31 December 2017

Hungary's Bitter Road Through Modern History

Viktor Orban is at this point all but a pariah to the powers that be in Brussels and Washington. He continues to resist the EU and has voiced considerable opposition not only to the policies of Europe but even the ideology of the post-war project.

29 December 2017

Considering the Panopticon Beast

Facial recognition software, biometric data, high-speed processing and lower-order or Narrow Artificial Intelligence are being wed to authoritarian political structures. It is the Panopticon for a new age.*
I must admit, I found this video to be deeply troubling. I found myself wondering about the future of the Chinese Underground Church. The tools of totalitarianism are becoming so pervasive that nonconformists (of any stripe) are literally going to be forced back into the mountains and forests... as in the old days.
And yet in the old days, the state apparatus did not possess drones with thermal imaging and the easy means to access remote places.

24 December 2017

The Jerusalem Embassy, Dispensationalism and American Evangelicalism

Moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem provides a convenient distraction for the embattled Trump administration. Embroiled in layers of investigation and cover-ups to hide cover-ups, the shift in media coverage provides them with some welcome respite.

09 December 2017

The Presbyterian Fallacy

Recently I encountered (yet again) another example of what I have termed The Presbyterian Fallacy.
Briefly by way of context, Episcopal forms of Church government do not claim their authority is based on Scriptural exegesis. While they believe their polity is 'Biblical' in the sense that it 'flows' from Scripture, they will freely admit that it's not something that can be appealed to chapter and verse. They would argue the New Testament does not prescribe a specific form of polity. Or they might argue that the Apostles established a type of regional hierarchy which over time legitimately developed into the episcopacy.