Christian Nationalism, the Wilson Ethos, and the Venture Capital Backing American Reformer

Christian Nationalism is nothing new but it has been re-cast and reinvigorated in recent years. Preferential Pluralism once dominated the Evangelical scene. The absolute nature and universal claims of Reconstructionism were considered fringe and even revolutionary and yet now are mainstream. Basically, Reconstructionism lives on in a slightly modified form. It lives on under the aegis of the more recently named Christian Nationalism.

Memory and The Ister

From time to time I will watch (usually in segments) the 2004 film The Ister, which is a three-hour fascinating re-telling and interpretation of Heidegger's talks on the Hölderlin (1770-1843) poem which was written sometime in the early 19th century.

Revisiting Citizen Four

It's been ten years since its release and I finally got around to watching Citizen Four, the Snowden documentary by Laura Poitras. Why did it take me so long? I knew the story and had followed it closely at the time and the film didn't reveal anything new - but it was interesting to see the footage and relive the moment and re-catch the energy and zeitgeist of that time.

Poisoning the Minds of Children

Various news stories continue to emerge suggesting that kids lack self-control when it comes to social media and viewing videos, especially on platforms like TikTok. Experts speaks of an obsessive behaviour that needs to be curbed.

Chimeric Experimentation and the Bioethics of the Pro-Life Movement (II)

Returning again to the chimeric experimenters, they're tinkering with things that are beyond them. We're not materialists. There's more to life and reality than that which is merely empirical. The reality of the materialists is a reductionism of true reality and Christians shouldn't think in those terms or operate under the ethics that flow from such thinking.

Chimeric Experimentation and the Bioethics of the Pro-Life Movement (I)

https://evangelicalfocus.com/science/15001/christian-doctors-see-no-ethical-problem-in-genetically-modified-pig-heart-transplant-to-human

The current Evangelical world is rife with scepticism regarding modern medicine and yet some will remember a time in which the attitude that long dominated the movement was very much pro-medicine and pro-technological development. Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, the shift is interesting and more should be done in examining the reasons behind it.

The Dark Side of Covid – The Establishment's Reordering of Society (II)

What are some areas that are of genuine concern – areas being exploited by people in power to bring about great and sweeping changes to society?

Postscript: An Aesthetic both Transient and Transcendent

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XXII/Final)

We ought to understand that technology and art are not easily separated and both are to some extent inseparable from questions of epistemology and morality. Additionally, if we grasp that socially conservative attitudes toward the arts and culture (while inconsistent) cannot be divorced from their larger cultural narratives surrounding epistemology and previous generational progress and values, it behooves us (lest we be swept away by these powerful cultural forces and heavily promoted arguments) to apply the otherworldly and non-conformist ethos of the First Reformation to the present day. Our culture is in crisis and thus to many, the arguments made by conservatives seem very persuasive and grounding but from a New Testament perspective they are flawed at almost every level.

An otherworldly and non-conformist ethos leads us to a cultural posture and interaction that embraces neither the Classic nor the Enlightened. In fact in many ways we are better able to resonate with the postmodern critique and even the cynical. We benefit from critiques that expose the world system's inherent flaws and contradictions, that reveal it to be an idolatrous fraud and resting on transient and degenerating foundations – as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 7.29-31 and Romans 8.19-23. This should not upset us but rather drives us all the more toward the inescapable choice between dependence upon revelation and the hope it grants or a collapse into nihilism.

The Blind Facilitators

https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/christian-worldview/where-we-stand-how-church-history-can-help-but-only-so-far/

Though he's a bit late to the discussion I'm glad to see some other Christian leaders come to the realisation that persecution and state oppression are going to look different in the 21^st century. The technological leaps are such that old methods of underground life are going to be quite different in this new age. I think the biggest struggle for White and all those who run in his circles will be the end of middle class life and affluence.

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 3)

Some factions such as those associated with the founding of Sattler College have openly embraced mainstream life with its technology and economic order. Though still reckoned among the conservative Anabaptist spectrum, this shift in attitude represents an embrace of a nascent Dominionism. This inclusion of its conception of vocation in which one's daily occupation is a holy Kingdom-oriented task has landed them in a place not too distant from the world-compromised and affected liberals who in the post-war era sought an activist role within society.

Facebook Church

On the one hand it could be argued that the presently available technology is a blessing as due to the medical emergency it would seem (for a time) that churches are unable to congregate. If viewed strictly as a temporary measure, I could see some benefit from it as a 'better than nothing' but less than ideal (or adequate) alternative.

Investment and Insulated Exploitation

Few Christians I know would shake down or extort their fellow believers. They wouldn't threaten to cut their utilities or drive them from their homes if they didn't fork over money to them. Would they?

The Feminist Surge: A Result of Ecclesiastical Confusion, Middle Class Assumptions and Para-church Inroads (Part 1)

It's a growing trend and yet few seem to notice. Some have been lulled to sleep by the ever present 'hum' of our frenetic culture. Others are changed even transformed by their failure to reflect on society and their place in it.

Others (I think) are tired of the fight or perhaps think that there are such 'bigger' issues and battles to be fought that this one is not worth the required energy or the possible divisions such an examination is bound to create.

Embracing Dystopia: Reflections on the Ascendancy of Amazon and the Signs of the Times (Part 2 of 2)

Every state contains what might be described as the Bestial Impulse, the temptation of ultimacy. We can also refer to this as the Babel Impulse, the temptation to conflate the state project with divine presence or deity itself. Essentially what this means is that the state sees itself in the role of a god and a manifestation of heavenly presence or prerogative.

Embracing Dystopia: Reflections on the Ascendancy of Amazon and the Signs of the Times (Part 1 of 2)

I was reading a story from a few months ago about Amazon handing over large amounts of data to law enforcement and it prompted me to wrestle with the question of Amazon, Bezos and what it all represents. Immediately I thought of my past wranglings with Wal-Mart.

Considering the Panopticon Beast

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-china-42248056/in-your-face-china-s-all-seeing-state

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.

The Criminal Syndicate known as Verizon

Increasingly there are many US corporations that are prima facie immoral. Their business practices are openly dishonest and in working for them you cannot maintain your integrity. You are necessarily part of the planned obfuscation and manipulation of consumers.

These businesses operate boldly under the banner of caveat emptor. They are not looking out for you in any way shape or form. You are a 'thing' to be exploited and squeezed. If you don't scrutinise the fine print, ask the right questions and in every way watch your back... that's your problem.

Their goal is clearly to entrap you, to snare you into signing a contract that they will resist freeing you from.

Such has been my experience with the mobile phone industry and yet it is but one of many such examples. I am committed to using a burner flip-phone. I will not sign a contract with a cellular carrier. I will go without a phone before I do that. They are without a doubt one of the most dishonest lots I have ever encountered.

Mystery, Logic, Engineering and Neo-Luddism

When philosophers, apologists and other thinkers labour to destroy certainty, attempts at coherence and confidence in logic, the scepticism they produce sends many into crisis and the response can range from the robust to the frantic, the diligent to the foolish.

One of the most common arguments I hear (and often at that) from within Christian circles is that scepticism is wrong because if the world adopted this view then we could have no inventions and no technology. They will usually buttress this reductio ad absurdum by arguing that it's a good thing their auto or aeroplane mechanic wasn't a sceptic. 

This argument rests on several fallacies.

Zuckerberg

The world is a crazy place. Black is white and white is black, evil is good and good evil.

Mark Zuckerberg is esteemed, a tech-sage, an icon to be emulated and listened to. Zuckerberg is the man who made social media part of the warp and woof of daily life. Zuckerberg, the man who helped society flourish through connectivity.

Materialism, Nihilism and the Subjective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCVRrybYWNE

This 4 minute video while both humorous and repugnant reveals more than it intends. Like it or not this is the social trajectory and it is a path of self destruction. Both dominant secular models that of the Scientific Materialist relying on sceptical inductive empiricism and that of the Subjective Individualist resting in existentialism have led the culture to epistemological chaos and can offer no remedy.