Notes from Underground – April 2024

4/30/24 – It is good to think about one’s identity, but use actually meaningful sentences. Stop slapping labels on yourself like you’re merchandise marketing yourself to a public that speaks in strings of single words. Present yourself like a unique individual not like a caricature of all things trending. It is quite annoying and meaningless. Happy Tuesday!

4/30/24 – As a country, we need to find a reasonable compromise on abortion that both respects the rights and the needs of the mother with (equal) respect for the sanctity of life. Figure it out.

4/30/24 – Considering all things, since gender dysphoria is a gender identity disorder, wouldn’t it make more sense to treat is with neurological and/or psychological treatments than with physical alteration?

4/28/24 – Birds make everything better and more beautiful. Happy Sunday!

4/28/24 – To escape is sometimes to just look at the beauty and the art in the world around you.

4/28/24 – Other ancient civilizations, for example, those in Asia, such as in India and China, and in Africa, such as in Egypt, which to a certain degree represents the Arab world more broadly, don’t get adequate recognition.
The focus tends to be on what is characterized as the western ancient world, Greece and especially, Italy, which was particularly powerful and influential in the west. However, other ancient civilizations have also had great influence, especially in other parts of the world.
These beautiful pictures capture the romance of the intersection of the ancient and the modern in Cairo, Egypt. If we lived in the world we deserve to live in, one of peace and a truly shared humanity, we would all be able to better appreciate the timeless artistry of kilim rugs, the delicate loveliness of minarets, and the intricate beauty of Islamic and Arabic art and architecture. If we lived in the world we all deserve to live in, we would be able to live in our shared heritage by sharing it with each other as a people of God.
It went viral because we all want this, whether or not we (fully) realize it. “The next day, he was surprised to find that the post had gone viral. People all over the world were resharing it across social media. ‘It evoked emotional reactions of comfort and tranquility, nostalgia and connection,’ he says.”
These dreamy photos of historical Cairo will transport you to another time

4/28/24 – A beautiful piece that speaks eloquently to the universal truth below, while capturing the particular spiritual and earthly journey of the Jewish people. Jewish artists often grapple with the tension of that truth by trying to capture the eternal nature of their spiritual sanctuary, their tabernacle, their ancestral land, which is the state of Israel, and the realities of the Jewish experience in its myriad migratory forms, those due to persecution or war, but also those simply in search of opportunity and a touch of wanderlust. There are many similarities to others’ experiences, and to recognize this truth is to recognize our shared humanity.
“The experience or memory of the modern Jewish artist has included the shared reality of pogroms, wars, persecution, and a modern-day version of Biblical wanderings. Jewish artists’ work intertwined with the reality of the time, as with Felix Nussbaum, the Polish painter who later moved to Berlin and eventually died in Auschwitz with his wife, also an artist. His work reflects wide-eyed fear, as in his 1943, ‘Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card.’
And thousands of years after the wanderings of the Jewish people in the desert, some critics understand Mark Rothko’s large canvases with blocks of color as a modern day tabernacle. In this way, Rothko, as with many Jewish artists, was both creating a sanctuary serving as a place of worship and also a mobile place, reflecting the enduring reality of wandering in the history of the Jewish people.”
Jewish Art: A Brief History

4/28/24 – In this polarized era, it’s more important than ever to remember that there is no us and them. The truth is that there is just us, and by us, that means all life. Just look at the known universe for proof. We are all immigrants or migrants, even those of us who have lineages that go back millennia to our ancestral lands because we are all guests on a planet we had no role in creating. We are here by God’s invitation, and our time on our temporary home has an end date. From dust we were made, to dust we shall return.

4/23/24 – It just passed…finally. Slava Ukraini! (Please excuse the dysfunction in the USA. What can we say? It’s a miserable and unnecessary state of affairs.)

4/23/24 – Foreign aid packages need to be brought to the floor separately. It’s not fair to the countries involved or to the American people to package them like this. Ukraine and Taiwan are easy. (The only reason MAGA Republicans are taking issue with Ukraine is because they are traitors, sympathetic to the russian poop and followers of the evil one, trump.) Israel is not easy. There is no compromise on Israel belonging to the Jewish people, however, the war is unacceptable as it is currently being conducted.

4/23/24 – It’s a bit surreal to watch Bernie Sanders, a Jew, fighting for Palestinians during Passover. He is right that the war stopped being (exclusively) about Hamas. Update: He just said that he would vote no…of course.

4/22/24 – It is important to note that there are many good journalists, some of whom risk their lives to tell important stories and help us protect our rights, freedoms and democracy.

4/22/24 – The propaganda has lost the public trust. It’s going to be hard to get it back.

4/22/24 – “What’s happening there? Why is NPR telling me what to think?” Right. As every educator knows, it’s a lot easier to think for your students or to tell them what to think than to teach them how to think for themselves.

4/22/24 – The propaganda, who generally hate Christianity, might consider that the Pope routinely dresses down the clergy in rather humiliating, public fashion. Where is the dressing down of the propaganda? At least, we have these couple examples of well-deserved criticism.
I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.
Chasing sensationalism contributed to the evil one, trump’s, win.
Trump, Project 2025, the Supreme Court and the Election with Hillary Rodham Clinton
Oh yes, and we all still notice that the propaganda also serves as Taylor Swift’s advertising campaign.

4/21/24 – Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Billy Graham was a man of deep faith, who genuinely loved the Lord and brought millions to Christianity. However, the church is mostly made up of clergy who quietly do the Lord’s work day in and day out. They are the good shepherd who tend to their flock. They go to their people in or out of distress, sometimes in the middle of the night, for births to deaths and everything in between. We appreciate them, but we don’t thank them enough. To our good shepherds, thank you. You help us heal our brokenness with your wisdom, kindness, love and compassion.

4/21/24 – The church is incredibly diverse. How could it not be? It spans the globe and has billions of believers. This is an interesting article about the misuse of the term “evangelical.”
The Line Between Good and Evil Cuts Through Evangelical America

4/21/24 – Truth: You can’t be freed from suffering. Anyone who’s telling you that you can be freed from suffering is lying to you. Signed, simply being human.

4/21/24 – Happy Sunday!

4/21/24 – The Vatican is correct as it relates to human dignity. It is very important to maintain the organic, natural nature of human beings. Once that is destroyed, the continued existence of the human species will be gravely threatened. Within liberals, there is a paradox that they simultaneously want a more natural world, free of chemicals, the torture of animals, the extraction of fossil fuels, etc., but when it comes to preserving the natural order of humans, our own species, they go full-blown scientism. Whether or not one agrees with the Vatican, it is much more consistent than either liberals or conservatives.

4/19/24 – The logic was something along the lines of: If the other party is fighting, we’re winning. Really!? Is that how that works? In that case, who needs foreign enemies. They just need partisanship, right? The reason we do the right thing is because we are people with integrity. You don’t capitalize on other people’s mistakes to try to elevate yourself. It just ends up bringing you and, in this case, the country and the world down. It wasn’t the right thing to do. It was wrong.

4/19/24 – Flashback Friday.
10/25/23 – This. They didn’t get the evil one, but they got someone who’s worse than McCarthy. “10/4/23 – Apparently, they are planning to nominate the evil one, trump, for speaker. So, if they do so, what will Democrats do? Or they didn’t bother to think through their position? 10/4/23 – McCarthy also prevented the federal government from shutting down. If one is going to say a bunch of negative things that are entirely correct, one does also need to acknowledge the positive things that are also correct. There are certain people who are evil, such as the evil one, Trump, and one doesn’t need to do this with them. But McCarthy isn’t evil. He’s actually a rather run-of-the-mill politician. “Kevin McCarthy gave up his soul not for Wales but for something worse—Donald Trump. It will be of little comfort to McCarthy to know he’s hardly the only one to have done so.” Didn’t the evil one want the shutdown? McCarthy was punished immediately after he did the right thing and prevented it. Tell us: how do reinforcement and punishment work? What message does this send to other Republicans who do the right thing? Encourage the behavior you want to see in others.
Kevin McCarthy Got What He Deserved
10/18/23 – Taking a cynical, calculated approach to Republican dysfunction is not the way to go. Jim Jordon as Speaker is not a good outcome for the country and, therefore, for Democrats. They should have helped McCarthy keep his job, or find some suitable Republican alternative. Do the right thing and stop with the machinations or indulging in schadenfreude. Grow up!
10/2/23 – If need be, Democrats need to vote for McCarthy so that he can retain his job. We need to move beyond politics and start solving our problems. We need to work together as Americans and as global citizens.

4/19/24 – Too much politics. Not enough principles. Too much tech. Not enough analog. Too much social media. Not enough real-world interaction. Etc.

4/19/24 – We said a long time ago that Democrats should have crossed the aisle for McCarthy. They did not. Think about how much misery they would have saved Ukraine and others if they had done the right thing from the start.

4/16/24 – Much is uncertain. One thing is certain. Extreme liberals will destroy life on the planet with their scientism (science worship), aided and abetted by the propaganda.

4/13/24 – One idea to help revitalize rural areas and small towns is for them to invest in charging stations for EVs. This would help both the environment and these areas, as people could spend time and money in them while their vehicles charged up.
Also, this article/podcast addresses several questions about EVs.
You asked, we answered: Your questions about electric vehicles

4/10/24 – Yes, it’s a propaganda event, but only for a country that prides itself on state-sanctioned baby rapists, sodomizing rapists, rapists more generally, and, of course, torturers. A country that no longer produces anything of any value to the world. A country that has become a full-blown kleptocracy. A country that violently represses its own people. A country whose leaders care about nothing else but power and money. That’s the modern Russian state. It’s sick and sad.
“‘To be able to show off an American citizen who has chosen to reinvent themselves, to reform themselves and become a part of the Russian war machine seems to provide evidence that Russia is winning a much bigger spiritual war,’ he said.” Sure, Russia is winning a “spiritual war,” but only if you’re on the side of evil.
US military veteran accused of having explicit images of a child apparently joined Russian army
“Kamardin, 33, recited a poem condemning Russia-backed insurgents in eastern Ukraine. The next day, police with a search warrant burst into the apartment he shared with his wife Alexandra Popova and another friend, and took the poet into custody. Police beat Kamardin, Popova and their flatmate, and raped the poet, both his wife and his lawyer said.”
A lonely radio nerd. A poet. Vladimir Putin’s crackdown sweeps up ordinary Russians

4/10/24 – The evil one, trump, doesn’t give a crap about abortion. He’s a self-serving lunatic who’s desperate to stay out of prison.

4/10/24 – The world needs fewer people and more animals. Happy Wednesday!

4/2/24 – One shouldn’t get everything their way. Part of being a mature, reasonable person is conceding even if you might be right. Grace has tremendous value. It is dignified. It is love.

4/2/24 – Some more great pictures from Easter.
AP Photos: Easter Sunday around the world

4/2/24 – The way many Israelis and its government have treated both Palestinian Christians and Muslims is not correct. Also, this war is not well-executed, and it has turned into at least as much a quest for revenge as for justice. Netanyahu is a terrible person. (We also had a terrible leader, the evil one, trump, so we can sympathize with the Israelis who would like to get rid of him but can’t.) There have been too many innocent lives lost, harmed or displaced, including the tragic deaths of the workers with World Central Kitchen. May their courageous, humanitarian souls rest in peace.
Do all reasonable people wish there were peace in the Middle East? Of course, we do, but if people think the problems in the Middle East are isolated to Israel, they are not. That is simply fiction. Christians have fled the entire Levant due to war, persecution, discrimination, or Israeli’s restrictions. The rest of the Middle East, which also holds considerable religious significance for Christians, has treated them even worse than Israel has.
The propaganda would know this if they followed the persecuted church at all, but they don’t. So please spare us the anti-Semitism masquerading as deep concern for Christians. The propaganda hates Christianity, and we all know it. They also hate Islam because they hate religion in general. So, if you’re Muslim, don’t fool yourselves.
This is not actually about Muslims or Palestine. It’s actually about many liberals’ hatred and jealousy of the Jewish people. Look at how white people, especially Europeans, have treated them throughout history. Their fragile white egos can’t handle a successful ethnic group that is not white.
Israel belongs to the Jewish people. Period. Not Christians. Not Muslims. Ideally, all three Abrahamic religions could live there in peace and religious harmony, but that doesn’t seem to be the way things are playing out. This is quite unfortunate, and there is much blame to go around. Is it what Christians want? No, it’s not, but the right thing to do is to respect that the land belongs to the Jewish people and just leave if we can’t make this work.
Don’t begrudge the Jewish people. Christians and Muslims would have no religion without them. This is also a historical fact. It’s not worth it to continue to fight like this. Let the Jewish people have their land. Let them have peace. We can’t have peace in the world without grace and love. This is a way to express love of God, whether Christian or Muslim, by showing the Jewish people, who have been persecuted throughout history, some grace.

4/2/24 – God bless the persecuted church around the world, today and every day. God loves them with a deep and abiding love. May our God of hope sustain them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Pray for them, our true believers in Christ.

4/2/24 – One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that (then and perhaps still now) the people who were best suited to adopt its beliefs were the Jewish people. Why? Because, aside from Jesus as the Messiah, which they don’t believe unless they are Messianic Jews, the vast majority of Christianity’s beliefs and traditions came directly out of Judaism, and everybody else were Gentiles, who, at the time, had no spiritual formation in Christianity’s core tenets.
When Constantine converted to Christianity, he had no knowledge of the faith because he wasn’t a Jew. He was a pagan, who came to believe in monotheism while still not fully understanding the Jewish theological concept of one God. He also didn’t initially know the Christian rites that existed from the beginning, such as baptism, or its moral expectations, such as the Ten Commandments. He routinely violated the commandments, such as murdering his own wife and son, and procrastinated on baptism to avoid going to hell.
How is this still relevant 2,000 years later? For as surprising as it might be, because there is still considerable ignorance about the faith, its beliefs and demands, and ironically, especially from the “Christian Nationalists,” who sometimes still worship Nordic or pagan gods. Also, looking at the state of Christianity in Europe, the supposed cradle of Christianity, it is clear that its strong pagan streak, presently manifested as hedonism and/or science worship, is particularly obstinate among the self-described superior white race.
“Christian Nationalism” is a political movement with allusions to a religion that they barely understand. The degree of Constantine’s sincerity is debatable. Likely, it was a combination of genuine belief, however flawed in its understanding, and political ambition. MAGA are generally less sincere in the faith, and they reveal their theological and historical ignorance regularly.
Where Constantine ended the persecution of Christians and maintained religious freedom for all even while establishing Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire, MAGA are damaging the faith in their quest for political power and by forcing their more extreme religious values on a secular, diverse society.
Lastly, Constantine may have confused Jesus Christ with Sol Invictus, the son god, but it was at the origins of the faith, i.e. about 1,700 years ago, and at least it was still a god, not an evil, dangerous demagogue. What is obvious to many observers, even the nonreligious who don’t know much about Christianity, of our bizarre, modern-day religious saga is that MAGA treats the evil one, trump, like their messiah, casting aside Christians’ true Messiah, Jesus Christ. There is a Commandment about this. It’s the first one because it’s the most important.

4/2/24 – Everyone needs to stop rewriting facts and history according to what matches their feelings or views. Everything is hard enough. It’s obnoxious and intellectually and morally wrong. Knock it off!

4/2/24 – God loves Palestinians and Israelis alike, but Jesus was not a Palestinian Jew. Thou shall not give false testimony. He was a Hebrew, an Israelite from the land of what was then Judea. He was not Palestinian. There were Jews, and everybody else were Gentiles. Palestinians were Gentiles. They are Arabs. The Romans were colonizers. Everybody knows this, and it’s right there in the Bible. Stop making things up! Judea was and is Jewish land. Accept it, and move on.
This Easter, let’s not try to pretend Jesus was a ‘Palestinian Jew’

4/2/24 – To all of the overt and covert racists who think black people are inferior, just sit your ignorant a—es down. You know nothing. There is no evidence to support these views. Black people are beautiful, smart and talented. They are a gift to the world, and God loves them as they are.

4/1/24 – That’s fun. They looked amazing! There are some churches where entire African families will come dressed from head to toe in the same beautiful African prints. Lovely, and so cute! Everybody is welcome to our churches, especially the poor and marginalized, no matter how they’re dressed. We come dressed not to impress others with worldly things, but to show our respect to the God we love. It’s great when people come dressed well, and when immigrants come dressed in their home country’s traditional attire. It puts on full display the diversity of the Body of Christ.
These parishioners showed off their “Sunday’s best” this weekend

4/1/24 – Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” He is.

4/1/24 – Our civilization has taken millennia to develop. It can be destroyed in seconds. Remain humble and faithful to the Lord. All glory is fleeting.

4/1/24 – Before we have to return to the insane asylum that is American politics and other worldly preoccupations, let’s reflect on what was a soul-reviving Holy Week. It was a much-needed blessing and break from a world gone mad.
One would be forgiven for thinking of Christianity as a “white man’s religion,” but as the late Billy Graham said, it’s not. One of the many intriguing questions is: why did Rome become arguably the center of the faith, in which resides Vatican City, even though Paul and Jesus’s disciples evangelized throughout the world: the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa? Within what we now consider to be Europe or “the west,” why wasn’t the center Greece?
Perhaps Jesus, who most historians and theologians understand to be a brown Jew, meaning neither white nor Roman, thought that “the white man” most needed to hear his message. Rome was the center of earthly power. Also, wouldn’t it be poignant if the very people who put Jesus to death were conquered by him? (No, it wasn’t the Jews. Stop with the anti-Semitism. Ultimately, Pontius Pilate was in charge of the province of Judea, and he made the call.) This reversal of power for the ancient persecuted church in Rome is often attributed to Constantine’s conversion, but perhaps it should actually be credited to God.
The Roman Empire is no longer. Italy is a small fraction of what was once that mighty empire, but Christianity has come to dominate the world. One can find it almost everywhere on the planet. It takes different expressions influenced by the people and the culture that make the universal religion its own.
Linguistically, in the Catholic Church, there is often a considerable amount of Latin, some Greek, and some Spanish during standard masses. The language Jesus spoke, however, was Aramaic, which is most closely related to Hebrew and Syriac, all three of which are Semitic languages. Syriac and the Syriac rite are still spoken and practiced in Eastern churches.
That said, both Greek and Latin played a considerable role in the early church, but the closest language to Latin, which was the language of the Roman Empire, that is spoken in the Catholic Church as part of its standard Liturgy of the Word or of the Eucharist is actually Spanish, since it’s a Romance language. It is definitely not English.
There is also the outstanding question: exactly how “white” are Italians and Greeks anyway? They certainly don’t seem genetically as “white” as the people from England to which a certain political camp is peddling American exceptionalism. The Pilgrims and Puritans were Northern Europeans, who hadn’t experienced conquest from, for example, the Moors of Africa. They were much more likely to be raided by Vikings to their north.
Therefore, genetically, ethnically, and linguistically white people don’t have any special inheritance to Christianity. In addition, Romans came to dominate Christianity through power and politics, starting with Constantine. This is obviously contrary to the message of Christianity, but the arc of this worldly power was relatively flat and short in comparison to the high and long arc of Christianity’s divine power.
MAGA’s claims to Christianity are, as usual, absurd and detached from historical and other evidence. More generally, the cross isn’t a flag, a country, a culture, a language, a people or a genetic ancestry. It is the most powerful expression of God’s love in human history. It is a love that we don’t deserve but was given to us nonetheless. To use this love to spread hate again goes contrary to Jesus’s message. If we are to escape from our self-inflicted misery, there is only one way – the way of the cross, and this way, this truth, this life belongs to the world, from the beginning to the end, from the alpha to the omega, no matter the language, culture or people.
AP Photos: Young and old participate in Holy Week religious processions on Italy’s Procida island
Good Friday in Latin America
Hours to make and seconds to destroy, Holy Week flower carpets are a labor of love in Guatemala

Notes from Underground – April 2023

4/30/23 – Use your relatively short time on this planet well. Use it for good. Happy Sunday!

4/30/23 – Slava Ukraini!

4/29/23 – This story should be made into a movie. It’s so interesting. Thank God for whistleblowers. They have courage and conscience and help all of us. MAGA, such schmucks! “In a filing, the company said it ‘cannot assure shareholders that there will be sufficient funds’ for the purpose of paying for its own liquidation costs or outstanding bills, and that the money in its trust account could ‘become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public stockholders.’ Digital World’s unpaid debts could end up rolling onto the small-time, Trump-loving investors if the deal falls apart, said Michael Ohlrogge, a law professor at New York University who researches SPACs. ‘The vast majority of SPACs just don’t rack up these kinds of expenses … and the shareholders could be in some danger of getting pursued by the unpaid vendors,’ he said. ‘It could be an interesting and somewhat fitting end for Trump’s SPAC: that it ends in failure and liquidation and sticks its shareholders — presumably many or most of whom are his political supporters — with the bill.’”
He blew the whistle on Trump’s Truth Social. Now he works at Starbucks.

4/29/23 – All the Fed has to do is revise its target inflation to between 2% and 4% (core!) and call it day. A higher target isn’t the same as prioritizing employment over inflation as was the criticism in the 70s/80s, and the revision is long overdue. That’s still managing expectations. They and others need to stop being overreactive and unreasonable, or we’re going to end up in a very bad situation.

4/29/23 – Dorsey is one of the few CEOs who seems decent. He wasn’t particularly engaged at Twitter, but he was highly preferrable to Musk. His temperament is way more even. Many of us knew that Twitter needed to change and trusted Dorsey’s judgment on Musk, but as he started to reveal himself more prior to the sale, it became evident that he was not the right person to lead Twitter. As Dorsey said, it all went downhill from there. The board shouldn’t have forced the sale, and Musk should have paid the breakup fee and moved on. Now, he will likely lose a lot more money. (We told him as much way back when.) Hubris brings down a lot of people. This is just another example.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey says Musk wasn’t an ideal leader after all
What to know about Bluesky, as Dril and AOC join the new Twitter alternative

4/29/23 – The Boomers are the worst generation in recent American history, and they are not going quietly into the night. They will try to retain power at all costs even if it means our democracy. Young people, don’t let them get away with it.

4/28/23 – Alito can go f—k himself, and then, f—k himself some more. Have a nice day.

4/28/23 – May Emmett Till’s accuser, whatever her name was, burn in hell.

4/28/23 – So, they’ll take out bin laden for attacking us, but they won’t take out the satanic putin for attacking us and nearly destroying our democracy. Logical. The problem with titles such as president or priest is that they disguise who and what the person really is. It’s not a coincidence that evil men seek these titles that are assumed by society to convey a certain respectability.
Newly released White House photos capture the day bin Laden was killed

4/28/23 – If the Fed continues to tighten, it will trigger a recession, which it is well aware of (the sacrifice ratio), and we will end up with stagflation. It will also potentially cause serious problems for 2024, geopolitically and internationally.

4/27/23 – Interesting conversation and book. “To kill the Indian but save the man.” But what is a Native man if not a Native? A person is well beyond just a physical being as we should appreciate staring at a mental health crisis. This also reprises the Ukrainian war. Is it enough to just be alive, or are we who we are because of who we identify ourselves to be? A person is physical, psychological and spiritual.
Also, relevant to our present condition, there is a clear tension between the federal government and the states as it relates to Native Americans. In general, the Supreme Court is trying to undermine the federal government’s powers, which could be convincingly argued as pulling us back to an antebellum or pre-Reconstruction era.
Lastly, native land is sovereign land.
Ned Blackhawk on ‘The Rediscovery of America’

4/27/23 – Can we stop being a security sieve? Can we take our national security seriously or what?
Fed’s Powell was tricked by fake call from Russia pranksters

4/27/23 – More evil terrorists need to get sick. Clean the house.

4/27/23 – Tuckyorose is a national security risk.

4/27/23 – When his head exploded from jealous rage of Zelensky, we broke out the popcorn. When his head exploded from being fired from Fox, we broke out the wine. Delicious. “But they had drawn furious blowback from powerful Republicans who see U.S. support for Ukraine as a bulwark in a fight for freedom and democracy — some of whom had Murdoch’s ear.” (Watch the videos. So good.)
For the Murdochs, Tucker Carlson became more trouble than he was worth
“But on Capitol Hill, every senior Republican gives a one-word answer to the biggest obstacle for supporting Zelensky: Tucker.” No more. Goodbye tuck tuck traitor. One of the most loathsome people in history.
With Tucker Carlson’s ouster, House GOP loses a key ally – and agitator

4/26/23 – The satanic ones, all of them, are cut from the same cloth. You can change their names, taliban, isis, al-qaeda, al-shabaab, vladimir putin, ruhollah khomeini, kim jong un, xi jingpin, mohammed bin salman, min aung hlaing, narendra modi, benjamin netanyahu, the evil one donald trump, adolf hitler, joseph stalin, pol pot, etc., but they are all from the same evil terrorist cloth. They are nominally attached to various faith traditions or no tradition: Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, atheism, etc., but they don’t practice them correctly or at all. They have negative value to the world. Their mere existence is a stain on humankind. They need to be eliminated.

4/26/23 – Perhaps the satanic putin has been secretly funding ISIS. How would MAGA feel about him and his best friend, the evil one, trump, if this is the case?
Afghanistan has become a terrorism staging ground again, leak reveals

4/25/23 – Schools are actually much like churches, which makes sense when you think about it because, in addition to worshipping God, one of the functions of a church is to teach the faith. Sometimes the teacher or the clergy gives a lesson, but one of the remarkable aspects about both environments is a certain quiet communality. Classrooms can often be quiet with everyone working on something individually while collectively, the students are all doing the same thing. This is similar to praying in a church. It can be silent with everyone praying quietly while collectively, the congregants are all doing the same thing. One would never think to replace churches with AI because it would make no sense at all. Schools and teaching are no different. People called Jesus, “teacher.” His parables (and his life) remain a source of endless reflection. Learning is a divine dance between teacher and student. Let us celebrate the beautiful simplicity of this human experience by keeping it human.
AI can’t teach children to learn. What’s missing?

4/25/23 – One of the best ways to keep healthy is to have healthy habits, such as reading and making art, spending time in nature, praying quietly in an empty church, etc. All of these things help focus the mind without the mind realizing it. There is quiet and the noises of nature. There is the world great authors have created for us. There is the natural gifts God has created for us. There is the testaments of love we have created for God. Escape to these places, and you will find peace and the strength to keep fighting…or even to just keep living.
“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one,” Steinbeck writes. “Humans are caught — in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too — in a net of good and evil. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill?”
Why we must read fiction even as terrible times loom

4/25/23 – If you decide to have children, you need to clean your psychological house before you do so. If you can’t do this, you probably shouldn’t have children.

4/25/23 – Absolutely! “Brains wired by toxic stress, such as the sexual violence that 1 in 10 teen girls are facing today, have the ability to essentially heal when exposed to positive experiences. Good nutrition, adequate sleep, mindfulness practices all help. Adults as well as children have neuroplasticity, and family resilience and connection are positive influences.”
American teens are unwell because American society is unwell

4/25/23 – We must save our country from the dark forces.

4/25/23 – If you can, move to red states. We end minority rule or end in civil war.

4/24/23 – It was a genocide of the Armenian people, and it should be declared by all as such. Don’t forget that the person with no values or principles, who is so divisive that she barely held onto her House seat in one of the bluest parts of the country, Ilhan Omar, voted against doing so.
PS AP, get some better politicians to highlight instead of a—holes.
Torchlight march marks mass deaths of Armenians

4/24/23 – No more tuckyorose. Perhaps Dominion delicious isn’t over after all.

4/24/23 – Superior German genes. Degenerates.
Kremlin tries to build antiwar coalition in Germany, documents show

4/21/23 – The people who claim to be about freedom want to control everything about our lives. They are especially focused on their lies becoming our truth. That’s MAGhadis, and the evil one is their dear leader.

4/21/23 – A lot of the problems in the church have been created by the church itself. Many churches are not good at being Christ-like.

4/21/23 – In other news of the bizarre, Mike Lindell. That is all.
Mike Lindell’s firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge

4/21/23 – In case anybody is in need of this guidance, this is not how to deal with a doppelganger. Some people are so bizarre.
Woman who tried to kill doppelganger with poisoned cheesecake gets 21 years

4/21/23 – The algorithms for Google Translate and Duolingo are close, but there are differences.

4/21/23 – Interesting article. Good point. “I suggested to von Ahn that, at this point in the life cycle of the Internet, it’s hard to hear about democratizing aspirations without thinking of other tech companies that set out to expand access and ended up perpetuating, or even accelerating, the inequality they ostensibly sought to address—all while concentrating tremendous wealth into fewer and fewer hands…. He’d begun by figuring out a way to distinguish people from bots; now he was helping humans train bots to be indistinguishable from people. Had it occurred to him that he had, in a way, come full circle?”
How Much Can Duolingo Teach Us?

4/19/23 – The GOP is so focused on the evil one, trump, it’s not doing anything for its constituents. It has one constituent, the evil one. The rest of us are not putting our lives on hold for him or for anyone. The rest of us are not focused on him. We’re focused on ourselves and our communities. This is the way it’s supposed to be.

4/19/23 – Life is so much better when you live in a sane state. You feel the love of community.

4/19/23 – Silicon Valley’s new business model is to start out as a nonprofit, then once others’ capital has built the company, change to for-profit. Apparently, this is legal.

4/18/23 – Fox should be apologizing not just to Dominion but to the entire country, including MAGA. Fox helped radicalize them. MAGA are American jihadis, aka MAGhadis.

4/18/23 – We need more justice. “‘The truth matters. Lies have consequences,’ Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson told reporters outside a Delaware courthouse after Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced the deal.”
Fox, Dominion reach $787M settlement over election claims

4/18/23 – German a—holes, you’re not superior. It was all a lie. If anything, you’re inferior. Deal with it.

4/18/23 – Can the masses make or even participate in the appreciation of the arts without ruining them? This is a fair question. It’s like when beautiful, historic cities are swarmed with tourists. They end up changing their character. Maybe the arts are best when they are esoteric, and those small, quiet communities will never die.
What the death of a literary magazine says about our cultural decay

4/18/23 – Dominion delicious is over. Quite unfortunate. It was so good.

4/17/23 – The odd thing is sometimes one ends up with these doppelgangers to whom we’re not related yet they look like us more than our own family. They might be of the same “race,” whatever race really is, but they don’t have to be. More generally, there is a divine randomness in our physicality. Then again, maybe that’s God’s point. Kenyans, who are black, are tall like the Dutch, who are white. Many Asians, who tend to be pretty light-skinned, have features, including broad noses, like Africans, who tend to be dark-skinned. Indians, who on average are brown, and Caucasians, who are white, have similar hair, both on the body and the head. Ethiopians, who are black, have features that are more like white people than like other Africans, who are black. For many of the physical characteristics that are different, there are those that are similar. The idea that out of this rich combination and diversity, there is one standard of beauty is an absurdity. That is all anybody needs to know about the matter. (They aren’t prophets. They are dictators. Fascists of beauty.)
How I escaped the tyranny of the prophets of beauty

4/17/23 – The mark Saint Benedict left on much of the western world is often underappreciated.

4/17/23 – The East Syriac rite kept many of the Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) or Syriac terms. “Vespers are known by the Aramaic or Syriac term Ramsha in the East Syriac liturgy which was used historically in the Church of the East and remains in use in Churches descended from it, namely the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.”
Vespers in the East

4/16/23 – Vespers is lovely and highly recommended. It is quite peaceful.

4/16/23 – As most people who know anything about academia know, academic publishing is riddled with corruption and exploitation. One of the great benefits to society that ChatGPT could offer is to eliminate them by having it serve as “peer review,” after which scholars could self-publish and actually reap the rewards of their own labor directly as is the case in every other area of intellectual property. As an aside, ChatGPT could also make the research process, which is generally extremely time-consuming, more efficient.

4/16/23 – Faith is more powerful than any evil. Hold it close to you always. God bless Ukraine. “Today we celebrate the Easter holiday with unshakable faith in our victory. We have already come a long way. Perhaps the most difficult of peaks is ahead. We will overcome it. And together we will meet our dawn, when the sun will rise over our entire country. This is a blue and yellow flag. It will certainly be raised in all our God-given land, in all territories temporarily occupied by devils. The sun will shine in the south, the sun will shine in the east, and the sun will shine in Crimea. The yellow-hot sun in a peaceful blue sky, and it is the light of justice. Christ is Risen!”
Zelensky – Easter 2023

4/16/23 – Happy Easter to our Orthodox Christian sisters and brothers! May the Lord bless you with an abiding peace. (Orthodox Christians use the Julian instead of the Gregorian calendar, but they are marking the same religious event.)

4/16/23 – Don’t be cynical. Have faith. God loves us.

4/16/23 – Somewhere along the way, a shift happened, at least in the US, but likely in much of the western world, from “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger” to anything that doesn’t kill you is a deep trauma that you implicitly can’t recover from. This is not healthy. There are people who’ve experienced deep trauma that might be quite hard to recover from, but even among them, they can and do. So much of a person’s ability to recover from trauma and to be well-adjusted depends on the person’s perspective and spiritual and psychological approach. Work from a position of strength. Say to yourself, I am a strong person. Mean it. Know that you are because you are. And keep reinforcing your own resilience. Find ways to force yourself into your areas of discomfort and to tackle your demons head on. As Jesus drove them out, drive them out through faith in yourself (and in God’s infinite goodness). That’s a healthy approach to traumatic events or even just bad things that happen in life, which are an inevitability.
War is shaping a generation of Ukrainian schoolchildren and teachers

4/15/23 – Let’s all take this in about our supposed fellow Americans. What do people think would upset them more: the evil one, trump, actually hates them, or he actually hates America and engaged in espionage. Likely, the former, which says so much about the satanic cult that is MAGA.

4/15/23 – It is truly miserable to have to keep talking about the evil one, but until his evilness is eradicated, we must give it some of our time. Let us review some key findings.
1. People at Fox publicly support the evil one but privately hate him.
2. What might we find as this investigation proceeds? Perhaps obvious to the rest of us, and from a political perspective, more important than anything else, that the evil one and his enablers publicly support MAGA but privately hate them. “‘Not only did President Trump lie to his supporters about the election, but he also ripped them off,’ the committee’s seven Democrats and two Republicans concluded.” Discovery will likely show this if they actually comply.
3. Also, what the writers of the emails intended shouldn’t matter. (Intention has little to no bearing in financial communications, albeit there is an explicit fiduciary duty.) One could argue that there is an implicit fiduciary duty since the funds obtained in a campaign are a type of investment in the candidate and the vehicles are funds. If those funds are obtained through the dissemination of knowingly or unknowingly false statements, that should be illegal. Look at securities laws not just campaign finance laws. Why would this be any different when they are claiming that the money is going to a fund?
Special counsel focuses on Trump fundraising off false election claims

4/15/23 – The current reality is that the powers that be have been too timid. Give Ukraine everything they need to win decisively and regain all of their territory. Stop f—king around. “As Ukraine steps toward the moment of decision, the United States must be certain it has given them all the tools they need to succeed.” Either we commit in every respect, spiritually, intellectually, psychologically, to right makes right, or we just go home now. There is no half-a—ing it. That would be like being half-committed to our stated values, freedom, democracy, equality. How well is that going domestically? This is no different. As MLK said, be true to what you said on paper, America. Ukrainians gave up their nukes on our word. Be true to our word.
The leaks painted a grim picture of the Ukraine war. Here’s the current reality

4/15/23 – Not just this, but in general, there is a rot in the EU. We need investigative journalists to find out who has been corrupted by Russian influence. “Podoprigorov has been sanctioned by the United States, Britain and Canada (though not by the European Union).”
Absolutely! “The international community must continue to express its concern over the treatment of Kara-Murza and other political prisoners who have been jailed for aspiring to build a democratic Russia as well as for opposing the war.”
How Vladimir Kara-Murza’s case exposes the rot at the heart of Russia

4/15/23 – Under the demonic modi, India is aspiring to be poopy’s b—h. Gandhi’s India is dead.

4/14/23 – To our beloved Ukrainians, f—k the naysayers. If you fall, the western world falls. The idiots should know this, but they are idiots so who knows what they know. In any case, keep believing in yourself. Keeping slinging.

4/14/23 – Indian a—holes, f—k off, we’re not backing down on modi. He’s an evil monster. He needs to go. Get some real patriotism instead of the satanic cult you have now.

4/14/23 – Quality has a quantity all its own. “Just days into the war, spetsnaz troops arrived in the eastern city of Kharkiv in small numbers and without much support from conventional troops, Lee said. Many of them were killed or captured, he noted. Several of their specialized vehicles were destroyed, videos and photos show.”
Russia’s commando units gutted by Ukraine war, U.S. leak shows

4/14/23 – F—kheads, if you care about yourself or your kids, get off the f—king phone. You’re an addict. Admit it, and seek help.

4/14/23 – The feeling of awe is that there is something greater than us, and there is. “‘We have, as Western populations, become very disconnected from the natural world,’ said Smalley, a doctoral candidate at the University of Exeter in England. ‘When you see something vast and overwhelming or something that produces this feeling of awe, your own problems can feel diminished and so you don’t worry so much about them.’” Mathematically, the more parallel as opposed to orthogonal the sun’s path is to our line of sight, the more in awe we are. One could view it as the alignment of the sun’s path to our own posture on our planet reveals particles we couldn’t see before. More precisely, what one sees is actually dependent on individual variation not just the general mechanism of the human eye and the respective physical positions of the sun’s path and our planet. Not all people who can see, see equally well. One can interpret this both literally and figuratively. Don’t try to time it. Just marvel at God’s creation…if you can.
Why we should all be gazing at more sunsets

4/14/23 – Wise words that evil dictator Modi is unlikely to heed. “On Monday, Dzhaparova warned India against an over reliance on Russia. ‘India should be pragmatic in diversifying its energy resources, military contracts and political interactions. Because what we see in my country when you are dependent on Russia, they will always use this blackmail instrument,’ she told reporters.”
Ukraine wants India to play bigger role in ending war

4/12/23 – The Good Samaritan is one of the most famous parables in the Christian Bible, in the Gospel of Luke. When we think of extinction, we usually think about animals since they are experiencing a mass extinction, mainly due to human activity, but groups of humans can also go extinct. The war in Ukraine is an example of trying to make a group of people go extinct, which is what the satanic putin is trying to do to the Ukrainians. The genocide of the Uyghurs in China is another example. Obviously, there is the example of the Jews during the Holocaust. To those who believe in human evolution, they might argue that this is simply the mechanism at work. Might makes right after all. To those whose genes are the strongest, go the spoils. Those who believe in Jesus and his way know this is wrong. God’s way is about diversity, life and love. That’s the world he created. The world of genocide and extinction is the one man creates. The story of the Good Samaritan is worth reading and rereading. It is about the perversity and duplicity of tribal identities. The Samaritans nearly went extinct because of it. Remember: It wasn’t a Jew who stopped for the robbed and beaten man, also a Jew, but a member of the group that was nearly driven to extinction, the hated Samaritans. Jesus was sending a clear message and teaching an enduring lesson.
Once near extinction, the tribe called Samaritans lives on

4/11/23 – Слава Україні

4/11/23 – It’s important that we pace ourselves. These are dark times, and these are long battles. Let’s not waste time, but we must also finish the race, as the Apostle Peter said. To do that, we have to take (spiritual) breaks. We will never back down. We will never break. We will defeat evil.

4/11/23 – Maybe the BA (even in STEM) can’t get you a job, but it will help you to not get KKKonned by the grifter gang. MAGA, on the other hand, look over here while the grifter gang, including on the highest court in the land, robs you and our country blind. The GOP is the satanic putin’s political party. It’s modeled after him.

4/11/23 – The fur pelts and horns that she wears when sporting the shaman or is it the satanic cult look? Grifters dononymous. “Fresh controversy swirled around Ginni Thomas as reports emerged that a Republican megadonor paid for her fur pelts and horns. According to the reports, Thomas also accepted a set of red, white, and blue face paints from the same donor. A combative Thomas told reporters that the fur pelts and horns she received were not luxury items but were derived from budget-priced rabbit and bison. She said that she would ‘not let this latest tempest in a teapot interfere with all the good work I am doing on the United States Supreme Court.’ Her husband, Clarence Thomas, had no comment.”
Wealthy G.O.P. Donor Paid for Ginni Thomas’s Fur Pelts and Horns

4/10/23 – Every day, I read the paper. Every day, I dread reading it. I click thinking, what now? This relationship the news media has built with its readership is not sustainable, and it’s not healthy. We do need to know the news, but it can’t all be negative. There is genocide, war, human trafficking and slavery, child abduction and abuse, rape, torture, religious strife, the destruction and desecration of holy places and world heritage sites, etc. It is heavy and dark times. There have to also be stories about matters that aren’t miserable: resilience in the face of adversity, love triumphing over hate, unity and strength, etc. The news media needs to share the richness of the human experience, and it’s definitely not all bad. The media needs to make more of an effort to balance out its coverage, not just because it’s better for business but also because it’s the right thing to do. The increase in suicides and just general misery of the people is in part due to the seemingly endless problems in the world. We do have a lot of problems, but we also have a lot of goodness. And we always have hope. Share these stories.

4/10/23 – Zelensky is Jewish. His family members were murdered in the Holocaust by the satanic cult, the Nazis. “Fourth, we are adding a new tradition of respect to the official life of our state. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Ukraine and the Muslim community of the world – different countries, different nations – observe a strict fast during the holy month of Ramadan. When the sun sets, the Iftar dinner takes place. I had the honor of sharing Iftar with our soldiers, with representatives of the Mejlis, and with the entire Ukrainian Muslim community.”
Zelensky – Official Iftar Dinner

“Ukraine values every person, values every community. Ukraine is grateful to the Muslims of our country and everyone in the world Muslim community who, on an equal footing with us, seeks peace and protection from evil. We are all united by faith. And perhaps, we’ll never know for sure the entire path we have to pass ahead, but we are all sure of one thing: we will not be broken, not separated, and certainly not erased. Especially our main thing is not to erase our values because we go with respect, for the sake of unity and freedom.”
Zelensky – Muslim Community

We need more of this. Let’s keep breading bread and protecting religious freedom. Let’s keep sharing the love of God, no matter the religion. Let’s keep sharing love, period. The faithful believe in our respective God. No true believer claims to know because we don’t know, and that would be an untruthful statement, which is a sin. We believe. Let us respect each other beliefs. We all, including atheists, participate in the mystery of life and creation. It is a mystery. No amount of repeating the word “science” is going to change that. Let’s respect and honor the mystery.

4/10/23 – One of the changes that absolutely needs to happen across the country, the world really, is more diversity. This is not limited to race, ethnicity, religion, etc., but related to these categories, also perspectives and ideologies. For example, the Fed has too many people indoctrinated in neoclassical economics. On the other hand, the media has way too many nonreligious liberals, some of whom clearly hate religion. The polarization that we see in our society both reflects and is created by this lack of diversity of thought and beliefs. God didn’t create puppets. Stop acting like one. Be your own person, with your own ideas and insights. That’s how we honor God, by realizing and celebrating the rich, varied tapestry of his creation.

4/10/23 – Liberals should not fool themselves. No matter how much they shove their bigotry down our throats, Christianity is still growing and will continue to grow. White people are declining in numbers, and part of the demographic shifts are simply related to birth rates, not religiosity. Pew and other sources forecast the number of Christians worldwide to continue to rise. This is a huge demographic to ignore or denigrate routinely in the press.
Christians
Status of Global Christianity, 2022, in the Context of 1900–2050

4/10/23 – If Twitter is your religion and you take yourself for a member of its “priestly class,” well, that’s quite sad. It also supports the points made here.
Elon Musk excommunicates the priestly caste of Twitter

4/10/23 – The Ramadan, Passover and Triduum alignment for all three Abrahamic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, respectively, happens only about every 33 years. (They also overlapped last year, but the world was still coming out of Covid.) The media missed this important opportunity to share how each religion was honoring their own traditions and engaging in interfaith worship. We saw nothing about any of this before Thursday. After that, it was too late, since Christians entered the Triduum (started Thursday evening) and Jews were already into their Passover (started Wednesday night). Why is it that what’s important to a huge percentage of the world’s population is not being covered in the news? Do no religious people work for the media? Why do the liberal media claim “anti-racism” but are obsessed with the small, mostly white liberal atheistic world that is like them? Why is it that religious matters are not covered in a way that’s not negative or demeaning to religious people? The larger question is why are so many liberals disgusting religious bigots, and why do they think they are so virtuous while they bear this obvious moral stain? There are houses of worship across the country that do good work for their communities and the world. They have beautiful interfaith exchanges. None of this is covered in the media. The ugly, orange evil one’s face and evil words are everywhere though. This is not good for our country or our world. We need more shalom, salaam, peace.
Inside Holy Week: Rare overlap of Easter, Passover and Ramadan

4/10/23 – The American people voted in 2020 to fire the evil one, trump. To the news media, please respect our voice and our vote. He exhausted us. He dominated our lives when they are supposed to be dominated by the things we actually care about. We don’t want him to exhaust us or dominate our lives anymore. Share the stories that must be shared about him. Then, stop. That’s what we, the American people, to whom this country belongs, told the press with our vote.

4/10/23 – The great irony is that for the press and the unfortunate believers who kept reading the news, the evil one dominated Holy Week. Many true Christians checked out by at least Thursday and avoided some of the intense exposure to his evilness. Thank you, God, for the peace and love of the church. From our Christian cocoon, we now have to reenter the secular world and all of the harshness it brings. May God grant us grace and patience. May we remain true and faithful to him and his Word.

4/9/23 – “May next year’s Palm Sunday pass in peace and freedom for all our people! May the sincere prayers for peace of all who celebrate Easter today be heard!” For Ukraine to have peace on their land, evil must be vanquished. Hearts of stone must be turned into hearts of flesh. May God grant Ukrainians peace in their souls, a deep, abiding peace that comes from surrendering to God’s will, and a strength beyond this world. We love them. God loves them.
Zelensky – Evil Acts on Holy Days

4/9/23 – If you are suffering, know that you are not alone. Everyone experiences pain at some point in their lives, if only because we are all mortal, and we will all die. Jesus, the Son of God, also suffered. He suffered for us. Taking one’s own life is not a solution to pain. A solution to pain, for as unintuitive as it may seem, is to lean into it. Jesus knew the path God the Father called him to take, and he walked down it of his own volition. Treat your pain like a path that you are choosing to walk down as an expression of your own humanity. Say to yourself, I am a human being, as God made me. He made me in his image, and just as he felt everything, I too will allow myself to feel everything. As you walk, talk to God. Share your pain, your fears, your sadness, your disappointments, your anger, whatever you feel, just as Jesus did. He was candid with God the Father. He asked him to take this cup but also said your will be done. You don’t have to hide anything from God. He made us in our nakedness. That’s how he wants to know us. Jesus’s resurrection is a story of salvation, but it’s also one of rebirth. If you trust God, your walks with him will transform you. You will be reborn, and your pain will be transformed into strength. Don’t lose hope. God loves you. Jesus loves you. That’s why he sacrificed his life for you. Honor his great sacrifice. Honor yourself.

4/9/23 – Happy Easter to everyone! May hope, love and peace fill your hearts, minds and souls!

4/9/23 – One never goes wrong with Dolly. “Beautiful song sung by the best. Dolly you don’t need a choir.” God bless her. “Thank you, Jesus!”
Dolly Parton “He’s Alive” Acoustic Easter 2020

4/9/23 – If you’re never been to Africa, go. If not for the warmth of the people (and, of course, the food…), then go for the song and the dance. God gave them great gifts, and their lovely souls share them with us as naturally as they breathe. (God bless the white girls in the choir who held their own. It’s not easy….)
The Resurrection | Easter Project | The Spirituals

4/6/23 – Please pray for the protection of the persecuted church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord keep them safe, bring them comfort and healing, and provide them with everything they need. We love them. One church. One family.

4/6/23 – For tomorrow, Good Friday.
Blown Away (Official Video) – Hillsong UNITED

4/6/23 – The Latin chants are gorgeous. We pray that Jesus’s love pierces your hearts this Paschal Triduum.

4/6/23 – As is our tradition, this site will go silent starting tonight to observe Good Friday and will stay silent until Easter, Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. As with fasting, which Muslims have been doing during Ramadan and many other religions also do, it is a good spiritual practice to have extended periods of silence. In the Christian tradition, we have silent retreats. Words are beautiful and powerful, none more powerful than God’s. But silence is also powerful. Christians and our Abrahamic brothers and sisters who we love have been bombarded during our sacred time with the evil one, trump, and the media’s unrelenting coverage of him, which was particularly obvious because of the timing. This is not healthy for our own spiritual lives or, more generally, the national psyche. The media needs to find a better way of covering the evil one and his enablers and, more generally, the news such that it does not wear down people’s limited reserves. There are many journalists who risk their lives to bring us the truth and bring light to the darkness. We thank them. Democracy cannot survive without them. But there is also a dark side to the news media business, and this should be acknowledged and fixed. People aren’t to be exploited for money, and that is what the media is doing with this style of coverage. The media is also decidedly biased against religion, particularly Christianity, which gives millions of people around the world a stable source of strength, hope and joy. The right and the left need to do a thorough examination of conscience. We are all sinners. No one is exempt.

4/6/23 – How some countries observe Maundy Thursday, Holy Thursday or Pesaha. (It has other names.) The washing of the feet is so moving. People routinely cry. “Maundy Thursday is part of the Christian celebration of Easter and marks the night of the Last Supper as told in the Bible. At the Last Supper, Jesus commanded that people should love one another, he then washed the feet of his disciples as an act of kindness. The word Maundy comes from the Latin, ‘mandatum’, or ‘command’ which refers to the instructions Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper.”
What is Maundy Thursday and how is it celebrated?

Pesha is a Hebrew word meaning sin. Pesaha means Passover. It is derived from the Aramaic or Syriac word “Peshai” meaning Passover. Thomas Christians incorporated some of the Jewish Passover traditions, such as eating unleavened bread.
The Maundy Thursday in Kerala is incomplete without Indri appam and paal…

Basically, this year, it’s about food and Holy Week. There is always this risk though. “Is it good that I’ll be doing extra things in the kitchen to prepare for Holy Week? Am I being more of a Martha than Mary and detracting from the feast?” In some parts of the world, they eat a lot of greens.
Holy Thursday in the Home

Suggestion: As Christians, don’t copy Jewish traditions, which would not be respectful to them. Christians’ Last Supper should be authentic to the Christian faith, and the culture and history in which it’s being celebrated.

4/5/23 – There are more articles on Twitter that has never had a huge user base and is presently dead than on the three Abrahamic religions that collectively represent over one-half of the entire world population. Are the liberal media kidding us right now? Come on, f—kheads. Get some perspective.

4/5/23 – When will this national nightmare end? Like really end. People, just write about him a few times, not incessantly. It’s plastered on every f—king page, everywhere, and they’re more or less saying the same things. One can’t get away from the evil one. Does the liberal media understand how obnoxious that is, especially when people are trying to observe their religious traditions. Can they cover that at all?
The Return of the Non-stop Trump News Cycle
Did Media Learn Nothing From 2016? No, they did not.

4/5/23 – At least three different religions are in some of their most sacred times of their calendar, and all the liberal media has covered ad nauseum is the evil one. Yes, he’s evil. Yes, it’s long overdue. But the rest of us, unlike the “Washington party industrial complex,” actually have spiritual lives that we would like to have some coverage of and have other s—t going on other than the evil one’s small, sad life. Politics is important only to the degree that it serves or damages the rest of our lives. The rest of our lives is actually what matters. The entire country is held hostage to what interests the liberal media, and they generally care about shallow matters, not spiritual matters.

4/5/23 – Can’t wait for the moronic articles on or about Easter from the liberal media. We’re enlightened liberals. That’s why we hate Christianity. No, actually, you’re just bigoted a—holes. Christianity is the only religion they treat like this. On this score, the moronic conservatives have a point.

4/5/23 – It is true that many liberals hate Christianity. They love themselves though. It’s quite disgusting.

4/5/23 – Are people paying attention to North Carolina? The Republicans are trying to force through voter suppression laws.
“North Carolina Republicans tried to enact a ban in 2021, but Gov. Roy Cooper (D) vetoed it. This year, the legislature has stronger GOP majorities in both chambers — veto-proof in the Senate and just one vote shy in the House — and is expected to try again.”
Republicans push for stricter election laws, despite scant proof of fraud
“‘This is not about political vendettas. This is about the constituents that trusted Rep. Cotham to champion their values, who are now left with little reassurance that she will do that,’ Clayton added. ‘HD112 is a 60% Democratic district, y’all. And they did not choose to elect a Republican. They chose to elect a Democrat.'”
North Carolina Democrat switches parties giving Republicans veto-proof supermajority in state House

4/5/23 – This is a f—king joke.” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters before the session that the United States strongly opposed the briefing and joined the United Kingdom in blocking the United Nations from outside broadcast of the meeting.” If Ukrainian kids can go home, then send them home, f—king b—h. War criminal.
Russian charged with war crimes: Ukrainian kids can go home

4/5/23 – Great images!
Holy Week Processions in Spain

4/5/23 – The things that liberal elites wring their hands about are a puzzle unto themselves. Why is it so bad that this case came first in the order of indictments. It actually makes sense that the easiest case, which is not the same as strongest, would come first. It’s also better for the cases to build in severity. What are we missing here? There is too much of an echo chamber in the “Washington party industrial complex.”

4/5/23 – There is an undertone of mocking the “Washington party industrial complex,” which is quite appreciated. Of all the people in the world, don’t we all want to “party” with rich, pretentious elites? The height of fun, right there.
Everybody in Washington wants the Ukrainian ambassador at their party

4/5/23 – The evil one, trump, is obsessed with the “documents” case because he knows he did something terribly wrong, and he’s worried it’s going to be found out.

4/5/23 – If you voted for the evil one, trump, you’re, at a minimum, an idiot. Just know that.

4/5/23 – This will go down as one of the stranger Holy Weeks because the sacred and the profane are in clear juxtaposition. A few days ago, on Palm Sunday, Jesus rode humbly into Jerusalem on a donkey to the praise of the common people raising palm branches. Yesterday, the evil one, trump, still ensconced in “the Beast” for some unknown reason, (if the Anti-Christ in Revelation comes to mind, that’s probably apt in this case), drives into Manhattan, his temple, to be held to account by the people (it’s not just the people of NY, or even the American people; it’s many of the world’s people). It’s all a bit spiritually surreal.

4/5/23 – One of the paradoxes of these men aspiring to greatness and conquest is how small and provincial they actually are. Imagine, your life’s ambition is not doing God’s will, spreading the good news of Jesus to bring hope and love to God’s people in acts of sacrifice, but conquering Manhattan, Ukraine or [insert the territory]. It’s not creating intellectual or artistic works that can withstand the test of time to bring enlightenment, intellectually, emotionally, and yes, even spiritually in acts of generosity. One of the ways to spread God’s love is to share your talents with the world, not for praise but as a gift. It was given to you as a gift. Honor God and give it to the world as a gift. Instead, these people (usually men) spend their time looking in the mirror and looking around to see if others see them the way they want to be seen. If you ever envy these people or God-forbid aspire to be like them, think about who they actually are and who they want to be. It’s not big and grand. It’s small and sad.
The Humiliation of Donald Trump

4/5/23 – The white “Christian” nationalists, aka the satanic cult or the slaveholder religion, are going to love this. The case for reparations has Biblical support. “So I will stretch out My hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders I will perform among them. And after that, he will release you. And I will grant this people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that when you leave, you will not go away empty-handed. Every woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.” That’s from the Books of Moses, the Torah, specifically, the Shemot, the Exodus.
Exodus 3:21

4/5/23 – From the sacred to the profane, the evil one, trump, can go f—k himself. He’s not a god. He’s not even a man. He is, however, a criminal.

4/5/23 – Clarification for “All but one of the Apostles were martyred,” this is from the point of what we call the Great Commission, not the Commissioning of the Twelve Apostles. Paul is also included in this even though he wasn’t part of the Commissioning of the Twelve Apostles.

4/5/23 – Jewish Passover begins tonight. The Passover table is a thing of beauty. We usually think about religious buildings, iconography, worship, vestments, but often not food. It’s not just about what one can’t eat, e.g. pork or beef. Religious meals are as important to a faith tradition as anything else. As Christians, we can imagine Jesus eating this holy meal and honoring the Hebrews deliverance from slavery and into the promised land, Israel, the Exodus, one of the greatest stories in the Bible. Chag of Sameach.

4/4/23 – Was John Edward’s indictment also nakedly political? It’s the closest example to the evil one, trump’s, situation. Hillary Clinton didn’t commit crimes that rose to the level of being prosecuted. Is this f—king hard? We’re eager to see the evil one’s mugshot because he should actually be executed for sedition and treason, some of the worst crimes in our land, as is the law in this country. Instead, this is the only thing that he has thus far been prosecuted for. Take your false equivalence, and shove it where the sun don’t shine. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Trump’s indictment will warp our politics for years to come

4/4/23 – To those people who think that’s not how evangelization is “supposed to work.” Remember Jesus would often just keep on walking. He didn’t try to change everybody’s heart. It’s a dance between God and his creation. They both have to want to tango. God didn’t create puppets.

4/4/23 – To all militant atheists, don’t really care if you go to hell. Have zero desire to evangelize to y’all. So, don’t flatter yourselves. In fact, we would like a smaller, but purer church, one rid of the satanic cult, the church as social club members, the “heritage Christians,” oh and the convince-me nonbelievers. Go convince yourself. Seriously, f—k off.

4/4/23 – As someone who personally understands the importance of tradition and doing justice to the legacy of family members who lived honorably, forcing a faith on someone is absolutely futile. The person might not “dishonor” one’s family, but it is also completely meaningless. Religious freedom is important so that people can fully realize their soul’s expression. It is a highly personal decision made between each individual and whichever God (or gods) the person chooses.

4/4/23 – YouTube. You start in one place, and end up somewhere else…. From chants in so many languages to this interesting story. The Apostle Thomas also didn’t want to go to India when Jesus called him to do so. Jews were already there though, and he likely ended up with the Cochin Jews. Jews are still there, even though most of them moved to Israel when it was created as a nation. “In Mumbai, India, Jews mimic the Passover lamb’s blood that was smeared across the entrances to Israelite homes in Egypt on the eve of their liberation. The Bene Israel Jews dip their hands in the blood of a sheep or goat. Then, they press their hands to blank pieces of paper and hang the prints above their doorway. The imprint resembles a hamsa, and like the amulet, symbolizes good luck and protection.”

The Hindu caste system is institutionalized slavery, and it is an abomination. But the pantheon of Hindu gods is no different than the pre-Christian Greek and Roman periods. Evangelizing in India now is likely more similar to when the Apostles were evangelizing in the “west,” Greece and Rome, than it is to evangelizing in the west now. (It’s debatable how western Greece really is….) All but one of the Apostles were martyred, so the risk of being martyred in India or in other places in the world is unfortunately quite real.
INDIA: Completely Sold Out for Jesus Christ

4/4/23 – We wish our Abrahamic brothers and sisters a peaceful Passover and a blessed Ramadan. God is good. God is great.

4/4/23 – The Gregorian chants are conducive to mediation. (Plus, you can practice Latin, which is a great language and quite practical to know.) “Celui ci est mon chant grégorien préféré. Merci!” It is a popular one.
Gregorian chant: Te Deum laudamus

4/4/23 – The evil one, trump, is a criminal, and the satanic one, putin, is a war criminal.

4/4/23 – We need more of this. Have courage, and do the right thing. “‘Our president has become a war criminal,’ he said. ‘It is time to end this war and stop being silent.’… Along with information on Putin, Karakulov’s testimony offers an intimate view of one man’s decision to defect — without telling his own mother, who he said remains a strong Putin supporter…. ‘I understand that he’s simply afraid,’ he said.” What a powerful person. Living his life in fear and in paranoia. Freedom. “‘Patriotism is when you love your country,’ he said. ‘In this case, our homeland needs to be saved, because something crazy and terrible is happening in our country. We need to fix this.’”
‘He’s a war criminal’: Elite Putin security officer defects

4/4/23 – Can we move this along or what, people?! Stop wasting time! F—king irritating. “Ukraine is capable of preventing the expansion of the war. Capable of defeating Russia on our land. I said this during an address to the U.S. governors. The enemy of freedom must lose – quickly and surely where he came with a criminal and unprovoked war of aggression. That is why we ask the USA for support, for weapons and finances. If Ukraine endures – your peace, your allies and partners endure as well. It is with Ukraine that America has the opportunity to protect its values, which match ours. The main thing is not to waste time, not to lose the chance we have. To act now, and help now. The Ukrainians do it so that the Americans do not have to fight. Together, we are gaining new strength of our nations. And I am sure that we will always be successful. Thank you, America for the help that lets us win!”
Zelensky – Ukraine will win. Thank you, Americans!

4/4/23 – Oh the delight so much of the world is experiencing right now watching the evil one being held accountable for his crimes.

4/4/23 – This is the Russian version of white “Christian” nationalism. It’s a satanic cult. “A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate blessed Russian soldiers during the Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast, Security Service (SBU) reported on April 4. The church official organized a procession to commemorate the Baptism of Kyivan Rus and prompted local residents in Kupiansk to attend. During the ‘service,’ he blessed Russian forces and consecrated their convoys of military equipment. It is suspected that he used the religious service as a guise to urge locals to support the occupation.”
Kyiv Independent – Moscow Patriarchate official blessed Russian soldiers during occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

4/4/23 – History will decide if the defense of Bakhmut was strategically wise. It is worthy of dispassionate military analysis. The most important thing is Ukraine’s triumphant victory.
Bakhmut’s ‘slaughter-fest’ holds lessons for the West

4/4/23 – “America is a Nation with the soul of a church,” Chesterton. That church is true Christianity. Not some perverted version of it.

4/4/23 – MAGA supports the evil one, trump, because they are suffering from spiritual decay. The healthiest way to deal with adversity is to put the greatest commandment into action, love God, love others, and unite with those facing adversity. Americans’ (most of us) response to Ukraine is a testament to the underlying goodness of our country. In the midst of all the serious problems we’re facing, as we’re struggling to preserve our own democracy, we still did the right thing. History will remember us well for this. MAGA, as well as others who have supported demagogues, do the opposite during times of adversity. They scapegoat. Look at how the Germans treated the Jews and others during WWII when they were experiencing economic hardship. They turned to the devil, Hitler, and murdered millions of innocent people. This is exactly what one shouldn’t do. The Book of Job is an exploration of how to respond not during good times but during bad times. How one responds during hard times reflects one’s character and one’s spiritual health. Honor God and respond to adversity with an affirmation of goodness, his, your own and humankind’s.

4/4/23 – Ukrainians, facing down evil and winning. Good must prevail in this epic battle.

4/4/23 – Americans (well, except crazy MAGA) love Ukrainians. Such a great people! “Yesterday, I had a meeting with a delegation of politicians, businessmen and representatives of charitable organizations from the United States of America, led by former U.S. Secretary of State [insert that a—hole]. Such visits and meetings are a powerful signal of support for Ukrainians in our struggle for freedom and democracy. The United States stands by us and fights with us for common goals. We feel bipartisan support, support from the White House. Comprehensive American support is very important for us.”
Zelensky – USA and Ukraine Common Goals

4/4/23 – One of the most helpful books in the Bible is the Book of Job. It gives you a guide on how to develop a healthy relationship with God and a healthy perspective on life. Pain is a part of life. Loss is a part of life. When unfair or cruel things happen to you, turn to God in a posture of love and humility. Job interrogated God, and God’s answer was basically, I am God; who are you? You can ask a lot of questions of God, but ultimately, the answer is as simple and brutally honest as the one Job received. The way to get through everything hard in life is simply to love God and love others, to act in keeping with this greatest commandment. It is the only real remedy for brokenness. It will make you whole.

4/4/23 – If you care at all about your fellow human beings in your own country or in other parts of the world, you will stop doing drugs. They are being murdered, enslaved or worse so that you can ruin your body and your life. Drugs are not cool, and no drug will take away your pain. It will worsen it. The only remedy for spiritual problems is spiritual, not physical, not emotional, not intellectual. Spiritual.

4/3/23 – Take heart, good people. Evil will be vanquished because God loves his people. We need to pray as if the entire world depends on our petitions to God because it does. Rest, and fight again tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. Keep the faith, and fight the good fight until the end. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

4/3/23 – Necessary reminder: Jesus was a poor, brown Jew from Nazareth. The world should never forget that. Crucified upon that cross, the weak, the meek, the poor, the lowly, we all, no matter our race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, culture, etc., see ourselves. That is the power of Jesus’s act of sacrifice. It is as powerful an act as there will ever be.

4/3/23 – Around the world, we need to eradicate the evil forces that are perverting Christianity. It is God’s providence that our paths, American and Ukrainian, would converge on this religious matter, just as they have in the secular matter of defending democracy. “Today, a step has also been taken to strengthen the spiritual independence of our state, to protect our society from the old and cynical Moscow manipulation of religion. Ukraine is the territory of the greatest religious freedom in our part of Europe. It has been so since 1991. It will always be so. I thank everyone who cares about Ukraine and our citizens! Thank you to everyone who supports the Ukrainian struggle for independence! Glory to our warriors! Glory to Ukraine!”
Zelensky – Religious freedom. Religious integrity.

4/3/23 – This is what the devil’s agents have done to the Lord’s house and other holy places of worship throughout Ukraine. Their souls have been taken over by dark forces. May they burn in hell. “Hundreds of religious buildings were destroyed, damaged or looted as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All religions and denominations were affected, including churches, mosques, synagogues, educational and administrative buildings of religious communities of Ukraine. For Russia, everything is just a target. But the missiles and artillery of the terrorist state did not break our humanity and faith. Ukraine will win, life will win!”
Zelensky – Hundreds of religious buildings destroyed

4/3/23 – This was helpful regarding what arguments will or could be made to meet the standard for malice. Regarding MAGA (aka Fox viewers), what is becoming quite clear is that this isn’t an intellectual problem. It’s a spiritual problem. On an intellectual level, the endless lies are propaganda, and Fox lacks credibility. However, if you’re a member of a satanic cult, it’s a satanic mantra, and the devil is still in possession of their souls. Many people think that the demon-possessed people in the Gospel were effectively fictional. There is no such thing. Were they? Is there no such thing? Just like many Russians who support the satanic one, putin, MAGA can’t see that they have fallen prey to dark forces. Basically, one can’t solve a spiritual problem with an intellectual remedy. To quote someone who understood this well, Shakespeare, there’s the rub.
Fox News has been blown to smithereens

4/3/23 – As the puzzle comes together, what do we see? Perhaps that we have all been conned, by the “Enlightenment,” by the industrial revolution, by the technological revolution, by rich, greedy people, by the Protestant (work) ethic and the spirit of capitalism…oh, and by ourselves. “As the managerial revolution created a sense of professional progress, the decline of organized religion and social integration in the 20th century left many Americans bereft of any sense of spiritual progress. For some, work rose to fill the void. Many highly educated workers in the white-collar economy feel that their job cannot be ‘just a job’ and that their career cannot be ‘just a career’: Their job must be their calling…. many of them are also adherents to a cult of productivity and achievement, wherein anything short of finding one’s vocational soulmate amounts to a wasted life. They have founded a new kind of religion—one that valorizes work, career, and achievement above all else. And it’s making them a little bit crazy…. Here is a history of work in eight words: from jobs to careers to callings to …” Disenchantment?
Why Americans Care About Work So Much

4/3/23 – Good points! “If rural Whites who vote overwhelmingly for Republicans have noticed that today’s conservatism defines wealth, not work, as the true sign of virtue, it isn’t readily apparent. As far as Republicans are concerned, work is optional for the wealthy but required for the poor. Republicans want you to document your hours or risk losing your Medicaid coverage, but if you suggest that we ask the same of those who want to keep receiving the favorable tax treatment of capital gains, they’ll think you lost your mind.”
Americans care too much about hard work

4/3/23 – Advice to those doing the Lord’s work, especially in lower-paid positions, take breaks. The work is taxing, especially emotionally. Remember Jesus needed breaks. Sometimes, he would literally run away from people to spiritually rejuvenate.

4/3/23 – Advice to others seeking to do God’s will, don’t ask questions of God. In your discernment, trust him to lead you wherever you are to go. Go to him as you do to a gravitational force, unconsciously. It will all make sense later.

4/3/23 – Friday, March 31, was the one-year anniversary of the world witnessing the massacre in Bucha. This is also what genocide looks like. They raped children, including babies. They raped and mutilated women. They tortured men. This is what evil looks like. Look at these images and weep. We must never be silent. Silence is complicity. We must speak forcefully, truthfully, persistently until we, as a world’s people, driven by our divine mandate to love each other, stop the evil.
1 year ago, scenes of horror emerged from Ukraine’s Bucha
“When Bucha was de-occupied, we saw that the devil was not somewhere out there but on the ground. The heinous truth about what was happening in the temporarily occupied territories was revealed to the world. We will never forget the victims of this war, and we will certainly bring all Russian murderers to justice.”
Zelensky – The devil walks among us.

4/3/23 – Many of the proposed anti-abortion laws are dangerous to women’s health and undermine their God-given right to control their own bodies that God gave them because he gave human beings, who are made in the image of God, free will. Simultaneously, there is another very important freedom at stake: freedom of religion. We have so many serious problems. So, we have not focused on another genocide, in addition to the Ukrainian one, as we should have: the genocide of the Uyghurs in China. Remember that it was the evil one, trump, who gave these concentration camps the green light. Envision a country where 10-year-olds are being forced to have their rapists’ babies. Now, envision one in which anyone who is not a white “Christian” nationalist, i.e. part of their satanic cult, is being electrocuted while being raped to force the person to renounce their religion, along with their culture and their identity. The religion could be Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or even true Christianity. It could be any other religion but white “Christian” nationalism, which is a satanic cult. This is what it means to vote for the evil one, trump, putin and other demonic demagogues. First, they come for “others.” Then, they come for you. Let’s not forget that Hitler murdered many Christians in his concentration camps. Why? Because they were practicing true Christianity. “‘Genocide is defined as an international crime for a reason,’ Turkel said. ‘Confronting is not an option,’ it’s a necessity, he said.” We must rid the world of this scourge, of these evil ones, of genocide.
House China panel turns focus to plight of Uyghurs

4/3/23 – “Homo rationalis,” in economics or in life more generally, is a f—king myth. The continuation of this myth will literally cost people their lives.

4/3/23 – Keep moving in this direction. Keep that connection as pure and unadulterated by the world as possible. “A lot of people have resiliency. They just don’t know how to tap into it.” One word. One name. Jesus. It could literally mean the difference between life and death. “[S]oldiers are, first and foremost, ‘a spiritual person, and he must have strength, he must have support.’” People are, first and foremost, a spiritual person, and he/she/they/whatever must have support. “[P]reserve a person as a person.”
Chaplains made part of Ukraine’s military as war drags on
US Navy deploys more chaplains for suicide prevention

4/3/23 – We have to see the thing for what it is. This is not just about power, money or politics. It is not even about grander ambitions, such as imperialism. It is a spiritual war. The evil ones are waging a war against true Christianity. True Christians and true Christianity must win. “The perceived grievances and antidemocratic instincts that gave rise to a massive Klan 100 years ago — our worst angels — have surfaced once again. The lesson of the past is to see the true face of it all, unmasked, and not be afraid to confront it.”
The Klan was not confined to the South. Nor were its foes.

4/3/23 – There are two main ways evildoers of the world have tried to subvert Christianity. One is to prevent it from being practiced. Various repressive regimes around the world, many Middle Eastern countries, China, North Korea, etc. do this. The second is by perverting it. This is what we have failed to fully recognize in our country and elsewhere, such as in Russia. There are two main types of Christianity being practiced, and they have nothing to do with denominations or theological differences. They have to do with evil and the corruption of Christianity to serve evil ends.

4/3/23 – The beautiful, powerful negro spirituals are liberation, literally, figuratively and spiritually. What a gift they (and black people) are to the world.

4/3/23 – Not about the band, but literally the black keys (on the piano). The writer of the lyrics to “Amazing Grace,” John Newton, was involved in the slave trade but sometime after his conversion to Christianity became an abolitionist. Slavery and true Christianity are wholly incompatible.
Wintley Phipps Amazing Grace on the Black Keys

4/3/23 – Every black Christian deserves praise for seeing the difference between the KKK’s demonic use of the cross, and the true meaning of the cross on which Jesus was crucified – sacrifice and salvation. By Jesus’s body and blood, we are given grace. The cross is freedom. The slaveholder religion is a satanic cult. Bless black Christians for seeing in the Bible the truth, and seeing in “the religion of the south,” the bastardization of Christianity for evil purposes.

4/3/23 – To every LGBTQ person in the world, focus on Jesus. Make him your guiding light. The religious establishment is not Jesus. White evangelical Christians are not Jesus. Slaveholder religious adherents are not Jesus. Don’t get confused about who is what. Jesus is priest, prophet, king. He’s all you need. Jesus loves all people. Jesus loves you.

4/3/23 – An epiphany during Holy Week…. Since the “Enlightenment,” the spiritual sustenance people need to survive a harsh world has slowly eroded. Our social fabric, which was to a large extent built on a religious foundation, has also been collapsing. Now, people in said enlightened countries are isolated and depressed. They resort to things that exacerbate these feelings, such as alcohol, drugs and social media. How shall one put this delicately? It was a huge f—king mistake. Some, perhaps many, of our religious institutions and the “Christian” culture built on them were toxic and antithetical to Christian values. However, it is very important that people have a stable source of hope and joy. They need to be able to trust God, to have faith in him, to surrender to him. People need Jesus. He is our rock, our light, and our love. If you are lost, be found. Find Jesus. With him, you will find yourself.

4/2/23 – Sometimes, the only thing between life and suicide, is one word, one name – Jesus. Call to him by name. What a beautiful name it is. What a powerful name it is. “I lost my husband 4years ago and I was left with a 4month old to take care of all by myself at the age of 22….I suffered so much depression and with all that I found my lord Jesus Christ 🙏🏾 he stood by my side throughout the journey”
What A Beautiful Name LIVE in Israel – Hillsong UNITED

4/2/23 – “Recorded on the Sea of Galilee on the Hillsong Israel Tour 2017.” “I have mental health issues and I’m 13 years old this is my mom’s account I always borrow it to listen this song cause it’s healing me and helping me to be okay” To all young people, your parents failed you; your schools failed you; your society failed you. Jesus won’t fail you. Go to him. Trust him.
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) – Hillsong UNITED – Live in Israel

4/2/23 – Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. The comments are various and in many different languages, just as Jesus would want. He loves all people. “I’m 15 and I’m asking y’all to pray for me. I can’t sleep at night and I’m depressed. I got no friends. But I know Jesus will always be with me no matter what.” He will.
Hosanna – Live from the Steps on the Temple Mount

4/2/23 – Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” We should keep something at all times on our person, in our homes, in our cars, anywhere and everywhere we can to remind us of his presence, to remind us of who we ultimately serve. “[A member of the persecuted church said,] ‘He never left me when I needed him,’ she said. ‘So how can I leave Jesus now?’” He never leaves us. We can never leave him.

4/2/23 – We must pray that our Lord Jesus Christ delivers us from the evil forces, including those who disguise themselves in his name. We must pray that God protects democracy around the world. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, not on a chariot or any other symbol of conquest. He came with nothing and was greeted with palm branches. He did not carry with him the spoils of war or the marks of genocide: stolen children, raped women, tortured men, looted homes, destroyed cities. No, Jesus, the Son of God, came humbly as a man ready to die for us all, for our salvation. Perhaps Christians are fools for not aspiring to the things of this world and for loving someone who had no earthly glory. Or perhaps we are not the fools after all but have been blessed with the divine wisdom of knowing what matters and who is actually king.

4/2/23 – We must pray and pray and pray for Ukrainians’ liberty and victory, our martyrs for democracy. It is a battle of good versus evil. Good must prevail. “Francis said Holy Week will see ‘more intense prayer’ for the ‘martyred Ukrainian people.’ In a reference Russia’s war in Ukraine, he noted that the olive branches Catholics wave on Palm Sunday are symbols of Jesus’ peace.”
Rebounding Pope Francis marks Palm Sunday in Vatican square

4/1/23 – Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Lent and Holy Week is the best time of the year for Christians. The entire human condition is encapsulated in one week. Yesterday, God said, spring is here. Today, God said, April fools! He has a good sense of humor. One day, Jesus dies. We are crushed. Three days later, Jesus rises from the dead. We are elated. God loves us. He gave us everything. We have everything: life, death, resurrection, hope, pain, predictability, surprises, all of it. And all he wants from us is love. The greatest commandment: love God, love each other. Simple. Perfection.

4/1/23 – There is an overlap between “Christofascism,” which incorporates Christian nationalism, and communism. MAGA are attracted to both fascism and communism, and neither is Christian in any way.

4/1/23 – True Christians are followers of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to follow Jesus Christ? It means you do your best to do what he asked. What did he ask? He asked us to give up everything of this world and focus on doing God’s will. Doing what Jesus asked of us does not actually appeal to many self-identified “Christians,” and it runs counter to the secular world. “He wrote that he abhorred what he called ‘the religion of the South,’ but also that he cherished ‘the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ.’ He was making a version of an argument that appears throughout American history: that this country is not truly Christian enough.” Agreed because, in reality, there aren’t that many true Christians. True Christians are the fish that swim counter to the current not because we are in the minority or for any other worldly reason, but because we don’t belong to this world. We belong to Jesus Christ.

4/1/23 – MAGA are devil worshippers.

4/1/23 – Support for point below. See how similar this Christian Nationalist’s views are to Nietzsche’s views. “He could almost be quoting Nietzsche, who excoriated Christianity for its ethic of mercy and self-sacrifice, for siding with ‘the weak, the low, the botched.’” “Wolfe thinks that there is something ‘weird’ about the way in which the U.S. and other Western nations reject ethnic chauvinism—officially, anyway—in favor of an ‘ideology of universality.’ But this weird universality is part of what sets Christianity apart from most other creeds.”

4/1/23 – Great article! “Gorski and Perry can tell us that Christian-nationalist beliefs reflect a tribal or partisan identity, but they can’t tell us why so many self-identified Christians seem uninterested in the religion itself.” It’s not hard to understand. Christian Nationalists are actually heathens. They aren’t Christians. They follow mammon or pagan gods, not Jesus Christ, the Christian God. “During his prayer, Angeli thanked God for the ‘divine, omnipresent white light of love and protection, peace and harmony’: this is the language of ‘lightworkers’ and of other contemporary spiritualists. Perhaps a shaman is the perfect figurehead for a movement defined by Christian heritage, not Christian faith.” It is. Christian Nationalism is a nationalistic cult that has a pre-Christian ethos. The name belies the true nature of the movement.
How Christian Is Christian Nationalism?

4/1/23 – Let’s ask the GOP, especially MAGA, what does it say that their dear leader, who they double down on the more toxic he becomes, is the worst possible candidate for the general election? What does it say that they claim voter fraud for losing elections but ignore this glaring truth? What does this say about the “base,” MAGA? It says that they are totally detached from reality. It says that they are a crazy, stupid cult. That’s what.
Trump’s Legal Problems Are Putting the GOP in a Vise

4/1/23 – This sorry excuse of a journalist seriously tried to equate the treatment of the evil one, the most treasonous traitorous wannabee dictator in American history, to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. These two things have absolutely nothing in common. The evil one is a fascist. He is like Hitler and Stalin. Japanese-Americans were innocent people whose civil rights were clearly violated. The author should be ashamed of himself. Truly despicable.
How ‘no one is above the law’ became anti-Trump sloganeering

4/1/23 – This is how Gosar, the white nationalist, describes our military. “At another hearing, on the supposedly ‘woke’ U.S. military, Gosar declared that ‘today’s military leadership has become the world’s laughingstock,’ that the ‘military is recruiting mentally troubled people’ and that ‘military schools are focused on describing oral sex, masturbation and pornography.’… Discouraging young Americans from enlisting to defend our nation — how very patriotic!” Democrats pay for this. Remember that.
The GOP response to Trump is one hell of an indictment