Tag: traditional religion

What Is This Quintessence of Dust

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It struck me recently, out of nowhere, that we humans are very strange creatures?  That the things we do are irrational and confusing.  We spend most of our lives doing things that bore us or depress us or cause us grief.  That what we want or what we think we must do is often diametrically opposed to what’s good for our minds, bodies and spirits.

There’s nothing profound about these insights.  It’s just that every once in a while, you look around at what you’re doing and what you should be doing and they don’t line up.  I guess it’s an artifact of the complexity of our hyper-complicated world.  Our ancestors in the trees were never confused about what to do.  There were no choices.  You mostly looked for food to eat all day long and then went to sleep hoping that the neighborhood leopard didn’t come to visit during the night.  Even our paleolithic predecessors didn’t have much leeway on what went on during the day.  Maybe the top caveman decided which beta caveman became a hunter or spearhead chipper or fire-tender or whatever other careers were being advertised in the Bedrock Gazette.  But I’m sure it was a lot simpler back then and existential angst must have been at a very manageable level.  And people didn’t live very long so there wasn’t time to reflect on the vicissitudes of Cro-Magnon time management.

I suspect we’re currently at a high point for personal discontent.  Partially it’s because the complexity of our civilization doesn’t make it easy to decide what path to take.  Hunters and spearhead chippers are no longer in high demand.  Even cutting-edge professions can become obsolete almost overnight.  Also, the coping mechanisms we formerly had for dealing with limited opportunities; religion and family have mostly receded in importance.  Now we’re down to antidepressants and government welfare programs.  And neither of these seems to sooth the soul.

A return to religion was a periodic reaction in America.  Going all the way back to the Puritans they would have a religious revival about every seventy-five years or so.  One or more great preachers would appear and exhort the people to return to God and to doing the righteous thing.  And this would have at least a temporary effect on behavior and a positive change on society.

Well, America 2025 is a very different place from America 1950.  And even 1950 was a way different world from 1875.  Religion barely exists in the minds and souls of the current population of this country.  So, by definition any preachers appearing on the horizon won’t look anything like the past.  If Billy Graham showed up today, he would only find a tiny audience for his “crusade.”

But that doesn’t mean we don’t need an equivalent to a religious revival.  Call it a spiritual revival if you want or a lifestyle intervention if that makes it sound more scientific.  But without a doubt people need direction.  Their lives have lost meaning not only in their own eyes but also to society at large.  It is not an exaggeration to say that the people who run this country and the world at large, value your life and happiness not at all.  In fact, all indications are that they want to get you off this planet as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost.

Like the Roman Empire at the time of Christ, this world is looking for spiritual leadership.  And whoever provides it will harness an enormous latent force that currently exists only as discontent and despair in the minds and souls of the people who currently have no purpose in life.  I think it will happen but what it will look like and when it will hit is the mystery.  For old timers it’s just a matter of embracing your Bible or your copy of Marcus Aurelius.

Can I Get a Hallelujah

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Well, what shall I write tonight?  Nothing too down tonight.  There’s plenty to cry about but let’s raise our spirits instead.  You know I talk about how a leader is what we are missing.  But maybe a Caesar is not what we need.  Maybe we need a Preacher.  The churches have mostly rotted away and it shows.  People are empty and bitter and alone.

A man of the spirit might be exactly what this country; even this world needs.  Someone who could speak to us about how to fill up the void with meaning.  Give people hope.  I don’t think it will be someone who talks only about the hereafter.  It will need to be someone who has practical advice for this world.  And he can’t be a televangelist, at least not at first and never only.  This will have to be a hands-on man who builds his flock around him and builds some kind of community that helps people in the here and now.

What’s needed is a church that harnesses the people to help each other and builds something where everyone gets a sense of belonging to something worthwhile and true.  I think someone who could make that happen would rebuild this country.  It would have a place for all the parts of the community.  There will be things for the young, the mature and the old to do.  The young will learn, the old will teach and the grown-ups will support it with their time and money.  Eventually there will need to be a school to teach children the lessons they can’t learn in the public school.  Ideally, one day there should be a university too.  There should be youth organizations and sports teams.  There should be fraternal and sorority organizations for the kids and grown-ups.  Something will be needed to replace things like the Boy Scouts.  And the adults need their clubs too.  And the church should have charitable functions.  But these need to require that those who have been helped pay it forward by contributing their efforts to the community.

And what creed will this be?  Well, it will be Christianity but it will be non-denominational.  It won’t require that you have a required doctrine on the Trinity or the Immaculate Conception or Limbo.  If Jesus runs the Heaven you are trying to get in then you fit under this tent.

Well, that’s what I think we need.  People need to belong to something that provides a way to organize with their neighbors in a way that gives them a sense of community and fulfills their desire to belong to something constructive and adheres to what they believe is the good.

But how do you order up a holy man?  They only show up once every five hundred years.  The last one was Martin Luther (which was about five hundred years ago!).  They say that God provides what is needed.  Well, I think we are beyond need.  We’re desperate.

So, whether he calls himself Brother or Father, Padre or Reverend; it’s exactly the right time for a revival.  In fact, it may be the only thing that can save us.

Christmas Day 2023 – Quotation

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King James Version

Luke:  Chapter 2

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Southern Baptist Convention Ejects Churches With Female Pastors

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Hat tip to Vox Day for this news item   Who would have thunk it?  A mainline protestant denomination is taking a stand on churches that defy biblical authority.  What’s next, closing down the parishes in Sodom and Gomorrah?   Hey, maybe things are starting to happen.  Finally.

“The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday upheld its expulsion of two churches for having female pastors in a move that reaffirms the conservative leanings of the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

The expelled churches were found not to be in “friendly cooperation” with the convention, according to the Baptist Press, a news website that covers the denomination.

The decision was made to expel the churches based on denomination’s doctrine that scripture reserves the role of pastor for men, the Baptist Press reported.

The expulsions reflect a conservative drift among many American evangelicals in recent years, though there are several other Baptist conventions that welcome women to pastors.

Linda Popham, who has served as a Fern Creek pastor since 1993, addressed the convention on Tuesday.

“We believe the Bible allows women to serve in ways in which all of you do not agree but we should still be able to partner together,” she said”

Church of England No Longer Leads Worldwide Anglican Church

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So the Archbishop of Canterbury has finally stepped over a line that actual Christians won’t tolerate.  Allowing the blessing of same sex “marriages” was the bridge too far.  Seventy five percent of the worldwide Anglicans have voted with their feet and have pulled the plug on the leadership of the Church of England under the Archbishop.

“A group of Anglican church leaders from around the world have ousted the Archbishop of Canterbury as their head following the decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples in England.

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) has said in a statement that it no longer considers Justin Welby to be ‘leader of the global communion’, and it has ‘disqualified’ the Church of England from being its ‘mother church’.

Earlier this month, the General Synod – the Church of England’s legislative assembly – passed a motion to allow the blessing of same-sex couples in civil partnerships.

The GSFA said it speaks for 75% of Anglicans around the world, officially representing 25 member provinces – mainly in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

In its statement released on Monday, the group accused the Church of England of ‘taking the path of false teaching’ and going against ‘the historical biblical faith’ by allowing same-sex blessings, adding: ‘This breaks our hearts.'”

All I can think to say is finally!  If actual Christians start doing this everywhere the hierarchy has descended into depravity it will be a relief to the flock.  The next shoe to fall will be the Roman Catholics when Anti-Pope Francis comes out of the closet as Trans-Pope Francine I.

It really is time for Christians to clearly separate themselves from the likes of the fake Christian churches like the Episcopalians and the various other denominations that have descended into atheism in the pulpit.

Christians have a book of rules, it’s called the Bible and it doesn’t take a genius to see that the current crop of religious leaders are not Christians.  They’re woke bureaucrats.  Let them stay in the empty churches and let actual Christians band together to make a community of families who want to recognize all the traditional truths.  That, “God made them male and female.”  And He said “be fruitful and multiply.”  Let them have their LGBTQ church with transgender monstrosities and twelve pride months a year.  Just leave us out.

Guest Contributor – pigpen51 – 16JAN2023 – Reply to What’s Wrong With Modern Churches

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Here’s a Post About What’s Wrong with Modern Churches

I never knew that Bear Grylls was a man of faith. But it seems like he is not only a man of faith, but a wise man, as well. Myself, I have seen this same thing, for a very long time.
I attended Bible College in the early 1980’s, thinking that I might become a Baptist Pastor. Due to family circumstances, I was only able to attend for a year, but I learned much in that year. Not only knowledge about the Bible, but about Christians and the direction of the Church itself.
I could see even back then that there was a movement, not hidden, to try and move the conservative churches to become more liberal, and to turn to what I call a Social Gospel, instead of the Gospel of Truth. They were teaching Pastoral Candidates to question everything, to seek new and different interpretations of the Bible. To not believe the men like Spurgeon or Tozer, but to question them and to seek to find the places where they were wrong.
I always felt like a Church was supposed to be more of a hospital, for wounded Christians, than a Museum where so called ” Good Christians” came every Sunday to show how spiritual they are. And to listen to their pastors preach smooth words that put them at ease, words of comfort that they were just fine, and God loved them.
Well, God does indeed love them, especially if they are believers. Their sins are forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that they are walking in the light.
I found myself saved at an early age, perhaps 9 or 10. But I never knew that there was anything else required of me. Fortunately there was a real change in my heart and my life, and it was apparent that I had something different in my life. And it stayed with me all of my life. But at the age of 20, God showed me that there was more expected of me. I was in a serious car accident where it was like He shook me and said ” wake up, it is time for you to get to work.” So I got involved in the Church, and it was obvious that I was a Bible scholar, in that I understood how it was meant to be understood, and was able to see it as a whole, when so many failed to “get it.”
The problem I found was that Baptists failed to understand a lot of the things that I found in the Bible. Oh, they would acknowledge them, but then make excuses that didn’t hold water. Things about church discipline, and how salvation is by faith alone, but they then live like it is by works. To the place where a Baptist Pastor I knew would not leave a bottle of coke on his kitchen table, in case someone drove by and saw it and thought it was a beer bottle, and it made them stumble.
But I guess the biggest thing that drove me away from the Baptist church, but really it could have been just about any of the denominations of today, was their lack of genuine love for each other. They of course, made a big show of love, saying the right words, and telling each other that they will pray for them. But as you no doubt have seen, Christians are the only group that shoots their wounded. And if that wounded Christian is wounded so that the public is aware of it, all the better. One of those issues that I am thinking of is a young lady getting pregnant out of wedlock. Following the scriptures, it should be handled privately, and not be brought before the church, if the young lady understands that she made a mistake, and repents of it. The Baptist church, however, requires that lady to stand before the entire congregation and confess her sin.
Looking at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how she came to be pregnant, and then Joseph who was called a just man, and not wanting to make Mary a public spectacle, but wanting to put her away privately, it seems like the whole public confession is totally against the teaching of the New Testament, and punitive at that.
I don’t see how a young lady, of 16-19 years old, pregnant out of wedlock, can feel loved if forced to stand before the entire congregation and confess her sin. It is a wonder that they don’t require her to wear the letter A on her clothing. This at a time when a young woman needs love and support from older women and families the most, they withdraw it.
Now we see churches trying to change, and to make the social gospel the big thing. Big production values, with rock bands and power point presentations, short films, etc. it is a wonder that they have any room for God in the building. And I think that is the feeling that young people get, and why they are seen to be leaving churches in droves. I hope that it turns around, but for that to happen, one thing will need to happen, and that is that God will have to be invited back into the building, and the church will need to begin it’s journey back into a hospital for the hurting, a refuge for the sick, and a shelter for those in a storm. I hope that it is not too late, because as the Church goes, so goes the nation.

Here’s a Post About What’s Wrong with Modern Churches

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Bear Grylls is a reality tv personality.  He does a lot of wilderness survival stuff.  And from what I read in this article he’s hawking a couple of books and probably some other stuff too.  But a lot of what he’s saying here is quite true.  What he says about the modern churches rings true for me.

“He expressed his distaste for what he called “religious language,” sanitizing messages in such a way where people “can’t be honest, can’t express doubt and can’t fail.” The Church, he said, is “the place to have doubts and questions.”

“Look at the early Church. It was a roomful of people eating and drinking and doubting and struggling and arguing,” he said. 

But the Church today, he said, has gotten away from that. 

“Probably most of the people in the congregation have substance abuse, and probably most of their congregations struggle with porn and all that sort of stuff,” he said. “What a relief it is when a pastor can stand up and go, ‘Welcome to the hospital, folks. Here we go. I’m just standing alongside you on the road, failing our way through, but reaching out of desperation for life and love and redemption. Let’s look outwards, and love other people, and we’re in it together.’””

Religion is the next frontier that has to be reclaimed from the Left.  And the sooner the better.  There’s very little of it left to fix.  Most of the churches are beyond repair and need to be abandoned.

 

Guest Contributor – pigpen51 – 16JAN2023 – Reply to What’s Wrong With Modern Churches

The Enemy of My Enemy Can Be My Ally, Even if Just for Today

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What do White evangelicals, Hispanics and Muslims have in common?  Your first instinct would be to say nothing.  But according to the Left, all of them are complaining about the public schools trying to groom their kids for sexual deviancy.  Apparently in Dearborn Michigan these three groups have been able to agree that the local school shouldn’t be foisting LGBTQ talking points on their children through the school library.

In the breathless narrative of a New Republic expose we read that this unlikely alliance of the Right along with groups that were formerly thought to be owned by the Left is laying siege to the local school board and demanding that deviant sexual propaganda be removed from the school library.  And being a leftist rag, the author presents this as an atrocity that should rally the Left to work even harder to bully parents to submit to the deviant faith.

This was the concluding paragraph:

The developments in Dearborn are a sign that the madness is spreading to new constituencies whom Democrats have long considered allies. Predicated on “protecting our kids” from the “scourge” of sexual progressivism, the anti-democratic right is forming a powerful religious alliance against secular liberalism. Those who believe in eternal torture for heathens are joining forces to establish hell on earth for LGBTQ people, public officials, and anyone who cares about American democracy.

Apparently, the wake-up call to parents when they saw during COVID what their children were being “taught” has been heeded by many and not just traditional people on the Right.  Religious people, even minorities who have traditionally clung to the Democrat party are slowly waking up to the reality of what their “ally” plans for their children.  Finally.

And if the Left is shrieking that means what is happening is effective.  Waking parents up has been an unexpected bright spot in all the havoc that we’ve lived through in the last few years.  Even leftists have been “scared straight” by what they found in their kids’ curriculum.  If the Stupid Party can wake up and latch onto this thing and legislate a real parents’ bill of rights, I think a lot of Democrat politicians will find it difficult to oppose it.  We might even get a veto-proof majority to enact something significant.  But let’s not get too far ahead of our skis here.

The moral of the story is that when it comes to different religious and ethnic constituencies you don’t have to be close friends to cooperate on tackling a threat from the anti-religious, anti-family progressive forces that have infiltrated the government and more specifically the schools.  You can cooperate on a project and get things done.  Later on, you can go back to hating on each other if that’s the only way things work between you.

Maybe that’s the model for the future.  Cooperate where it makes sense and otherwise circle warily around all the other groups that are trapped with us in this gulag our elites have built for us.

To Paraphrase Huey Lewis and the News, “It’s Hip to be Unwoke.”

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According to the New York Times there is a troubling trend among some avant-garde kids to assume the trappings of traditional institutions, like the Catholic crucifix, and defy the virtue signaling mantra of their generation’s elite guardians.  So, the Times is looking for a sleuth to ferret out the details of this heresy and hopefully expose the malefactors so that they can be properly punished and then allowed to recant and declare their love for Big Brother.

This New York Times project is described in an article in the City Journal that goes on to try and explain these young rebels as the first fruits of a rebellion of the young against the dominant culture which in this case is the current all encompassing orthodoxy of woke-ism.  In other words, these young people are organizing a counter-culture against what used to be described as the Left’s counter-culture against western civilization.

The author states: “Few things are more natural for young people than to push back against the strictures and norms of their day, even if only to stand out a little from the crowd and assert their independence. A counterculture forms as a reaction against an official or dominant culture—and today, it is the woke neoliberal Left that occupies this position in America’s cultural, educational, technological, corporate, and bureaucratic power centers. In this culture, celebration of ritualized, old forms of transgression is not only permitted, but practically mandatory. Dissent against state-sponsored transgression, however, is now transgressive. All of what was once revolutionary is now a new orthodoxy, with conformity enforced by censorship, scientistic obscurantism, and eager witch-hunters (early-middle-aged, zealously dour, tight-lipped frown, NPR tote bag, rainbow “Coexist” bumper sticker, pronouns in email signature—we all know the uniform).”

Apparently, these young rebels can be found in trendy areas of lower Manhattan and their cachet as members of the avant-garde worries the gatekeepers of public morality at the Times and the author equates this worry with genuine peril that the youth among the elites could be corrupted and driven over to the dark side where one day they would produce a new consensus to shift the balance of power away from the monolithic progressive world view.  And a new regime could populate the Deep State with acolytes of the Dissident Right.

Well, I don’t know about that.  I know that Curtis Yarvin is interested in the lower Manhattan scene being discussed and he is of the opinion that the only way to neutralize the Deep State is to peacefully displace it with a new elite.  But in both of these examples I wonder at the circumstances and the time line that would bring about such a transformation.  Some kids in Manhattan adopting Christian symbology isn’t a bad thing but what is the larger significance?  Do these young people hope to change the values that guide modern life?  Are they looking to traditional values to give meaning to their existence?  And how many people are we talking about?  A handful, a few thousand or a growing trend?

And what will be the reaction of the gatekeepers?  I’m sure they’re already busy looking to siphon off any discontented teens with a Tik-Tok influencer who sports a trans-friendly pseudo-Catholic rosary that involves anti-Pope Francis’ official rainbow seal of approval.

I guess, on balance, any fear on the part of the official organs of the state like the Times is a good and promising symptom.  Therefore, I won’t rain on their parade.  But I think I’ll wait to celebrate until I see some larger more widespread evidence that the Zoomers have begun to rebel.  Possibly the “Let’s go Brandon” cheers (or their actual words) at football games could be interpreted as the first real sign of popular unrest of the young against the Left.  But I’ve assumed that was more of a reaction to the COVID lockdowns by the Biden administration and not a general anti-woke reaction.  We’ll need to see clearer signs such as voting trends or support for traditional institutions like religion and marriage.

But I’ll end by saying that anything that hints at the young abandoning the woke cult is encouraging.  Even if it’s a minority movement, it’s a start.