26 January 2022

The Dissemination of Vigano's Warning – A Warning to all New Testament Christians (II)

As stated before, there are plenty of reasons to doubt the government and the Covid episode is no exception. Over many years the government and media have destroyed their own credibility and so in some respects they have brought this on themselves. And yet as also stated, conspiracies (to be judged as viable) have to make some kind of sense and they have to operate within the framework of reality. Many of the conspiracies floated by today's Right are divorced from reality and in other cases indicate a pervasive unfamiliarity with basic concepts, how institutions work, history and the like.

The Dissemination of Vigano's Warning – A Warning to all New Testament Christians (I)

https://theaquilareport.com/archbishop-viganos-startling-warning-to-the-american-people/

The fact that the Calvinist-affiliated Aquila Report published this piece by Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano is both interesting and informative in and of itself. That a publication such as 'American Thinker' found Vigano's comments profound is not too surprising.

24 January 2022

The Ukraine Trap

If Russia invades Ukraine, then Putin will fall for the trap NATO has set for him. As anyone who partakes of any news is sure to know, the Western propaganda campaign is running white hot, to the point that even questioning the official narrative can take down a high ranking admiral – as was seen recently in Germany. The US and NATO are doing all they can to provoke Moscow. This run-up to war is a campaign in itself and there are several angles to consider.

20 January 2022

Turning Point USA and Donald Trump Jr.'s Unintentional Truth

https://baptistnews.com/article/donald-trump-jr-tells-young-conservatives-that-following-jesus-command-to-turn-the-other-cheek-has-gotten-us-nothing/

Trump Jr. has openly rejected the teachings of Christ and when one considers the present Evangelical confusion with regard to the Trump movement's relationship to Christianity – I'm glad for it. I hope it will wake some people up and cause them to re-think the roads they've traveled.

17 January 2022

The Complicated Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Right's Revisionism and Deceitful Appropriation of His Message

On this Martin Luther King Jr. day we are once more reminded of the massive revisionism taking place within Right-wing circles. I've written about this repeatedly and focused deliberately on these points back in 2012 and 2014. This revisionism is something I noticed years ago and was left somewhat stunned to hear figures like Glenn Beck and Charles Colson attempt to appropriate the King legacy and argue that somehow his ideas were resonant and representative of their own. It was a re-writing of the history and yet few seemed to notice.

16 January 2022

The Geopolitics of the Kazakhstan Protests, the Ukraine Crisis, and Eurasia's New Cold War (II)

The Central Asian states which were run by former Soviet apparatchiks (turned into authoritarian capitalists) relied upon energy revenue and the extraction of natural resources – and in the post-Soviet setting Western corporations flooded into the region to develop these sectors. Wall Street scored major victories and wealthy oligarchies developed in the Central Asian states. Needless to say corruption is endemic. This new post-Cold War political order and economic development in part explains the ongoing tensions with Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan. The logistics of getting resources out of landlocked Central Asia proved daunting and were never resolved. The ruling oligarchies were plugged into the energy economy and these countries rely on this money to function and pay the bills as it were.

The Geopolitics of the Kazakhstan Protests, the Ukraine Crisis, and Eurasia's New Cold War (I)

The January 2022 street protests in Kazakhstan which have received considerable Western news coverage seem at last to be calming down. On the one hand it appeared to be a grass roots uprising in protest of surging inflation, fuel prices and (at least in part) frustration with social restrictions on activism and free speech.

02 January 2022

The Deacon Problem in Both Anglican and Baptist Circles (II)

But they're not the only group that has a problem with the diaconate. In Baptist circles there's also a great deal of confusion on this point. For them, the office of 'pastor' is akin to Paul's bishop in 1 Timothy 3.

The Deacon Problem in Both Anglican and Baptist Circles (I)

I recently had an exchange with a priest from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). As our church situation has collapsed due to the degeneration of worship into therapy, politics, and entertainment and the fact that Trumpites are running rampant in many local congregations including our own, we've been looking for an alternative.