Whenever you get to really know someone, after having navigated beyond their character flaws and weaknesses and bad habits, you inevitably discover a marvelous, unique being, flashing into the infinite universe, a being who is so obviously created by no one less than an almighty and everlasting God, that his or her potential immortality cannot be denied. These people, fallen and sinful as they are, are not toys to be cast aside. These are divine creations gifted with Godly free will and Godly creativity.

God sent Himself as His own obedient Son to Earth to redeem as many of His divine creations as possible by His ultimate sacrifice, taking on all of our sins, past, present, and future, pain and torture beyond imagining, death itself. He then rose again, ascended into Heaven, and promised to come again. God is love. He could not do otherwise.

All that is required of us to begin our eternal life is to believe, confess, repent, and be forgiven. Prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit, and obedience will take us the rest of the way.

Happy Easter!

In the midst of this crisis of competence here in the West, the United States of America, UK, and the EU, it seems to me that not everyone is all that incompetent. Somehow, in spite of the birth of the internet which created a forum for infinite free speech and debate, the oligarchy managed to regain, in a relatively short time, complete control of the narrative. That is not incompetence.

They also managed, by the long march through the institutions, to gain complete control of public education, higher education, the entertainment industry, the mainstream media, the mainline protestant churches, the human resource departments of the largest corporations, the internet search engines, and even much of the alternative media. That doesn’t look like incompetence.

Who are these master minds? Is it George Soros and Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab? They’re smart I guess, but not that smart. I think it’s more a case of once you get the ball rolling, it has a momentum of its own. To mix a metaphor, people quickly see what side of the bread is buttered, and they jump on the bandwagon. Once established the mind control evolves on its own, fueled by the ambition and greed of original sin.

In other words, the mad genius behind it all, is Satan.

Attending a liturgical church means that once or twice a week I am saying aloud my fundamental beliefs about reality, spirit, and truth. When I initially began attending Saint Patrick’s Anglican Church I wasn’t sure about my belief in some of the things I was chanting as I stood and kneeled. I had resolved to give it an honest try, but I had to confront the question of whether or not what I was proclaiming every week was true.

As I went to church, studied the Bible, and began the practice of morning and evening prayer, I was like Simon Peter who obeyed a complete stranger, Jesus, as He commandeered his boat and told him to take it out and lower the nets after a fruitless night of fishing. Simon obeyed, skeptically, without belief, and a miracle of abundance occurred.

That’s how it was for me as my doubtful obedience led to the Holy Spirit, slowly and subtlely, never without permission, entering me, changing me, stripping away my worst habits with ease, bringing peace and a miracle of abundance to my soul. Chanting the liturgy became a joyous shout of grateful affirmation.

I am still a sinner. I still backslide. Occasionally the enemy slyly encourages nostalgia for the days of wine and roses, but the liturgy reminds me every Sunday, every Wednesday evening, that I have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom. I can’t imagine church without liturgy.

Russia: Voter ID. No mail in ballots. No drop boxes. No machines. No early voting. No jailing of political opponents. A real election. Something for the United States to aspire to.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Here are a few things I don’t believe:

I don’t believe that the covid vaccines are safe and effective, that the inflation is temporary, that the war in Ukraine is a defense of global democracy, that 2020 was the most honest election in American history, that Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation, that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election, that the Nordstream pipeline was blown up by a group of rogue Ukrainians and Russians on a rented yacht, that the covid virus came from a bat, that black lives matter to Black Lives Matter, that we are in the midst of a climate crisis, that Joe Biden is in charge of the government, that Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, that Ukraine is winning, and that Donald Trump is guilty of a single one of the charges and law suits being brought against him by our corrupt justice system.

I know President Trump says some dumb things sometimes, including things that I very much disagree with, but the 2020 election fraud and the weaponization of the justice system to persecute political opposition require that I vote for Donald Trump, regardless of any other consideration. If stealing elections and using the justice system to go after political opponents is allowed to succeed, we will lose our country. No other issues are as important.

I agree that social security is a scam. I am 80 years old and I am living on my social security. If I had saved that money and conservatively invested it, I would be much richer today, no doubt. However my young and stupid self would never have saved that money, and I would now be broke. So I am grateful for the paltry social security the government has granted me after stealing most of it.

There is no two state solution. Nobody on either side wants it. From the river to the sea is the motto of both sides. The only possible/impossible solution, other than the complete ethnic cleansing of either the Israelis or the Palestinians, is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to live together in peace and harmony in a single state.

You must remember that God is sovereign and He always creates good out of evil. Many of those supposedly dumb happy people who eschew social media, geopolitics, and the pressing issues of the day, who focus on their work, family, friends, and church, understand this profound wisdom.

The war between good and evil continues, even though God is sovereign and the outcome is not in doubt. Nevertheless, “The devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” We are born again in Christ, but we are still besieged. Sometimes we win. Often we fail. When we fail we are sent to the field hospital, we confess, we repent, are forgiven by the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, and are sent back into the fight.

All well and good, but in the trenches, the battle is political. It is the U.S. supplying and supporting Israel as they ethnically cleanse Gaza. It is the United States sacrificing a generation of Ukrainian young men in order to destroy Russia for the sin of not bowing to American hegemony. It is America that is surrounding China with military bases and using Taiwan as a proxy to threaten China for the crime of becoming prosperous and powerful.

It is the United States of America that is fighting a rear guard action to the death to prevent the emergence of a new multi-polar world order in which there is equality of national sovereignty.

The pulpit cannot be the platform for advancing sides in this political war. All true Christians agree about the real struggle., but not necessarily about the political specifics. We are fish swimming in a sea of propaganda. The only sure truth is the Gospel.