Merry Christmas?

Every year Christmas time seems to get a little more unreal.

At first I thought it was just that I was getting more cynical with age; but being aware this year, I'm sure it's really getting more bizarre... (and, okay, I'm also more cynical, too). It hit me particularly when my wife and I were in the unusual situation of sitting in a Spanish-language church for a Navidad service. Besides several Spanish versions of popular Christmas hymns, the young music group suddenly put Jingle Bells on the overhead projector, with English words. Somehow, seeing the words 'writ large' as it were, made me very conscious of how crazy they must seem to those in the congregation who understood English. What could they make of 'bells on bob-tails?' In the midst of all the religious hymns in Spanish, what was the relevance of sleigh-bells on horses? Yet there is something quite illustrative about the contradictions.

From that service, I came away hyper-sensitive to all the craziness of this season. As I listened to the old, hackneyed tunes on the radio, the weirdness factor kept growing. Every singer established enough to be called an ‘artist' has to release a Christmas album sooner or later to cement their position in the commercial music scene. So we get all those old, familiar tunes 'covered' by every artist, and each has to add his/her distinctive embellishments, with more or less success-- you are the judge. Once a year, for maybe ten days or so, we get to hear all those old saws, by a platoon of artists, and just as they almost take over our feverish minds, they mercifully disappear for another eleven and a half months.

It's those songs that set the mood for the season, and if anyone stops to ponder them, all kinds of unsettling questions arise to sour that mood. We get so comfortable with the songs that the obvious questions don't occur to us. But if you had to explain the Christmas memes to a complete outsider-- the classic anthropologist from Mars-- you'd start to see what I mean. Like, he/she might well ask 'what does an impossible reindeer with luminescent nose have to do with the birth of the Son of God? Or a zombie snowman? And all those other secular favorites, ranging from rock rhythms to almost anything? Of course, they are all examples of the de-religifying of Christmas, if I may coin a word. Over the decades, the feast has, in the pop media, lost almost all of its original religious significance, and has morphed into a kind of winter saturnalia, a warm, family get-together time that appeals to almost all 'communities' regardless of religious outlook. Even the formulized greeting ‘Merry Christmas’ begs questioning. Why should it be merry... which connotes triviality, at best? (The French ‘Joyeaux Noel’ makes more sense for a Christian).

To the beleaguered Christians, this secularization of Christmas is much lamented. But it may actually be a blessing in disguise. Rather than asking the rhetorical 'Who took Christ out of Christmas?' Christians would do better to ask the question posed by an Internet writer who pondered 'Who put Christ into the Solstice?' Yes, that makes more sense. After all, there is nothing in scripture to indicate when Jesus was born. Nor is there the slightest hint that his believers ought to celebrate his birthday. For those who dare investigate, it seems that Constantine, the Roman emperor credited with making Christianity the official faith of Rome, decided his decision would enjoy much better chances of success if he eased his subjects into the transition from paganism. So, he made Sunday the official day of religious observance, and... he transformed the old feast of the winter solstice-- the day of shortest sunlight and longest darkness. Under Constantine's plan, the 're-birth of the sun' became celebrated as the birth of the Son, and pagan symbols like evergreen trees and yule logs were adopted into the new scheme of things. Eventually, 'Father Christmas' came along in Europe, and morphed into the stereotyped, rotund Santa Claus that infests every shopping mall in America every December. The once hallowed, holy day has become the premier holiday of the modern calendar, accompanied by its commercial companion, 'boxing day.' While the religious aspect is now trivial, the holiday has become so vital to retailers that many could not survive without the buying frenzy of Christmas.

On the flip side, the expectations surrounding Christmas are so onerous that many innocent 'consumers' suffer great stress at this time of year as they try to find the right gifts for people who don't really need more stuff; and as they try to find the money to pay for all the futile presents. I've heard it claimed that the death rate from suicide and other causes peaks over the Christmas/New Year season. What seemed a good idea 17 centuries ago, in a more religious era has turned out quite differently in today's society.

Perhaps the ultimate irony lies in the efforts of some progressive reformers to enforce a non-religious Christmas, one with no hymns, no nativity scene, no mention of Christ, and no church affiliation at all. To bolster their efforts, they've tried to add Hanukah and Kwanza, and heaven knows what, to the 'generic season' while denaturing Christmas into a Santa-Claus fest. Which takes us to the wacky concoction of incongruous themes that have grated on my nerves with increasing urgency over the decades.

As I stated, all these contradictions could have a beneficial outcome if they roused Christians to really think about their faith, and its sources, and to realize that they must stop depending on institutions and start developing a personal understanding of scripture and the gospel. Is this likely to occur? No; more likely, the contradictions will increase. Maybe all mention of Jesus will be removed, and tho the day may still be called Christmas, it will be completely non-religious, maybe even irreligious. No matter; I have long ago stopped taking it seriously.

SS Titanic - 1912... 2012

The sinking of the ocean liner The Titanic has become folkloric, and as I've written before, iconic, since it resonates with so many facets of human behavior. It's for that reason that I'm fascinated by the story-- a true story, well documented, and illustrative of human foible. What more could one want of a tale?

Like all events that have morphed into tradition, it's all too easy to miss the penetrating insights it offers as we simply gloss over it as the entertainment it has now become. Bearing that in mind, let's have another, measured look at the story and see if there are angles previously overlooked.

The Titanic represented the height of technological prowess in 1912. It had a double steel hull, it had steam turbines for propulsion, and electric generators for light, and even the latest communication device, called wireless telegraphy. It was outfitted lavishly, with a grand ball-room, dining rooms, and comfortable cabins (for the first and second class passengers, at least). To preside over its maiden voyage, the White Star line chose Captain Edward J. Smith, who was considered an accomplished sea captain. Given the caliber of the celebrity passengers aboard SS Titanic on this inaugural crossing-- men such as JJ Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim-- Smith must have been selected to meet their expectations. Yet the tragic sinking of this ship must be placed directly on the shoulders of this one man.

On the star-lit evening of April 14, 1912, the Titanic was slicing thru the north Atlantic waters at close to full speed. Inside, passengers were enjoying live music in the ball-room, and fine foods served on fine tables by attentive staff. Then, the watchman on duty reported to the bridge-- an iceberg had been spotted a few miles distant. The bridge officers reported the information to the captain, and the speed was reduced slightly, but still maintained at over 20 knots. You don't have to be a physicist to grasp that a large, massive steel vessel, moving at around 25 mph, has a great deal of momentum, and does not easily change direction. If it should strike another massive object at that speed, there will be 'unintended consequences.' When you are driving a vehicle on the highway and it starts to snow, you know you have to slow down to maintain control. But Captain Smith simply carried on as if it was 'clear sailing.'

What was he thinking? It's not obvious. He must have known the dangers of steaming at high speed in the North Atlantic during ice-flow season. He would have had some notion of the dire consequences of a collision. Even if he was utterly confident that the ship was 'unsinkable,' as the designers claimed, he would still have known that hitting a fair-sized hunk of ice would create 'inconvenience' at the least, such as having to proceed at much reduced speed or possibly stopping to wait for assistance. Yet Smith seemed oblivious to the risk, and ignored the warning of his look-out. Crazy behavior in retrospect. Crazy decision even at the time. Why did he do so?

The answer to the big 'why' seems to lie somewhere in the human psyche. Smith exhibited the hubris that the Greeks wrote about, a kind of arrogant contempt for displays that other humans could view as weakness. Was he so enamored of the extravagant claims of the technologists of his day, that he was ready to bet the safety of his ship on it? What was Captain Smith thinking, anyway? It makes no sense.

The whole sorry tale fascinates me because it encapsulates in cameo all the elements that one can apply to our modern age and its challenges. To cite some of the parallels, I offer the following broad strokes for the reader's meditation.

Humanity is sailing thru the cosmic seas of space on the good ship Earth on a starry night. Aboard are a handful of ultra-rich, celebrity passengers, traveling first class, and enjoying nothing but the best. In the ballroom, comfortable, middle-class passengers dance to the music and imbibe fine wines. In the lower decks, there are multitudes of poor passengers, poverty-stricken, who can only dream of having the necessities of life. Our 'watchmen' have been warning us for a long time of dangers looming dead ahead but at an unknown distance. On the bridge of spaceship Earth there is an assortment of crazed, self-seeking, madmen, seemingly bent on destruction. None of the higher-ranking officers wants to slacken the pace of life, or to evaluate the warnings coming from the look-outs. Reckless abandon seems to be the hallmark of the day, as politicians bicker and ignore the crises of climate change, global inequalities, pollution, corruption, drug-weapon-and-human trafficking, and so on. Those few who know about the dangers that lie ahead prefer to keep the masses in blissful ignorance of them; and the latter are quite happy to carry on in their willful lack of awareness. The iceberg was not some sinister, devised calamity; it was simply a normally occurring artifact, existing in accordance with the natural laws. Could an analogous, natural, cosmic event collide with the destiny of Earth in the near future?

You, dear reader, can connect the dots, and notice how the situation of the Titanic in the cold, dark Atlantic Ocean in 1912 reflects the larger reality of planet Earth in (dare I say it?)... 2012.

Fort Hood-wink?

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretations.

Here we go again-- another mass murder committed by lone gunmen against 'innocent people.' ('Again,' referring to Columbine, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma federal building, etc.). The media seem to love these incidents, and respond almost as by formula: horrified headlines, then hand-wringing questions of Why? and Why us? Then they bring in the talking heads to explain the gory details of what happened, and more experts to opine on the 'why' questions. And then they dig out (and dare we suggest, fabricate or embellish) stories on the 'heroes.' Yes, America loves its heroes, and there are always heroes to be discovered in every human tragedy-- the teacher who made a brave choice that saved some students; the policeman who ignored danger to 'take down' the attacker; you've read all about them, or watched their stirring bio-sketches on all the major TV channels. You have to feel sorry for these people who were 'just doing their job,' then thrust into the media glare as sacrificial heroes to parade for their 15 minutes before an America reeling in shock and grasping for comfort. That's a key part of the formula you have to comprehend: implant the dominant themes in the public consciousness while it is malleable and highly suggestible from the psychological imbalance generated by trauma.

Unfortunately, the media's well-honed formula does not include any really useful, insightful analysis that would provide long-term benefits for society. Those benefits would include preventing incidents of 'unexpected, murderous rage' from happening again, by healing the disaffected individuals before they explode. Instead, the focus immediately goes to 'increasing security' to prevent the next murderers from completing their rampages. In other words, the solution is always sought in band-aids, never in going to the root of the issue, which would entail too serious introspection on the part of society. The public has been conditioned to be incapable of dealing with nuanced analysis. The emphasis on increased security is no accident; it is a deliberate move by those in authority to grab powers that were previously restrained by the laws of the land.

Take the latest example, the Islamic psychiatrist working at Ft. Hood. At first glance (even second) it appears like a straightforward case of another 'wacko who snapped,' and took out his rage against those close at hand. Indeed, the same news agencies carried another story of a shooting in Florida that followed this classic formula. But-- for the patient news watcher who didn't jump to the pre-programmed conclusions desired by the mainstream media, the picture soon started to resemble the now-familiar news-management that surrounded the 9-11 and other major 'attack' stories. What do I mean? It's the rapid accumulation of 'facts' or speculated facts that just don't make sense. That phase is quickly followed by the mysterious disappearance of certain of those factoids into the black hole of journalism, never to be seen again... at least not in the mainstream media. The first stories from Ft. Hood explicitly mentioned at least 'three gunmen,' one of them shot and presumed dead (at the time), and two others still either at large or being detained. Since Hasan was shot and hospitalized, who are these other two persons? Why were they taken into custody? And what is being done with them? Then we hear that in the midst of a military base, Hasan, with no combat experience, was able to shoot 42 people, killing 12 of them, using one or more hand-guns! We are told that he got off some amazing number of gun-shots before being finally brought down by bullets fired by (what's this?) a civilian police-woman. Later, we learn that Hasan just happened to be a graduate of Virginia Tech-- yes, that V-Tech. The one where the Korean student 'snapped' and killed 32 people on a psychotic rampage in 2007. Hmmm.

Of course, there's more. How about the 'interesting link' that has been reported in the 'MSM' between Hasan and the 911 terror plot? It's a tenuous link at best; but it doesn't even have to be true. It just has to be alleged, and the effect is the same. Similarly, early, repeated allegations that he had applied to avoid deployment to the combat zone are now found not to be substantiated. On his behavior that day, a witness at the convenience store Hasan frequented stated that he appeared completely normal. Then he 'snaps' and fires at innocent by-standers. Folks, that smells of classic post-hypnotic suggestion, or programmed response. It will be very fascinating to see if Hasan somehow survives the wounds and is able to testify... or whether he 'succumbs to his injuries' and we never hear what he might have said.

Even accepting the chaotic mainstream narrative at face value, there are troubling issues. Since the shooter had an Arabic name, the press took the easy route and jumped on his distress at being deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq where US troops are fighting Arab/Muslim 'insurgents.' Now, I don't doubt that Major Hasan was indeed distressed at being sent to assist the army to fight against people who share his culture &/or beliefs. What the media fail to deal with is the big question of whether this anguish hits on a valid irregularity of US foreign affairs. Why, in fact, is the US military in Afghanistan? What is the latest pretext for sending the troops to that far-off country that, by no stretch of imagination, poses any threat to the US? Why are Afghan and now Pakistani civilians being killed regularly by 'NATO' forces in the pursuit of the once-friend-now-enemy Taleban, and the CIA-invented 'Al-Queda?' Is the US presence based on the same kind of fabricated lies that were invoked to justify their invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq... and to subsequently destroy the country in the interests of subduing the resistance?

These are the kinds of questions that must have echoed in the mind of Hasan while he conducted his duties on a Texas military base-- and that could have driven him over the edge if he was notified of deployment overseas. Of course, these are precisely the kind of questions that the media avoid like the simple truth. As good servants of the ruling elite, the media know better than to dig for real answers. So it was with the Columbine incident. The media obsessed about superficial matters, but few, if any, dared to question a society that revels in violence as entertainment, beamed to us 24/7 by eager, profit-driven media corporations. That could have been... 'er, embarrassing, shall we say. No, the media have become hostile to any implied criticism of the mind- and soul-numbing pop culture they so flagrantly flaunt and promote. Instead, the media have become the shapers of public perception, the ultimate propaganda machine as envisioned by Edward Bernays, the 20th century 'god-father' of modern 'public relations' and advertising. The truth is that we are living in the Matrix that defines our consensus reality. It is not a physical matrix of hardware pods, but a more subtle, virtual matrix of media-generated illusion. And it is just as vicious and subversive and totalitarian as anything imagined by Orwell, Huxley, or the Wachowski brothers. The Ft. Hood incident bears all the hallmarks of another, false-flag diversion; one that comes along just when Obama had to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Now-- if only Hasan had been of Iranian descent... Oh well, you can’t make every detail perfect when staging a phony disaster for political purposes. Stay tuned; and stay alert!

Dogmatic Certitude

How many of you readers have found yourselves among a group of people who 'belong' to some religion or another, and just observed and listened to their chatter? If the people are true believers-- of whatever they call their faith-- they will exhibit certain traits that are held in common by all such cults, whether big or small. That uniformity in behavior, and often structure, can be puzzling to the objective and unfamiliar observer.

Probably the most striking characteristic that true believers manifest is that they are completely comfortable with the certainty that their religion has all the answers.

It doesn't matter what question of existence that you place before them; they unhesitatingly respond with the 'correct and only correct answer.' They alone, of all schools of thought, have the answer; all other responses are, therefore, incorrect or lacking in some way. After one has been thru this kind of situation a few times with different religious groups-- including some that appear completely different-- one can find it almost hilarious. At least it demonstrates some deeper truth about human nature and the perversity of human belief.

To give an example of what I'm talking about, let me state that I was raised as a Roman Catholic, getting the full treatment of catechism classes, the sacraments, priestly sermons, Latin masses, and so on. In those days, the RC Church had all the answers; they were found in the Church literature, or were handed down to the laity from the big guy, the Pope, via his hierarchy of clergy. Somehow (God be praised) I escaped the clutches of this General Motors of the religious world. However, I was still a prisoner of the notion of 'church,' and ended up in the camp of the Seventh Day Adventist organization. Now, here's a group that sets itself as a kind of religious insurgency against the RC Church, and has all the scriptures to back them up. Well, guess what? After almost ten years as a member of this group, I found that they are really much closer in general morphology to their designated adversary than they'd ever want to admit! Yes, it's true. Take away the ceremonial paraphernalia of the Catholics, and there are remarkable similarities in the attitudes of the clergy and of the parishioners... 'er, members.

By the grace of God, again I broke free of the benign shackles of Adventism. This time, tho, I was older and wiser; and twice-burned, I was not about to make the same mistake again. It finally dawned on me that a relationship with the Supreme Creator has nothing to do with huddling around with people who have developed a common dogma concerning the supposed nature of this unknowable Being. Far from it; these organizations inevitably become convenient vessels of the great enemy of souls, Satan, in his relentless and venomous campaign to destroy humanity. That, alas, is a consequence of fallen human nature. So I finally took responsibility for my own religious outlook, my own beliefs, and my own relationship with God. And, curiously, I found the answers and guidelines necessary in the same scriptures as do those big, organized things called churches.

But the phenomenon of 'religious isomorphism' is not restricted to Christianity. No, not at all. Over the years of open-minded pursuit of faith, I have fellowshipped with groups of various religious persuasions, including Moslems, Bahai's, and Hindus. Sure enough; each group is totally convinced that their system has all the answers. Some of them are fairly pushy in explaining their elaborate beliefs on all aspects of human existence-- from the creation of the universe, to the nature and fate of mankind, and everything in between... they all have all the answers. Of course, there's one small problem that the outsider like myself immediately realizes-- these groups often differ vastly in the details of the answers that they supply, yet they are all convinced that they alone are correct!

Well, 'duh!' They just can't all be correct. You can point this unsettling fact out to the adherents of any one of the myriad of sects... and it will have no effect on their thinking. No, they remain resolute in their certitude. God is clearly a Catholic for the Catholics, a Muslim for the Muslims, a million manifestations for the Hindus, Jehovah for the Witnesses, and so it goes. Once someone makes that commitment to a creed, he or she is highly reluctant to exercise any kind of free thinking-- what would their religious peers think? What about all the time and sacrifices they made to obtain this ‘final truth?’ They cannot even seem to exercise any imagination! They have to inhabit a fully determined world, where their group has all the answers, and no further thinking is necessary. Can thinking be so painful? Is life without all the answers so unbearable?

It stuck me that religions must attract the kind of personality that cannot cope with shades of gray, with uncertainty, with any doubts about the nature of existence and the universe. By the way; I hope the perceptive and unbiased reader can notice clearly that in this regard, even atheists who vigorously defend evolution and attack God, are themselves behaving exactly like the religious zealots I have described above! They are just as certain that they have all the answers-- at least the answers they need-- as the annoying religionists. I say to all these insecure personalities, 'What's so hard about admitting that there are many things about the cosmos that we just don't understand, and perhaps will never understand?' So what? We don't have to have 'all the answers' in order to live fulfilling lives, to make scientific progress. Why does every intentional group have to insist that they are 'right' and everyone else 'wrong?'

Well, I'm quite sure that each one of the religious sects can supply me with definitive answers to my rhetorical questions... But curse them all; I don't want their pre-packaged, black-and-white, rote responses! Probably each group has a little truth; but none has a patent on truth. And none is willing to admit it. Sadly, the whole world suffers because of their refusal to admit incomplete truth, and because of such restrictive views of reality. With their monocular outlook on world events, each group is doomed to miss things that other groups could teach them. The whole race is the poorer for this problem of the dogged certitude of human belief.

Eight Years of Deception

It hit me recently-- a little flash of insight so obvious yet hidden in plain sight. With my ears, I was hearing another vacuous radio interview on the 8th anniversary of ‘9-11,’ whether the world is ‘safer’ now than before that date. My eyes were glancing over a screen full of ads for books on the 9-11 conspiracy, and the NWO, and so on. And it struck me that here we are, eight years later, with eight years of almost unrelenting evidence of global manipulation of our world, probably thousands of books and articles about the true, evil conspiracy that brought down 9-11, and yet the mainstream media still prattle on about the consequences of 9-11 as if it’s all widely accepted that the official story is unassailable, and we have only to discuss whether subsequent decisions were useful or not. It’s totally bizarre, is my immediate reaction.

When, one fine but too late day, the majority of the Western populace finally wakes up and realizes that they’ve been played for suckers, they will have to look back at the years following 9-11 and acknowledge that the facts-- not just ‘clues’-- were all around them for the whole period, glaring us all in the face. And too many chose to turn away and ignore them because they made us feel uneasy. Well by then, we’ll be a lot more than uneasy; but too bad-- ‘ve are too soon old, und too late schmart!’

Aye, that’s the irony of the illusion we are presently immersed in. The ‘truth is out there,’ all around us, but it’s just far more convenient to give it a pass. For the conspirators, the accumulating evidence of their crime is a bit of a nuisance... but only that. They are becoming quite content at mouthing the now familiar rebuttals to the facts, confident that their reality is going to prevail because it’s the more soothing. Meanwhile, they feel free to proceed with their plans using the same rationales as always, knowing that the sheeple have short memories and long tolerance for official abuse.

On the eve of the anniversary date, I watched a TV documentary produced by the BBC directed squarely at the mounting concern over ‘WTC 7’ as ‘smoking gun’ proof of insider involvement in the 9-11 attack. It was, on the surface, a bold move to address some of the most egregious discrepancies between the official story and the critics. However, as it unfolded, I could see the deft touch of ‘spin’ being administered by masters of the craft. They interviewed the prominent conspiracy theorists to present the most common ideas about the event; and then they presented their experts who gave their story supporting the incredible official line. In the end, the viewer was left with a dilemma of whom to believe: the devil they know-- their politicians and media spokespersons, or else the upstart, and upsetting critics whom they don’t know. The program made a point of presenting an outright lie as a casual but pivotal assertion by one of the official spokesmen who stated that there was no ‘wider context’ within which the ‘WTC-7 conspiracy theorists’ made their unconventional claims. That comment, quickly glossed over, was flabbergasting in its flagrant disregard for eight years of ever-broadening evidence surrounding the whole event! That one brief comment, very deliberately inserted in the middle of the broadcast, was clearly intended to discredit everything that the critics had to say about the collapse of the three towers.

That deliberate bit of disinformation also demonstrated to anyone paying attention that the BBC is undeniably an accessory to the 9-11 cover-up. Yet you have to almost admire their sheer chutzpah. Imagine; they tackle the thorny issue of WTC-7 head on... and guess what, gentle viewers-- it’s really nothing to worry about; the government was right all along; you can go back to sleep. That’s one of the main lines of attack by the disinformants for 9-11. They appear to address the critiques directly; but using television’s ‘power of persuasion,’ well-honed over decades of advertising and news-shaping, they instead create additional strength for their lies in the minds of viewers. It’s a clever tactic; but one that will, in the long run, back-fire on them. One thing the cabal can’t understand is that one day the truth will finally emerge. That is just the way the universe works. You can create all kinds of elaborate lies-- many civilizations over the millennia have fabricated them-- but in the end, these structures collapse just like the World Trade Center towers. They collapse because they are built on phony foundations, and constructed of fake materials, and held together with a web of falsehood. Such a structure cannot survive for any extended length of time; it must crumple under its own weight of deception.

For interested readers, here's another hard-hitting article that considers the present state of affairs at this momentous time in history:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=156451

Loud Cry to Modern Christians!

This is a message from a modern-day prophet, an Isaiah or Jeremiah for the times. It is not a message to tickle your ears. You will not sit there with a warm glow of satisfaction as you read. It is a wake-up call, a winnowing stick that will determine whether your faith is a solid kernel... or a thin husk of chaff that can be blown about by the winds of deception.

What are my credentials, you ask, in this age of expert-worship. What credentials did Isaiah or Jeremiah have? Jesus was a carpenter’s son and presumed apprentice; what qualifications did he have to lecture the people of his day? What enduring spiritual insight has been uttered by the mouths of the credentialed professionals, that you should seek them to soothe your itching spirit? If you are truly a Christian, the Holy Spirit should be getting your attention, and should guide your outlook, and provide you with sufficient ‘gifts’ to at least recognize truth when it hits you in the ego.

The Spirit of the Lord speaks thus to His followers in the rich, ‘Western’ lands of plenty:

if you are still under the delusion that the USA is other than a land completely and utterly under the domination of satanic forces, then you haven’t done your homework, Christian! You just haven’t been paying any attention over the last decade as events have unfolded on the world scene. You have spurned the spiritual gift of discernment, thinking it too strenuous, and turned such weighty matters over to your eager-to-please pastors. You’ve been content to sit in your pew for that pathetic hour on Sunday when you are a credentialed Christian, and listen to your hired, professional shepherd tell you what to believe about the faith and current events.

When you appear before your Lord and Judge on that Day, you will try to use the excuse that “they told us we were blessed among the nations for our Christian heritage”? Will you whine that “they said our prosperity was a sign that God was blessing us for going to church and donating to its upkeep”? Didn’t Jesus soundly chastise the Pharisees for that same smug attitude? “We are Abraham’s children, so God must be pleased with us.” Didn’t the prophets of yore raise a loud cry against their ‘blessed,’ complacent compatriots who exploited the masses while claiming the benefits of being an Israelite? Your riches are no sign of spiritual health, Christian! Far from it. If you still sit there passively or actively supporting the depredations of your government, smugly assured that it is carrying out God’s work, you are in a most sad spiritual condition. If you believe that Israel is a land blessed by God and destined to rule over the nations, regardless of the methods it employs and its treatment of its neighbors, then you are living the New Testament with a stony, Old Testament mind-set.

Mind-set is a modern word for what the Bible calls your ‘heart.’ The biblical writers were not referring to the physical organ when they talked about the heart; it’s the term used for the beliefs of your soul, your inner convictions... or lack thereof. The Christian mind-set in modern America is that of an adolescent-- ‘gimme everything I want because I deserve it.’ That’s the gospel of divine entitlement that is so prevalent in America over the last half century, and that is so eagerly lapped up by the masses of pew-warmers. While Americans have bloated their bodies on over-abundant junk food, they have likewise dulled their souls with the pop dogma of Christian prosperity. The USA must be blessed because of its surfeit of material wealth, so the logic goes. It’s so easy for the purveyors of such mind-mush to push this nonsense because their flocks are dull of mind, happy to abdicate the responsibility of discernment to ‘credentialed experts’ who make them feel so good about their wretched excess of wealth in a world where two-thirds of humanity live in pitiful poverty.

Yes, it’s so pleasant to listen to those sermons that quote scripture here and there, and supply all the Christian rationale for sitting contentedly in the land of plenty while the majority of humanity barely survives. In fact, the experts are not content with simply justifying the gross inequalities of the modern world; no, they go on to blame the victims for their poverty, their lack of initiative, their inability to hoist themselves up by the boot-straps (never mind that they can’t even afford boots-- that’s their problem). How many Christians in the US have joined the righteous battle against the ‘evil’ of universal medical care? How dare those ‘communists’ try to extend health care to the undeserving poor! Any attempt at a slightly more equitable distribution of wealth in the land of plenty is met with a storm of indignation, largely from the Republican ‘right,’ the haven of indignant Christians of various stripes, united in their fear of losing their privileges.

While Christians (some at least) rail against the false doctrine of Evolution, they have unconsciously bought into the allied, subtle dogma of economic Darwinism, or social ‘survival of the fittest.’ That cunning view has insinuated itself into the mass mind-set, and envelops a host of social evils with an air of listless inevitability. Thus, the poor get what they deserve; and presumably, so too, the rich. Hence, no need to exercise moral imperatives to address such inequalities-- they are unavoidable consequences of human, Darwinian behavior. How convenient... especially for the rich class! In this manner, the modern Christian is a dupe, speaking against anti-Christian teaching on one hand, while unwittingly accepting and promoting it on the other.

Again, in the realm of core faith, the American Christian has blindly accepted the precepts of the Old Testament while pretending to live under the New Covenant of Christ. It doesn’t occur to them that they are living a contradiction! After all, they reason, the pastors would have told them. As Hosea lamented in his day, My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge. What do I mean? Let me spell it out. The Old Covenant (or Testament) was given to a specific group of people at a time when they needed it. The Old Covenant, given thru Moses to the people of Israel, out in the Sinai wilderness, some 3,300 years ago, was like a ready-made constitution. They needed it to endure as a viable nation after leaving the ancient culture of Egypt. Over time, the Israelites corrupted their covenant, and their society broke down into the many ills decried by their God-sent prophets. The primary alarm of those prophets was the spiritual exploitation by the priests and scholars over the laity, the unschooled populace. Abusing their office, those shepherds led their flocks into spiritual destruction (and often physical destruction, as well). The same tragedy is unfolding in our midst, and this messenger condemns it!

After twelve centuries of corruption of the ‘Laws of Moses,’ God sent His Anointed One (for that is what Messiah means) to His people, Israel. By then, there remained only one remnant of Israel, the tribe known as Jews. Jesus was born a Jew, and delivered a radically new message to the Jews and to the surrounding peoples. In place of the rigid ‘Law of Moses’ with its legalistic, flinty, unbending outlook on morality, Jesus proclaimed a gospel of Love. It starts with the crazy belief that God, rather than seeking to destroy you, really loves you! Yes, God wants people to live a decent, upright, and fulfilling life... and to inherit everlasting life in the beyond. It was a radical message that upset the socio-political-religious order of his day... and continues today to fly in the face of human logic in all aspects of society. The organized Christian Church, within two centuries of Jesus, and to this very day, has not been able to accept his gospel. Instead, using human cunning, the powers that run the Christian churches have invented a hybrid gospel, one that has mesmerized almost everyone. The false, hybridized gospel proclaims the New Covenant message that God is Love, and we are saved by His grace obtained thru Christ’s ministry... and then it adds the proviso that we must thereafter live under the Ten Commandments-- which are the heart of the Old Covenant! The problem seems to be that the hierarchy cannot accept that ordinary believers could allow their mind-set, their heart, to be conditioned and directed by God’s Holy Spirit. So, in their zeal to impose external constraints (‘binding guidelines’) on their flocks, they graft Moses’ Laws onto Jesus’ gospel. Voila-- modern Christianity-- neither New nor Old, neither hot nor cold, but pitifully lukewarm (as per Rev. 3).

American Christians are particularly vulnerable to deception and manipulation. Since most believers are very comfortable by world standards, they have little to motivate them to study the deeper, spiritual meaning of life. (‘Life is good; why bother to ponder?’) All Americans have been purposely conditioned over many decades to put their trust in experts who know better than them. In the religious sphere, the same logic holds sway: don’t study the Bible because it’s too complicated; only trained pastors understand it. Thirdly, despite the promises of the technologists that life would become lazy with futuristic inventions, modern life is, instead, kept at a mad rat-race pace, so that working people have little energy or inclination to devote time to spiritual enquiry. These factors have made it easy for unscrupulous leaders to bamboozle their congregation into believing all kinds of errant articles that would be exposed with some focused Bible study.

Yet some of the worst offences of Christians are among the most obvious contradictions of the true faith of their founder. While Christians believe they are covered by God’s grace, they apparently do not believe that grace should extend to anyone else (ie. to non-Christians, or even, incredibly, to non-Americans!). Thus, they bask in assurance of the good life, here and hereafter, while supporting a government that kills women and children in other, (mostly Arab) countries around the world. Some such Christians, demonstrating the extent of their glorious ignorance, would argue with me that no, their government only kills ‘bad guys,’ and the death of innocent civilians is purely accidental (‘collateral damage;’ tut, tut). That childish response is hardly worth the effort to rebut since it merely indicates the degree of worldly brainwashing of the one who utters it. Just as comfortable Christians can’t be bothered to investigate scripture, neither can they be bothered to determine the truth behind the ‘news’ fed to them like daily pabulum by their major media outlets, the servants of the masters in Washington.

It’s hard for onlookers, whether people of faith or atheists, to comprehend ‘Christians’ who seem to honestly believe that all those fingered by their government as terrorists must be guilty and ergo, deserve whatever punishment meted out. Those ‘loving Christians’ who support the wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, and covert wars all over the globe, are a menacing mystery to a puzzled world of non-Christians everywhere. Even those with the vaguest notion of Jesus understand that he stood for ‘love thy neighbor,’ and some even know that he said ‘love thy enemies.’ But the armchair ‘Christians’ of modern America have complacently accepted the ersatz, bellicose beliefs palmed off as Christian by the crafty, religious shysters of our day. Instead of social justice and equity, Christians are tilting their rhetorical lances at the windmills of homosexuality and abortion. Sure, these may be behaviors anathema to Christian teaching; but in the big scheme of life, when the streets of poor nations are running with the blood of the innocent, Christians ought to be mature enough to know where the priorities are. Instead, Christians in America prefer to wrap themselves in the star-spangled (and blood-spattered) banner rather than the pure, white robe of Jesus.

You eat up all the nonsense about ‘spreading democracy’ with military might, and strive vehemently against phony, concocted ‘communism,’ and cower at the Oz-like specter of ‘global terrorism,’ of which your government is a major dealer. But you go to church, and call yourselves Christian! You bring only shame on his name! Christians must yearn for the gift of spiritual discernment, and learn to exercise it in every walk of life. If they are so easily deceived by their own shepherds, they will be easily devoured by the great Adversary, the Devil, who pretends to bring light... but it’s the headlight of an approaching locomotive. They must learn to hear the true shepherd’s voice-- not the dulcet demagoguery of those who make empty and hypocritical promises.

Like the hypocrites, I could have littered this diatribe with Bible verses. But this message is based on the most elemental tenets of the faith of Jesus! You don’t need a Ph.D. or doctorate in Theology to use the common sense God endowed all humans with. You don’t need a penetrating insight into scripture’s nuances to grasp what the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart. All you need is the basic Christian faith that rests in the giver of that faith, the ‘true light that gives light to every man’ (Jn 1:9). There is no excuse, Christian! You must wake up now to seek that true light... before you stand before Him, and have no defense but to point your fingers at the false prophets who sold you what your ears were too eager to hear. (2 Tim 3; 4).


© J. Krzyzewski, Aug. 2009

Stages of Grief Presage Disaster?

As I observed the present state of the world and the ever-increasing craziness, and read some related commentary, the question came to me-- could the whole race be exhibiting the classic emotions associated with grieving?

It may sound bizarre, but some researchers believe that the world’s population is aware, at a level of ‘universal consciousness,’ of the spiritual sickness in society, and of the unavoidable doom toward which the global populace is hurtling (in terms of e.g. pollution, climate chaos, plagues, famine, etc.). In unconscious response, many individuals are going thru the various emotions of the grief cycle, and there’s an eruption of persons acting out these feelings in an extreme manner... as almost any news-cast will attest.

Let’s consider the typical stages in the grieving process and a few examples of how people are expressing them verbally.

1. Denial:
Example - "Everything’s fine; the world is just going as it always has." "There’s nothing happening that can’t be completely explained by science." “We’ve always had disasters-- we’re just better at recording them now.”

2. Anger:
Example - "Why are you dwelling on the negative? It's not helpful!" "How can this outrageous nonsense be true?" "Why don’t they do something?" “It’s the lunatic fringe always stirring things up, looking for conspiracies!”

3. Bargaining:
Example - "I just want to live a full life; I don’t care about politics." "I'll keep doing my own thing until I can’t ignore it any longer." “I’ll give up living here and move elsewhere if it gives me some extra time.” “If things were so bad, they would tell us about it.”

4. Depression:
Example - "I'm so scared to look at the facts, it freaks me out." "We’re all going to die some day, so what's the point?" "All is lost, there’s no future; why go on?" “The government is too big and powerful; we’re doomed.”

5. Acceptance:
Example - "It's going to be glorious, once we get thru this." "We can't fight it, but we can prepare for it." “The world is going to be renewed-- after the crisis is over.” “The Bible tells us who wins in the end, so keep the faith.” "We can handle it with God’s help."

Counsellors tell us that most persons go through these five general stages or emotions when experiencing grief over a significant loss. Altho the stages are listed in the order commonly observed, people may switch from one emotion to another at any time during the grieving process, and even feel several at once. As my examples demonstrate, we can easily find people experiencing any of the states in connection with a postulated grieving over impending racial doom.

It’s no secret that we are seeing unprecedented levels of depression and the use of prescribed anti-depressant products and of mind-numbing, illicit substances. We are also witnessing widespread anger expressed as anything from ‘road rage,’ to horrific mass murders. Moreover, it is very common for the perpetrators of these outbursts of violence to kill themselves as the culmination of their murderous frenzies, making futile the frantic calls of the frightened conservatives for capital punishment for murder.

Most significantly, the vast majority of people are in deep denial, clinging desperately-- often angrily-- to the illusion of normalcy. A few of these realize that the normal world is a fantasy, but they can’t accept this reality, so they resort to a kind of bargaining-- ‘Maybe nothing will happen for many years, so I’ll ignore the prospect of doom and enjoy life.’ Perhaps this subliminal foreboding explains the popularity of ‘extreme sports’ among the younger generation-- they have reasoned (unconsciously) that they might as well go for broke, since there may not be a world to retire into. Occasional stories from the scientific community that life on Earth could be annihilated by a collision with an asteroid or comet do nothing to assuage the fears of an already edgy modern society.

A very few have reached acceptance of the reality that the time to ‘pay the piper’ is finally at hand, and the world is about to encounter its greatest crisis of the age. As someone enquired on another website (henrymakow.com) ‘Should we be preparing for the worst?’ I think everyone should be preparing for ‘the worst.’ But-- by preparing, I don’t mean stockpiling food, water, weapons, or whatever, and heading for the hills. What I recommend is to deal with the grief! First, you have to get out of denial, and start to face the reality that the worst forecasts may be optimistic, and as the Bible warns: When men are proclaiming ‘peace and security, sudden destruction befalls them.’ Move yourself thru the feelings of anger, and depression; push beyond the bargaining, and get on to the serenity of acceptance. In the face of the kind of crisis to confront this generation in the near future, this is the only preparation a wise person can make. Turn to God; be open to His Spirit; and learn to trust in Jesus and his words.