Calling for a Return to the Doctrinal Ideals and Kingdom Ethics of the First Reformation
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2025-01-30/gaza-middle-east-lies/
This is a helpful summary and reminder of the scope and magnitude of deceit when it comes to mainstream Western narratives regarding the Middle East, its wars, and America's part in them. And this is true when it comes to the Establishment (or Legacy as some would have it) media outlets - with everything turned up a notch or two when it comes to the growing array of Right-wing platforms.
The news is focused on Christmas-related human-interest stories, shopping deals, travel woes, actresses who market their bodies and then complain when they aren't treated with due respect, and the latest absurdities flowing from Trump's reprobate mouth.
The Right is playing up the gruesome murder on a New York City subway - apparently it would have been less of an atrocity if the perpetrator had been a legal resident or citizen. There also remains a fixation on the case of the murdered United Healthcare CEO, even while there are many brutal murders that take place every day and yet don't receive much if any attention or media and law enforcement resources. In other words this murder matters because the victim is part of the same millionaire class the media represents and there is a fear that such vigilantism might spread. Certainly the public outcry of support for the shooter has generated alarm.
The fall of the Assad regime is by all accounts a monumental development in the history of the modern Middle East, and it came rapidly and unexpectedly. Though in some respects the war which began in 2011 has never fully ended, it was assumed that Assad had effectively won and as recently as last year there was talk of trying to bring Syria back into the international community. The war was by all accounts over. The resistance was reduced to a small and contained area. The country was far from healed or duly re-constituted, but the notion that the regime would fall seemed distant at best.
The world is in turmoil and at such a degree and tempo that it's almost impossible to keep up with events. I could post multiple articles a day and it would not suffice. We are in a rather intense news cycle at present. Many of these issues qualify as mere 'news' and as such are somewhat beyond the purview of this project which among other things seeks to contextualize the Church in the world we live in today and explain how history, events, and ideas are impacting the Church for good and evil. Given the failures of Church leaders and in many cases their capitulation to the world, or in other cases their heresy and their corruption, I believe this task is important even if few will hear it.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/08/how-madeleine-albright-got-the-war-the-u-s-wanted/
Elich speaks of the US wanting war in 1999 and setting up negotiations with the Serbs to fail. This is true but is no less so when it comes to the first phase of the Yugoslav break-up in 1991. The US played a role in facilitating the split that would lead to independent nations like Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia - and a bombing campaign in 1995.
God, Family, and Country – what's wrong with that? This is the response of the Christian Right to the electoral victory of Giorgia Meloni and her choice slogan. In fact it sounds a lot like what one hears with the Trumpite movement. Meloni who is all but set to be the next prime minister of Italy has certainly been making the rounds and has garnered considerable support in American Right-wing circles. Fluent in English she has been able to blend in nicely at the National Prayer Breakfast and CPAC.
From the Olympics to computing, from news to politics, the Russians are everywhere in the news or more accurately the Anti-Russian propaganda campaign is everywhere. This is by far the worst we've seen in forty years, since the tense period accompanying Reagan's ascent to the US presidency. Almost immediately he began a rapid military buildup and a series of aggressive military Psyops directed against Russia. The US pushed the Russian security perimeter by air, land, and sea. At that time the Soviets were in dire fear of an American First Strike and became very edgy and the tension led to events like the shootdown of KAL 007.
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 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.
One of the flagship conferences of New Calvinism, Together for the Gospel (T4G) will end in 2022. The official reasons have convinced no one. Everyone more or less knows the group's founders have become irreconcilably divided. This is but part of a larger fragmentation taking place, one that seems to be hitting the New Calvinist sphere hard.
Nancy Pelosi is the Right's greatest and most powerful enemy within Congress and at this point she's the one figure that could really lead the charge, the one person that has the power to pursue the January 6th coup attempt and to take down the collaborators in congress – wounding the party in the process.
And yet she's not. Why isn't she? Why isn't the Establishment
media aggressively reporting on this? Why aren't they coming after her and
challenging her tepid response and her lacklustre investigation?
http://uwesiemon.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-wrong-side-won.html
I have written before about Uwe Siemon-Nietto who is a
semi-frequent guest on Lutheran Public Radio's Issues Etc. Along with John
Warwick Montgomery, Siemon-Nietto often provides what might be described as the
view from Europe.
Recently I was talking with my son and he told me about some experiences he had on a Christian chat forum that he visits from time to time. He's had several interesting interactions on the site but recently things took a somewhat bad turn as a person appeared who argued (in a rather aggressive manner) that Christians were under obligation to combat systemic racism. A hot button issue to be sure, the tensions and conflicts that emerged from this confrontation led to several departures and in his estimation has almost ruined the overall experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLI_iF75_-8
Overall this was a very good forum. My wife and I both agreed
that is was some of the best practical ethics and wisdom we've heard since the
Covid crisis emerged over a year ago. Bercot did not disappoint. He got the
balance right and rightly applied Kingdom ethics to the situation – mask mandates
and the like. I really appreciated it and the fact that he condemned the behaviour
of Evangelicals and the many Anabaptists who fell into Right-wing individualist
thinking and behaviour and brought shame to the testimony of Christ and the
Church.
But there were two glaring deficiencies that I would point
out and I think they're important to consider.
I had to laugh over Memorial Day weekend 2021. I happened to be someplace where I had access to television and so I couldn't help it – I took in some FOX news. It's like the ghost that hovers over the American Church, the proverbial elephant in the room. It's eye-opening to observe this channel which continues to wield such sway over the minds of many who are supposedly renewed in their minds.
The story of the hour was the Kamala Harris tweet.
I've been struck by the number of Trumpites and Republicans that seem genuinely shocked at the 6 January storming of the Capitol. 'That's not us' they insist. 'Those people don't represent us.' It only shows that these same folks not only do not understand what has happened in American society, they don't understand their own movement, the people they've allied themselves with and what Donald Trump's presidency means.