March, 2022 - A Jackal Among Ruins

March 19, 2022

What is obvious anyway?

“You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.” Deuteronomy 25:13-16

A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. Proverbs 16:28

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. Isaiah 59:1-4

Jesus, concluding the ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ (Matthew 7:24-25) said to put His words into practice so that when trouble comes your house will stand because it has been built upon the rock. Now we need to understand the meaning of what Jesus said. Why is it that if the words are so simple, why do we have so much disagreement about what the ‘right way’ is? The religious answer would likely be that the ‘right way’ is obvious, and those who ask such questions lack faith. Okay. Here is what is ‘obvious’ to me.

Trump is the untouchable icon of the Christian Right. Even now, as Putin’s madness and murder ravages the lives of millions, our politicians still fear crossing Trump in his praise of Putin (He just doesn’t approve of the war, and claims that if it weren’t for the stolen election this wouldn’t be happening—eyes roll…) The reason for this is simple—the power, votes, fund-raising, the culture, belongs to Trump inc. The Christians have been very supportive even the shadow of the January 6^th coup attempt. (There may be a crack in the armor though…)

I’ve heard that democrats want to destroy the country in a myriad of ways; perhaps especially by bringing up past injustices that the diminishing white majority does not wish to look at. What really is the issue is one of power and authority. I recently heard a sermon on ‘Practical Teaching’ which concluded, very assuredly, that if one leaves church angry, one is just rebelling against the conviction of the Holy Spirit. What confidence in your authority pastor! But this is just a posture which has been handed down to us since humans have been humans and accelerated with the birth of mass Christian media. This mass media environment creates the hierarchal context in which all teaching takes place.

In the American view of things, bigness, success, power, in the context of ‘in-God-we-trust,’ is seen as having the blessings of God. Pat Robertson and numerous other pioneers (riding the wave of eschatological speculations) amassed money and power to evangelize—the way in which they did it is pedagogical. One uses money as the means (power) to serve the interests of God. (Remember what Jesus said about God and money?) Pyramids are erected, certain rings need to be kissed, to work your way up the ladder. The corporate world works much the same as the church. Since this ‘health-and-wealth,’ dare I say, ‘me’ centered approach, dominates as the ‘Right Way,’ preachers like Joel Osteen can deliver pretty much the same sermon, from any text in the Bible, to grow your faith big to receive God’s blessing. Littler guys must not cross the big boys too much if you’re going to put butts in the seats and money in collection plate. Our obsession with superstars, secular and sacred, is obvious to this malcontent. Celebrity endorsements are a powerful thing.

Our teachers tell us that knowledge is consigned to the pharisees who would like nothing more than to saddle the poor with heavy loads comprised of empty rules. How clever. Faith is separated from knowledge as it is held up as the virtue. As the practice of intellectual scrutiny is diminished, the dominance of the culture which feeds on the faithful thrives—leaving the faithful ill equipped to bring up the question of what Jesus meant when He talked about serving God and money. The connection in the sermon about practical teaching completely divorced the concept of authority (which as the Creator—Jesus has) and what the pharisees were doing which was just making stuff up so they could be the authority having respect and admiration of the faithful. Same thing happening today.

We are so caught up with money and power as a means of doing God’s will, we will look the other way from obvious dishonesty and fraud. This comes back to the Christian Icon, Trump, and how such a bad man could have amassed such devotion. The cognitive dissonance is astounding; most of the Republicans side with Ukraine yet still back the man who praises Putin as a brilliant leader. He lies, cheats, hides, steals without regard for the discord he sows or the people he hurts. When he praises a bloodthirsty dictator who is doing something most Republicans do not like, I can only come to conclude that people who freely empower Trump want a dictator themselves. The Bible has been and is used to endorse slavery. If one gives the dictator what he wants, he or she will not incur the wrath of God’s hand on earth—and may even be richly blessed with power and money yourself. If you question this, or point out the dissonance, you are faithless and disobedient.

We have lost our way. What is obvious to me is not at all obvious to millions. Who is right?

I’m not going to trust in ‘chariots and horses.’ I will keep believing that it is not okay, at all, to endorse a liar and an obviously morally vacuous man as ‘our’ champion. I believe no one is above the law—and that the legal system for the rich is structured in such a way that justice can be delayed for as long as one has the resources to tie things up. I remember all the Bible has to say about people who claim to speak for God making predictions that don’t come true. But despite all this, all the dirty tricks, all the lies, all the endorsement of brutality, the democrats are worse for wanting to talk about systemic injustice. We believe swimming in the cesspool our lords have engineered for us to swim in is, all the mudslinging about this and that (as I’m slinging as well,) if not a holy thing, the expedient thing to do in service to God. We cannot see the mess we are in because we cannot see for the firehose of bullshit being blasted in our faces every day. What is obvious is not obvious.

Our pharisees, our religious lords, have taught us to not think, but to do what you are told to do by those duly blessed to issue marching orders. The worldly philosophers do not see this as love, but rather it is antithetical to the Christian message—which is love. Millions are falling away from the faith, the house is crumbling, and Christians do not understand why. It’s just the ‘forces of Satan’ and the wickedness which is the faithful explanation—our failure to yield to proper guidance. Love is supposed to transcend all this, to seek to understand and be understood, for this is what create connections between people—this shows another human being their worth. Isn’t the central message of the Bible that God worked painstakingly to reveal Himself (even appealing to reason—Isaiah 1:18) to His creatures? Why then will not even consider the notion that there are many wrongs that need to be talked about.

This is related to all the cover-ups so common in the Christian world. It is unacceptable to not do everything in your power to avoid the appearance of evil. Stuff gets out; and when it does come out, often because the seculars revealed the truth, the damage is immense. Cover-ups are some of the evilest things that Christians do. This is what all the hullabaloo about social justice is about. Christians deny, but the truth is getting out—making the church appear to be evil, patriarchal, and authoritarian in the eyes of many. Christians fight back by pointing out all the libertine sex stuff in our society, name your own hated perversion, while creating a culture where in abuse cases the assumption of benefit lies with religious authority (or those who the authorities have given a mulligan—or two, or three, or as many as necessary.) Dangerous predators are protected as women and children who are actively taught that those in authority are their protectors thus denying them a voice, all to avoid the appearance of evil and to forward a vision of utopia of peace and plenty to the world as witness of our ‘truth.’ This does not add up to the worldly philosophers as equal love for all.

It is time for confession and a serious reckoning with what we’ve been taught as being obvious. All the ‘signs’ say the Christian Right’s reliance on power, it’s protection of criminals, it’s maintenance of oppressive hierarchies which leaves millions without a voice, leaves a serious impression of corruption upon the outsider. It is truth which sets us free. But if we choose to remain obstinate to not question what we’ve been taught we will cleverly invent various schemes to place the blame elsewhere turning the whole mess into a culture war.

We are told that ‘love covers a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8) yet the Church’s finger pointing about the sins of the world is biting them hard—because it is hypocritical. We’ve created a theology which supposes the evidence to salvation be adherence to certain ‘norms.’ The book ‘White Too Long’ gives an ugly look at those norms which are the very kind of things the conduits of God’s power on earth would very much like to leave submerged. Salvation is not found in following rules, it is found in loving truth and in loving period. The truth is that everyone is equal, everyone deserves a voice, and everyone should be afforded the dignity of a reasoned argument to this or that position. A primary undermining of the Christian witness to the world involves the white churches view that it is their culture which will bring salvation to the world. The ‘others’ ought to be grateful for our benevolence. This is screwed up to the core.

Offering an alternative to this view, the very act of listening is an act of love. But we don’t listen, we tell. The very act of hashing out differences, admitting to being wrong, trying to understand, is love. Covering up, saying there is little to forgive, is not. Salvation is not found in human condemnation; conviction is the Spirit’s job. It is what is in the heart that matters, mere appearances are illusory. It is not might which saves but love.

What is love? You know the list. Do we practice the list? (1 Corinthians 13.) Do we love what is noble and pure? (Philippians 4:8) I’d say if we did, we’d avoid hitching our wagons to political fortunes and to amoral liars like the Trumps. But then I’m a divider as well (Titus 3:10.) Now we circle right back around to who is right. Truth is at the very center of the conflict. Traps, false dilemmas, and other modes of fallacious reasoning, haunt us. We must be loving but are also called to be as ‘wise as serpents’ (Matthew 10:16) placing us in the very difficult position to have to reason with people, and to defend yourself and the weak. Wolves are in the middle of the flock, does the Bible teach us to leave each other to the wolves?

I’m not sorry to say that leaving things to ‘it feels right’ and ‘let go, let God’ just doesn’t cut it to discover biblical truth. Biblical literacy continues to decline as all the superstars who’ve been teaching us the practical applications of our faith. The connection here is obvious to me. It is my belief that a good leader (and teacher) should strive to work him or herself out of a job. What does the illiteracy surveys tell us about what kind of job they’ve been doing? Just have faith and obey authority—we’ll tell you what to do. We have a culture which sees the ‘right thing’ is what the culture tells you to believe and do. They are not really interested in training up other shepherds—that would cut into their action. As the edifice crumbles, as people leave the church, the sermons seem to ramp up the necessity of doing more without too much examination of what we are doing and why. The dissonance has built to the point where the people have a lot of angst about why the church is in decline but have no training or inclination to do some self-examination over the way we do church—what we are telling the world about who we are.

We are telling the world that we are pragmatists willing to overlook lies and evil to bring about a greater good through adherence to proper authority. We get our undies in a bunch about what ‘proper’ means, but in the end, the philosophy of authority remains as the wolves feed. Many of our pastors are just not bright enough to see this parroting what they’ve been taught by their higher ups. All this wrapped up in feelings, assumptions, and well-meaning piety. We think it is good and pious to back liars and criminals because we’ve been taught to do so.

And so the house crumbles…

March 11, 2022March 11, 2022

…thwart the dark plans and desires of evil men

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:16-17

Going through the latest news, I got to thinking about the above line from the prayer (see previous post) and how, since no names were called out, the prayer is ambiguous enough to leave room to suppose Zelenskiy and the Ukrainians to be the primary evil actors who warrant such a violent response. I think this for two basic reasons: (1) The Q world supposes this action may be justified so that Russia may secure U.S. bio-weapons labs located there before we have another epidemic. (2) A Representative out of Trump world, Madison Cawthorn, called Zelenskiy a ‘thug,’ and that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt, evil, and is pushing ‘woke ideologies.’

My first question is this now an acceptable tactic in the Christian Right to use one thug to tackle another? If Putin isn’t obviously a thug, I don’t who would be. I went back and reviewed the tape where Zelenskiy was humiliated by Trump. During the ‘meeting,’ Trump was being hounded by the Media over the ‘perfect phone call,’ of which Zelenskiy, the underdog being squeezed here, was doing his best to stay out of the middle. Amid this embarrassment, Trump scolded Zelenskiy like a child basically stating, in a less-than-direct way, that he favors Putin. Period. It’s in the body language, the tone of speech, the facial expressions, and the words… Trump was a bully towards a foreign leader who was elected in a landslide on an idea expressed in Zelenskiy’s TV show, ‘Servant of the People.’

Cawthorn’s idiocy stems from a common myth perpetuated by our various ideological state apparatuses which supposes the State is not only the answer to everything, but also it is literally the center of everything. In this mode of thinking, if one supposes the government to be corrupt then the people must also be corrupt and thus must be subject to whatever approved, and ‘corralled’ governments must do to reform and cleanse the people from their deep corruption. The Christian Right supposes this to be the role of government, as the will of God, to control the evil found in common folk. This forms the ideological base of Trumpism, which will survive regardless of whatever happens to the asshats who gave the movement (pardon the pun) its name. This gives Cawthorn the moral confidence to suppose that since there is corruption in the Ukrainian government, I’m sure there is, the people must also be corrupt as well (regardless of their landslide support of an idea which stood against corruption and oligarchy.)

This too, ought to be chilling to homegrown folks in the U.S. of A. This is what the righteous folk think of you ‘woke’ types. In the Right’s line of logic, since our government, at least the democrats, is deeply corrupt, child-raping vampires harvesting adrenochrome and what not, the people who elected these evil beings need to be punished for supporting such evil.

Hmm… Let’s examine this.

Firstly, it seems the job of ‘reporting’ various outrages has gone to amateurs, conspiratorial-types, who are very shoddy at collecting actual evidence; there is no governing process of professional peer-review, it’s a free for all. I make no claim to be a reporter, I’m a polemicist who relies upon the traditional, peer-policed, professional and integrity-based avenues which bring me the news—and I pay them for it. (Fox News is a totally shameless shill chasing a buck.) A better conspiracy in my mind involves a more obvious program of undermining confidence in the peer-reviewed news, to replace them with those who report the ‘news’ from a more ideologically ‘correct’ position. Trust is built upon factors relating more towards charisma than peer-enforced standards of integrity. I cite as one piece of evidence Tucker Carlson’s repeated barfing out of obvious bullshit with no fear of professional consequences whatsoever. Why? Because he brings in the money. Honor is dead.

What are the ‘right’ things? The intensity of hatred towards the evil of ‘woke ideologies’ puzzles me. It’s obviously both a coded and trigger phrase since the politicians, and ‘journalists’ use it to great fundraising effect. What are ‘woke ideologies’ anyway?

In the link above, our rational explainer of the ‘woke’ destroyer of the people (please read the article so you’ll know what I’m talking about for the next bunch of paragraphs) accuses the ‘social justice warrior’ of many of the same things the Christian Right says and does while clearly planting the flag of ‘truth’ in his own territory. ‘Truth’ really is at the center of things, isn’t it? Christianity is a collection of various ideologies which seek to teach us a better system of belief which leads us to a better way of life. A common thread in Christian thought is that proselytizing is good thing—we all need Jesus—but when a ‘social justice warrior’ does it, it’s bad. But we’re back to ‘truth’ aren’t we? Ralston’s list of spotting the ’Woke Ideologue’ falls on its own sword.

Point 1 involves spotting loaded phrases like ‘implicit bias’ or ‘white privilege’ as a red flag to guard yourself against potential conversion. Never mind that those above phrases have a far narrower (and academic) definitions than the catch phrases of the ‘Make America Great Again’ or ‘Woke Ideologies’ battle cries which could mean just about anything.

Point 2 is, in principle, agreeable of course, although it seems Ralston is employing ad hominem when he says things like, ‘She’s insufferable.’ It is also hard to accept the general assumption of adherence to the scientific facts when the Right, as a posture, tends to reject evidence which does not fit into its ideology. Anything from climate change to the simple statistical fact that a black man is two and a half times more like to be killed in a hostile encounter with police than a white man is rejected as obviously not true for ideological reasons. Ya’ll seem to be very fond of straw men as the ‘debate’ on ‘Critical Race Theory’ rages on—but let’s not get lost in the weeds, shall we?

Point 3. Speaking of assumption and ad hominem! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot—that is an utterly stupid assertion to make. You claim to be a professor? Your students are getting ripped off. ‘Irrational exuberance’ belongs only to the Social Justice Warriors? Oh yeah, this relates to the ‘truth’ thing, right? If you have the ‘truth’ then you’ve moved beyond ideology; I get it Obi-Wan… You so smart.

Point 4: ‘Just when I though you couldn’t get any dumber…’ (Ah, dammit now I’m guilty of ad hominem; needing to ‘totally redeem’ myself now.) This point 4 implicitly says, ‘You don’t care, I do.’ Really? Because they generally have no real concern for the truth? Who does? You? The Right? The journalists? The politicians? The rabble?

Allow me to introduce an alternative idea by asking a question: Do we, to any significant degree, concern ourselves with things we need but perceive to already have? When one already has a perceived, comfortable portion of ‘truth,’ then to what degree are you concerned with, let’s say, confirmation bias? Better be careful, poking around there could rock your world. The trap lies within our perceived investment in something, an ideology, a relationship, a physical thing of some sort, so that we see ourselves as too invested in that thing to walk away from it. The possession of the ‘truth’ is a valuable thing; indeed, it’s a hard thing from which to walk away.

The truth is something we all desperately need but it is a very hard thing to hold onto. Our adversary is called the ‘Father of Lies’ for a reason. Lies keep us from the truth which could set us free. Part of the struggle involve recognizing our own limitations. There are books out there, like ‘Being Wrong’ and ‘The Invisible Gorilla’ which can help with the sorting process and, with me, are therapeutic. Speaking of scientific reasoning and evidence, did you know that it is a statistically established fact that people who blather on confidently about how they know this or that are far less likely to give a truthful, knowledgeable answer to a specific question than someone who is not afraid to say, ‘I’m not sure, I’ll have to look into that’ when they don’t really know? (Look it up.) In other words, the confident fellow is much more likely to make something up when he doesn’t really know, so you won’t lose faith in him—loss of power is the issue. Dealing with uncertainty, however, not only takes a lot of work but also undermines confidence (in either yourself and/or your champion) which can really rip into the happiness portion of a person. It’s far easier to just have faith. (Sartre would agree in that in his mind the only truth to be had is found in human choice itself.)

This is where I’d think God would derive most of His laughs, our surety. Vast Christian teaching empires have arisen to show us the way to the right kind of faith; as faith barged its way into politics, Romans 13 and all that, do you not think that the arduous work involved in pursuit of evidence under constant threat of challenge and criticism would eventually fall to the comfort of a confident ideology? And that comfortable ideology would not fall to charisma and ambition as fact-checkers are pushed into irrelevance? I don’t understand charisma but have observed that it pays very well to have it. These teachers, blessed with the enigmatic gift, suck up our money to teach us how to be like them; we learn the greed part all right, but the charisma part not so much. It all sells because we want the comfort of surety. It frees our minds from doubt and contains within the great benefit of allowing us to be righteous.

Pulling this together, the surety of Cawthorn’s accusation, although he is (at least out loud) in the minority currently, provides comfort in our investment. Our investment, er, the Christian Right’s investment, if I may remind you, is that man who humiliated Zelenskiy in front of the whole world by bullying him and by openly airing a whole host of conspiracy theories, related and unrelated, about how corrupt the Ukrainians are, undermining and weakening (dare I say intentionally because Trump may not be smart enough to be so calculating because he is just plain wired to be an asshole—though he is smart enough to keep the bully in the box when there is a bigger, smarter dog in the room—i.e. Putin) the very idea the Ukrainians said they wanted in a landslide vote. That is a clear abuse of power, but who am I to question the prophets and the ‘wisdom beyond human wisdom’? Yeah, the Russians are intentionally killing civilians to terrorize them into submission. But the Ukrainians deserve it because our dear leader, our cause, our surety, will not back off an investment. That’s the trick we must play on our minds to not fall victim to the utter horror of it all. Lip service is paid to the horror of the war, but we will not back off that in which we’ve placed our faith.

‘…that you would thwart the dark plans and desires of evil men… bring a peace that is strong and not weak… deescalate this crisis today…’ It’s all there in the language of faith and hope which defies any ‘human’ analysis and/or wisdom. Thugs are not good men. Observing the Ukrainian response to murder of their families and leveling of their cities, their resolve is only to be hardened. Our analysts, experts in the field, say there is no ‘end-game’ for Putin; he has doubled-down and is all in—it’s about pride. Tactically, Putin has been defeated on the ground—all he has is the terror of massive firepower used against civilians. De-escalation is a fantasy. I’m forced to consider that Cawthorn is only expressing a deeply held belief in authoritarian rule which Christians have been trained to believe deep down that this is the way God wants things to be—God wants us to understand that some people are more equal than others. No amount of brutality can change that because we understand that Ukraine, all of it, is evil; and as God used pagan nations to punish His people for their sin, so too we must embrace the necessary evil of wanton carpet bombing to restore the proper order. Christians want the Ukrainians to throw up the white flag, so we do not have to witness the ongoing carnage; they care little for the murder, crimes, betrayal, lies, oppression, or for the will of a people to live in freedom and dignity—even though they talk a mean game about having this for themselves. Submit to the brutal autocrat, change your evil ways—that will make us feel better. Putin is our guy’s guy.

Is there hope in negotiating with the surety of righteous? Does the Master’s teaching on good and bad trees producing good and bad fruit, respectively, have any weight?

My prayer…

Father,

May the Russian army experience total defeat; may the Ukrainian weapon’s aim be sure and true. May the people of Russia rise against Putin and tear down his rule. May Putin stand trial before the ICC. May Zelenskiy live a full life and be rewarded for his leadership and bravery in the face of death and the very possible murder of his family. May an equal voice, respect, and dignity come to all people. May people love justice, cherish mercy, and humbly seek the truth no matter what it costs—even though that may mean admitting that we are wrong.

Amen

March 10, 2022

Anatomy of a Prayer

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Below are excerpts from a submitted prayer which was passed along to the congregation on behalf of the Ukrainian people. I’ll be making a few observations on the language employed in the prayer as a preface to an analysis of the sermon which followed— ‘Practical Teaching.’

“…Political leaders around the globe which we are grateful for…even those on the other side of the issue… that their hearts and minds be changed…The truth of Romans 8:28 ‘bring good out of difficulties for those who love the Lord…bring us together for your good and for the kingdom…Father God, king of all the nations, you are our rock, our fortress, our deliverer. We cry out to you on behalf of the people of Ukraine. We ask you to rescue those who are vulnerable…. That they may live without fear… to live with hope and confidence…Our politicians and leaders are predicting the largest war in Europe since 1945… We cry out to you to write another story, in our time…may we see it, and may our only response be, only God could have done this. We pray that you would thwart the dark plans and desires of evil men… give wisdom beyond human wisdom to peacemakers, those in authority seeking a reasonable and far less violent way… help them exercise wisdom from above… willing to yield… save the live of many peoples in Ukraine… bring a peace that is strong and not weak… deescalate this crisis today… Amen.”

Understandably this is all very upsetting. I appreciate the heart of crying out to God over the disturbing thought of (white?) people dying as a result of an unprovoked assault upon a nation. Ever consider our arming of our proxies the Saudis to kill Iranian proxies in Yemen (which kills a lot of innocents as well?) This prayer has holes, big ones; the most obvious and central one is the failure to even ask the question of what our culpability may be to help bring about this atrocity (along with many others.) Heaven forbid! Instead, we merely ask for the God-of-the-gaps to miraculously fix it. Examining the language line by line…

Since my political bias is strongly libertarian (a word which has been co-opted by the Trumpers which forces me to consider using the word anarchist,) I bristle at the thought of being grateful for being subject to the manipulation, theft, lies, corruption, and sabotage of our political leaders. But such is the program of the Christian Right which has worked tirelessly for decades to unite political forces with ‘Christian’ goals and under religious authority. The language in the prayer assumes my dutiful subjugation to such forces and requires my appreciation of being so subject—as the prayer is being relayed by a religious authority as the way things should be.

‘That their minds be changed’ to what exactly? Do we not remember Samuel’s warning to the people of what kings do? Again, we suppose, with the ‘Seven Mountain Mandate’ program emplaced into our minds, such forces can be bent to the ‘chosen people’s will.’ We really have no collective clue what that ought to be do we?

‘For those who love the Lord.’ What? ‘Bring us together…’ A few elements of a common Christian mindset are present in the next few lines. We inherently know war is awful; what Putin is doing is evil. This is where our culpability in the whole stinking mess must be dodged, and our feelings assuaged. In the first place, people who don’t love the Lord are people too. They are being blown up and burned alive because of the desire of a madman (the prayer gets this right.) Do we imagine that our worship and undying support of our dear sociopath (who basked in the adoration of Christian Right as he shamelessly empowered and encouraged Putin in whatever he was spinning up) is now an evangelistic opportunity for God to show His miraculous power? That’s just fucking nuts….

Remember that the prayer has been placed within the context of Romans 8:28. This means the Russian-Ukrainian war is being framed as an opportunity rather than a horrific tragedy of human carnage which we helped make happen. Don’t you remember all the shit Trump did to the Ukraine to forward his own goals? Remember Trump siding with Putin over the word of people in his own administration? We cheered it. We helped empower Putin to do this.

Because of the leadership in Ukraine (i.e. ‘I need ammunition, not a ride) the Ukrainian people are generally sticking their collective middle fingers up in the air so that part of prayer is already being fulfilled. The only way they are not going to live in fear is for a Ukrainian victory. This is true for the Russian people as well. For all the brutality Putin has displayed towards his own people (remember how Trump has praised Putin as a leader,) his arrests of anyone critical of him (we have people here in the Christian Right who want the same thing,) his killing of journalists and dissidents, his ‘fake news’ laws (here we just have ‘Fox News’ to keep people thinking what they need to think,) our request ‘to write another story’ is quite frankly contrary to the story we set up to have happen. What do you think is going to happen when you empower evil men? Flowers and sunshine? We haven’t been watchful; we’ve been deceived.

I too pray that the plans of evil men (and women) be thwarted. It’s just that I include leaders in the Christian Right to be in that bunch. The Russian Church, whom Putin enthusiastically embraces, is equally complicit—to make Russia Great Again. There is no less violent way to end the evil; Putin is the kind of evil who has moved beyond reach of negotiation. If you seek evidence of God’s direct intervention, I suggest the evidence be Putin order an immediate withdrawal and physically submit himself to the Hauge for war crimes prosecution. Anything less, including total military defeat for Russia (which would be evidence for the tenacity of the Ukrainian people,) or some group of politicians stabbing the Ukrainian people in the back thus leading to their subjugation (which would be evidence for many that is what God wanted for everyone in the first place) is just evidence of human action and reaction. I’d refrain from putting God on the hook for this evil.

I pray for the total, utter destruction of Russian army, navy, and air forces at the hands of the Ukrainian forces; and fall of Putin at the hands of his own people.

Amen

March 1, 2022March 1, 2022

No Shortage of Either Evil or Idiocy

A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Proverbs 26:28

Our liar, traitor, and arsonist, and all his enablers, are in good part responsible for this invasion of a sovereign nation bringing death, destruction, and mayhem upon the Ukrainian people. (The unfortunate reality, in our world swimming in bullshit, is that this vicious invasion is good news for Trump.) Many of our commentators are focusing on Trump’s calling Putin brilliant for making this unprovoked assault. Some are defending his comments as sarcasm—which is ridiculous considering his history of praise for (and agreement with) the depraved Russian dictator. Was it really sarcasm that he suggested we should deploy ‘peacekeepers’ on our southern border? Love is hate, hate is love, peace is war, war is peace…

It is beyond my comprehension the depth of the depravity of those who both fear and worship Trump. The commitment is seemingly unshakable. A terrible, deep wound—an unbridgeable gap has emerged separating me from the Church (the practitioners of whom, by a vast majority, support that man despite his wickedness in all the incoherent, obvious, bald-faced lies—it’s just astounding.) I’m sorry God. I can’t stomach anymore.

Now that I’m retired from my former profession, and catching up on sleep, I’ll be describing and documenting various stages and aspects of my struggle to reconcile the leaving of a faith I can longer keep in good conscience. Maybe some good can emerge from this. Maybe I can help somebody out there facing the same horrible conclusions I’m coming to. I do care about people.

Firstly, I would like to urge you to join with the Ukrainian people in raising our middle fingers in the air towards all liars, bootlickers, ass-kissers, sycophants, yes-men, two-faced schemers, and the cowardly opportunists and send money to Ukraine to aid them in this fight. It is depraved to be afraid of utterly cutting off Russia from the world; the people suggesting we shouldn’t go this far because it might hurt us should be ashamed of themselves. The Ukrainian people are dying and are standing strong in the face of superior firepower and savage brutality. You’re afraid to pay more for gas? I’ll gladly pay more. The world must stand against Putin—a thoroughly evil man.

(And we must stand against that jack-ass who has repeatedly smoked Putin’s dick for an invitation to the club.)

Here is a link to someone on the ground near Kyiv…

I am going to stand against the Church (which is wound up in world of lies as it is led from the top by evil men and women who’ve exalted themselves as our lords) who helped make this, and many other horrible things, happen.

“The task of resisting our own oppression does not relieve us of the responsibility of acknowledging our complicity in the oppression of others.” — Beverly Daniel Tatum

Until later,

Mark