Merry Christmas

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;

in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being,

and who sustains all things by his mighty word.

Newtown Remembered

I continue to stand with those who remember the victims of all violent incidents, especially in America, including the horrific shooting in the Newtown Connecticut School. I am increasingly saddened by the tragic loss of life and by the struggle of those who survive. I am also saddened by this nation's reaction to these events.

Those that support gun rights may or may not be correct about mental health being the primary cause, but it’s almost a given that someone psychologically prepared to kill innocent people is suffering from some form of mental illness. While it’s difficult for me to understand psychological causes related to terrorism perpetrated by religious fanaticism, I would say these people have lost their way too.

What can we learn from this event? Ask yourself why the focus is still on the tools used during a crime instead of the underlying causes of crime, and you might get an insight into what is happening in this country. If you continue to let our nation’s leaders, the media, or anyone else distract you then you are part of the problem. Be part of the solution: Guns are just a tool, they are not the problem!

It's also time to recognize that what we're seeing is a change of behavior in this country. During the course of American history we've been moving away from the "Land of the Free" to the land of laws as more and more control is implemented over it's citizens. It's impossible to stay neutral given that the laws being codified to "protect" us from ourselves are in fact causing more strife.

Thanks be to God

For the fruits of his creation, thanks be to God.
For his gifts to every nation, thanks be to God.
For the plowing, sowing, reaping,
Silent growth while we are sleeping,
Future needs in earth's safekeeping,
Thanks be to God.

In the just reward of labor, God's will be done.
In the help we give our neighbor, God's will be done.
In our worldwide task of caring, for the hungry and despairing,
In the harvests we are sharing,
God's will be done.

For the harvests of the Spirit, thanks be to God.
For the good we all inherit, thanks be to God.
For the wonders that astound us, for the truths that still confound us,
Most of all that love has found us,
Thanks be to God.

Life Redefined

After America: There is No Place to Go (Part 2 of 2)

1) The government redefined education.

Education was nationalized. The day Hitler was elected (March 13, 1938), Kitty walked into her schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Her teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class they wouldn't pray or have religion anymore. Instead, they would sing nationalistic songs and participate in physical education.

Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum, but they were told that if they did not send their children, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. Kitty says the first two hours consisted of political indoctrination, and the rest of the day was devoted to sports. As time went along, they came to love it, and would go home and gleefully tell their parents about the wonderful time they had.

2) The government redefined equal rights.

Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn't support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant, if you didn't work you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

3) The government redefined service.

Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and  participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.

When Kitty goes back to Austria to visit family and friends, most of the women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before she turned 18, she was severely injured in an air raid attack and nearly had a leg amputated. As a result she was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

4) The government redefined the family.

When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no mothers to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology.

5) The government redefined health care.

Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries. To support this level of healthcare, tax rates went up to 80% of our income.

6) The government redefined welfare

Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

There was another agency designed to monitor business. Kitty's brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities, even though it was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn't meet all the demands, and he soon went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

6) The government redefined mercy killing.

In 1944, Kitty was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When she arrived she was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. She knew one named Vincent, very well, who was a janitor at the school.

One day, she looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. When she asked her superior where they were going, she was told they were going to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months, and also told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled, and recognized what was happening. There people left in excellent physical health and yet died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

7) The government redefined individual rights.

Next came gun registration. Officials said that the real way to catch criminals was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law-abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

Don't let freedom slip away:

Totalitarianism didn't come quickly in Austria, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943 to establish a full dictatorship. Their lives were changed forever by creeping gradualism. Had it happened overnight, Austria's countrymen would have fought to the last breath, but now their only weapons were broom handles.

The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little, eroded their freedom. America might truly be the greatest country in the world, but this country is in trouble. If we are to loose our freedom, it won't be the on-slot of tanks and guns, it will be because we have let freedom slip away while listening to others tell us it's for our own good!

It was never about guns

Promises

After America: There is No Place to Go (Part 1 of 2)

When I was a child I learned the words spoken by Patrick Henry, "As for me, give me liberty or give me death!" As an adult I have been alarmed at the blatant attack on individual freedom, and as you read the following story notice the similarities to what is happening around you today. When you're done, pray for our country and our countries leaders.

Kitty Werthmann describes what she lived through in Austria, and the collapse she witnessed should alert all of us to what is happening to this country.  She is concerned that we are headed in the direction of Austria, and is disheartened to know that so many of our politicians are repeating this terrible history. This is her story, and it's a scary piece of history.

In 1938, Austria was in a deep depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed, and both inflation and interest rates were at 25%. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food, not because they didn't want to work but because there simply weren't any jobs.

Meanwhile, the two competing political parties, the Communist Party and the National Socialist Party, were literally fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna, Linz, and Graz were destroyed, and eventually the people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they should have.

We looked to our neighbor to the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We were told that they had a high standard of living and they didn't have unemployment or crime. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group; Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy, and we wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.

Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler. We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.

After the election, German officials were appointed and suddenly there was law and order. Three or four weeks later everyone was employed, as the government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

Hitler didn't take Austria by force, with tanks and guns: He was elected by a landslide vote of the people.

Purpose

Uprising

Reprint of a Huffington Post article titled There Will Be No Second American Revolution: The Futility Of An Armed Revolt written by John W. Whitehead and published on July 19, 2016 (Part 2 of 2)

James Madison said, “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive [branch] will not long be safe companions to liberty.”

There will be no second American Revolution.

The message being sent to the citizenry is clear: there will be no revolution, armed or otherwise. Anyone who believes that they can wage and win an armed revolt against the American police state has not been paying attention. Those who wage violence against the government and their fellow citizens are playing right into the government’s hands. Violence cannot and will not be the answer to what ails America.

Whether instigated by the government or the citizenry, violence will only lead to more violence. It does not matter how much firepower you have. The government has more firepower. It does not matter how long you think you can hold out by relying on survivalist skills, guerilla tactics and sheer grit. The government has the resources to outwait, out-starve, outman, outgun and generally overpower you.

This government of wolves will not be overtaken by force.

Unfortunately, we waited too long to wake up to the government’s schemes. We did not anticipate that “we the people” would become the enemy. For years, the government has been warning against the dangers of domestic terrorism, erecting surveillance systems to monitor its own citizens, creating classification systems to label any viewpoints that challenge the status quo as extremist, and training law enforcement agencies to equate anyone possessing anti-government views as a domestic terrorist.

What the government failed to explain was that the domestic terrorists would be of the government’s own making, whether intentional or not. What we are now experiencing is a civil war, devised and instigated in part by the U.S. government, which has engineered an environment in which peaceful revolution is impossible and domestic violence has become inevitable.

The outcome for this particular conflict is already foregone: the police state wins.

The objective: compliance and control. The strategy: destabilize the economy through endless wars, escalate racial tensions, polarize the populace, heighten tensions through a show of force, intensify the use of violence, and then, when all hell breaks loose, clamp down on the nation for the good of the people and the security of the nation.

So where does that leave us?

Despite the fact that communities across the country are, for all intents and purposes, being held hostage by a government that is armed to the teeth and more than willing to use force in order to “maintain order,” most Americans seem relatively unconcerned.

Worse, we have become so fragmented as a nation, so hostile to those with whom we might disagree, so distrustful of those who are different from us, that we are easily divided and conquered.

We have been desensitized to violence, acclimated to a military presence in our communities and persuaded that there is nothing we can do to alter the seemingly hopeless trajectory of the nation. In this way, the floundering economy, the blowback arising from military occupations abroad, police shootings, the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure and all of the other mounting concerns have become non-issues to a populace that is easily entertained, distracted, manipulated and controlled.

The sight of police clad in body armor and gas masks, wielding semiautomatic rifles and escorting an armored vehicle through a crowded street, a scene likened to “a military patrol through a hostile city,” no longer causes alarm among the general populace. We are fast becoming an anemic, weak, pathetically diluted offspring of our revolutionary forebears incapable of mounting a national uprising against a tyrannical regime.

If there is to be any hope of reclaiming our government and restoring our freedoms, it will require a different kind of coup: nonviolent, strategic and grassroots, starting locally and trickling upwards. Such revolutions are slow and painstaking. They are political, in part, but not through any established parties or politicians.

Most of all, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, for any chance of success, such a revolution will require more than a change of politics: it will require a change of heart among the American people, a reawakening of the American spirit, and a citizenry that cares more about their freedoms than their fantasy games.

Born Free

Lock Down

Reprint of a Huffington Post article titled There Will Be No Second American Revolution: The Futility Of An Armed Revolt written by John W. Whitehead and published on July 19, 2016 (Part 1 of 2)

James Madison said, “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive [branch] will not long be safe companions to liberty.”

America is a ticking time bomb.

All that remains to be seen is who or what will set fire to the fuse. We are poised at what seems to be the pinnacle of a manufactured breakdown, with police shooting unarmed citizens, snipers shooting police, global and domestic violence rising, and a political showdown between two presidential candidates equally matched in unpopularity.

The preparations for the Republican and Democratic national conventions taking place in Cleveland and Philadelphia provide a foretaste of how the government plans to deal with any individual or group that steps out of line: they will be censored, silenced, spied on, caged, intimidated, interrogated, investigated, recorded, tracked, labeled, held at gunpoint, detained, restrained, arrested, tried and found guilty.

Make no mistake, the government is ready for a civil uprising.

Indeed, the government has been preparing for this moment for years. A 2008 Army War College report called on the military to prepare for “widespread civil violence inside the United States” arising from another terrorist attack, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters.”

Subsequent reports by the Department of Homeland Security to identify, monitor and label right-wing and left-wing activists and military veterans as extremists (a.k.a. terrorists) have manifested into full-fledged pre-crime surveillance programs.

Meanwhile, the government has been amassing an arsenal of military weapons for use domestically and equipping and training their law enforcement and administrative “troops” for war. There are now at least 120,000 armed federal agents carrying such weapons who possess the power to arrest.

Rounding out this profit-driven campaign to turn American citizens into enemy combatants (and America into a battlefield) is a technology sector that is colluding with the government to create a Big Brother that is all-knowing, all-seeing and inescapable. All of this has taken place right under our noses, funded with our taxpayer dollars and carried out in broad daylight without so much as a general outcry from the citizenry.

It’s astounding how convenient we’ve made it for the government to lock down the nation.

The events of recent years — the invasive surveillance, the extremism reports, the civil unrest, the protests, the shootings, the bombings, the military exercises and active shooter drills, the color-coded alerts and threat assessments, the fusion centers, the transformation of local police into extensions of the military, the distribution of military equipment and weapons to local police forces, the government databases containing the names of dissidents and potential troublemakers — have all conjoined to create an environment in which “we the people” are more distrustful and fearful of each other and more reliant on the government to keep us safe.

Of course, that’s the point.

The powers-that-be want us to feel vulnerable. They want us to fear each other and trust the government’s hired gunmen to keep us safe from terrorists, extremists, jihadists, psychopaths, etc.

Most of all, the powers-that-be want us to feel powerless to protect ourselves and reliant on and grateful for the dubious protection provided by the American police state. Their strategy is working. The tree of liberty is dying.

The State of the World

Armageddon Re-envisioned

Reprint of an essay called The Shootings in San Bernardino: Another View written by James V. Schall, S.J. on December 6, 2015. (Part 2 of 2)

As long as we choose (and it is a choice) not to identify the problem the more successful it is and the more it will grow. That growth may indeed be the reason it is not identified. The deeper problem lies in the truth of Islam’s mission to conquer the world for Allah. If it is true that the Qur’an is a revelation of God, then it will eventually win. Even if it is not true or from God, and I do not think it is, in Christian apocalyptic terms it may win anyway. If our view of the world remains cast in terms of relativism, diversity theory, and pacifism, we will have no clue about what is happening. We must admire [even in fear] the logic and abiding persistence within Islam to continue its centuries-long, Allah-given mission to conquer the world.

 

Many Muslim countries are “peaceful” only in the sense that their governments, usually military dictatorships, keep down the radicalism that would overthrow them and is overthrowing them in many places. In no actual Muslim country is there any real freedom of religion. Whenever and wherever possible, all or part of Muslim law is established as civil law.

 

One can speculate about why we cannot understand the problem within Islam, and therefore not face its real attraction for its millions of followers. Nevertheless, everyone seems to be waiting to see who is winning. Even Muslims know that they cannot afford to be on the losing side.

 

The present strategy of ISIS and its followers seems clear enough. The following steps or remarks seem most plausible:

 

1) Gain control of governments and armies within present Islamic states.
2) Eliminate all Christian, Jewish, and other religious elements, including their buildings and records, from within existing Muslim states.
3) Place as many Muslims, especially young males, in European countries and other countries as possible.
4) Continue to produce large numbers of children so that demographic and democratic processes will provide increasing majorities in towns, cities, and nations.
5) Make every city and area on earth, from Mumbai to San Bernardino, the object of incidents of terror both on a systematic and random basis, preferably both.
6) Ensure that enough followers are found in most western countries that are willing to sacrifice their lives to carry this project out in the coming years.
7) Create an atmosphere that makes it difficult to stem the Muslim conquest.
8) Undermine and convert to your use all police and military operations left remaining to oppose a final conquest.

 

Granted, due to the speed of their success, the confusion of those who resist, and the deliberate blindness of its opposition, ISIS and its sympathizers have a reasonable hope of final success at least in Europe and possibly America. Russia, China, and India may take longer, but they will ultimately have to be dealt with. All three of these countries already have met Muslim invasions or turmoil, and their nationalist or religious unity may prove more difficult to counter. They are, when provoked, less likely to stand by confused and relatively helpless.

 

And one last caveat, from Howard Kainz’ essay “Christians as ‘Soft Targets”: “The combination of the surrender to modernism in the ‘developed world’ and Christians’ helpless exposure to violence and subjugation in Muslim-dominated regions leads to a possible alternative vision of Armageddon and victory: a final martyrdom of the Church.” The Church has no armies. Who will defend her?

 

My Thoughts:

The religious intolerance made compulsory by Islam won't come quickly in America, but the irony is it will be the result of our capacity for religious acceptance. Our lives are being changed forever by the creeping gradualism of social and ethical tolerance required of our populations by those who are promoting the common good.

 

When we do loose our freedom, it won't be through the on-slot of tanks and guns, it will be because we have let freedom slip away while listening to others tell us it's for our own good! Unfortunately, in this scenario, losing our freedom means losing our way of life, and probably our lives.

 

The whole idea that in this country, little by little, our freedom is being eroded probably sounds unbelievable. America might truly be the greatest country in the world, but it's time to recognize that it is in serious trouble.

Nightmares

Another View

Reprint of an essay called The Shootings in San Bernardino: Another View written by James V. Schall, S.J. on December 6, 2015. (Part 1 of 2)

After almost every shooting involving a Muslim perpetrator, from 9/11 to Fort Hood to San Bernardino, you hear something like this from the President on down: “We are horrified by this inexplicable, horrendous act. Our hearts go out to the victims. This atrocity again proves the need for more gun laws.” Then we have a statement from a Muslim group, in which its spokesperson, often women, are also horrified. "We had nothing to do with it and we know nothing about it. We are concerned with retaliation". Next we have a solemn admonition from some government official assuring us that the Muslim community is peaceful, that we depend on loyal Muslims. Then ISIS or Al Qaeda announces that it is responsible for the killings, whether that is actually true or not.

 

We are almost always led to conclude that this event is just another irrational act. This act of terrorism, it is explained, was the product of a loner or two, usually a citizen of the place where the killings occurred. This insane action requires the attention of psychological health experts; while ideology is mostly or entirely ignored. As with earthquakes, no real explanation exists. Such things just happen; some human beings are nutty. Since similar acts now happen every other week, if not sooner; we have to be ready for them. We need to call in the FBI, federal agencies, more militarized police, community organizers, religious leaders, and psychiatrists.

 

The bottom line is that though all religions are prone to violence, we are told these particular happenings have nothing to do with religion; especially not Islam. They are caused by “terrorism” and “violence”, as if these acts are somehow themselves independent ideological positions with no relation to the organizations that use them to foster their ends.

 

Is there another conceivable way to look at these events that comes closer to a more plausible explanation? The first step is that these atrocities all have a single ultimate origin. I do not mean some central command post in Syria ordering operatives today to go to Paris, tomorrow to San Bernardino, the next day you name it, though there may be that too. The ultimate origin is found in the history of Muslim conquests from its beginning in the 7th and 8th centuries and confirmed by many passages in the Qur’an. Muslim scholars know that this jihadist approach is found within the religion. It is not an outside import; it is not an aberration. It may not be the only position found in this rambling book, but it is one that is there. This same force of spirit to convert all to Islam has abided for twelve hundred years. Yet, instead of grudgingly acknowledging it and dealing with it, we deny it exists.

 

Islam has no central authority. Passages in the Qur’an and its commentaries advocating holy war may be interpreted literally, symbolically, or poetically, but they are there. The reason why this jihadist inspiration always comes back to incite some Muslim believers is because it is found in the sources as the only true interpretation of Islam. ISIS members insist that their religious motives be taken seriously. This earnestness is what motivates them. We insult them, while at the same time playing into their hands, by refusing to understand what they say and, indeed, give witness to with their lives. It is those Muslims who have died killing in western cities, not those who are murdered, who are considered to be martyrs.

 

The so-called “Muslim terrorists”, then, do not think of themselves as “Muslim terrorists”. They consider themselves to be the only real followers of Mohammed. They see themselves as doing exactly what he and his first followers did in the saga of a rapid conquest of much of the African, Arab, and Middle Eastern worlds. The conquest of Europe would complete the stymied efforts at Tours and Vienna, victories that allowed Europe to remain Europe and not become Muslim much sooner. Moreover, jihadists have a perfectly intelligible explanation for what they are doing and how they are doing it. It is a sophisticated intellectual theory deftly designed to explain exactly why these “terrorist” acts are both legitimate and indeed praiseworthy in the eyes of Allah. The metaphysics of voluntarism behind such reasoning is by no means unfamiliar to western thinkers. And it is this intellectual battle that we are unwilling to or unable to fight.

 

Briefly, the assigned mission of Islam is to conquer the world for Allah. Submission to Allah is the highest human good; and any means to carry it out is good if it is successful. Carrying out this mission, in this view, is a Muslim’s vocation. With the re-establishment of the caliphate, this mission can now recommence. No other religion or its symbols, including ones more ancient than Islam, are allowed within its conquered territories. The fact that many individual Muslims may not agree with this interpretation is irrelevant, even though there are millions that do agree, because numbers are not the key factor.

 

Fear rules both Muslim and western cultures that oppose the jihadists or are its victims. This fear is kept alive by the methods of warfare, shrewdly applied, that utilize modern technology but rely on old and reliable techniques. Muslims fighters learned some time ago that modern weapons are not particularly effective against them. Slitting the throats of ten Christians on international TV is more effective than weapons of mass destruction, which they would also like to possess. We see that simple cars and trucks are often feared means of their warfare.

 

Thus, tanks and bombs are not particularly effective against individual and seemingly random attacks on enemy homelands. With local passports and cell phones, small arms, home-made bombs, and knives, any large western city can be brought to its knees for several days. It is something of a joke now to think that such things as the Transportation Safety mechanisms we have in airports make much difference. The downing of a Russian passenger plane may still happen, but attacking schools, buses, trains, churches, or just random individuals anywhere in the world will instantly be on international news with the usual disclaimers. Bringing down passenger planes may be an obsolete means in terms of effectiveness.

Choas at the door

Muslim Eschatology

Reprint of an essay called Christians as Soft Targets written by Howard Kainz on December 5, 2015 (Part 2 of 2)

 

New Testament apocalyptic passages in the Book of Revelation about final battles between the powers of good and evil are hard to interpret, but Christians may be faced with the possibility of a strange “Armageddon”. Instead of (as usually depicted) two massive armies facing each other in a final decisive battle, another scenario in which billions of sincere Christians, the greatest “soft target” ever produced in the world, are abandoned to the devices of billions of Muslims. Indeed, Muslim eschatology involves the destruction and subjugation of all “unbelievers” in a final battle in which the rather far-fetched Muslim version of Jesus (Isa, the son of Maryam, the sister of Moses’ brother, Aaron (Quran 19:27-28)) would come and break all Christian crosses, exterminate pigs as the supply of pork, and grant the laurels of victory to Islam.

 

But events during the last hundred years make such a lopsided Armageddon scenario less fantastic: Millions of Christians massacred in Armenia, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere; a million killed in just the first thirteen years of the 21st century; more martyrdoms than in all previous centuries, not to mention the pillaging and destruction of hundreds of churches in Iraq, Egypt, and Nigeria in the last few years; in formerly tolerant Indonesia, according to a report of the Gatestone Institute, more than 1,000 Christian churches have been shut down, torn down, or burned down since 2006. (If you follow only the mainstream media, you may be excused for not knowing about such things.)

 

At present, with the “Islamic State” (ISIS), we have the advent of a new “caliph,” Caliph Ibrahim (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi). For most Muslims, the caliph, if he manages to survive threats from alternative claimants, is not just a figurehead. His existence could dramatically change the eschatological views of obedient and traditional Muslims. While “defensive” war is always permitted to Muslims, only the Caliph has the authority to order an offensive war of conquest and destruction. This is being done now, with tens of thousands of young Muslims rushing to join ISIS in Syria and other strongholds.

 

Catholics call themselves the “Church Militant,” but this is just a metaphor, and meant spiritually. The days when a pope could order or bless a crusade are long gone, especially in view of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, which offer fulsome praises of Islam as an “Abrahamic” religion which adores the same God and submits to His hidden decrees. And it goes without saying, that no nation now would be willing to defend the Christians being murdered or exiled by Islamists, since for “enlightened” moderns this would be a “religious war,” repeating pre-Enlightenment mistakes of the past.

 

The combination of the surrender to modernism in the “developed world” and Christians’ helpless exposure to violence and subjugation in Muslim-dominated regions leads to a possible alternative vision of Armageddon and victory: a final martyrdom of the Church.

 

My Thoughts:

I'll admit that I'm a bit worried about this "soft target" argument, especially in light of the current immigration crisis. I am not in any way suggesting that Americans should oppose immigration or that all Muslims should be registered, imprisoned, or deported. I am suggesting that with immigration comes a serious threat, in that it is the modern equivalent of the Trojan Horse scenario. Even if only 1 out of a thousand are anti-American, we are "opening the gates" to our oppressors.

 

If you've been thinking for yourself during the last few years, you recognize that terrorism is present within our boarders. If you haven't been thinking for yourself look around and do some research, it's not coming but is in fact here! Furthermore, the government and media’s insistence that the recent attacks are not part of a bigger agenda is not good news.

 

At this writing about 53% of Americans are against the confiscation of "scary looking black" rifles; but I can only hope that people quickly come to realize that disarming American citizens is a serious mistake. If you are convinced that guns should be taken away from law abiding people, for the common good, then you better be prepared to suffer and die as a witness for your faith.

Christian Crusades

Christians as Soft Targets

Reprint of an essay called Christians as Soft Targets written by Howard Kainz on December 5, 2015 (Part 1 of 2)

 

The gun lobby and their sympathizers (and some cartoonists) have recently been bringing public attention to the fact that “gun-free” signs on the entrances of museums, schools, churches, shopping malls, etc. can be an unintended invitation to homicidal maniacs or suicidal nihilists who want to take as many possible souls with them in exiting the world. Christianity is in a sense a “gun-free” zone. The Christian religion is so devoted to peace that it could incite similar aggressive responses in malevolent persons or systems. There are, of course, violent Christians and Christian leaders, but in all of the New Testament there is not one sentence that could reasonably incite a Christian to violence or to forced conversions.

 

Quakers and other Christian pacifists are in part justified for interpreting Christianity as going even further than Buddhism in avoiding all types of violence. They focus on Jesus’ messages to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39), “go the extra mile” (Matthew 5:41), “forgive seventy times seven times” (Matthew 18:22), “lend without expecting repayment” (Luke 6:35), “give them your coat also” (Luke 6:29), and “put away the sword" (Matthew 26:52). Ethicists now would call such rules “supererogatory”; going far beyond the basic requirements of duty and justice.

 

There is nothing in the New Testament about the basic rights of self-defense. St. Augustine and other theologians thus needed to wrestle with questions about the justification of wars. They came up with the strict criteria of “just war theory,” requiring multiple conditions for declaring wars and multiple restrictions of conduct when engaging in wars. Just war theory is rational. The New Testament goes beyond, but does not abrogate, the natural law of self-preservation and its corollaries. An individual may go over and above duty in certain cases to “turn the other cheek,” but social and political duties of those in authority may call for use of force to preserve lives and sustenance.

There is, however, a special problem for a “soft-target” religion: It could be the proverbial “sitting duck”, not only for unscrupulous cultures and governments, but also for a militant political religious cult. As I mentioned in a previous column, the Islam we are dealing with in the contemporary world harbors no supererogatory exhortations to non-violence. The fact that Islam is constantly referred to as a “religion of peace” is an anomaly, a species of Orwellian “new-speak”; in the same way that murdering the unborn is called a “reproductive right,” institutionalized sodomy is called “marriage,” and sex has been replaced with “gender.”

 

The stark difference between the concept of martyrdom in Christianity and Islam helps to bring out the dangers for “soft targets.” For Christianity, the martyr deserving of eternal bliss through the vision of God is one willing to suffer and die as a witness for his faith. For Islam, the martyr deserving of an eternal bliss of sensual pleasure is one who is killed while killing “unbelievers” (Quran 9:111), even unknown crowds of men, women, and children, thus advancing the jihadist movement in the world.

Christ Our Light

Dying He destroyed our death
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
John 3:16

 

 

Rising He restored our life
"I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
John 11:25

God isn’t Fixing This?

Excerpts from an essay called In All Things by James Martin, S.J. December 23 2015

 

“God Isn’t Fixing This,” trumpets yesterday's headline in “The New York Daily News,” evidently in response to some politicians’ promises of prayers for the victims of the horrific shootings in San Bernardino.

 

The implication of this ridiculous and insensitive headline is one of the following:

1) God doesn’t care.
2) God cannot or isn’t willing to act.
3) Prayer is useless.

 

Let’s consider the possibilities:

 

1) God doesn’t care.
In fact, God cares more than we can possibly imagine. For God is Love, and so God weeps when we weep and mourns when we mourn. This morning Pope Francis talked about God as a “Father and Mother.” So we can imagine God weeping as much as a father or mother of one of the victims. Can anyone doubt this after reading the Gospel stories that describe what happens when Jesus encounters suffering? When he encounters those who are suffering in any way, his heart is “moved with pity.” The original Greek is much stronger: Jesus feels it in his guts. Jesus is moved with compassion when he sees the poor, the sick, and the outcast. God cares more than we care.

 

2) God cannot or isn’t willing to act.

This is perhaps the worst conclusion to draw from this story. How does God most often act? Through us! The disgust and anger and sadness that we feel over these kinds of violent acts are precisely God’s disgust and anger and sadness. This is God inspiring us, urging us, begging us to act. This is God’s voice in us, which we know as our conscience. It’s up to us, however, to decide to act, or not: It’s up to us to listen to that voice. So don’t blame God for not acting. Blame us.

 

3) Prayer is useless.

Another ridiculous conclusion, because prayer is a natural human impulse. In times of tragedy, it is impossible not to cry out to a loving parent. And God who is all compassion hears and attends these prayers, again, as a father or mother would. God responds to these prayers not only through inner consolations, but by urging us (as individuals and in community) to act. In prayer, we can hear God’s voice more clearly. And that voice says, “Do something.”

 

So the next time you read or hear the headline, “God isn’t fixing this” you’re response should be “No, we’re not listening”.

The Answer

George Orwell was Right

Take a long look at this image of the American flag. I hope it makes you a bit uneasy, because I believe this is the direction our country is headed.

The book 1984 was not intended to be an instruction manual. "War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength", weren't just doublespeak slogans: They were written by George Orwell as a warning.

Those who give away their freedoms and take away the freedoms of others in a misguided attempt to improve the common good are leading this country down the wrong path.

Take another long look at this image; this is not the future you want to leave to your grandchildren!

Danger

A Good Example

How to be a Good Example: Why two wrongs do make a right. Part 4 of 4

 

Ronald Reagan once said, “I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts."

 

Let’s get to my point: To ban guns because criminals misuse them is telling law abiding citizens that our rights and liberties depend not on our conduct, but on the conduct of the criminals. In other words, the law will permit law abiding citizens only those rights and freedoms that the lawless have not exploited.

 

I’m convinced that society can't control crime by forcing law-abiding citizens to accommodate themselves to the behavior of criminals. Society should control crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of law-abiding citizens.

 

Let’s carry this to the extreme. Imagine what would happen if no one complained about rules: I’m convinced that local, state, federal, and international agencies would constantly be creating new rules for everything you can imagine; and for a lot of things you can’t imagine. Ultimately we would have no freedom at all.

 

We would be told when to get up, how to dress, what to eat, where to work, how to get there, what to do while we’re there, when to leave, and how to get home. It would extend to where we could live, who we could marry, how many children we could produce, what their names would be, and what they would learn in school.

 

Our lives would not only be totally dictated to us, we would be monitored every moment of every day. Cameras at intersections, cameras at work, cameras at parks, cameras at home, cameras at church, cameras in our cars … oh wait … I’m not sure we’ll have cars. All of this would be “for our own good” of course, and I’ll admit that the reasons would “make sense” to most people.

 

Don’t look now but recent news stories suggest that this is happening as you read this. It’s not our future it’s our present and the only way to stop it, or at least slow it down, is to push back. As citizens, and more importantly as humans with natural rights, we need to resist the creation of more and more rules that are imposed “for our own good”. We, The People, need to become rebels for our own cause.

 

I’m not suggesting anarchy, society requires rules, and I’m not sure how to balance this requirement for rules and the freedom to ignore them. I admit that it’s a difficult problem, but it’s important that we refuse to reduce our sense of what’s right and wrong to someone else’s complicated list of rules. If we don’t I believe that what we cherish as humans will be lost, and that our society will ultimately fail, because we’re giving up our ability, and our right, to determine our own lives.

 

So be a good example: Rock the boat; create some waves; walk on the grass; freely give to the homeless guy; take your elephant for a walk; remove the water restrictor in your shower; go where no man has gone before; ignore the sign that says “No Dogs”; embrace the idea that rules are meant to be broken; choose to be the bad apple; and follow the sound of a different drummer once in a while.

 

Yes society may require rules, but you have a right to live without a bunch of crazy rules enacted for the “greater good”; or at least you do today. If you don’t recognize and react to the threat to your liberties now, you are going to lose everything that is important.