Notes from Underground – March 2024

3/31/24 – Happy Easter! Our Lord is risen. People seemed to need spiritual nourishment in this time of darkness, and this Holy Week gave it to us. Take time to glorify God, who gives us everything, including our salvation.

3/29/24 – Our services are stunning…and packed. Get there early, or you won’t be able to find parking and/or a seat during the Triduum Sacrum.

3/28/24 – “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13: 12-15) Brings one to their knees. As Christians, we are called to serve God and each other.

3/28/24 – It’s especially beautiful when religious traditions overlap. Much love to our religious brothers and sisters, particularly Abrahamic and Hindu. It’s a gift to glorify God together.
Holi 2024: The Festival of Colors

3/24/24 – As a rough estimate, at least half of the country is sick of the other half of the country, who are hyperpartisan extremists, on both sides of the aisle. Happy Palm Sunday! Hope Holy Week is a no politics, no social media break from all of the absurdity. 

3/21/24 – Now, let’s take it up a notch, shall we. What about beastiality? (Oh yes, we’re going there.) The Bible explicitly states that human beings are made in the image of God and are unlike animals. It also says that beastiality is not allowed, so that’s that.
However, according to the theory of evolution, coming out of the magical primordial soup, we’re all genetically related. Humans are just another animal, so what’s wrong with having sex with a sheep, a monkey, or your pet dog? You’re feeling a little lonely, and dogs have desires too. (Are you getting a little uncomfortable? Poor you.)
Aren’t these also just social taboos, outdated artifacts without any scientific basis? There is nothing in the survival of the fittest that limits sexual activity to the same species. What’s a species anyway? Isn’t this taxonomy going to evolve? Isn’t our species just a relatively arbitrary designation that science will eventually modify?
You have sexual desires. You need gene expression. Just find a warm hole and stick it in. Sure, it might be an anus that is biologically designed to expel shit, but when has that stopped anyone, right? In fact, some might argue that an anus is just a…wait for it…universal vagina. (But we will be coming back to this point.)
Let’s see what nature comes up with. Maybe dog sex will generate something more evolved than the pathetic humans we have now, some of whom are deluded enough to think they’re made in the image of God, or is it the flying spaghetti monster? Those religious folk, such simpletons with their ideas of family and their prohibitions on incest and beastiality? Why limit ourselves to these boring, unevolved ideas.
You know what, let’s just skip the dog sex (penises dripping with dog shit might not be everybody’s cup of tea) and just create part dog, part human in the lab, right? (Why limit ourselves to organ harvesting? Isn’t all life meant for us humans to use however we see fit?) We can do that, can’t we? The tools are right there. Yes, the religious folk are the backward, delusional past. Crispr, it’s the evolved, scientific future.

3/20/24 – Now, let’s add some more complexity to the situation below regarding an adopted child wanting information about their birth parents when the parents wanted to remain unknown. Ancestry and 23andMe don’t tell their clients if evidence of incest can be found in their DNA analysis. Should they? They are obviously trying to protect the client from traumatic information. Should we as a society have laws in place that require them to provide this information? Should we have laws that remove any statute of limitations as it relates to these crimes? But wait, are they crimes?
As the article points out, incest is a taboo in almost all if not all societies in the world. However, the children are still human. The likelihood of genetic defects is greater, but there are still many children of incest that are generally healthy. Is the taboo outdated? The Hebrew Bible, which is one of the oldest if not the oldest religious text in the world, explicitly states that incest is not allowed. How does one reconcile this with the story of Adam and Eve?
How does one reconcile this universal taboo with the theory of evolution? If we’re all coming out of the same source of life, the magical primordial soup, aren’t we all made of the same genetic material? By evolutionary theory, isn’t all life incestuous? Should we just allow everybody to have sex with anybody, as long as they are “consenting adults”: fathers with daughters, brothers with sisters, uncles with nieces? What does it matter? Aren’t we just animals who can have sex with whomever we want? Survival of the fittest means spreading one’s genes far and wide. Let chance do its thing, right?
Also, what’s a consenting adult? Isn’t 18 years of age simply an arbitrary cut off? Maybe it should be 16-years-old? Why not 14-years-old? Perhaps incest has less to do with biology and everything to do with what we find morally and socially acceptable? Isn’t the idea of husband and wife, children, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles and aunts, etc. all just social constructs and artifacts? Perhaps they are outdated too? Perhaps the entire notion of family is outdated? In which case, what is incest, right?
As an aside, the liberals seemed to take great issue with the evil one, trump, speaking in sexual terms about his daughter, but why? Aren’t they the same people who think all of these ideas are antiquated, religious restrictions?
DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest

3/18/24 – Let’s start here, in a place that’s less combustible. Unless there is something wrong with you, you want children to be adopted if their birth parents are unable or unwilling to take care of them. Likely all reasonable, caring people share this position, meaning there is no political divide. Spend some time thinking about the rights of the mother, the father, and the child. Then, think about the rights of the adoptive parents. Think about everybody’s feelings including the adoptive parents, the birth parents, and the child. Should one party, such as the child’s rights, be given more weight than the others? Should the adopted child be able to get this information about their birth parents? Think through all of the negatives and positives in making this information available to the child and/or the public. If you think everything about giving life to another human being and raising that beautiful life is simple, just black and white, you likely haven’t been thinking hard enough about the complexities of this situation or about life more generally. The article is striking in how deeply personal and well-written it is. It is thought-provoking and at once sad and hopeful. It is real life. Read, listen and think deeply.
No One’s Children

3/18/24 – Does National Propaganda Radio actually think articles like this help anything or our country? On what planet is this objective reporting?
An ‘exvangelical’ on loving, leaving and reporting on the culture of Christianity

3/17/24 – Jesus did not leave us orphaned. He loves us. Happy Sunday!

3/17/24 – “Another interesting fact about Saint Honore is that he was a close friend of Saint Eligius, who was a famous goldsmith and metalworker. The two saints worked together to spread the Christian faith and helped to establish monasteries and churches throughout France.” One of the turns our society needs to take is to value the simple, honest work that others do. Everybody doesn’t need to get a bachelor’s degree. There are many people who are considerably smarter than people who have bachelor’s degrees. For example, is that idiot Kate Cohen smarter than the average blue-collar guy who didn’t get a bachelor’s degree no matter the institution she went to? No, she’s definitely not. We can provide students with pathways that develop their intellects and inspire a love of learning while they learn a meaningful trade, which often pay well, by the way.
Saint Honore: The Compassionate Bishop and Patron Saint of Bakers and Pastry Chefs

3/17/24 – If you’re already planning for some Easter treats, which is only two weeks away, perhaps try a classic French pastry, the St. Honoré cake.
St. Honoré Cake

3/16/24 – If you read this scathing article and aren’t full of rage at the Supreme KKKourt by the end of it, then you’re simply not paying attention. It is a rogue institution, and the extremely important question before us is: how do we put it in its place? It is not the highest court in the land. It’s the lowest. It is traitorous scum. It betrayed our Constitution and our democracy. Put it in its place!
Supreme Betrayal

3/14/24 – A great article that makes numerous important points. One criticism is that Gen X wasn’t worse off than Millennials due to the phone. It was due to divorce and other social changes that had started in the previous generation. Did the phone help Millennials with those issues? That’s unlikely. The society likely got better at dealing with things like single-parent homes and divorce. So basically, the social changes are a confounding factor. The section on social sciences, particularly economics and psychology, was quite fascinating. It is likely that many of the kids can sense they are addicted and want to stop. Mostly, it’s parents’ responsibility to make this happen. They have failed at their jobs.
The government must step in. The TikTok ban is a great first step. (Again, the Washington Propaganda’s editorial board are ignoramuses.) If our society, our world really, cares at all about its children, it will put an immediate stop to this madness. Arguably, children don’t need smartphones at any age. All one needs to do with the phone is use it to make phone calls, text occasionally and search the web from time to time for information. They can deal with not being able to search the web on their phones.
One only needs to observe kids for a few hours to see that they are addicted to their phones, often social media and video games. It has created antisocial kids (and adults). But it’s more than that. Kids’ hands get tired faster when they’re writing because they literally haven’t trained those parts of their body as much. Their attention span is considerably lower, and more generally, they don’t know how to study. They also have not had similar necessary formative experiences as older generations, and in great part for this reason, they are less independent and responsible. (Also, stop coddling your kids.) The phone has wasted an entire generation’s minds and bodies. If you’re still defending this $%@& (no swearing for Lent), you’re out of your mind, or you’re addicted yourself. Grow up, and start acting like an adult.
End the Phone-based Childhood Now

3/14/24 – This is good advice. Parents have no discipline anymore, and kids are learning bad habits…from them.
Why you should stop texting your kids at school

3/11/24 – Not to be a complainer, but churches need more parking.

3/11/24 – It’s more important that the show stays free than that fans get their fix now. Jesus belongs to the world. Chill out, and if you can financially, you really should be contributing. You can buy merch, DVDs or Blu-ray, go to the cinema, donate, etc. Don’t free ride.
I’ve got bad news about Season 4’s release

3/11/24 – We need to define life. Life is not some pathetic Petri dish cells swimming around in toxic sludge. Life means comparable to what we have on earth. That’s the standard. That’s life…as God created it.

3/11/24 – There are the genius masters of the universe with their brilliant mathematical and financial models that nobody could actually understand. So, everybody just believed them or at least pretended to because they didn’t want to look dumb. Then, the financial system imploded because the masters of the universe were wrong. It’s not dumb to not understand something exceptionally complicated and, in fact, stupid. What’s dumb is to go along with it.
This same phenomenon is happening with the science worshippers, which is much of the elite. They are actually idiots who are going along with theories that they don’t understand. They just don’t want to seem dumb. The moron Kate Cohen doesn’t understand anything, and we all know it. The whole thing is a farce, or maybe the better word is a lie.

3/11/24 – At present, we understand the universe to be expanding, what if it starts shrinking? Then what? What does the probability for life, which is very close to zero, look like then?

3/10/24 – The radicalization of the Republican Party isn’t some deep mystery. It’s that, for all of its other stated values, some of which were quite noble, it values greed above all else. This was true of Reagan, and it is true of the evil one, trump. One could argue that this was the underlying condition that predisposed it to radicalization.
Avarice is not just a sin in Christianity, it’s a corruption of the soul. Greed manifests as what about me and mine, and it can quickly be transformed into resentment, especially by a skillful demagogue. I’m not getting what’s due to me because of [insert scapegoat].
If rich people were anywhere as smart as they think they are, they would ask themselves a simple question: What if there is a God? Because the probability that there is a God is extremely high. To everyone preoccupied with money: remember that the life you were given was a gift you didn’t earn. You will lose it, and when you do, your maker will decide your fate. All of the power and security you thought you had was an illusion.

3/10/24 – It is never wise to bet against the United States of America. Let’s live up to our creed, America. Happy Sunday!

3/10/24 – A country is only as good as its people. On a day-to-day basis, our people are good. They work hard. They are generous, kind and helpful. On the Job is a series that showcases the people who make our country work. (It would be rather poignant to have a Dalit as the host for the series.)
On the Job
These are our people. “‘2 in the morning, we thought they were sleeping,’ he told us. ‘We started banging, banging on doors and yelling ‘fire, fire, fire!’ at the top of our lungs, just trying to wake people up. We didn’t think about getting hurt. Just getting people out.’
There were about 14 people inside those two burning buildings. Several were children. Police say they all got out safely, including a neighbor who suffers from dementia. Then they all took shelter on Adamopoulos’ bus, while firefighters arrived and put out the flames.”
Opinion: Some heroes drive city buses

3/10/24 – As it relates to illegal immigration, the words don’t matter: illegal, migrant, immigrant. They are all true. What matters is our Statue of Liberty. Daniel Pink suggests that all of our natural born citizens take, as a rite of passage, our citizenship test. It’s a good idea. It will remind them of the words that do matter. They are the ones in our Constitution.

3/10/24 – With all of our intense internal problems, which are, frankly, a bit scary, Americans are still a force for good in the world. We are helping Israelis and Palestinians because we care about both people. (Right now, we need to be doing more and faster for Palestinians in need.) We will live up to our responsibilities in the world. (If any other country wants to take over this role though, we’re more than happy to hand it over. It is quite exhausting for us as a country.)

3/10/24 – Israel belongs to the Jewish people. End of story. The extreme left and right need to stop with the anti-Semitism. It is never justified – ever. The Jewish people have brought the world so much. They are a good people. They are a great people. As Americans, we will stay true to our creed, to George Washington’s America. This land will always be a safe refuge for the Jewish people, for people of all faiths, Muslims, Jews, whomever.
The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending

3/10/24 – With respect, the Pope should keep his opinions on Ukraine to himself. They are not helpful. Americans are a people of our word. These are dark times for us, yet we are doing our best to stand with Ukraine. We fully intend to stand with them until they win the war. (If the evil one, trump, is reelected, the entire country will blow up, so who knows what will happen to all of us.) Slava Ukraini!

3/10/24 – If you happen to still be working it out, yes, that means that the probability for life is very close to zero, which is also supported by observation of our universe. We take life for granted, but it is an extraordinary gift.

3/9/24 – For the people who can’t get all that. Imagine a situation where you can get to life, but with each step you need to take to get closer to life, the probability of getting to life gets exponentially smaller, and there is no way to get to life without creating new steps. That’s how the logic breaks down. It’s basically a Catch-22.

3/9/24 – Assume the conditions for life are met, which we haven’t found anywhere else but on earth, thus an infinitesimally low probability. Then, by chance, also an infinitesimally low probability, life emerges. Then, by the genius RNA theory, the copy must not be too good or too bad, another highly precise set of conditions, another infinitesimally low probability. Then, by Darwinian theory, evolution would begin by natural selection, even though, life on the planet earth as we observe it (usually called science but only if it supports a popular theory and doesn’t refute it, right, objective scientists?) doesn’t seem to follow the survival of the fittest as defined by scientists. There seems to be an element of chance. Conveniently ignoring the element of chance in evolution, which clearly causes complications for the theory, what is the probability? Please do tell. Mathematically, every time you include a condition, which is the logical development of any approach along these lines and practically impossible to get around, the probability goes down. If you simply multiply the probabilities together, it goes from infinitesimally small to infinitesimally smaller. That’s what the inclusion of RNA into said magical primordial soup just proved. That’s the math. (Do the math.) That’s the science. And that’s the truth.

3/9/24 – All the science worshippers have is an intellectual legerdemain, which is also called specious logic. They have not actually proven anything that needs to be proven to be scientifically convincing.

3/9/24 – Not only have we not been able to find life anywhere else in the universe, but we haven’t even been able to find the conditions for life as we understand them to be. Now, assume we do find the conditions for life as we currently understand them to be, is that necessary and sufficient for life to emerge? Assuming God doesn’t exist, does chance play a factor not just for the conditions for life but also for life to emerge assuming the conditions for life? If life does emerge, would it look like life on earth? Identity atheist, extrapolate.

3/9/24 – The genius science worshippers’ theory of the origin of life: assume primordial soup. It’s catchy and has a Latin word and the word, “soup,” which just sounds lifegiving. What is said primordial soup? Well, it doesn’t matter too much. It’s magical. Main ingredient is water, add some sun, and just like plants, it will bloom life. Then there is the, wait for it, deep revolutionary scientific find that RNA begets RNA, a clever mockery of the Bible because, of course, their theory is vastly superior. Except for it’s not. Yes, assume the conditions for life is necessary and sufficient to magically bring forth life, throw in science words, and legitimate. Smart. Science. Superior. Logic?

3/9/24 – Another way to respond to evil: document it any way you can.

3/9/24 – The AP has some great photojournalists and a few good reporters, and the ones on dangerous assignments risk their lives to bring us the images and the stories. It is important to appreciate good journalists. They help us preserve our democracy, speak truth to power, and share the stories the world needs to hear. It is very important the AP does not do propaganda.

3/9/24 – If Israel doesn’t cooperate, the international community will force it to cooperate. It will allow Palestinians to get humanitarian aid. End of story.

3/9/24 – We can feel the pain of the heinous crimes Hamas perpetuated against Israelis and the pain of Palestinians struggling for their survival because of the Israeli government’s overreach, at times cruel actions, and its terrible leader Netanyahu. Biden’s biggest problem is actually not his age (although we would still like a younger leader, but none has surfaced that will be taking on the evil one, trump), it’s that he’s been too cautious and slow on foreign policy. (He’s been fairly bold on some domestic policy though, but he needs to stop bailing out the financial industry and corporations.) This has been true of Ukraine. It’s also true of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. To the Palestinian supporters who are frustrated with him, they should view it as a pattern of behavior that is simply part of his personality. It’s not indifference. Biden does care, but his reflexive caution can be frustrating to infuriating. This action should have been taken some time ago…. Whoever advises that man on foreign policy: more and faster!
How the US military is scrambling to build a floating dock for urgently needed aid to Gaza

3/9/24 – The MAGA degenerate MTG thought she was quite clever appropriating “say her name.” Well, Biden had no problem saying her name, and neither should the rest of us. It doesn’t undermine anything. Her name is Laken Riley, and she was murdered by an illegal. We have no problem stating truths. The people who have a hard time with the truth are people like the moron MTG, the evil one, trump, and his cult MAGA. We can show up for people’s pain no matter their political alignment, their race, nationality, whatever. It is MAGA who can only feel white pain but not black and brown pain. Their compassion is conditional on skin color. That’s not Christianity. That’s the MAGA religion, and their god is the evil one, trump.
How Black women coined the ‘say her name’ rallying cry before Biden’s State of the Union address

3/8/2024 – Don’t take any of your rights for granted. There are powerful evil forces in our country that want to turn back the clock and strip us of our fundamental, God-given rights. Our ancestors sacrificed greatly for us. We owe it to them to keep fighting no matter the cost.

3/8/2024 – The Supreme KKKourt can decide to take away our rights at any time, and they have. They are subverting the supreme law of the land, the Constitution. It is up to the American people to defy any laws that do not hold true to the document to which we swear an oath. We will never give up our freedoms. We will never give up our democracy. We will never betray our country, meaning our Constitution. Give us liberty or give us death.

3/8/2024 – Dred Scott was a terrible decision. It was made on March 6, 1857. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on September 22, 1862, the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, wasn’t ratified until December 6, 1865. Today, Friday, March 8 is International Women’s Day. Women didn’t get the right to vote until August 18, 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. (We were cheated out of properly celebrating our 100-year anniversary because of the evil one, trump.)
The Supreme KKKourt has no respect for or loyalty to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers or the country. Just like previous bad decisions the KKKourt has made, their decision regarding the evil one, trump, will live in infamy. Time will only intensify how cowardly and disloyal to the Constitution it was. No, we will not be getting over it at any point in the future. What’s done is done. The KKKourt will live with the consequences of its decision for perpetuity. American history will see to it.

3/5/24 – Let us consider what the military is expect to do when it receives an order that violates the Constitution. Even if it’s from the Commander-in-Chief, it’s expected to not follow it. The military swore an oath to the Constitution. The same principle holds here. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, not any one person or any one institution. The Supreme KKKourt is totally illegitimate. States should simply ignore its ruling, and keep the evil one, trump, off the ballot. Let the chips fall where they may. States must uphold the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, not the Supreme KKKowards.
“To the contrary, because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, they have a duty to do that. State officials and state courts have an obligation not to ‘deny to any person within [the state’s] jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,’ regardless of what Congress does or doesn’t do. So now Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is the only provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that may require some congressional action to be enforced, at least in some circumstances. The justices effectively carved out Section 3, without any textual or clear historical basis for doing so.”

3/5/24 – Moving on from WaProp’s idiocy, no, this is not a fair point. “You could have different states applying different standards under Section 3 in different proceedings with different procedures and on differing records, and they could reach differing results as to a particular candidate for the presidency. This, the Court felt, was bad. Practically speaking, that’s a fair point.” The entire point was that the southern states might want a former Confederate officer to become president of the United States. Section 3 is meant to prevent an insurrectionist, which is what the evil one, trump is (this is obvious on its face), from being elected even if some states might want this. It was expected to be applied when different states had different standards regarding this matter.
Exactly. The variation is part of states’ rights with certain exceptions, such as insurrection. Despite what some states might want, an insurrectionist is not allowed to become president. That is what the Constitution says! “And despite the Court’s decision on Trump, we will still have a dreaded ‘patchwork’—because the Constitution has always vested states with the task of running even federal elections.”
The Court’s Colorado Decision Wasn’t About the Law

3/5/24 – The Washington Propaganda’s editorial board are elitist, unprincipled ignoramuses who are contributing to the destruction of our country. It also has people like, Kate Cohen, identity atheist, extrapolate, who is as evolved as an amoeba yet constantly brags about how intelligent she and her children are. It is a terrible publication.

3/5/24 – Long live the Federation!

3/5/24 – There does not need to be any violence in becoming a federation. In fact, a federation of states would be much better aligned with the composition of our people and their diversity. We can simply dismantle the federal institutions that no longer serve the will of the people. We, as states, can also decide how the military will function. Since the Supreme KKKowards has decided that we no longer need to follow the Constitution as a country, the military should not be led by the Commander-in-Chief. It makes it too vulnerable to a coup using the military. We haven’t had a president like George Washington since our founding. The evil one is the antithesis of George Washington, and people are concerned that he’ll turn the military against the American people because he has already tried to do so. A federation would be better for all Americans, red and blue states, than living under the Supreme KKKourt’s dictatorship or the evil one’s, trump’s, dictatorship.

3/5/24 – The evil one, trump, is a wannabe dictator. The Supreme KKKourt is already a dictatorship. It is obvious that they amended the Constitution.

3/5/24 – The Supreme KKKourt has become a dictatorship that’s imposing the will of the minority on the majority. It is undermining the other two branches of government, which are directly elected by the people. More importantly, it is undermining our Constitution. It is not applying the law. It is overwriting the law, including the law written by our Founding Fathers. After its latest ruling regarding the 14th Amendment, it has no more legitimacy. It needs to be eradicated as an institution. We can be a federation with state supreme courts.

3/4/24 – Only Congress has the right to amend our Constitution. The Supreme KKKowards do not have that right. It is a rogue, hypocritical, political arm of the Republican Party. All states can simply ignore its rulings. The states that want to keep the evil one, trump, off the ballot should simply do so. The KKKourt is not originalist or backed by sound jurisprudence. It is acting as what should be two separate branches of government. The Supreme KKKourt is illegitimate.
“They felt that a plain reading of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment would lead to chaotic or adverse outcomes, so they not only ignored it but also essentially amended the Constitution by fiat.”
The Supreme Court Once Again Reveals the Fraud of Originalism

3/4/24 – The evil one, trump, accuses Biden of conspiring against the U.S. because that’s what the evil one is doing. With the recent ruling, the Supreme KKKowards are contributing to the grave danger we’re facing due to the evil one, particularly maintaining our democracy and protecting ourselves from attacks from our adversaries.

3/3/24 – On the power of prayer, art and showing up for other people’s pain. (The Israelites gave the world everything. Be true to the God of our shared Abraham. Be the great people your ancestors have been.)
Monasteries and the Art of Quieting the Disquieted Mind

3/3/24 – If you’re serious about changing this world for the better, show up for “the other side’s” pain. The darkness we’re in now isn’t our destiny. Our destiny is what we make it. Let’s go back home and be a servant of the Lord.

3/3/24 – If you’re serious about changing this world for the better, focus on glorifying God not yourself.  “‘We thought, this is cool — it’s God glorifying,’ Haynza Posala said.”
This is a great idea! Places to have fun and connect with our creator. The church has never been the building. It’s always been where two or more are gathered in Jesus’s name. Jesus, the person who turned water into wine, didn’t seem to have a problem with people being human and having a good time. Keep it clean though.
No twerking. No drinking. No smoking. But plenty of room for Jesus at this Christian nightclub

3/3/24 – Compared with Europe, which created outstanding art and architecture, the rest of the Christian world has not produced as much great Christian art and architecture. Let’s change that. We are a global religion. Inspired by our faith and our love for God, let’s create gorgeous, compelling art that reflects the diversity of the body of Christ and glorifies the Lord.

3/3/24 – The Bible is filled with stories that force you to think hard about who you are and your relationship with God, each other and our incredible planet. It has many great stories that have inspired artists and thinkers for generations. The Prodigal Son is one of them. Read the Bible. Pray. Remember: Jesus loves you.
Ry Cooder – The Prodigal Son (Live in studio)

Rembrandt – Return of the Prodigal Son

3/2/24 – Hinduism with its belief in reincarnation can express a beautiful respect for other life, all of God’s creatures. Unfortunately, the caste system, which can treat other human beings as even less than animals, and the focus on cows and beef consumption undermines its potential to enlighten us on our interconnection with God’s other creatures.
Similarly, pigs are very intelligent animals. All animals regardless of their intelligence belong to God. Dietary taboos that might exist within a religion or spiritual belief system do not negate this universal truth: all life belongs to God.

3/2/24 – We are all sinners. We are all the prodigal son, the one who realized he was lost and the one who didn’t realize he was lost. Be humble before God, each other and all life. Life is a gift we never earned.
The Sensational Nightingales – Prodigal Son

3/2/24 – The Israeli government’s actions have gotten cruel. This isn’t justice. It’s become revenge or political machinations to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza. It needs to stop. If the Israeli army engaged in a war crime, it should be prosecuted as such. The investigation should be conducted by a neutral third party.
To the Israelites, remember, God showed you mercy despite your sinfulness. Practice the faith by extending grace to others whether or not they deserve it. Palestinians are also human beings.
Many of those killed or wounded in Gaza stampede for aid were shot by Israel’s army, EU arm says

3/1/24 – We all die. When your time comes, just accept it and move on. Also, there is no greater honor or way to be closer to God than sacrificing your life for a righteous cause or for others (including animals). If we were all more like Jesus, we would have heaven on earth.

3/1/24 – It is immoral to experiment on pigs or other animals to harvest organs, etc., so that we can live longer. God created humans – and animals. The same people who believe in evolutionary theory want to treat animals as if they have no rights. They have rights under God’s law.

3/1/24 – Evolutionary theory is garbage.

3/1/24 – One can mourn the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and also mourn the murder of Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge, and Adam Finseth in Burnsville. One can mourn the murder of Alexei Navalny and the murder of countless innocent Ukrainians. This is consistent. We mourn senseless loss of life.

3/1/24 – There should be a national ban on students having phones in classrooms for the entire school day. If there is an emergency, students can go to the school office like they used to.
Kids are using phones in class, even when it’s against the rules. Should schools ban them all day?

Reversal Is Redemption

The Visitation
Ghirlandaio – Visitation

Are people born evil, live evil lives and finally die evil, what we sometimes call nature? Do they become evil due to their circumstances, what we sometimes call nurture? Or is the survival instinct, the key assumption for evolutionary theory for all life, the source of all evil for human beings (since even the science worshippers don’t believe that animals have the (what’s the word) capacity for or responsibility of discerning good and evil)?

If all that matters is survival at all costs, wouldn’t all humans be motivated to be as evil as possible? Wouldn’t civilization effectively end up as a race to the bottom? Why sacrifice one’s life for anything? Why temper one’s desire to extend one’s life at any cost?

What if, instead of survival of the fittest, our souls magnify the Lord, not ourselves. This is Mary’s Song, The Magnificat, the Ode of the Theotokos. It is a reversal of the world order.
“46 And Mary said:
My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.” (Luke 1:46-56)

In God’s order, we are to be stewards of the life he created, of all life on the planet. In his order, humans do reign supreme, but with great power, God also gave us great responsibility. In addition to the story of God’s creation in Genesis, the story of Noah’s Ark also reflects the importance of the animals that share our planet to our own survival. They were not abandoned. They were preserved with human life. They are part of God’s initial creation, and the story reflects their value to their creator. As we do, all life belongs to God.

According to the theory of evolution, human beings evolved from the same magically appearing spark of life into the superior creatures we presumably are now. By our superior reason, we are dominant because our genes are simply better than other animals, since we are considered the most evolved animal. The evolutionary order imposes no responsibility on humans to other life. In fact, if we can live on the planet without other life, all the better, more space and resources for us, the superior animal.

However, we cannot do so, something about food chains and such. Science can be so convenient (evolutionary theory) and yet so inconvenient (the real world created by God). More importantly, this is not God’s order, and it is a violation of his mandate. We are failing our planet and all of its life. In God’s order, human beings are not the only creatures with rights. In addition to violating human rights, violating animal rights, such as using them in immoral experiments to serve humans, even to extend their lives, is also evil.

What great irony it is to be a vegan and an atheist. The science they believe in so deeply in is the same science that tortures animals to extend human life, survival of the fittest at all costs after all. In other words, we can use any animal however we want to extend our lives because survival of the human species, the superior species, is all that matters. Survival of the fittest is the process by which we attained our superior position as king of the animals, and we keep it by ruthless self-preservation.

Mary tells us that the Lord will reverse the order. God’s order is the opposite of our worldly order. This is also Jesus’s message in the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most famous passages in the Bible.

“5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5-7)

It is a warning to all. Do not get too attached to worldly things, such as power, money, and prestige, or even to life itself. If you do, in the end, under God’s law, which is the only one that truly matters, you will find yourselves on the losing side of the order. The reversal will be redemption for the poor in spirit, for those who mourn, for the meek, for the righteous, for the merciful, for the pure in heart, for the peacemakers, for those persecuted because of righteousness, and like Noah’s Ark, for the rest of God’s creatures, for he does not abandon us or them.