives are supposed to be about keeping it a central issue of the day.

So what happened?  Once again, the Republican majority congress sent a temporary budget to Donald Trump - their knight in shiny armor - that ensured Planned Parenthood would continue to be funded.  Supposedly this is why Trump was brought in, even if his own views on defunding Planned Parenthood, just like most of his views, were not easy to pinpoint.

But we know for a fact that each time he has had the chance, he has done nothing to get the Republicans, who control congress, to actually do one of the chief policy demands of conservatives, and that's defund planned parenthood.

It's been compared to Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, the way the GOP has treated American Christian conservatives over the last couple decades.  Sometimes, I'm inclined to agree.

…Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), joked that “It’s a good thing we have Republican control of Congress or the Democrats might bust the budget caps, fund planned parenthood and Obamacare, and sneak gun control without due process into an Omni…wait, what?”

The face of the anti-gun youth movement

Is, apparently, one David Hogg.  I know nothing about him apart from this issue.  I saw him on a videotaped interview and, boy, he doesn't hold back.  His opinions are not for polite company.

Eh.  It's a serious issue, so I suppose why worry about the language itself.   But he does seem to possess a rather 'they suck, so we're here to save the world' attitude that the last few generations of youth have had.  And since the basic premise of this latest 'hail to the youth' movement is that the adults stink and screwed everything up, it makes you wonder.

The adults today were simply the last generation of youth who were praised and told to rise up and save the world.  In fact, we've been passing that torch to the youth generation for about 60 years now.  And if the adults have continually done such a bad job, and knowing that they are merely the latest generation of youth who were supposed to save the world, perhaps it's time to rethink the whole 'youth to save the world' strategy.

This is especially true if this young man, boldly and bravely declaring the real way to do democracy, seems to embody that new spin on asking others to give up their rights while insisting - and rather proudly as well, if I may add - that he's not about to give up even the smallest little sacrifice himself.  Even for this most important of all issues.

A Palm Sunday reflection from days gone by

Courtesy of the always informative The American Catholic.  History is a treasure trove of lessons learned from those who came before.  Today historical studies are a sham, a farce, a club with which to bludgeon the past and venerate ourselves despite our stunning lack of accomplishments.  But there was a time when we learned of the rich and wonderful heritage of the Christian West and the United States, as well as those wonderfully flawed yet fascinating individuals who laid the groundwork for our nation.

Fear the Nun

March Madness has lived up to the name.  I lost my bracket in the ancient days.  And if people have managed to limp along with their brackets, it's no thanks to Loyala.  That school has a ringer.  And the ringer is Sister Jean.  Bob Kurland has the scoop.  Having watched some of Loyala's victories, I'm beginning to think she's convinced the Almighty to root for a particular team.

I am in awe of Arnaud Beltrame

And sadly, he has passed away.  Col. Arnaud Beltrame broke from our modern trends and sacrificed himself for those he never knew.  As an ISIS soldier attempted to keep the slaughter alive by taking hostages in a neighborhood store, Col. Beltrame and the French police surrounded the location and began working to keep the hostages alive.  Eventually, Col. Beltrame offered to trade himself in for a hostage, and went into the jaws of death that others might live.

Leaving his phone on so that the police could track the ISIS terrorist, the resulting firefight unfortunately included Col Beltrame receiving fatal wounds.  He passed away this morning.  God bless that hero and his family who gave the last full measure.

As we watch forces dedicated to oppression and control exploit youth willing to march for the proposition that it's time for others to sacrifice so I can be safe, Col. Beltrame lives as a stark reminder of what kind of attitudes we seem to be working so hard to eliminate.  He didn't ask that others give what they can so he could remain safe.  He sacrificed everything so that others would have more days and years in which to live.

You choose.  Which would you prefer?  A world in which Col. Beltrame represents the basic philosophies of the day, or one in which a generation is taught that it's not what we can do for others we should be asking, but how much others must surrender so that we can have what we want out of life?  I know I have my answer.  And I'm thankful that one of my sons, looking past his peers' aligning with the majority marching today against others' rights, has chosen to follow the same path  as Col. Beltrame so that someday he might be able to help - others.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15.13

Multiculturalism and the Dying West

One of those 'not bad' pieces of mine from a year or so ago.  It's my thoughts on how the Left's desire to destroy the Western Tradition has been aided immeasurably by this entire Multicultural Education movement.  The piece was from a news story back then, but I have seen nothing to suggest things have changed for the better since. 

We needed more Toys R Us kids

That Toys R Us filed bankruptcy and is closing all of its US stores made quite the splash.  We'll miss it - to a point.  Given our own financial issues, it's been a long time since the family and I shopped in the house of Geoffery.  Nonetheless, there has been much debate about the role that Amazon played, and the role that bad management and marketing decisions played.

What hasn't been discussed, however, is this little snippet from a TRU representative.

The decrease of birthrates in countries where we operate could negatively affect our business. Most of our end-customers are newborns and children and, as a result, our revenue are dependent on the birthrates in countries where we operate. In recent years, many countries’ birthrates have dropped or stagnated as their population ages, and education and income levels increase. A continued and significant decline in the number of newborns and children in these countries could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

Interesting.  I'm sure that isn't the only, or even the main, reason TRU collapsed.  Nonetheless, there is something about that suggesting a lack of smarts.  Give money to an industry that spends much of its time eliminating your clientele. 

This makes me think on the lingering suicide of the West.  The question has long ceased to be "If Europe ceases to exist", but "When Europe ceases to exist."  And it's not so much the evils of immigration as much as unfettered immigration mixed with unsustainable birthrates.  Were it not for immigration, European countries (and possibly the United States) would already have proven themselves generationally insolvent.

Of course the multi-cultural Left doesn't' mind.  Since it sees the West in mostly evil terms, and every other culture and civilization through the rosiest glasses, the end of Europe and America might be a good thing for humanity.  Pope Francis, who often sounds suspiciously like a Latin American Liberation theologian, also echoed that view when he praised the ascension of Islamic leaders in Europe, rather than lament the possibility that the civilization that brought the world concepts of human dignity, freedom, liberty, equality, the scientific revolution, and Democracy might be dying before the rest of the world is prepared to pick up the flag and run with it.

Nonetheless, there's reason to believe the Christian West wasn't all bad, and in fact brought a positive contribution to the world, one that won't easily be replaced with its elimination.  Those Christians, especially Catholics, who have developed a rather Protestant view of the West's history might also have something to answer for down the road.  Losing toy stores is just small potatoes next to what might end up being the result of the West's diminished role in the world.

A March against their rights will happen this weekend

Whose rights?  Why 'their' rights, that's who.  Because just like being willing to let terrorists kill other Americans, so taking away other Americans' rights is the price I'm willing to pay for making America a better country for me to live in.  After all, it's one thing to demand others give up their rights, it's quite another to think I should.  That's going too far.

Nonetheless, this whole episode is what we used to call pay dirt.  The Left, seizing upon a tragedy that was aided by systemic bureaucratic failures and breakdowns, has found a new weapon in its war against the traditional West:  Kids who came from a high school where a shooting occurred.

"As long as we have victims in front of us, we're invulnerable!"

Like the suffering individual advocating for Democrats' healthcare policies, these kids are invulnerable.  Put a disabled child, a parent of a slain youth, a student from a school shooting at the front of your column, and you're nigh on invincible.  Any criticisms or observations about collusion or exploitation will immediately be spun as 'you hate babies.'  Charges of bigotry, racism and sexism will be forthcoming.

Of course there's plenty to suggest that using them for political clout is a happy byproduct.  That a growing number of these kids, chanting an end to the NRA, a willingness to ban guns, and a general disdain for gun owners and conservative Republicans, might also ensure a new wave of registered voters who will join in supporting the party that wants to save us from racists, global warming, sexists and Christians, is even better.  Hence why this great movement is supported by the great alliance of the Left, given finances and support from the wealthy and powerful, and fully advocated by and promoted by the press.

Yes, there is that nasty little part about the press deliberately ignoring those students who were victims who don't support gun control as the only issue worth discussing.  Sometimes it almost seems like these kids are being exploited, rather than joined by the various national forces that want guns gone.

But almost overnight, the generation that has been taught America and Nazi Germany were practically one and the same, the entire history of America was a great evil, and it's time to end this notion that people have the freedom to be evil (that is, not Leftist), has adopted a new mantra: I'm perfectly willing to take away their rights for my safety. Exploitation is a small price to pay for such a reward.  Whatever the morality of it is, at this point, entirely irrelevant.

Fun Observation Update: My boys were watching the obviously coordinated marches, and my second oldest noted that 'to hear the media talk, you'd never know there was a Republican in Parkland.'  That is true.

Updated Observation: Another point was made, and I'm not sure.  I heard on the news yesterday that there were students on buses heading for Washington.  The press said last night some students were arriving in Washington early on in the evening.  Are these students on Spring Break this week?  Don't tell me schools are letting them out again.  I'm not saying they are, but the press certainly suggested the kids were on their way yesterday, a school day.  I'm just curious. 

Joe Biden shows how popular Trump really is

Of course Joe Biden is every bit the genius that Sarah Palin or Dan Quayle were ever accused of being.

Here he shows that the Left doesn't really mind the things Trump does, it only hates it because Trump decided to run with an (R) in front of his name.

Bonus if you know that kids are often bullied in school because of their looks and weight more than almost any other reason.  Weight is especially a major cause of bullying.  So what does Biden do?  Speak of physical appearance and weight entirely in derogatory terms, right when he is speaking of beating up the president.

Again, Trump is the president that shows what we are, but just didn't want to admit.  He is what the Left loves.  The Left doesn't care about kids bullied or people hurt.  Those are convenient issues for advancing the cause.  And nothing shows this more than Joe Biden and the Left's ongoing silence where his perpetual foot in mouth campaigns inevitably end up going.

I don't know what to make of the Vatican Letter issue

The BBC brings us up to date.  It seems pretty small potatoes.  I think the problem is that Pope Francis, like many Christian leaders across the board, is trying to make the Faith relevant to a world openly trying to evangelize the Faith out of existence.  He is doing this, again like others, by taking the banner for issues that modernity says is important - open immigration, post-national globalism, global warming, primacy of the individual - and downplaying such old notions as Salvation by the Gospel, the traditional marriage unit, abortion, homosexuality and other things considered important up to a decade or so ago.

Because Pope Francis has jumped on things like "Fake News" as one of the great evils of the age, it becomes imperative to keep a tight ship where reporting news is concerned.  If the sins of the world were sexual or immorality, then you couldn't have people running around sleeping with their secretaries.  If the sins of modernity have been pushed aside under the auspices of 'mercy' and 'just love'em', while Global Warming or Fake News are elevated to the great threats to humanity of the age, then you have to keep your you-know-what wired tight where Carbon and Fake news are just the same.

And in this case, it obviously wasn't.

Dwight Longenecker offers up some common sense for Christian living in the Facebook era

Or a little Top Ten list of Satan's sleight of hand, tailor made for the new millennium.  A reminder as we begin the last leg of Lent.

Conservatives can be wrong

As can capitalists, socialists, atheists, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, druids, pagans, witches, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, doctors, lawyers, chefs, police officers, priests, ministers, doctors, lawyers, evangelists, architects, railroad engineers, journalists, politicians and delivery truck divers.

So why do I spend most of my time harping on the modern Left?  Easy.  Because I consider it the most direct and visible threat to our nation, our well being, our freedoms and the world in which my sons will raise their children.

This is not because the Left itself is filled with people any worse at their worst than the worst in any other group.  Nor is it because the Left alone is wrong, and everyone else is spot on correct about everything.  It is because the Left has the full support of the agencies, industries and institutions that should, and typically do, protect us from the excesses and wickedness of various groups.  The press, the world of arts and culture, the academy and educational institutions, and those professions that they fill, such as courts and judge's benches, are increasingly backing and promoting even the worst the modern Left has to offer.

These bulwarks of freedom have embraced new forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination and pining for segregation based on ethnicity, nationality, religion and gender.  They have stood by as the worst of the Left has called for censorship, oppression, intimidation and outright violence.  They have pardoned and made excuses or downplayed or ignored as the radicals of the Left have declared themselves grand inquisitors, judge and jury with the right to accuse and then destroy all based on a mere insistence of guilt, even including destruction of property and physical violence.  These institutions have even turned blind eyes to antisemitism, racism, sexism and even sexual assault when those might tarnish the designs and narratives of the Left.

Instead of protecting us and our democracy, the press, schools, entertainment industry and even some courts look away, or even cheer along.  When Muslim groups said they want Christians with traditional beliefs barred from government positions, we heard nothing.  When radical leftists attacked, shot at, tortured and assaulted conservatives and  Trump supporters, it barely made more than a polite discussion on most media outlets before being swept under the rug.  When people were fined, fired and punished for their non-liberal views about gay marriage or gender, the press and most of our popular culture venues rejoiced with great rejoicing, or joined in the fray.  Oh, and it's worth noting that a growing number of liberals, religious or otherwise, are joining in, as are some conservatives who are clearly growing tired of the fight.

That's why I'm so hard on the emergent, insurrectionist Left.  If conservative radical racists came out and said Blacks deserve what they get when it comes to violence, and the press said nothing or, worse, entertained debate about it, I'd pounce all over it.  If someone on the right said that violence against non-conformers could be justified, and you had scholars and movies and television shows and news broadcasts giving it some form of legitimacy, I'd be on it like white on rice.

As it is, it's the Left saying the same damn thing about whites committing suicide and falling through America's cracks who receive the same exact responses I just laid out as extreme examples, and that's why I focus on the Left.  Because it's not focused on by the press, universities, or halls of Hollywood - unless it's to excuse and support the evil.  The same goes for the left's calls for censorship, oppression, violence, government retribution against non-conformity, and the manifold sins with which the Left has long flirted.

When you see even Christians justifying the grave evils of our age in fealty to a force of evil, and those agencies that should protect us joining in, it's time to admit what the greatest threat to our well-being and the future of our posterity actually is.  We'll have time for other, less direct threats down the road.  And some day other forces of evil may tickle the ears of our establishment, and then we will focus accordingly.  But today's evil is enough, and today's evil threat wears the label 'Leftist' for easy identification, fully supported by our protectors, and advocated by a growing number of leaders who appear to have given up the fight.

Remember when a hardcore liberal democrat tried to murder Republicans at a ballpark?

And remember how his actions had nothing to do with his beliefs, his politics, or motives or any such things.   Remember how we were cautioned about linking his politics to his actions; you couldn't blame liberalism or Democrats or leftist rhetoric?  It was declared that he was merely a sick man, his actions were stand alone, and there should be no attempt at drawing a line of blame to anything but his own evil actions.

Wait for it.  Mark Shea has already thrown the hammer down and used the bombings to attack his favorite demons of Hell.  He even threw a dig at homeschooling in for good measure.  Folks who used to read Mark in the old days will appreciate the irony.  No matter what the bomber's motives, I'm willing to bet there will be much made about people like him (conservative) being natural killers.  Mark has already drawn the line to conservative Evangelical homeschool types.  Let's see if the rest of the press follows suit.

I would talk about being thankful it might be over, praying for the victims and all, but such rubbish has long fallen along the wayside in our modern era, as evidenced by not only Mark, but by so many on all sides rushing in to make ideological hay out of this, even while people were dying.  So there you go.

UPDATE INFORMATIONAL NOTE: So it was pointed out to me that Mark has been using the old term he once condemned, Christianist.  What is a Christianist?  Basically someone who thinks they are a Christian, but Mark knows otherwise. And how do we know a Christianist?  Basically, according to Mark's post, it is a person who is conservative, Evangelical Christian (the most hated group in America), opposes gay marriage, is homeschooled, opposes abortion and thinks brandishing people for life for sex crimes is not a good idea.  So there you go.

BONUS NOTE: If you browse the sad spectacle of CAEI's comments, note the quick and easy attribution of racist motives based purely on the skin color, religion of the bomber.  We know nothing of his politics, only views on some social issues.  We know his race and religious affiliation.  Based on that - and that alone - we have people weaving entire narratives of his racist and evil purposes. Those on CAEI are not alone.  The strange irony of an entire swath of our nation that believes religion, nationality and skin color alone are enough to prove you are an evil racist has to be unprecedented.