Does McDowell Not Get It?

Posted on July 20, 2011 by ehurst

One of the most brilliant minds in Christian Apologetics appears to miss the point.

The news article comes via Christian Post, telling us Josh McDowell seems to think the Internet is a major threat to Christian faith. If this is what he really believes, I think he’s losing it. It’s not so much I’m defending the Internet, but McDowell misses the whole point. This is the man who first made it painfully clear to me logic isn’t enough to change souls.

I can’t recall the details, but I distinctly remember back in the 1970s, while I was attending Oklahoma Baptist University, I overheard a riveting tale from a friend who had been to a conference where Josh McDowell spoke. My friend related the story of McDowell’s early days when he entered an international debate against some very big heavy hitters, and argued why faith in Christ was reasonable. He won the debate, and got his opponents to admit they would be foolish not to accept Christ as their savior. But they didn’t. My friend said McDowell’s point was it didn’t matter what you could prove, if the Spirit of God didn’t change people, faith doesn’t happen. I never forgot the lesson: Faith does not arise from reason, and is often quite contrary to reason.

Now it seems McDowell is worried if we don’t create some intellectual climate in favor of Christian faith, God can’t save our kids. Somehow, this free access to porn and atheism can undo all our efforts to help our kids become Christians. While we have to admit there are ways to ease the transition from spiritually dead to living in the Spirit, but that affects what happens after spiritual birth. Does he now believe we can teach people to be spiritually alive?

What you believe can keep you from enjoying the full benefits of your spiritual birth, but it can’t prevent it nor make it happen. Scripture bluntly says God alone initiates the change from dead to alive in the Spirit, and it hardly matters what you think or like beforehand. Paul’s Damascus Road experience should have settled that question. And surely McDowell already taught that point long ago.

Never mind how my own faith and understanding were vastly improved primarily because of my access to the Internet, this smacks of pandering to folks who want to throw their political weight around. Of all the people who should be smart enough — his IQ is far higher than mine — to know better, I think he’s let himself be bought. For whatever reason, he now supports the fascist controls sought by commercial interests, using fake news events to manipulate the sheeple. This is the same political agenda of Christian Zionists and the rising fake Christian fascism clinging to prissy middle-class materialist values. This is the same fight the Apostle Paul had with Pharisaical Judaizers, asking “Have you come this far by faith in Christ, that you are now going to bind yourself under the Talmud?” This is the mess of Jewish fables Jesus called “traditions of the elders,” an excuse to reject God’s revelation through Moses.

Granted, if what he’s referring to is a matter of God’s Laws, then by all means, let’s change our culture. Let’s go back and recapture what Israel was supposed to be like in ancient times. It’s not too hard to abstract basic and universal principles of life from the highly specific applications described in Moses. But let’s not be wedded to this hideous failure called Western Civilization, the same crap the Pharisees bought into with Hellenism. It was hopeless from the start, and all the intelligence in the world can’t fix it. The problem is not the free access to information, good or bad, but the assumptions which make every truth a lie. Our problem is we have far too much reliance on Aristotelian/Enlightenment reason, and none on faith in God’s revelation. There is nothing left to save, because it’s already under God’s wrath. However, I am quite certain God’s Laws are not what McDowell means; he’s talking about spiritual birth.

Shame on you, Dr. McDowell. You surely understood from your first days as a believer that God is not hindered by any human force, by any human condition, or anything Satan wants to build up on this fallen plane of existence. All it takes is one fool who is spiritually alive enough to simply act in faith for Christ to speak so loud no one misses the message. If people are not moved by His truth living in His people, no amount of education and conditioning can change that. Oh, how far you have drifted from the wisdom of the Lord!

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Driven to Fail

Posted on July 19, 2011 by ehurst

What kind of success story is it which climaxes with a grisly execution of the hero?

Yeah, it’s the story of Jesus Christ. Following Jesus means I’m driven to fail in the same terms, that is, in terms of worldly success. I won’t make much money, and will probably lose a lot of it. Few people will remember my name, mostly because this is about Jesus, not me. Stuff I write is highly likely to be lost and forgotten, because all I’m doing is translating something ancient to my own snapshot of whatever passes for current culture. The only thing people are likely to remember is the few things I’ve written which connect them to eternity they find within themselves. That’s the whole point. We aren’t building anything here, but somewhere far beyond.

To make sure I fail completely, I’m even taking the step of joining a regular church in the next few weeks. Frankly, it won’t matter what brand it is, as long as they tolerate my presence and let me get involved. Yes, I encourage anyone who considers himself/herself a fan of my stuff to join a regular church, or stay with the one you now attend. Nothing I write here or anywhere else is intended to create a separate identity. That business of “Tribulation Church” is supposed to be as generic as it gets, while offering a nod at the times in which we live. If any local church will have you, get involved there, and let them see you are different, and tell them why. Don’t mention my name unless the context compels you to, just talk about your commitments. This is not about me.

No, I haven’t thrown away the house church model. But I hesitate to make that a defining characteristic. If you can manage your own church at home and it draws a wider community, do that. If not, don’t use it as an excuse to become isolated. We are not of this world, but we are in it. Touch it and change it. Don’t get hung up on methods. At the same time, know that the fullest expression of your faith and worship will always be something which does not arise from mainstream organized religion. Keep your church affiliations and your house church, both at the same time, because we are not building a denomination, even though we can’t avoid certain human distinctions which cause us to use labels.

Trying to make sense, and use, of what I offer of my faith should be one the hardest things you’ll ever do. You should always come away with the sense you aren’t too sure you understand everything I write, or at least that some of it just doesn’t work for you. No carbon copies, thank you. I don’t like cute, memorable lists of practical steps to whatever can be called “success” in my faith. Even my Three Pillars is nothing more than my personal organization of something nearly impossible to explain, and you really should make your own outline. Change the terms, rewrite the explanations, and renumber your own list. It takes a lot of work for any of this to accomplish anything at all. Then you, too, can become a failure like me.

And maybe something in our lives will reflect the sort of “success” which characterized the mortal life of Jesus.

On the way to this non-goal, I came across a marvelous critique of modern American churchianity near the end of this article. In keeping with my own principles, I am going to rewrite the thing, and lard it with sarcasm:

1. Everybody is looking for the next fresh fix of enthusiasm. We need something to stir our emotions, but not too much of our thoughts. Just gimee something I can carry in my pocket or wear with my current fashion statement so I can make Jesus part of the branding. Anybody seen my “Street Thugs for Jesus” rap CD?

2. I want it short and sweet. Drop me a little list of memorable, pithy ideas or rules. I need something I can recite on the way to work to keep my attitude up. Don’t make me work through normal human experiences, with all the highs and lows of the vast array of shadings. Keep it simple so I can pretend to have discipline.

3. Give me superstitions. Folks need to be spooked when I react strangely to common things in our world. Bonus points if my fad is a reaction to another fad. I want at least a half-dozen quirky fables so folks will know I’m “different” and I can use that as an excuse to rattle off my memorized gospel sales pitch. Isn’t “edgy” a current pitch term?

4. Lots of syrup, please. We need to touch base with the common cultural biases for pure comfort without content. Make it something which only seems daring when it shows up on TV or the NYT Bestseller list, but which is actually just a repackaging of common Christian myths. Gotta move those books and t-shirts, you know.

5. Make it patriotic. If I can’t wrap it in the flag, it just ain’t kosher. I want it to echo with cries of, “Make America morally strong!” Then we can justify all sorts of evils against whomever gets tagged as “enemy” this week.

6. Prop up some authority figure. We need a fresh Messiah, but somebody who doesn’t get crucified, this time. Let him walk through some hassles, instead, and come out on top. Then we can crush anyone who dares to question him, and anyone who dares to question us, because we stand next to him.

7. We need showmanship. It’s all about charming everyone, thrilling us with grand human talents. We need somebody who looks hot to play the audience, someone who knows how to make it seem all nice and proper when he gets caught with his pants down. Somebody with poise and stage presence, always drawing us into their little kingdom of fables.

Jesus spent endless hours talking about this “Kingdom of Heaven” and how little He was concerned for the things of this world. When a crowd tried to make Him their ruler, He fled. Instead, He kept pointing to something which touched this world, but was not captive to it. Indeed, it was actually the other way around. While it didn’t make sense such a powerful God wouldn’t somehow force things here to be right, Jesus never let that distract from the inescapable fact things weren’t right. Then He talked about a plan to end this world, to destroy it in some unspeakable dramatic fashion, and about trying to escape this world before that destruction happened.

Who needs success on this plane of existence when it’s time is limited?

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On the Evil of Western Authoritarianism

Posted on July 18, 2011 by ehurst

The one thing which is most likely to make me violently angry is watching someone oppress someone weaker.

I am old enough, and perhaps it signals wisdom, to avoid getting involved in something over which I have no calling from God. That’s separate from what I may feel from time to time. Having experienced nightmarish emotional oppression, it doesn’t matter what the oppressor intended for good or ill, it was evil and I still get angry about it. I have forgiven as well as any spiritual human can, but I can’t forget what pointless sorrow is like. Jesus cracked a whip at least once, and warned, “Be angry, but sin not.” Human anger accomplishes no good thing, but the wrath of God changes everything.

The strongest memories in my life seem to revolve around all those times I didn’t submit to properly appointed authorities giving me sage advice. Not in the sense of rebellion and gross stupidity on a consistent basis, but giving far more credence to that voice from deep within. There was a powerful internal conflict because there were plenty of times it was simply my petty whining pushing me, and I couldn’t discern those instances from the times when it was really God moving in my soul, calling me to a different path. Like so many younger folks, I really did try to buy into the authoritarian system, but I always knew something was not right.

I’m not sure how much credit I should give him, because I think it’s a fundamental flaw of Western Civilization itself, but Bill Gothard seems to have his fingerprints in just about every part of the American evangelical religious culture. His big thing can be reduced to little more than the Hitler Youth philosophy. During my college years I was invited, almost to the point of manipulation, to attend some of his big conferences in Central Oklahoma. As my spiritual development was just taking off at that time, I am so glad I felt compelled to avoid it. All I can remember of those days was how it affected one of his biggest supporters on my campus. This fellow was a complete idiot loaded with incredible confidence. We call it “arrogance.” I wanted no part of that, but unfortunately, a vast number of Oklahoma evangelicals swallowed it whole. Now we have this hideous beast rooted in the OKC area which is firmly built on the Gothard foundation. Don’t forget how much the Russians loved Gothard.

Given all the flaws of Western Civilization, you would have to understand the only way it can work at all is if everyone can be regimented to reflexively obey the voice of authority. This is why I castigate libertarian thinkers who claim it’s possible to build a good and stable society on complete liberty within the Western framework. It’s not possible. Every time someone starts off that way, regardless whether the group is tiny or international in scale, it always, without fail devolves into tyranny. The basic libertarian assumptions don’t just ignore the Fall, but militantly argue against it, despite their lip service to the idea. Much as I’d like to see folks all free to pursue their own dreams and government restrained, it won’t ever happen under Western Civilization.

Gothard and his ilk all have one primary perversion. They understand fallen humanity requires governing, and God did command it to be. The earliest record of His revelation to that end shows up in the Covenant of Noah. But that assumes a particular form of government based on a forgotten social order: the extended family. Any social order which contributes to breaking up the extended family household is inherently evil. Modern Western society does that. Modern Western governments demand it. The fundamental assumption of Western “democratic” government is every human individually is an asset or resource for government use. Of course, we have the fiction that it is society which demands this, which is why “rule by the people” is simply a matter of manipulating mass opinion. The result is uniformly the same: psychopaths rule. So Gothard takes something God intended for mercy and turns it into an excuse to unleash the hounds of Hell. His little red book, supposedly kept from the prying eyes of non-initiates to his cult, presumes you will not build an extended family social structure, because that would interfere with the secular state, and of course, whatever secular government exists is what God wants us to obey without question.

For many years I was internally torn by the conflicts raised by all these false expectations. Indeed, I was torn by the apparent conflicts in God’s Word. It was there at that same college I happened to catch a few lines from several different sources which God burned into my soul. The combined effect of those lines of truth sent me on a lifelong search to understand the Bible as God wrote it, by seeking and embracing the intellectual culture of those who put pen on paper, so to speak. When I began to read it through their eyes, all those conflicts dissolved. Not just those apparent conflicts between one passage of Scripture and another, but the very basic conflicts Gothard proposed to resolve by his use of the title, “Basic Youth Conflicts.”

When a father models himself after the Ancient Near Eastern potentate, he’s pursuing the image God used to reveal Himself. This is not the place to compare the differences between a Western father of Gothard’s model versus that of the ANE nomadic sheik, but you get the point. When your assumptions are all wrong about fatherhood, calling God your Heavenly Father can approach blasphemy.

Granted, it’s not as if I’m going to agitate for destroying Western Civilization and rebuilding the ANE culture. The people of Western Civilization are taking care of the destruction just fine. So I focus more of my attention on what should take its place. And again, I know it won’t happen on a grand scale, because God has already warned about that. He has announced no plans to fix this fallen world, but to let it run its fatal course until there’s nothing left but to finish it off and replace it with something better. For now, it’s enough we each in our own small ways reject Gothard’s model in whatever incarnation it takes, and embrace what could be, at least on the scale of what is in our hands.

Dr. Scott Peck (of The Road Less Traveled fame) did a wonderful job of describing the steps in human moral development from a clinical approach. On his scale, Gothard would have us all frozen at about age six. I believe I have far more trust in my God. I’m not afraid of people questioning authority by any means; instead, I encourage it. I encourage people questioning my own authority. I say things like, “Don’t follow me; I might be lost. Cut your own path.” That means I trust God to guide you. If you aren’t listening to Him, you surely won’t hear my voice any better. If you are listening to Him, you’ll know how to take what I say with a grain of salt. I’ll exert whatever authority God puts in my hands, but that leaves you an awful lot of room to choose your own path without forcing me to protect my calling. Stay close as long as you need my authority, but I’ll never pretend to own you. The whole idea is to get you out flapping your own wings as soon as possible, navigating by your own reckoning of God’s calling for you. Or not; that’s between you and God. The final level of moral development is you deciding for yourself what really matters, and whether you want to include a concept of God.

Getting there requires you pass safely through rebellion and rejection of the world system. Gothard wants to drag you back to the previous step. His god is too small. The pitiful god of Western social order is an awful master and destroyer, sucking the life out of everyone for the sake of some precious few psychopaths’ comfort.

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Don’t Panic

Posted on July 17, 2011 by ehurst

The famous tagline from the Douglas Adams’ fiction series is good advice.

I felt it coming on Friday evening, those old sinus allergy symptoms. Not enough to kill normal activities, but enough to make me marginally miserable. The last tomato plant in the garden expired today; all the fruit was wilting or burst while still green. My neighbors cavorted in too little clothing, but I stayed inside to avoid them. Instead, I wore too much clothing because I went to visit a regular organized church. I’m such a prude!

In other words, life goes on.

Did you notice how the flooding in the Missouri River Basin is no longer in the news? It’s still roaring down the valley, but because the likelihood of a nuke plant making a mess has receded, it no longer seems to matter the flood waters have not receded. Indeed, the prediction now is they will start to ease back on the water releases by the end of this month.

There are no more fresh maps plotting the wind drift from Fukushima. The radioactive particle are still spewing into the atmosphere and the winds still blow this way, but it’s just not news any more. And while there was a massive oil spill off the coast of mainland China this past week, it barely made a ripple. But I’ve not seen a single follow-up on the way the Gulf Oil Disaster has affected the Gulf Stream.

Instead, our heat wave here in the Heartland is now making the panic news circuit, as if it really means anything. Yes, it will reduce our crops this year in Oklahoma. My poor tomatoes… But this is hardly a record year. As recently as 1986, if I recall, we have some 50 days above 100°F. We are about half-way there, so far this year. It’s not shocking to us, just annoying.

What annoys me more is all the attention the alternative news folks give to something, then it simply drops off the radar when a new panic arises. It’s like children under age 5, and you can’t give them more than three instructions at once, or they’ll forget the last one. There are only so many panics that can be covered by all the bloggers and aggregators before the conspiracy theorists get bogged down.

Yes, the basic theory of conspiracies is the single best historical approach. Yes, every human government is a conspiracy, a conspiracy to rule. There are real conspiracies in the world. But it seems so many of the sites getting the highest traffic from the panic crew are sites only one step above the conspiracy nuts who are such devoted fans of Alex Jones and David Icke. All these sites are chasing the same stories at the same time, and no one seems to pay much attention to what made all the noise even two weeks ago. Those disasters didn’t go away, but what seemed to fascinate everyone is now forgotten.

I used to read a lot of links from WhatReallyHappened, and sites like Activist Post, but now I just scan to see what they think are the big stories today. It’s almost the same reason I watch the local and national news on TV, just to see what they are spouting off about today. Different viewpoint, but same business model.

The world is, indeed, “mostly harmless.” And I certainly feel more alien here every day, wishing I could escape. Too bad there are no Vogons building routes through the area, or I’d hitchhike right out of here.

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Return of the Geek Jedi

Posted on July 16, 2011 by ehurst

There is an attempt to revive the early Internet hacker culture with all its reliance on virtual virtuosity.

For some time it has been obvious the corporate-government (read “fascist”) alliance has been trying to tame the Net. The corporations are turning it into a form of TV-like one-way delivery of sales pitches, and the government simply wants to control information in general. That is, both want to shut up all us ordinary people so they are the only ones talking.

Provided all we did with the Net was exchange personal fluff, this wouldn’t be happening. Sharing serious thoughts is the real enemy of the fascist state, but total information liberty is the fundamental purpose of the Internet. Due to the nature of things, we who seek truth must tolerate a lot of crap on the same channels we use for serious communication, and we have ways of dealing with that. The primary subject of a major portion of my posts here is Linux as a good way of defending against threats on the Net, and is a source of my limited fame. I’ve been running nearly 300 hits per day this week, mostly viewing my articles on RHEL 6; the traffic soared when CentOS 6 was finally released a few days ago. It’s a real blessing to me I am able to help folks with the means of Internet communications, as Linux in general and Red Hat (and clones) in particular are a very good way of taming the Net threats we face as ordinary users. That we dare to discuss what government ought to be is becoming increasingly dangerous, and I expect the same kind of sanctions will eventually be imposed on technical discussions of keeping the Net open, including discussions of the best software for the purpose. In other words, I would be surprised if some portions of our Linux talk don’t become labeled “enabling terrorism” some day.

On the one hand, we note the trend toward cellphones as the biggest single route of Net access for most users. The very nature of cellphone technology means corporations can more tightly control that access. It’s what they want and they are pushing it hard. To the degree I think about it at all, I’m researching how I can make my next cellphone something they can’t control, say something running Maemo, which retains a high degree of hacker independence. Likely I can’t possibly afford the hardware meant to go with it, but I can dream, eh?

On the other hand, we see government working harder at controlling the underlying framework itself. The military seeks make cyberspace the next battleground, with all the military control that comes with the meaning of “theater of operations.”

Just as Maemo is a symbol of access independence for cellphones, and Linux in general for computing devices, so the current research into alternative networking technologies is where the Geeks are exploring a way to keep the original Internet alive (check out the links at the bottom of the page there).

Granted, Scripture discourages any active interference in human government. There is no correcting the state, not even in democratic societies, because democracy is a fable cynically perpetuated by those elites who so masterfully steer things. The one area mandated by Scripture which overlaps into resistance is communication. We have a mandate from God Himself to communicate, and this empowers some effort to flout the laws which seek to restrict passing information. True believers would never participate in anything approaching censorship, because that simply offers to the evil forces more power to block the Christian message. We do seek to influence what society is willing to publish, but not by coercive means, only those voluntary. There is a difference between censorship and the simple free choice not to put resources into transmitting evil. We would naturally insist sinners, and the state itself, should have equal free access to the Internet. These various efforts to create an alternative Internet — a sort of Geeknet — is a form of resistance Christians must support.

With my limited technical knowledge, I’ve been supporting everything which offers more freedom in the virtual space. For example, I’ve been keeping an eye on Diaspora as a far more sensible version of Facebook. On the one hand, it will never be all that popular. On the other hand, that’s the whole point. As most users are nearly brain dead and annoying, they can have their Facebook with all it’s fascist manipulation policies. I want no part of that because precious little good is even possible there. What I truly value does not require herding vast numbers by manipulation. Indeed, what I value requires avoiding manipulation, and requires letting people have what they really want. Let them have their Facebook with everything I hate about it; they deserve what they get when it is turned against them, as it surely will be at every opportunity. People should be free to choose Hell. Meanwhile, those whose consuming interests are somewhere above the level of fluff should also be free to choose something else.

I realize if things get tilted too far toward fascist controls, this blog will disappear. Until then, at least a portion of what I post will always be about ways to promote user control over how they access and use the Net. That includes a strong interest in anything that bypasses fascist state controls at every layer of networking technology. I hold out great hopes this research and planning going into the “Intermesh” is at least as successful as Linux itself.

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Local Crises, Too

Posted on July 15, 2011 by ehurst

Very local, as in restricted to the extended household.

I have a mission. As God’s appointed elder — this wasn’t my idea — over this family, the mission includes facing all the idiocy which arises from people being people. Almost without fail, every emotional storm in the family comes from someone failing to keep their eyes on the mission.

Broadly, the mission is Truth. I’ve expended enough electrons elsewhere on this blog defining what that phrase means; the point here is the mission for each person in pursuit of Truth ranges all over the map. No one can tell you your specific mission except the One who grants it. I don’t pretend to dole out mission assignments, but to try enabling whatever people believe they have to do.

If conditions deteriorate, the mission remains unchanged. If conditions interfere, you fix what you can because the mission must go forward. If something can’t be fixed, you must adjust how you execute the mission. Creation is not a dumb and passive participant, despite appearances to the contrary. God works through all His Creation to inform us of His imperatives.

It really doesn’t matter what the little crisis is. The problem is someone forgot to notice it didn’t matter, and turned it into a matter. Now we face a soap opera series and that interferes with the mission. As you might expect, the storm arises from someone who has no clue about the mission, nor does it seem this one even comprehends the meaning of such things. You can’t fix stupid; this is not a disability, per se, but a truculent rejection of the revealed truth. We can only heal those who repent, and only God can move the heart to true repentance. All we can do now is refuse to get entangled in the make believe crisis.

There are plenty of harmless fables, things which do not interfere with the mission. I’ll play along when I have time. The key to “harmless” should be obvious by its effects. There are times when fables can be projected in manipulative wordings which cause trouble. A call to action based on a lie is a threat to all, but we react only to the part which falls within our mission. Whatever tool fits your character and the context is the one you use. That ranges between a very emphatic withdrawal, to verbal warnings which can be selectively laced with sarcasm and contempt, to actual physical force when necessary. Only act within your mission to cut off a real threat, noting sometimes the biggest threat is silly nonsense spouting from loud mouths. Particularly telling is when the same event becomes a different story told to different people.

I’m facing that right now. Should this metastasize any farther, actively hindering the mission, I’ll take some very ugly and forceful action to quarantine the source. It will be very costly, as there is a lot of family attached to this source. I can’t change that, because the power of choice for some things will never be in my hands. It doesn’t matter what this one thinks is the problem; I am constrained by my calling and mission to operate as I do. It’s never a question of absolute right or wrong, but what I find I must do. I’m always willing to undo those kinds of decisions when people seek peace; that’s part of the mission.

Such is that business of walking in your convictions, those things you can’t walk away from, because it’s the foundation of your identity and how you connect to reality. Never mind the quality of that connection, it’s what I have. It’s not open to inspection from someone whose imperfections are equal to mine — which is all of humanity. I certainly don’t mind people questioning me about most things which aren’t convictions; it’s not about me. It’s all about the mission.

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Of Course They Know What’s Coming

Posted on July 14, 2011 by ehurst

Even if there is not some shadowy Illuminati, we know there is a conspiracy among the ruling elites we do know about.

I ran into it again today: some breathless report about how we are headed for an economic disaster here in the US. The underlying assumption of this report was that somehow the folks in our government just don’t get it. A similar report contained some sort of warning aimed at these folks in Washington, DC, that there would be some revolution coming because of what they are doing to us.

Don’t you think they know that? Look, if you and I can figure this out, does it not occur to you they can, too? If Congress and the White House are as stupid as they pretend, there really will be an armed revolt. But no matter what they portray for public consumption, they do know what’s coming. They are doing it on purpose, and can’t trust us mundanes to be told the truth. We might spoil it for them.

These government figures have at least one plan they aren’t telling us, and probably several plans. They are ready to unleash heavily armed and very advanced equipped troops on any real uprising. Don’t think they would hesitate. Our lives mean nothing to them. I’m cynical about even the so-called good guys. If there was anyone up there on our side, they should have already placed themselves in leadership of a revolt. At the very least, they should be spilling the beans in a very well organized way to prevent being marginalized. No, I don’t think even Ron Paul has done 10% of what he could and should. First, because I don’t think he knows what’s really going on, and second, because if he actually believes things can be made right in the current system, he’s not smart enough to lead. Intentional or not, he and a couple of others are serving as foils, as controlled opposition.

And it’s not that the rulers want to keep this same system, it’s that they want to control how it gets replaced, and be in charge of what replaces it. So even if the US goes into official default and the Fed comes apart or is somehow crippled, it won’t change too many faces in the halls of power. They have ways of keeping this thing going as they see fit. Once again, they aren’t telling us. That’s what makes it a conspiracy. It doesn’t require some shadowy Sith Lords for this to all be true. It doesn’t require an Illuminati for the economy to be crashed intentionally, and for us all to be enslaved. If there is an Illuminati or other global shadow government group(s), they aren’t going to get in the way of all the foolish and arrogant plans of the various agendas pursued by our current visible ruling class. They might steer things in a more suitable direction, but it won’t serve their purpose for the whole thing to be take over directly too soon.

We are saddled with a batch of psychopaths who aren’t going to let this thing leave their hands. They are the ones who are raping the American population, and they are more than smart enough to have a workable means to keep it going after the dollar dies and the federal government defaults. There will not be some mass defection of troops and armed officers because their pay will not be cut off. Please don’t tell me you are silly enough to think anyone who really matters has a conscience and will refuse to go along. Those folks were exposed and removed long ago. If not, there simply aren’t enough of them to make any difference. There are some really intelligent and talented psychopaths.

Here’s an example: Where are the folks with the will and means to actually resist? Where are the guys with those Class 5 Federal arms licenses? In remote places where they can’t get in the way! They aren’t in New York City, or any other major metropolitan area; they have all been steered by their own inclinations to places where they can hold their ground — and nobody will care. It’s not about the weapons and resistance. It’s about the control of infrastructure and such. The few who were in the way have been dealt with individually, or are facing it very soon. Sometimes that dealing was pretty public, just as a warning. The independent militias were infiltrated and brought down, so all that’s left is little groups here and there in remote locations. When the time comes, if it matters, they’ll be crushed.

Only a fool imagines this wasn’t carefully planned by some truly smart people in places of power.

What we see before us as the growing crisis is not the aimless stumbling of fools, nor the mindless greed of bumbling idiots who just got lucky. Don’t forget: We didn’t find out about where the bailout money went until long afterward. We still aren’t sure. These people aren’t making it up as they go. Nor are they somehow deluded with false theories of economics and such. Keynesian Economics is not so much what they believe, nor much of how they act. That’s just for public consumption; they know how it works and are taking full advantage of it behind the scenes.

It’s not about good logic or constitutional purity; it’s about reading what these folks are actually doing and bracing ourselves for where it appears to be heading. No one who cares has the power to act, and those with the power certainly don’t care.

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Unworthy and Delighted

Posted on July 14, 2011 by ehurst

They beckoned to me from the side of the road. Fat black globules in clusters big as my thumb, glistening in the sun. I knew I’d have to come back.

The roads in my area generally follow the surveyed section lines, one mile apart. It’s a mostly square grid pattern, but they don’t always bridge creeks and such. This close into the city, they are almost all paved with blacktop. While some barely meet the modern definition of 8-foot lanes at a minimum, they are mostly ten-foot. Aside from a few select areas with high traffic, the asphalt simply stops at the edge. What’s beyond is typically level grass for a foot or two, then sloping down to the drainage ditch. In places it washes out regularly, requiring annual repair until the county gets tired of it and does something to make it more permanent. Other places the road cuts through the rosy sandstone hill side and you get a small rocky cliff.

It was one of these latter places where I saw them.

As these asphalt roads run at odd angles across a very wickedly hilly ridge-n-creek-bed washboard, I get lots of good hill training for my rides. I learned long ago I can’t afford to replace spokes every month, so I never ride anything except mountain bikes. I can’t remember when I was last under 200 pounds (91kg). This one is a cheap aluminum frame, but the most expensive at Wal-Mart that day. Since then I’ve slowly upgraded some of the components. Among other things, I swapped all the shifters, derailers and brake pods to Alivio stuff, changed the saddle to something which properly accommodates my wide frame, and added an aluminum rack on the back. Nobody would imagine I might race, least of all me. I ride for the sheer pleasure and some exercise.

So a sixteen mile (26km) ride is big for non-cyclists, but a warm-up for real riders. It’s just about as much as I could handle that day out in these hills, as the temperature topped 90° F (32C). At the best of times I don’t ride with any intensity, so I often scan the area just to see what’s there. That was how I spotted them on a climb. There weren’t very many, and most of them were the thin and spindly type vines, ripening way late in the season. When that sort of blackberry vine gets enough water, it makes huge clusters. Apparently this particular spot with only a few tiny patches of sandy soil between the rocky places where the road cut through a hilltop was getting just enough water. It certainly got plenty of sun, since the rock face looked south. It was a short row mixed in with other vegetation, but more productive than just about any I’ve seen this year.

That was Monday. Today I went back with my “picker-stick” — one of those extended reach devices with rubber cups on opposing fingers which squeeze together when you pull the trigger. Without looking too closely on that first pass, I figured it would offer a pint or so. Of course, I didn’t catch how many were growing behind the other bushes and tall grasses clinging to the near side of the ditch. The back wall was mostly solid sandstone, with cracks and a few standing plots of soil. The vines all grew on the back wall in these openings. It was odd seeing the majority of the berries ripened all at once. It took we quite a while to pick what I could see and reach, and I got nearly a quart.

As I turned back toward the way I had come, I spotted another patch in a more level area hidden in the tall grass. These were more mixed, in the sense some had already withered, some few still red, but most were ready. It was too many. I picked a select few of the biggest clusters and took home well more than a quart.

I matched them with the frozen berries I had meagerly plucked over the past two weeks from my usual berry haunts and dropped them in the blender. Not quite juicing them, the resulting slurry went into a sauce pan and began to simmer. Adding organic brown sugar and oatmeal, I decided to skip the lemon juice. I’ve had enough tartness for the season. The taste was pure blackberry and sweet. When it was ready, my beloved had made a fine pie crust. I added some cinnamon graham crackers to the blackberry mixture and we dumped it into the pie dish. She also made for me a crumble crust for the top, including crushed pecans (these also grow wild locally).

The result is a deep dish blackberry pie beyond describing. Thus, the title of this post: I am not worthy of such heavenly fare, but I’m delighted to have it.

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More of My Nightmare

Posted on July 13, 2011 by ehurst

We have all sorts of official and alternative sources warning of an economic collapse any day now.

I can’t imagine the Illuminati have gotten us this far to lose it all. We see a crisis approaching with fiat currencies and debt. Truth tellers see it all too clearly, with various experts wondering how much longer the system will last. On the one hand, a lot of experts simply don’t take into account the peculiar genius of the Illuminati in creating the system which has come to this point of crisis. They talk as if this is all simply the results of many independent choices with no concerted aim, that some pretty ordinary people overreached and it’s going to break and there will be chaos. That is what appears to be coming, but I believe it’s intentional, not simply basic human folly. I am convinced it’s a conspiracy, though not the way most people think of it.

The currency, as well as the debt, is all purely notional. If every debtor in the world defaults, the Illuminati will not lose anything of value to them. What they gain is the utter chaos which arises from everyone else who values the currency, and have no other system. Everything alternative has been destroyed, or is so fragile as to be easily destroyed when the time comes — let’s not forget bait-n-switch. Even precious metals are dangerous, because with such a powerful police state, it will be exceedingly risky to keep and use such means of exchange. Direct barter will be the safest, and that’s too complicated for most folks living and breathing in the West today. So they have us over a barrel, and that was the whole idea.

We can be sure there is a replacement already standing by, a system which delivers an even greater measure of control to them. Not in the absolute sense, because that’s not necessary, but a greater measure of control in the sense few will have the energy and understanding to escape it.

Personally, I envision mass chipping or something similar. It depends on whether they want to use biometrics and carried chips, or embedding. There are distinct advantages with both. There may be a mixture of things based on selection criteria, but I expect a proximity readable chip of some sort either way. No chip? No access to anything resembling money, and no access to what keeps you alive. Indeed, there will be no travel without extraordinary measures to remain out of sight of the authorities. You won’t be able to leave your neighborhood without some means of passive identification. Rationing will limit folks dealing on the black market. There will always be a black market, and the system will probably control a bunch of that, too, with only the illusion of freedom at a high cost. Think about the current dope dealer scene, and how the primary means of supply is controlled by the CIA so they can fund their operations off-budget. Then put life essentials in the same market as the dope.

Folks in rural settings will do better, of course. While I expect efforts to herd people onto the reservation, so to speak, you can’t do it totally. Some parts of the country simply don’t operate that way. Some controls won’t be implemented in rural areas because it costs too much, even for governments. Too much expense in too many machines for a population too thinly scattered for too little return. But some of the things people really want or need will be only in the controlled areas, so a lot of rural folks will be scooped in that way.

All the things tried and discussed in the past point to such things. It’s not as if they have been trying to see whether it would work, but how extensively it can be applied. They are gauging the various ways the system will need to be adjusted to deliver maximum control.

There will also be a massive purge, a slaughter or confinement of those already identified as willing and able to resist. Most of the recent losses in privacy, those they announce and those done secretly and “illegally,” were aimed at tagging folks. This is far more efficient than simply eliminating a whole class of people, since human ability is itself an economic resource to be harvested. There is no doubt in my mind I’ve been tagged, though I don’t pretend to know what the labeling includes, what measures they would be willing to use to keep me from being a problem.

I’m still convinced it’s all about the wars. While much of Europe could see a similar regime, I doubt it will be quite the same setup. The nations hurting the worst are the ones ripe for the worst exploitation, because they aren’t useful economically. I expect to see them used the same as the US, starved into submission, then enslaved. Some may require more pain than others to become submissive. Folks escaping to other parts of Europe simply means forcing them to find their place in a more productive regime. But the whole point of all this remains pounding even more independent nations of the world into submission to the Western banking system.

On the one hand, painting this in your mind with too much horror in terms of daily experience would be misleading. Forget the movies you’ve seen. As we go through this, aside from the initial chaos designed to create a high degree of pain and fear, most of it will feel rather normal, routine. The real nightmare is that it will seem so normal. You can’t paint that with movie imagery.

Nor should we expect it will all work out so well. The fundamental morality of the universe will react at some point, and it will all come tumbling down. Without a direct revelation from God, no one can guess how that would come about. What I’m blathering about here is what I believe is planned.

Posted in globalism, social sciences | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

We Are Not

Posted on July 12, 2011 by ehurst

Our house church is not Protestant, nor Catholic, nor Orthodox, nor do we fit any other standard associations. We have no legal charter, no corporate property, and precious little organization. We don’t consider ourselves a distinct entity at all.

We are primitivists. Best we can tell, we are simply following Jesus, and don’t pretend there’s no better way to do that. This is simply how we do it. About the only thing which binds us together is our rejection of the notion we have to hold a certain minimum in common with each other beyond what’s obvious from Scripture. What makes us different is the very choice to avoid being exclusive. If you don’t exclude yourself from us, you are a member already.

Granted, there is a structure of sorts, as I wear the title “elder”. We don’t really have anyone who wears the label of “pastor” so far, so I do some of the work that entails. Those are labels in the New Testament we see applicable to our situation, words which simplify the conversations about what we will or won’t do. I’m not better; near as we can tell, this is what God appointed for me. No one has to agree to it, but if you aren’t comfortable with it, try not to get in the way of how we conduct our religion. For whatever reason, folks here tend to embrace my leadership. It gives shape and character to our shared activities. At any moment, at any step of the way, someone who can’t or won’t go along is simply prevented from harming others by their choice to do something else.

We aren’t God’s religion police, and won’t listen if you pretend to be that. If God doesn’t compel you Himself to one choice or another, and you can’t seem to figure out for yourself what you will do, we allow you to watch and work around you. It really does depend entirely on His sovereign grace.

Any one of us could probably find a comfortable place in a mainstream church. While that church might not comfortable with some of the things we teach, it’s not necessary to take over their system and program just to hang out. Most churches are an excellent social atmosphere. The people are more likely to be honest and kind within the group, more likely to help you genuinely however they can, and generally are pleasant for fellowship. That’s as much as they need to be.

What separates us is when the people there begin to assert a demand we can’t fulfill, as a condition for staying around. Even if the pressure is informal, something entirely person-to-person, if it persists, it’s a barrier to fellowship and we may have to leave. That this happens so consistently is how we came to the place of holding our own meetings in our home. It’s the paradox that our freedom constrains them; our comfort discomforts them. If they can’t simply accept us on the terms under which we serve Christ and share with them, they don’t accept us at all.

The closer a church is to a Western human government, and the farther they are from a simple family, the more foreign they are to us, and we to them. Funny how, by our being no threat at all, folks feel threatened.

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