Archive for the 'Religion' Category

The Post Millennial.

A large group of Antifa carrying shields and melee weapons attacked a group of Evangelical Christians congregating for a prayer and worship event at the waterfront in downtown Portland, Ore. Video recorded at the scene showed children and families running away as black-clad Antifa militants tore apart the sound equipment and assaulted attendees with pepper spray and projectiles.

The event was announced last month by a Christian ministry featuring firebrand Canadian preacher Artur Pawlowski. The Calgary pastor gained notoriety earlier this year for speaking out against lockdown measures that targeted places of worship. In response to the announcement of the worship event, Portland Antifa groups and activists on Twitter organized a direct action.

Via David Codrea, this report on a beheading after the suspect was released, having been found guilty on prior charges of domestic abuse and attempted arson.

He should have been a slave.

The Holy Scriptures do not countenance the idea of imprisonment.  It calls only for [a] retribution, and [b] restitution.

Retribution for murder, kidnapping, assault and rape, and restitution for theft.  The perpetrator becomes a slave of the one he has offended.  If he won’t be a slave, he is executed.

That’s simple.  That’s Biblical.  That’s why America won’t do it.  Thus America continues to suffer under the yoke of tyranny.

A heavily-armed SWAT team just took down a Christian pastor heading home from church. Police say he’s charged with “inciting” people to go to church. This is the second pastor jailed this year. We’re crowdfunding his lawyers at https://t.co/bMwAj1iNfP pic.twitter.com/RZ913cQns3

— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) May 8, 2021

In the spirit of imprecatory prayers, may God destroy the lives of the men who commanded this action, as well as the men who participated in it.

Via WiscoDave, this wonderful account serves as an example for us all.  It mirrors what I’ve observed elsewhere.

In 1640 it was ordered in Massachusetts that in every township the attendants at church should carry a “competent number of peeces, fixed and compleat with powder and shot and swords every Lords-day to the meeting-house;” one armed man from each household was then thought advisable and necessary for public safety. In 1642 six men with muskets and powder and shot were thought sufficient for protection for each church. In Connecticut similar mandates were issued, and as the orders were neglected “by divers persones,” a law was passed in 1643 that each offender should forfeit twelve pence for each offence. In 1644 a fourth part of the “trayned hand” was obliged to come armed each Sabbath, and the sentinels were ordered to keep their matches constantly lighted for use in their match-locks. They were also commanded to wear armor, which consisted of “coats basted with cotton-wool, and thus made defensive against Indian arrows.” In 1650 so much dread and fear were felt of Sunday attacks from the red men that the Sabbath-Day guard was doubled in number. In 1692, the Connecticut Legislature ordered one fifth of the soldiers in each town to come armed to each meeting, and that nowhere should be present as a guard at time of public worship fewer than eight soldiers and a sergeant. In Hadley the guard was allowed annually from the public treasury a pound of lead and a pound of powder to each soldier.

No details that could add to safety on the Sabbath were forgotten or overlooked by the New Haven church; bullets were made common currency at the value of a farthing, in order that they might be plentiful and in every one’s possession; the colonists were enjoined to determine in advance what to do with the women and children in case of attack, “that they do not hang about them and hinder them;” the men were ordered to bring at least six charges of powder and shot to meeting; the farmers were forbidden to “leave more arms at home than men to use them;” the half-pikes were to be headed and the whole ones mended, and the swords “and all piercing weapons furbished up and dressed;” wood was to be placed in the watch-house; it was ordered that the “door of the meeting-house next the soldiers’ seat be kept clear from women and children sitting there, that if there be occasion for the soldiers to go suddenly forth, they may have free passage.” The soldiers sat on either side of the main door, a sentinel was stationed in the meeting-house turret, and armed watchers paced the streets; three cannon were mounted by the side of this “church militant,” which must strongly have resembled a garrison.

[ … ]

… a community that always began and ended the military exercises on “training day” with solemn prayer and psalm-singing; and that used the army and encouraged a true soldier-like spirit not chiefly as aids in war, but to help to conquer and destroy the adversaries of truth, and to “achieve greater matters by this little handful of men than the world is aware of.”

The Salem sentinels wore doubtless some of the good English armor owned by the town,–corselets to cover the body; gorgets to guard the throat; tasses to protect the thighs; all varnished black, and costing each suit “twenty-four shillings a peece.” The sentry also wore a bandileer, a large “neat’s leather” belt thrown over the right shoulder, and hanging down under the left arm. This bandileer sustained twelve boxes of cartridges, and a well-filled bullet-bag. Each man bore either a “bastard musket with a snaphance,” a “long fowling-piece with musket bore,” a “full musket,” a “barrell with a match-cock,” or perhaps (for they were purchased by the town) a leather gun (though these leather guns may have been cannon). Other weapons there were to choose from, mysterious in name, “sakers, minions, ffaulcons, rabinets, murthers (or murderers, as they were sometimes appropriately called) chambers, harque-busses, carbins,”–all these and many other death-dealing machines did our forefathers bring and import from their war-loving fatherland to assist them in establishing God’s Word, and exterminating the Indians, but not always, alas! to aid them in converting those poor heathen.

The armed Salem watcher, besides his firearms and ammunition, had attached to his wrist by a cord a gun-rest, or gun-fork, which he placed upon the ground when he wished to fire his musket, and upon which that constitutional kicker rested when touched off. He also carried a sword and sometimes a pike, and thus heavily burdened with multitudinous arms and cumbersome armor, could never have run after or from an Indian with much agility or celerity; though he could stand at the church-door with his leather gun,–an awe-inspiring figure,–and he could shoot with his “harquebuss,” or “carbin,” as we well know.

No picture here of Jesus as a Bohemian, peacenik flower child.  No, this is a picture of a church militant.

Men ready to protect themselves, their centers of worship, and the families.

Take note that not only did men go about armed (I’ve always claimed that true gentlemen don’t hide their weapons, that’s for criminals), but they took them to the place their families are most vulnerable.

That’s where they are sitting in one place with their attention focused on something other than threats, ingress and egress, and inside a confined space.  When vulnerable, men didn’t cower and call someone else to protect them, or “run, hide and fight.”**  They met this God-given duty themselves.

Because liberty and responsibility.  That’s why.

** The most recent video I’ve seen of run, hide and fight has men throwing potted plants at armed assailants after cowering behind doors and in dark rooms, a picture of effeminate cowardice.

CBS News.

West Point has expelled at least eight cadets and are holding more than 50 back a year as a result of the military academy’s worst cheating scandal in over 40 years.

The military academy investigated 73 cadets suspected of cheating on a freshman calculus exam in May administered virtually because of the coronavirus. More than 50 of the cadets were athletes, several of whom were on the football team, according to a West Point spokeswoman.

“West Point must be the gold standard for developing Army officers. We demand nothing less than impeccable character from our graduates,” said Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams in a press release.

Fifty-five of the 73 immediately admitted to cheating through the academy’s process of willful admission when confronted with suspicions of cheating. Willful admission was instituted in 2015 to encourage cadets to adhere to the academy’s honor code and take responsibility for any violations of the code. However, officials have concluded that this program has not been effective, and the academy is terminating the program.

This is the worst cheating scandal at the school since 1976, when 153 cadets resigned or were expelled because they cheated on an electrical engineering exam.

I’ll make some remarks that may surprise readers.

First of all, engineering is hard.  Calculus is hard.  People must resist the temptation to cheat.  The only way to learn engineering is to take a deep dive and spend all of your life with it, for at least four straight years.  There is no other way.  There is no replacement for devoting your life to study of this subject.  Ask me how I know.

I’m not sure why West Point – or any other school for that matter – would think that America can eviscerate God from the institution and expect honesty.  Without God there is no foundation for morals.  That is obvious not just in everyday, pedestrian life, but from the classic debates (e.g., Frederick Copleston versus Bertrand Russell, Greg Bahnsen versus Gordon Stein, etc.).

Second, while all of that is true, engineering professors must not turn engineering into exercises of memorization.  I don’t know that they did this, and I certainly don’t know the details of the incident.  But engineering isn’t done by memorization.  Any engineer who creates models and designs by memorized conversions, formulae or techniques should be fired.  It’s not done that way, and professors too stupid to know that shouldn’t be teaching.

Lectures and tests should focus on mastery of the concepts and material, not rote memorization.

This will go down as one of the most stupid, cowardly acts in the annals of “wokeness.”

In his emailed statement, Ryken said the term “savage” is a pejorative term that “has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat indigenous peoples around the world. Any descriptions on our campus of people or people groups should reflect the full dignity of human beings made in the image of God.”

Ryken and other members of Wheaton leadership have received about a dozen comments about the plaque this school year from students and members of the campus community, said Joseph Moore, Wheaton’s director of marketing communications. He said the president released the statement because the plaque has been temporarily removed, and leadership wanted the campus community to “know about its review, rewording, and return.”

For those of you who know about the heroic actions of Jim Elliot and his missionaries, they were killed by the very group of savages to whom they went as missionaries.  Wheaton College is embarrassed at the truth.

“They weren’t white supremacists, they were Christ supremacists.”

PJM.

“Applicants are likely to succeed on the merits of their free exercise claim; they are irreparably harmed by the loss of free exercise rights ‘for even minimal periods of time’; andthe State has not shown that ‘public health would be imperiled’ by employing less restrictive measures,” the Supreme Court ruled. “Accordingly, applicants are entitled to an injunction pending appeal.”

[ … ]

… “even if the government withdraws or modifies a COVID restriction in the course of litigation, that does not necessarily moot the case. And so long as a case is not moot, litigants otherwise entitled to emergency injunctive relief remain entitled to such relief where the applicants ‘remain under a constant threat’ that government officials will use their power to reinstate the challenged restrictions.”

Whatever.  Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time.  Any decision that doesn’t recognize the God-given right and duty of Christians to worship completely free from hindrance by the state is still weak.

The really interesting thing to me is this bit: ” … litigants otherwise entitled to emergency injunctive relief remain entitled to such relief where the applicants ‘remain under a constant threat’ that government officials will use their power to reinstate the challenged restrictions.”

And no, that wasn’t what the Supreme Court said when they dismissed the case of NY Rifle and Pistol Association against NY on the basis of removal of the restrictions on travel, thus making the claims moot.

Because rules are for little people, and consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

How to deal with Nazis.

Absolute legend 👊🏻 pic.twitter.com/aRlFoDfIpL

— Tony (@Mrtdogg) April 3, 2021

This apparently occurs somewhere in Canada.

One of my sons sent me this and had some salient and quite insightful remarks about it.  He didn’t focus on the pastor, although his words were powerful and he didn’t back down.  He is to be commended.

Notice the police.  They are there to support a mouthy “Karen.”  She wouldn’t stop talking.  She is a controller.  They are waiting like dogs in the background for her next commands.

Men who have been eviscerated of morality and manliness, and who have jettisoned their God-given duty of leadership, retreat into a Nietzschean suffering.  They are all in bondage.  They could no more properly think their way through what’s happening at that moment that an animal.

But they are responsible before God because their slavery is self-selected and voluntary.  The Soviet empire was also keen on the use of women as controllers and informers, and men as the thugs who backed them up.  Such men beg for abuse by the nearest dominatrix.

You should find such men to be sickening. Their actions are shameful, and yet they will go home and look their wives and children in the face, eat dinner, and go to bed as if they have done well today.

The original.

Now for a version re-orchestrated and performed much later in life by Matthew Ward, who still has a beautiful voice.

Via WRSA, this Tolkien quote was visible, but the complete quote is as follows.

“the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.”

Prior:

The Worship Of The State Is The Worship Of Force

The Desire To Control Others Is The Signal Pathology Of The Wicked