We need faith that is stirred, not shaken. It’s not about having wise answers; you should have your own. Permit me to ask some questions I hope are useful in stirring your faith.
Virtually all of the work done in the field of Sociology is horse manure, but the analytical tools aren’t entirely worthless. For example, here is some excellent analysis of things most people think they understand. Activists blather endlessly about their fevered fears as they have for decades, and it always turns out wrong. However, the linked article is pretty smart.
For example, the only thing the elites have in common is their despite for us who are not elite. They are not the Borg. They have their own competition and warfare and, like the forest animals in forest fire, will always declare a conditional truce with each other against you and I. Because we are not a part of their world, it only seems that they all work together on some carefully scripted evil plot. They agree only to keep us under their control; it’s no different from the constant warfare between the nobles and royalty of the Medieval Age or any other part of human history.
For this brief time of informational sunshine, the Internet allows us to share with few constraints our individual puzzle pieces in this huge picture. The potential is there, but few bother trying to work the puzzle. I won’t pretend there is one right answer, because the metaphor breaks down at that point. There is no one right answer, no final picture to give us a clue. There is only the utter necessity of turning to God and seeking His calling for you in the midst of all this.
What disappoints me most is the wasted opportunity, but that in itself reflects more of the elitist manipulation trying to dampen the threat from that wildfire that the Internet could be for them. I honestly believe that the wide open window of opportunity is closing. The technology war is slowly turning in favor of elite controls in ways few seem to notice. I’m convinced the cost of remaining free and independent on the Net will escalate suddenly in coming months. But this is not about the Internet; it’s about our as-yet rich opportunity to share information that it seems the elites don’t see as a threat. Yet.
What I’m hoping you’ll see is how we have the same elite structure in American religion. There are other kinds of religion out there, but this is the one I have to face.
While I can’t pretend I was ever any part of the religion elite, I was at least granted a chance to see some of it, and to hear even more about it from reliable witnesses. I can compare it well with the military elite structure because neither is impenetrable, just that you have to be in the right place and time, with the right frame of mind, to understand how it works. From what I’ve seen, the same lack of strict operational security among the elites of both seems to belie the image that they are somehow like alien invaders. We laugh at guys like David Icke and his “Reptilian Elite,” but we should take seriously what his wild nonsense says about the way most people view the things. Such a crazy mindset means you won’t grasp what you see when it passes before your eyes. The elite society is not so tightly closed as is popularly believed.
Here’s what haunts me most. When folks can continue attending their preferred religious organizations, they remain within their comfort zone and you cannot easily reach them with a message like mine. Their sense of longing has been soothed away by the frenetic busy schedule and they don’t have time to wonder if this is what they really need. But travel to any military community outside the US and you’ll run into a different world. In those places, American Christians cannot find their familiar religious cocoon. But the drive to fellowship is built into genuine belief, so they seek out anyone with any shred of faith and you see a strong and open religious community. It often attaches to the local military chapel, but where that is absent, they simply create their own. They are trying to hang onto their faith, such as it may be, and it forces them to drop the standard barriers and tunnel vision enforced back home in the US where their favorite brand has ample houses of division. If you exhibit a strong faith among the military folks overseas, they will beg for a piece of it regardless of cerebral differences.
What would it take to drive the average American Christian out of that cocoon without being whisked away by government to a far a place where they are forced to create their own community of faith? I’m praying to understand.