Heh

RIP John Lewis

John Lewis, famed political leader and Civil Rights activist, has died. 

Like Rock and Roll, he's been part of the tapestry upon which my own life's understanding of the world evolved.  I know of him, though not much about him.  In some ways, he has been treated by the popular media and general pop culture the way we Americans are supposed to have deified and mythologized people like the Founding Fathers.

Being alive and in politics, there were certainly cases of discord and controversy.  Usually when it was filtered through the press, however, it never seemed to be something that would stick to him, and we more or less knew it. 

So John Lewis the myth, the legend, the demigod was someone I grew up hearing about, especially the last couple decades of life.  But behind that was no doubt John Lewis the human being.  Someone who risked much to fight for what he believed at a time when what he believed was right.  That type of courage and sacrifice covers a multitude of failings.  Perhaps even sins.  It isn't a blank check for absolving everything, but it does remind us that things have gotten better since the days of his toughest fights, despite the current attempt to convince  minorities that Jim Crow was never so bad as today.

So RIP John Lewis.  I pray God welcome his spirit into His loving arms and cover Lewis and his family, and all who mourn for him, with the peace of Christ which covers all understanding.  Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Anti-Catholic hate crimes continue

Another statue of the Blessed Virgin has been desecrated.  And here, a statue of Christ Himself has been beheaded.   If you're waiting for the national press to run with these stories, I wouldn't.  Certainly don't hold your breath.

Some Catholics, like Mark Shea, say this is acceptable and have even defended some cases of it, or at least downplayed them.  Others, like Fr. James Martin, have been willing to discuss the criticism of Christian art based on the wrong ethnic portrayals in that art.  In the city soon to be the former city of Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Ginther and the City Council did what the KKK tried to do and failed, and that's get rid of Christopher Columbus.  Though no doubt they will retort that they did what the KKK wanted to do, but for the right reasons.  He was European, Caucasian, and Christian, and that's why they ditched him.  Not just because he was Catholic.  Given that we here in the Buckeye State entertain Black History Month and Indigenous Peoples - both groups with much death and slavery and conquest in their histories - it can't be because of anything Columbus did.

This war on the West is more broadly a war on Christ.  This is Antichrist.  This is the Beast.  And its greatest victory isn't those who have rejected the Gospel who now make war upon it.  It's not even those within the folds of the faithful who join forces of heresy, blaspheme, slaughter for debauchery and tyranny.  The greatest victory will be when those who see the writing ion the wall and see the Enemy for who he is, but will do little to nothing about it.

A bishop discovers the Latin Mass

Nice to see.  I have no ax to grind with the Novus Ordo (that's New Order to us non-Latin speakers).  Though I question its effectiveness, as I do most things the Catholic Church has done in the last century.

The Catholic Church, somewhere and at some point, decided it would go with a 'keep up with the Jonses' approach to its place in the modern world.  Assume progress, assume all these new acaedmic and scientific disciplines are discovering the real universe and everything in it, and modify accordingly.  In some cases compromise.  If all else fails, surrender and toss those old Christian teachings and values out the window.

Now, as we begin to see hints that the entirety of Christian Western Civilization was essentially Nazi, and ideas as simple as 'hard work is good' and 'families with a Mom and Dad and some kids happen to represent a positive' are spun as some subversive white supremacists colonial imperialist racist propaganda, the Church's current approach is going to be put to the test.  Just how much of what the Church developed over the first 2000 years of its history can it jettison?  At least, how much can it jettison before people logically conclude that if the Church was wrong about so many things for so long, how can we believe it's right about anything now?

That's been a problem for quite some time.   You can only insist those Christians before were just wrong about so many things we see and touch and hear before people conclude Christians might not be right about all those things we can't see and touch and hear - like God and the Holy Spirit and eternal life.

Not to mention that, at the end of the day, surrender and continual abasement does not usually lead to respect.  Just ask any one of a dozen mainline Protestant denominations.  When the Episcopal Church in America ordained Bishop Gene Robinson, he insisted that it would mark a turning point in his church's decades long decline.  Now you'd see bus loads of people flocking to the churches to celebrate its embrace of right-think.  Well, no.  Just the opposite.  The decline has continued and, according to some, accelerated since then.   That's because people respect people who stand their ground if those people are people of good will.  If they aren't, don't worry about them.  If they are, they'll respect the Church even if they don't like it or those in it.  Assuming, of course, it isn't being liked by all the people at the best parties that motivates us.

End the end, a century or more of making the Church more secular has accomplished nothing,  Trying to divide the secular and material from the spiritual does nothing.  And that includes taking anything the secular belief system says is true and thinking we can just slap a God-stamp on it and make it Christian.  Those who believe the secular faith will not meet Christians halfway, any more than various left wing movements born of the secular worldview will.  Just when have feminists compromised with the Church?  When have LGTBQ activists compromised?  When have abortion rights groups compromised?  Compromise?  They've never heard of the word.  The same goes for other world religions, BTW.  The Church's continual insistence that meeting the rest of the world halfway will work someday verges on the old definition of insanity.

So maybe it's time to rethink all the things the Church has modified or changed over the last few generations in its efforts to keep up with the Jonses and get those rascally Jonses to come to the Church.   It hasn't seemed to work for the first century of doing so.  Maybe it's better to rethink the old worn out strategy before we add another century to the list.

Catholic blogs and websites I'll be watching

Here.   I'll certainly look for others.  Mike Flynn (TOF) is worth a read, when he does post.  John C Wright is a firebrand, and typically of more abrasive stuff than I feel comfortable with.  Nonetheless, he also has been calling out warnings against the encroaching war on the Christian West for some time, and was obviously right in doing so.  Plus he is good at unpacking lofty subjects that are often way over my head.  Of course The American Catholic has been a goto, not just for Catholic info, but for great insights into history, plus an annoying tendency to have shout outs to movies I've never heard of - and me considering myself a film buff.

I have made my peace with Rod Dreher.  Dreher was an evangelical who converted to Catholicism who then moved to Orthodoxy.  Though he remains Orthodox, I'd say a good 50% of what he writes and who he references is decidedly Latin in nature. Many of those he hangs with are Catholic, and he often looks back longingly toward Rome, giving only the most occasional nods to remind us he is Orthodox.  Whether he's run into some of the problems I discovered, I don't know.  I just notice that trend.  He clearly hasn't shuffled off the Latin coil any more than I could.  Though his collapse during the Covid-19 pandemic, and his willingness to haul those gathering to worship off to the prisons, showed he won't be the one to stand firm once the storm hits, that doesn't mean he doesn't have occasional good insights.  Especially when he can set aside his never-trump badge and focus on seeing the world through Christian lenses.   He is also a good resource for tapping into those such as I met in my Orthodox days.  He knows many like I met from Islamic countries or the former Soviet Bloc whose basic attitude toward what is happening in America is 'what the hell is the matter with you, you're already 1/3 Soviet and don't even realize it!'

I'll also put in a nod for Fish Eaters, that site I first stumbled on ages ago when I was first thought about taking the Tiber plunge.  That site continued to be a pit stop for me over the years, and though not friendly in any way toward Vatican II (and with some good reason), it does yeoman's work when it comes to breaking down the nitty-gritty and 'whys and what fors' of Catholic life.  Believe it or not, if you're not Catholic, it's darn confusing to figure out all the Catholic bells and whistles.  A single place to go that says 'that's why we cross ourselves and how' is worth its weight in gold.

There will be others naturally.  I'll keep more of an eye on things again when it comes to those naughty blogs who like to confuse politics or other agendas and opinions with the faith. Many I visited back in the day are less Catholic and more political now, especially those that swing left.  Because of that, and because I now have a keen interest in the tradition of my family, I'll watch to see how much false teaching and unchristian attitudes are percolating around those sites.  Especially since, unfortunately, many of those represent the majority witness among Western Catholics and even Catholic leadership.

And that includes Pope Francis and some of his shenanigans.  I don't dislike, much less hate, Pope Francis, but he does do things that I find bothersome coming from a prominent religious leader.  For instance, if you've ever noticed, he has a tendency to call out 'sinners' when musing on problems among more conservative and traditional believers and Western democracies, while merely calling out 'sins' when those apply to problem that are the left of center or outside the Christian fold.  That is, Pope Francis calls out 'rigid' Christians or the evils of Arms Manufacturers, but will only speak of 'abortion' (not those who get them) as a sin, or marriage between a man and a woman, but not homosexuals.  See how that works?   I doubt that's a coincidence, but it's a type of slickness that doesn't sit well when one is charged with speaking the Truth clearly and openly, where our yes should be yes, and our no should be no.

So I'll be doing my homework.  Since I don't have the time to study, I won't declare mine a 'Catholic blog' now more than I did.  I think to do that, I need to do the heavy lifting I'm just not ready to do at this point.  It will be my blog, from one who now has seen the three main brothers within Christianity and can speak to the experiences of each.  I simply have settled in the one I feel hits the mark the closest and, despite all evidence to the contrary, likely has the best chance of weathering the upcoming and nearing storms. 

I am not a prophet

Repeat, I am not a prophet.  Just because I see things I wrote year ago coming true, it merely means I can read the signs of the times.  There were others who also saw it coming.  It's just that now that the War on the West is here, some seem taken aback by the obvious.  Even now, some are following the old 'just meet them halfway, and I'm sure it will work' approach. 

Culturally arrogant?

No my child. In the olden days, that was called racism.  Or, more specifically, antisemitism.  You know, quoting Hitler in tirades against Jews?  That's known as more than just 'culturally arrogant' or a 'cultural blind spot.'  And before we continue, can we put to rest this narrative that if it had been a white player, the reaction would have been different?  You're damn right it would have been.  The white player in question would have been fired and hung out to dry, no questions asked. 

But because it's a black athlete waxing Himmler (or Farrakhan), he's fined some money (a sizable amount), and allowed to go on business as usual.  And his violation?  Apparently 'cultural arrogance.' 

No, it's racism.  One of the most racist - and demonstrably false and stupid - beliefs in recent generations has been the idea that only Caucasians are genetically programmed to be racist by birth.  There are two types of people who believe this. There are fools who keep their heads in the sand and ignore the obvious.  And there are liars and bigots whose agendas necessitate such nakedly stupid and racist ideas. 

Fact is, through my life, I've seen and heard plenty of racism from all sides and from all people.  In college I knew non-whites who were racist toward other ethnic groups.  Antisemitic, too.  One of the most Jew hating antisemites I ever knew was a Middle Eastern student I knew in college.  Liberals were often antisemitic as well back then, and sometimes racist (though not as often).  Over the years I've heard the worst insults against Muslims and Hispanics come from black Americans.  And I've heard white liberals trash Africans who refuse to get on the good ship Liberal Wokeness. 

Fact is, racism, bigotry, xenophobia are universals and have been found in all places through all times.   One need only read accounts from other peoples through the ages to see how they speak of those from other cultures they meet for the first time.  Read what Muslims thought of Franks even before the Crusades.  Read what American Indians had to say about European immigrants.  Read anything Japanese ever said about anyone not Japanese.

No.  What he said was as antisemitic as a skinhead or neo-Nazi.  He has his job only because of his skin color, and the stupidly false and racist narrative that you can always tell a racist by the color of his skin. 

We have returned (to Rome)

Even as Orthodox, this was my spiritual pit stop

Yes, some have already picked up by my posts here and on some other forums that it sounds as if we're Catholic again.  Yes, we are.

First, in some fluke mistake, apparently our membership change was never sent over and our local parish has continued to keep us on its membership lists.  So we've been Catholic all along!  But seriously, that's not what happened.

We moved to Orthodoxy in 2015 because we had little choice.  Years ago, our local Catholic parish was a hot mess.  A fine but weakened priest (owing to family and health problems), had left the already moderate church in the hands of some proud 'that went out with Vatican II' leaders.  The next priest, a proud but somewhat weak liberal, continued to play to those forces, allowing almost anything - including a youth leader with a lesbian and transgender daughter in full support of LGBTQ agendas - to take over.  Youth became heavy on liberal social doctrine and Harry Potter parties, low on that Catholic doctrine stuff.

That priest and some in the church came to a head when he invited an openly left leaning social justice advocate pushing for, beyond just gay marriage, broadened abortion rights.  That pushed the traditional faction over the edge and the whole thing boiled over.  The resulting bad blood and the gushing of members (that was already happening) left it so that on a given Sunday, you could go bowling at Mass and not worry about hitting anyone with the ball.

Beyond the social liberalism, the implicit universalism that many modern Catholics embrace was becoming explicit.  Soon I heard my boys saying variations on 'well, Buddhism is just another way to God' and 'you get to God your own way, so going youth group isn't too important.'  It sounded much closer to Oprah than Jesus.  And worse, they were getting it as a direct result of what they were being taught at church.   They were losing their faith in the faith because of, not despite, the church.

We went through a series of temp priests, and one really wacked out fellow who told us he was pissed at us for being taken from the parish he liked.  Finally we received a priest who was big on administrative and organizational gifts, not so much pastoral or spiritual shepherding.  He did stem the flow of financial bleeding and got the church on its feet that way, but he left the more heinous heresies and blasphemies alone.

Meanwhile I have written many times on the change in the greater Church's attitudes toward clergy converts.  The year we came into the Church a new bishop arrived who acted as if he would rather see the Church fall into the 7th layer of Hell than see a former Protestant clergy so much as clean toilets in the diocese.  Because of this, and in the midst of the financial meltdown and the anemic recovery, we were nearly out in the street.  Rumor has it that was the bishop's mentality.  By letting former clergy starve, that proved the Church wasn't paying off clergy to convert.

Despite being assured by certain 'lay apostolates' (that's 'ministries' to you Protestants) that full time Protestant clergy were becoming Catholic by the legions and everything usually worked out hunky-dory, we discovered that was not the case.  Very few 'full time clergy' actually became Catholic.  Only a few of those in later years found any welcoming opportunities.  By the late 90s, very few made it further than being an usher.  The attitudes of the Church were already changing.  It may have been different in the days of Mother Angelica and Scott Hahn, but by my time, those days had long passed. Not that this, on its own, was a major problem.  I didn't become Catholic for the job prospects.  But week after week of hearing them plead for more vocations - except Dave Griffey, anything but Dave Griffey - added to the mounting toll.

By 2013, we decided to try to find a different parish, even if it was in the same diocese.  I know Catholics aren't supposed to do that, but once Pope Francis came on board, and made his famous 'get to God where you are' statement to Evangelicals, my sons were losing all faith in any of this Christian stuff. Why, we could have stayed Evangelical and gotten to God and kept our comfortable life and savings account! Gee Dad, what do you know?

We tried different parishes, but long distance church going isn't easy when you're on the brink financially.  Plus, there weren't many parishes that were different than our local gang.  A couple were, but they were deep down into the edges of the city soon to be the former city of Columbus.  We're in a large town about an hour away from downtown C------s.  It has one parish. Other options just weren't available.

At that point, I saw the 'new' Orthodox mission about a half hour or so away (highway driving that is).  The distance, again, was an issue.  We figured it would be tough, but if everything worked out well, it might be an option that helped with issues we had and opened up a new pilgrimage in the Faith, pending any huge theological problems.

Well, the operative phrase was 'worked out well'.  For the next five years we were hit with a never ending string of - everything.  Last year alone I was in an ER, physical rehab or other medical facility at least once a week, and typically with different family members.  The previous years were similar.  One thing after another seemed to block and hinder us from gathering and getting our minds around Orthodoxy, much less getting our hearts around it.

Now, we would never have gone to Orthodoxy just because 'problems' in the Catholic Church, even with the abuse crisis.  I've studied too much history to miss that such things have plagued the Church since the New Testament.  And if you're looking for a perfect church, good luck.

The problem was we had no real church available that wouldn't teach my kids how stupid we were to become Catholic, if not care about Christianity in general.  Heck, we could have found Protestant churches that wouldn't have done that.  Orthodoxy fit because there are things that are positive today in the Orthodox Church that are sorely missing in modern Catholicism.

Of course there are also issues with Orthodoxy, as with any tradition.  One thing that got under my skin was the Orthodox tendency to be rather anti-Western.  Not just anti-American, which many were, but anti-Western.  To the Orthodox, the whole of Western Christianity is one big heresy and the cause of almost all human suffering in the world.  The irony is how often the Orthodox use ideas unique to the development of the West to beat up the West.  After all, the very notions of human rights and equality that emerged from the West weren't exactly plentiful in Eastern Byzantium.

There were other things as well.  There is a definite sniff of 'eastern' mysticism in Orthodoxy, always owing to its preference for anything east of the West in terms of what can influence it.  That's from the old Orthodox 'we'd rather be ruled by the turban than the mitre' attitude.  As a result, some of its doctrines, such as its soteriological and eschatological (fancy talk for salvation and ends times stuff) theologies are a bit foreign to me.

Had things gone normal, and had we not run into an endless assault of emergencies and crises that ground us down and made being at the church as a family almost as rare as a Bigfoot sighting, and at times even as individuals a pipe dream, things may have turned out different.

Last year we had a special series of injuries and emergencies that all but seemed to say 'rethink, rethink.'  Not to put a bad theological spin on it, but we did begin to wonder what was happening.  It's common in Orthodox circles to say 'welcome suffering, it's God's gift.'  But when that suffering is causing the seeds to remain on the rock and be unable to take root, you begin to wonder.  When for all intents and purposes we were just generic Christians who happened to show up occasionally at an Orthodox church, we had to think about things.

Then 2020 happened.  From WWIII to Covid to the rise of BLM and the open assault on the Christian West and America, we feared being forever in limbo, floating around a church we never seemed able to take root in, would not be good for the boys.  I mean, we actually had a national discourse on destroying religious art based on its ethnic origins.  The last time I remember that happening was in Germany in the 1930s.  Once again demonstrating that those who go into revolutions with arrogance and pride, sure they're the ones to save the world, will generally be the ones to build the gas chamber and gulags, we saw this was no normal 'social disturbance.'

Desperate to do something to root ourselves in a community of believers, and realizing that some of it was just the logistics of our family, our finances, our care-giving of my Mom, allowing the boys to remain home while they work their ways through college, and other things that won't change any time soon, the hope that things settle down so we miraculously can become a regular part of a faraway, culturally disconnected church community seemed to be fading.

The problem was the memories of our local parish.  And that's were the new priest comes in.  An African priest from Nigeria, he had served with a young PJPII priest down in C------s.  A firebrand, that priest was no flaming liberal.  Quite the contrary.  Like many his age, he seemed bent on reversing some of the worst trends of Vatican II.  That seemed a good fit, since I do believe if the new local priest had his druthers, he would implement the Latin Mass tomorrow.  He's already made the last Sunday of each month a Latin liturgy.  He has also been quick to squelch many of the more liberal compromises and sell outs.

When Covid broke, he fought like a mad dog to keep from shutting down, doing so only when directly addressed by the equally new bishop.  When the BLM riots erupted, he called out the idea that this was about racism at all, but was instead about the evil in our hearts on all sides.  He has gently and quietly replaced many of the leaders of the church, preferring at least those near the center rather than the far 'pro-sex and death cult' types that were in charge.  And he makes no bones about the exclusive claims of the Faith.

We understand that one parish priest does not a Catholic Church make.  Clearly the bulk of the Western and Latin American churches are still under the idea that the only way to minister to the world is to follow the world like desperate lap dogs begging for the slightest scraps from the secular table.  Despite this being prime time to stand up and call out the catastrophes and death and suffering that have come from generations blindly listening to the latest secular 'experts', groveling and cringing before the latest assaults seems the way to go.

Latin American liberation theologian Pope Francis continues his whole 'the problem with the world is those Catholics over there in the Western Church' attitudes, with hellfire on the evil Western Democracies while at the same time reaching a laurel and hearty handshake to the Christian crushing and Muslim trouncing Communist Chinese.  I get that most bishops would side with Henry VIII if he were alive today.  Obviously this is nothing new.

But as we see a growing number on the left joined by good left wing Catholics, calling for an end to this silly American experiment rubbish and admitting that white Jesus is clearly Nazi, the boys need a community in which to take root.  The Orthodox, by the way, are no better.  Though boasting that they never get involved in politics, they seem happy to do so where calling down brimstone on the West and that great racist slave state of America is concerned.

So we're back.  Yes, there are still Catholic doctrinal questions we never had the opportunity to get our heads around.  Yes, we realize we are still in a left of center parish more concerned about hurting pro-abortion feelings than standing for the Faith.  We get that many in our parish still hold the 'gee, you lost everything to become Catholic - that was dumb' mentality.

But there is, at least for a season, a priest suffering the slings and arrows to oppose the apostasy.  There is a new bishop who at least might not have a 'pox on you' attitude about former clergy (even if now, that identity means little).  And logistically, it's just our best bet.  I can't say I'm not altogether glad to be back.  I am a child of the not always so kindly West after all.

So there we are.  Against all odds, after losing everything to become Catholic, we all but got shoved out the door and had to find another roost.  Despite many things commending itself, however, we just never were able to be planted and grow in that Orthodox garden.  The differences and problems we had with certain doctrines could not be overcome owing to an all but ten mile high wall placed in front of us.  The logistics of getting there alone become an overwhelming obstacle.  And when the dust settled, it seemed as though everything was converging to give us no choice but consider what we imagined would be the unthinkable, and that's return to the Tiber.

We understand things have continued to change for the worst.  Whereas the Catholic blogosphere was once a platform for welcoming us converts, now there are sites where always tolerant liberal Catholics gather to spit and curse us right wing Nazi freaks polluting their pure churches.  In some places, actual Catholics in real parishes have the same attitude.  Pope Francis continues his 'I have loved Marx, but have hated Jefferson' assessment of the world.  Most bishops are cowering before the storm of antichrists descending on the Faith.  But at least it will be a place to gather consistently where we can once again - prayerfully - take root.

And, in the end, I believe there is a Truth claim within the Catholic tradition that is lacking in others, having been now in the three major Christian traditions. Despite warts and all, there is something there there, and it's that 'there' I've been searching for my entire life.

So trying never to say 'not thy will, but mine', we will go into it with open mind and heart.  If it returns to promoting heresy to my boys and telling them the whole Jesus tale is fine for a pizza party, but what really matters is the sacred right to abort babies for better sex lives and a socialist state dedicated to putting an end to all this religious rights rubbish, we will bolt again.  If need be, I'd rather go back to a Protestant church remaining rooted in it's stripped down version of the Faith while navigating the storm, than one that willing to hand my boys over to the storm.  Well, maybe not, but you get the point.

Nonetheless, we're also going in optimistic.  There have been good signs, and I believe there are many more who want to be faithful than the Catholic leaders believe.  There are many more who want to see that old time religion, and even some values long discarded that might do better than the train wreck inducing values we've embraced in our modern hubris.  They get that in many ways the world's promises have been dashed on the gravestones of millions of dead who died from the world's lack of vision and usual sinfulness.  If only the leadership would have faith in the faithful.

So we'll see.  We're back, and God willing this will be our home until the end of time.  Peace.  Or, should I say, Pax.

Because of political expediency

That's why Ms. Broaddrick.  So David Hogg, that poster child of postmodern leftism, fired off a tweet at the NRA.  Why?  Because the NRA said the AR15 is the modern day musket.  Meaning that in a world where armored vehicles, jet propulsion, computer technology, and rapid fire killing weapons exist, an AR15 is similar in needful comparison to the muskets wielded by the Minutemen against the most advanced and superior armed force of the late 18th Century.  Anyone with more than two brain cells and a semester in American history before c. 1990 would know that.

Master Hogg, apparently, has no clue.  So he immediately compares a musket and an AR15, notices the differences, eschews context (which is always important in an  age of  sanctified Presentism), and mocks the NRA with a word from his typical chest full of expletives.

In response, rather than school young Hogg on the differences between 18th Century and 21st
Century warfare, Ms. Broaddrick asks a fair question: where was David Hogg (or any gun hating gun control advocate) when AR15s were being handed out at Seattle's communist street fair a couple weeks ago?  I'll be honest, I don't recall anyone talking about it outside of Social Media.  The national press didn't highlight it.  I can't recall good, white Catholic liberals who often jump on gun cults at the first sight of an AR15 bringing it up.  I certainly don't recall any Parkland Protesters raising Cain.  Even Snopes, no friend of conservative narratives, concedes the guns were handed out.

When guns are bad: Other tweets suggest there would have been more understanding if they desecrated the statues

Perhaps I just missed it and there was outrage commensurate to that which happens any time a public display of AR15s occurs.  But I'll be darned if I can think of any.  My guess is, just like human life, human suffering, minorities and the poor, the AR15 as evil killing machine matters as soon as its usefulness to the Left ends.

The sorry and pitiful world of the modern Left

On display here.  It turns out the news stories I heard were true.  I hoped they weren't.  Because it's sad, and pathetic, and an obvious attention grab from a vocalist whose contributions to the music world have long, long, long passed their sell by date.

Apparently David Lee Roth, former front man of the group Van Halen from way back in the early 1980s, will be changing his name because, well, Lee.  You know, as in Robert E.  As in some Nazi slaver and something.  So Roth goes bravely into the spotlight to make this courageous turn and hope to hype his brand.

A couple things.  First, when you live in a country where you think changing your name because it's the same as someone else, who is said to be irredeemably evil, will score points, then you better think real hard about the country you're living in.

Second, when fighting the Nazis from within Nazi Germany, note there was seldom an attempt to hype one's brand in doing so.  If you were helping those persecuted by the Nazis, or fighting the German leadership, you didn't make a big stink about it.  Just as the dearth of fake hate crimes that happened in Nazi Germany is telling when thinking about the attempts to portray America as a second Nazi state through endless fake hate crimes, so also worth noting was the dearth of those who thought they could increase their brand by openly fighting against the German establishment from within in the 1930s and 1940s.

Again, I get this is a desperate political stunt from a performer whose prime has long gone the way of the butter churn.  I understand that it's all the vogue in the entertainment world today to renounce anything to do with the heritage of the county that has made them rich and famous.  It's a bit like cocaine in the 1980s - everyone is doing it.  Nonetheless, when you think on it, a few things come out that says much of what they're hoping to prove - the unprecedented evil of our nation and its heritage - they just might be proving the opposite.

Heh

In praise of John Wayne

Too young to guess his country would turn on him

I must admit, I was never a big John Wayne fan.  My parents weren't fans, so I didn't grow up on a steady diet of his movies. Not that they hated him or anything.  We just didn't watch his movies that often.

And it isn't as if we would never watch them.  If there was one we liked, we would watch it. Sometimes we'd watch it because that was the movie of the week.  But we were not huge John Wayne groupies.  Then again, we didn't worship the Founding Fathers as gods, which apparently is what you do if you oppose their legacies and memorials being destroyed and eradicated.

Which brings us to John Wayne, the first fruits of the dystopian Left's next phase, in which mere citizens of America begin having their names tarnished and their reputations condemned and their legacies expunged, following the typical Stalin inspired approach to eliminating that which the Soviet declares unclean.

Because Wayne marks an important next step in the Left's move to eradicate the West and America, moving against mere citizens rather than political leaders or those representing America's government, he acts as a canary in the coal mine.  A trend made possible by teaching more and more generations to hate, resent, and seek revenge and the eradication of others they blame for their problems, rather than seeking forgiveness, unity, reconciliation and self-reflection.

And the churches of America have stood by and let this happen, or have joined in.  So much for our brave religious leaders standing up and taking one for the Gospel team, or even humanity in general.

A cause I could get behind

The late 20th Century onward was the time in which the national press became the greatest threat to freedom, life and the national well being.   Its shameless exploitation of human suffering and lies by suppressing truth and crucial knowledge for the sake of its agendas has become one of the great evils of the modern age.

Hagia Sophia goes full mosque

In yet the next phase of the eradication of the Christian West and America, external civilizations heed the clarion call of the Left. 

The Left brilliantly forged an alliance with anyone in America or the world who would see the Christian West and its bastard child America beaten down.  For the Muslim world, this didn't involve much arm twisting.  Since the time of the Prophet himself, the Islamic eye had turned toward Constantinople and the lands that were beyond.

And it wasn't for a lack of trying on their part that Europe remained free of Islamic domination.  Multiple times over the centuries would see a variety of invasions and incursions attempting to gain footholds in Europe from which to launch into the continent proper.

Even as America's Founding Fathers were inventing racism and slavery in 1619*, the Ottomans had pressed into southeastern Europe, only to be repulsed by those rascally Viennese.  This would go on well into the latter part of the 17th century.  For those who did fall under Ottoman control, centuries of oppression and slavery would be the name of the game.

One of the most endearing things I received from my sojourns with the Orthodox is a decidedly non-Western perspective on things.  No fans of the West, the Orthodox also don't subscribe to the narratives promoted by good, white liberals, Muslims or even Jews.  For instance, there are elderly Orthodox from the Balkans whose great grandparents saw the Balkan Orthodox slaves held by the Ottomans (with accompanying racist based justifications).  There are Middle Eastern Orthodox who continue to live as second class citizens under the thumb of that Religion of Peace that the Left and LBGTQ factions so dearly love and praise.

But that doesn't matter.  The Left's alliance with anyone who would see the West fall has just received a big boost.  Reading the writing on the wall, Turkey has turned the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.  It had been a mosque ever since the Ottomans sacked Constantinople, destroyed Byzantium and subjected the people there to oppression and conquest.  It changed in the 1930s, as secular Turkey made it a museum where all would be welcome.  It remained a museum well after the war years as a symbol of outreach to the world, particularly the West.

But now Turkey need not put on airs of tolerance and meekness.  The West is destroying itself.  Leftists in America are destroying the heritage of our Founding Fathers and their legacy.  In Europe many would be happy seeing churches destroyed and replaced by dance clubs or fitness centers.  Turkey, and others across the Muslim world, can see where this is going and no doubt feel the time is ripe.  This is, of course, the first step.  Turkey - and the rest of the world - will watch and see what happens.  Will the West respond?  Will Christians rise up?  Will the Left put on the brakes?  Or will it be ground taken with no bloodshed, ready to be added to in the near future?

Only time will tell.  But it's clear to anyone with more than two brain cells what is happening.  Remember, the multicultural notion that only European and American Caucasians ever did anything wrong is one of the most stupid notions in history.  But it is the foundation upon which the Left assures itself that no matter what, when the rest of the world swallows up the West, it will be for the better. After all the rest of the world never did anything wrong.

*I write that as a joke, and yet because people educated by our modern schools might read this, I feel the need to point out that was humor.  The Founding Fathers did not invent racism and slavery in 1619.  They weren't born yet.   They invented racism and slavery in 1776, which is why Caucasian racists celebrate July 4th. 

St. Corbinian's Bear prowls through the current madness

The always delightful and fun St. Corbinian's Bear is back (which is wonderful news) and helps us realize we're not fools for seeing the lies, idiocy and evil that is becoming our national identity.

In this, he takes on the madness of Black Lives Sometimes Matter, the madness of not caring about Covid19 when caring could lead to being called nasty names, the madness of legally calling evil good and punishing good for the sake of evil, and the strange news that the Catholic Church has actually been helped by Covid-19 financial relief.

Go here.  My feeble attempts at wit and writing will add nothing to the piece, except to say if it was any other time in history, I would laugh at someone insisting these things are real.

Dungeons and Dragons goes woke

It must be immensely satisfying to continually apologize for the sins of those who have accomplished more than we have.  My boys, who are big into the whole sci-fi/fantasy gig, informed me that Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns the D&D label, will be issuing copious apologizes for the bigotry and racism and sexism of D&D's originators.

Like so many, WotC's contributions today are likely shallow and lame additions to the breadth and depth of innovations they inherited. Perhaps it is because of a deep down realization that our generations will have little to show for our time on this world, the best we can do is beat down those who built the ladders upon which we have climbed.

I don't know.  Perhaps there is a greater conspiracy at work.  But a generation that displays its righteousness by constantly beating down and apologizing for generations long dead has some serious mental and emotional issues.  Issues that could explain the widespread suicide rates, drug abuse, mental disorders and general hopelessness we're seeing, none of which seem placated by our constant repentance for the sins of everyone else.

Action shot of my boys playing a soon to be condemned board game. America, 2020

Important Update: Our ten year old won.  Heh.  Owing to the three older brothers' stubbornness.  Refusing to cooperate and clashing over strategies, they allowed their youngest to stealthily skip through to the finish line.  I told them they have a good lesson to learn from their first game.  Next time cooperate to avoid having three young adults get their clocks cleaned by their ten year old brother.

Another Update: I'm not expert on all things D&D, but here is a site that is tracking the madness.  My boys say we're already in a dystopian fantasy and don't realize it.  The mark of a dystopian fantasy (or any of the totalitarian regimes of the last century, is that they are cults at the end of the day.  The people in them pass the ability to know they are in them.  No matter how stupid, ridiculous or wrong, then accept it because.  So declaring your righteousness by eliminated racism against fictional monster races is seen as a mark of moral superiority.  As is declaring the lack of connection between sex and babies, or the non-existence of gender, or the fact that if you're not willing to judge and segregate then you're a racist.  When we hit this level of dumb, we're already 84% there.

The NBA's approved messages

It's known that from little league sports to the pros, what goes on your uniform is often tightly regulated.  And that's fine.  They don't want athletes having things that might distract or collide with approved logos and other messages.  Fair enough.

Over the years, from the firing of Rush Limbaugh from ESPN, to the outcry against Tim Tebow for his anti-abortion commercial, to athletes wanting to put Bible verses or pro-America jargon on their uniforms, professional sports associations have been pretty clear: the hallowed fields and courts of the sporting world is no place for advocating political or other similar views.

Obviously this hasn't always been consistently enforced. From the famous 1968 Olympics and the legendary displays of Black Power, to Muhammad Ali's open protests against the Vietnam War, certain messages and messengers have gotten passes.  And sometimes the political implications of a sporting event, like the Miracle on Ice, have a life of their own.  Nonetheless, on the whole, professional sports has generally looked down on cavalier billboards running around on the field promoting who knows what.

So the nakedly biased and Orwellian treatment in favor of various anti-American slogans that will be allowed by the NBA is stunning.  Anything that supports either a post-American Marxist state or calls down hellfire on the unforgivable sins of America as bigoted, racist slave state will be allowed.

This would be the same NBA, if we remember, that threw its support behind the Communist Chinese government when it came to crushing protesters seeking freedom and liberty.

Meanwhile, as of now the other old prohibitions stand.  Signs advocating Bible verses, praise for America, support for the military or police will continue to be banned.  Those displaying such will be fined as usual.

Of course they do this since they know, when the dust has settled, 70% of conservatives have no more fight in them than 98% of conservative leaders. Already most religious leaders and intuitions have embraced the 'America as Nazi/whites as racist' narrative despite its obviously bigoted and flawed premises.  Almost every conservative outlet, industry and corporation has caved.

And in the end, they know Americans have become pretty lazy, cowardly, and worthless.  Most today couldn't scratch together a form of entertainment without pro sports or Hollywood if they had to.  And having had their faith in God seriously compromised over the generations, they just don't have much more to cling to than trying to enjoy the moment in the latest Netflix special or sports extravaganza.

At the end of the day, those conservatives screaming and shaking fists now will be glued to the big screen and watching the NBA playoffs whenever they happen.  The NBA knows this.  The Democrats know this.  Corporate America knows this.  America's Marxists and Communists know this.  And sadly, a growing number of countries around the world are learning it, too.

Black Americans and White Liberals starring as King Theoden and Wormtongue

In one of our many tangents during our family prayer time, one of my sons said this about the LoTR in terms of our modern discourse on racism.  Let me explain. A very popular story I tell, largely for humorous effect, is from a stint I had at a major insurance company some years ago.  It was right before I had to come home to take care of my Mom.

I was a manger in the ultra-middle management sense of the word.  Three others and I had a department of over 120 people, divided somewhat equally between the four of us.  It was a hassle, let me tell you.  The company made it clear that firing anyone would require a dozen fiery hoops to be jumped through on our part.  Furthermore, while it was never said explicitly, it made it clear nonetheless that any employees who fell into certain 'demographics' would need an extra dozen hoops added to the process.

One day, a fellow manager was standing next to the large windows, staring down over the parking lot.  He was the only African American among us four managers. I went over to see what he was looking at. One of his team members - we'll call him 'Bob' - was walking toward his car.  I asked him why, and he said he was going home.

Going home?  I asked what was wrong.  The manager told me nothing.  Bob just sent an email saying "3 o'clock, time to go!", and left.  Bob, also, was African American.  I asked if that was it, and the manager said yep.  He just came to the window to watch him leave.  A week later, and Bob was still at his job.  Not the best worker by far, but not fired either.  The manager told me that was a massive problem  - in the Black community.  A dumbing down of expectations coupled with a feeling of entitlement and blaming others for the results of their actions.  And almost never a serious, national dialogue about what black Americans have to do on their parts to improve their situation.

It's a funnier story told, and my boys (and wife) still get a kick out of it.  "3 o'clock, time to go!" is an oft repeated phrase in our home.  But it's also telling.  What the manager said still rings in my ears, and I know he's not the only black American to think such a thing.  In fact, right before the accusations of sexual assault came out against him, Bill Cosby shook the African American world by giving an infamous speech in which he said many of the problems in the black community were the fault of the black community.  Of course we know what ended up happening to Cosby, so his word isn't worth much nowadays.

But that got the family to thinking, as we are wont to do.  And it was during a talk about what we are seeing happen that one of my sons brought up the comparison.  That the black community, victims of slavery, racism, discrimination, segregation and overt oppression over the ages, have nonetheless been kept in the same predicament by the Left, even as the Democrats and the American Left have given the impression of letting them go free.

In fact, it seems that the American Left reacts violently to anyone suggesting in any way that the black community should do anything other than what it's been doing for decades.  Despite cataclysmic rates of violent crime, homicides, drugs, gang violence, domestic violence, broken homes and fatherless children, there is almost no call for improvement on their part that doesn't somehow wrap itself into them being the victims of anything else.  That somehow, no matter what they do, it's always and ever someone else's - basically white America's - fault.

The ones telling them this are those who make a living off of racial injustice and tensions, and of course, good, white liberals.  Especially good, white liberals in positions of wealth and power.

Is it a stretch to think that the party that profited off of slavery, and established Jim Crow laws, and pushed segregation, didn't purge that attitude out of its bloodstream in a few short years?  That the party that defined America's worst racism of its past continues to have it, just in different forms now owing to the legislation it actually opposed in the day?  That it found a different, slicker way to keep black Americans down and dependent on them while at the same time serving their interests?

Is it too far fetched to imagine that the American left whispers in black America's ears that they really are inferior, that their standards should be lowered, that expectations for them should drop, that they should be expected to be on drugs, engage in violence and abandon their families since it's logical owing to all the evils white America has visited on them?  And furthermore, if they'll keep supporting these various Civil Rights organizations and keep electing certain politicians into power, somehow, some day, it will all be made right?

I know, when this is said you're accused of being a racist and selling black American short.  But after more than a half century of everything being the same, isn't it worth asking?  I'm not proud.  I'm sure I've been a sucker for a sales pitch over the years.  Is it possible that the black community have been snookered all this time, especially since liberal Americans had so many different institutions selling them the same wind song?

It's something to think about.  The idea that the Democrats play the black community is nothing new.  The idea that Civil Rights leaders who make millions off of racial strife, and therefore prefer racial strife, is nothing new.  And if true, this would not be the first time in history such things happened.  Nonetheless, when my boys brought the comparison, it suddenly made sense.  Especially the idea that it's just not racial strife the Left wants or that they don't care about the plight of the black community, but that they actively encourage the behaviors and attitudes within the black community that perpetuate the plight.  I just hope someone takes the black community out into the cool breezes of the real world and gets them to ponder the possibility.  Before it's too late.

'Assuredly not. lord,' said Wormtongue. 'I care for you and yours as best I may. But do not weary yourself, or tax too heavily your strength. Let others deal with these irksome guests. Your meat is about to be set on the board. Will you not go to it?'

'I will,' said Théoden. 'And let food for my guests be set on the board beside me. The host rides today. Send the heralds forth! Let them summon all who dwell nigh! Every man and strong lad able to bear arms, all who have horses, let them be ready in the saddle at the gate ere the second hour from noon!'

'Dear lord!' cried Wormtongue. 'It is as I feared. This wizard has bewitched you. Are none to be left to defend the Golden Hall of your fathers, and all your treasure? None to guard the Lord of the Mark?'

'If this is bewitchment,' said Théoden, 'it seems to me more wholesome than your whisperings. Your leechcraft ere long would have had me walking on all fours like a beast. No, not one shall be left, not even Gríma. Gríma shall ride too. Go! You have yet time to clean the rust from your sword.'

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers 

On this Independence Day

A growing portion of our country is convinced the US has been nothing but a genocidal, racist, slave state from its beginnings.  That, of course, is ridiculous.  Americans of all identities, no matter their station and no matter how often Americans failed to live up to our blessings, are beneficiaries of one of the few revolutions in human history that worked and kept its promises.  If we want to know how most revolutions end up (present revolutionaries likely included), we should reread Orwell’s Animal Farm.  Now read The Declaration of Independence, be thankful, and have a Happy July 4^th. 

The worthless and treacherous Republican Party

In one thing Mark Shea was right.  Fools who kept supporting the Republican party as if the GOP gave a rip about anything conservatives or Christians cared about were fools indeed.

Nothing has shown the wisdom of Mark's insight more than the last few weeks.  Almost overnight, the GOP has gone from stunned silence to embracing the Marxist driven narratives and revolution to overthrow America and the Christian West.

So it's the GOP - that's the GOP - proposing we ban Columbus Day, and replace it with Juneteenth (the celebration of the end of slavery focusing not at all on anything white Americans did to end it).  That's the GOP.  The ones conservatives and traditionalists and others who love our country thought they could count on to defend our country, its traditions, its heroes, it heritage.   The more I watch the GOP cave, surrender and betray, the more I think of this scene from the movie Braveheart:

In his fight against William Wallace, King Edward I thinks he has the Irish on his side when lo, the rascally Irish stop and shake hands with Wallace.  Sometimes you just can't count on people to stay loyal.  A lesson played out more than once over the course of human history.

That's what we're seeing now.  As if to say, "Whew, thank  goodness we can stop the charade.  Now we can finally trash this pissy country and its pissy heritage and its pissy Christians and get with the powers and money changers at the new Marxist parties with the T&A", the GOP is showing themselves for what they've been for decades. 

People say 'But the party of Reagan!'.  Here's the dirty secret.  It was never the party of Reagan, as Bush, Sr. made clear when he immediately began trying to distance himself from Reagan's brand of conservatism.  It begrudgingly chocked down those hayseeds and religious hicks at voting time, but were happy to vomit them out time and again between election cycles.  Since Bush's time, it's been one long, slow betrayal after betrayal until now they're finally showing their faces.

The shock is that we still imagined the GOP, if it didn't care about the social and religious conservative side, still cared about America.  In a pinch, we still imagined the GOP would rise to the occasion and rally with others out to defend the heritage of the civilization that brought human rights, democracy, freedom and the dignity of the human person to the world.  Boy were we wrong.   Happy 4th of July. 

As of now, the GOP will get no more votes of mine.  For all that he became, you have to give credit where it is due.  When it comes to what the GOP was and has been for years, Mark Shea was very, very right.