The solidarity of suffering: From racism to empathy
The solidarity of suffering is a field of mutuality that lies unexplored. It’s all to easily drowned out by the noise and antipathy of protest. The online activity of the masses, from anonymous activist to celebrity conformist, misses the opportunity to untie the tangled pathos that cements individuals into collectives, and brands them as possessions of “party-lines.” Not all human suffering is equal, but all human suffering is equally painful. To exist as if another person has no idea about what suffering is, is to dismiss suffering. Take for example, a family with a history filled with conflict and abuse.…
Kill More Babies!
Major players in the Democratic Party are consistently being exposed for their historic links with organisations and groups that explicitly devalue human life. Robert Byrd —Hilary Clinton’s mentor — was a long-time member of the KKK, and just this week, Virginia Governor — Ralph Northam — was revealed to have dressed up in a KKK costume and worn blackface during his earlier years. The history of the Democratic Party is flooded with fellowships that are questionable at best, and morally wicked at worst. A historical analysis of this populist party is required to make sense of the recent abortion legislation…
PragerU’s Uphill Battle Against Censorship As Ads are Permabanned by Spotify
American conservative media organization, PragerU, is facing an uphill battle against an increasing trend towards censorship of conservative content. Founded by Dennis Prager in 2009, and currently run by CEO, Marissa Streit, PragerU provides commentary and information on a wide range of subjects, from prominent thinkers and doers. PragerU also considers themselves to be a platform for the preservation of Judeo-Christian values, and “the concepts of freedom of speech, a free press, free markets and a strong military to protect and project those values.” (PragerU ‘What We Do’) In an official Facebook post from January 26th, 2019, PragerU admins wrote:…
Dr Stephen Hicks: ‘Are we fighting the postmodernists with one hand tied behind our backs?’
Are we fighting the postmodernists with one hand tied behind our backs? Intellectual battles are the cognitive lifeblood of a healthy society. Life is complicated and the stakes are high, so thoughtful and passionate people have lots of arguments. Only by argument can we sort out the facts about complicated matters. Only by putting our ideas to the test of evidence and by being willing to change our minds can we make progress. Intellectual fighting is not often fun, but it is better than settling our differences by physical fighting. The advantage of being an intelligent species, Austrian philosopher Karl…
Misleading ‘Christian’ slogans are dangerous when they are a substitute for solid biblical truth
There is a strong element of disguise and deception in the spiritual battles that we face. In Paul’s day there were false apostles who disguised themselves as apostles of Christ, following Satan who does great evil while appearing to be an angel of light (see 2 Cor.11:13-15). The covenant people of God are thus warned against slogans that appear to be spiritual truths but which turn out to be false or at least misleading in some way. In the dark days of the Babylonian exile, a proverb was repeated: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are…
A case against banning Mark Twain’s, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’
As part of our home-school English curriculum this year, I decided to tackle Twain’s, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn‘. I’ve read a few of the, for and against arguments on the internet, by writers who either have an higher opinion of themselves (than they do of Twain), or they raise Twain to a higher level, just because he’s Twain. My conclusion is this: forget all the, “I’m offended therefore ban ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, because Mark Twain uses offensive language.” Then ditch the flip side which says, “I’m offended, because you’re offended, that Mark Twain didn’t consider your feelings, before…
Three Reasons why you should be concerned about Silicon Valley’s Connection to Communist China’s Golden Shield Firewall
If you’re not really into Information Technology and are not aware of what the Golden Shield project is, you’re forgiven. The majority of Chinese people either don’t care or aren’t aware of its existence either. The Golden Shield Project is Communist China’s massive firewall. It’s designed to keep a lid on dissent and ward off foreign influence on Chairman Mao’s, carefully constructed Communist culture, which was largely forced on the Chinese people during the Marxist/Maoist Cultural Revolution. Some basic history: ‘The Golden Shield project has been in development since the 1990s’. According to a Tom McDonald field study published by…
Freethinking atheists don’t exist. Here’s why.
The atheist says, ‘I don’t believe in God.’ God says, ‘I don’t believe in atheists.’ Here’s why: The atheist presupposes the basic reliability of the senses. But on what basis? According to the atheist, there is no standard to appeal to outside of our own senses to validate our experiences. For all he knows, he could be merely experiencing the sensation of thinking true thoughts. C.S. Lewis once said, if there is no intelligence behind the universe and no creative mind, then nobody designed the human brain for the purpose of thinking. Lewis expands on the implications of that: It is…
Be a Good Hater: Righteous Anger and the Rule of Christian Love
The provocative quote of the week goes to, Charles Spurgeon: “Be a good hater.” The statement, “be a good hater” is a challenge to resist evil (James 4L7). To resist the morality of the tyrant or the ‘crowd which has no hands’ (Kierkegaard, The Crowd is Untruth) In context, it means: to abhor evil: to regard it with extreme repugnance. [In Latin, “abhor” is Odium: with hostility; “repugnance”: resist, be an adversary of evil.] Our present age has an almost absolute fear of hate, yet most would agree that “let love be genuine. Hate what is evil, cling to that…
Scott Morrison can’t save the election, but he can save politics.
The problem with Australian politics is the paradox of a lack of clear choices and a context of unprecedented polarisation. If I can even be so naive as to suggest there is only one problem, or even only one main problem, optimism about political debate and futures could be greatly improved simply by the major parties clearly distinguishing themselves from each other. There’s a common frustration about both parties being nearly indistinguishable. MPs in the parties often feel this is unfair, especially those further from the centre, and their feelings are not without merit. But neither are the comparisons. For…
Epiphany 2019: His great joy will be our strength.
Since 2014 I’ve been committed to considering what different things God might have to say at the close of Christmas. Traditionally this is Epiphany, the 6th January, marking the end of the twelve days of Christmas. Magi from the East (Persia), following the star (likely to be the well-timed rare alignment of three planets in our Sol system; a Nova or Super Nova) find confirmation of Micah 5:2: “but you, O Bethlehem who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin…
Convicts arriving in Botany Bay in 1788 is not “Invasion Day,” the Imperial Japanese bombing of Darwin in 1942 is.
Most of Australian history is a neglected subject. That history didn’t end in Botany Bay, 1788, and it’s high points, although they are among them, isn’t just Gallipoli 1915, or in the numerous corrections to sporadic injustices carried out by a Social Darwinist induced indifference towards Indigenous Australians. The significance of the Bombing of Darwin on the 19th February 1942, by over 260 Imperial Japanese aircraft is unjustifiably neglected by politics, politicians, political parties, their pawns in the news media, and in their pawns in the Australian academic industrial complex. The high level of attacks from Imperial Japanese forces on…
Simone Weil’s Beef With Bureaucracy: The Bureaucratic Caste, Parasitism and Crony Capitalists
Born out of conversations with a friend from the United States, I was given the opportunity to read a compilation of fragments and essays written by Simone Weil called: ‘Oppression and Liberty’. The compilation flows in chronological order and presents some of Weil’s thoughts on anthropology, economics, politics, ideology and war. Simone was a French intellectual. Like Jacques Ellul, whom she presumably never met, Weil worked in the French resistance and was well schooled in Marxism. Among many others in the elite French communist circles of mid 20th Century, she was a contemporary of rebel and excommunicated member, Albert Camus.…
The double-standards of liberals
Context and explanation meant absolutely nothing to the outraged leftist media complex collaborating with self-interested politicians when accusing Senator Fraser Anning of Nazi levels of racism for saying the words “final solution”. Senator Anning declared, “In the days of Menzies, immigrants arriving here were not allowed to apply for welfare and that attracted exactly the right sort of hard-working people this country needed. We should go back to that and ban all immigrants receiving welfare for the first five years after they arrive. The final solution to the immigration problem is, of course, a popular vote.” Turnbull called the reference…
Banning the Holy Spirit and chaining the Word
As Western societies lurch from one disastrous fad to another, there have been increased efforts to ban what are called gay conversion therapies. Hollywood has naturally offered its obligatory contribution with the movie Boy Erased, Academia chipped in with a report from La Trobe University – the institution that birthed the Safe Schools Coalition – which joined with the Human Rights Law Centre and Gay & Lesbian Health Victoria to produce research to show that ‘LGBT conversion therapy remains a real problem in Australian religious communities.’ The Victorian government over 2016-2017 banned such therapy, and the Conservative government in the…
How to uproot the Christian church, a masterclass from Louis XIV
By 1685 Louis XIV had from the age of four been the King of France for 42 years, and he still had another thirty years to reign. From birth his mind and heart had been thoroughly trained to believe that God had anointed him to be France’s absolute ruler. His Huguenot subjects, the French Protestants who refused to submit to his Roman Catholic beliefs and practices, offended him. They stood outside of his thought-world. They stood against the beliefs that he cherished as true. Ultimately, he sensed that they stood outside of his control. The Huguenots offended the abysmal totalitarian…
Why are the globalists silent when it comes to totalitarian Islamic aggression in Sudan?
In a 2006 article written for the Stanford Journal of International Relations, called “Responding To Genocide In Sudan,” Stephan M. Doane lays out reasoning for a much needed, tougher international stand on the issues plaguing Sudan. The article is dated, but raises, on an academic level, awareness about the plight of many South Sudanese people, who are stuck in a cycle of constant violence. Many of whom are Christians. Doane’s piece is well researched. He argues that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is less acknowledged by international stakeholders. For example, the U.N and the international community appear “indifferent” towards the…
If the people aren’t interested in Governments, Governments will govern outside the interests of the people.
Positive advances in communications technology drive the functionality of information. Its delivery is like a viaduct. Information is carried along at a fast pace. Which means that we find ourselves living in an era of information deluge. Words, thoughts and opinions rain down on us from everywhere. In this downpour, writers can be too easily tempted to reach for the fastest way to keep people reading their work. However, putting something together that’s worth a reader’s time, takes time. In this environment, writing can be hard. Gimmicks and stunts; shock and awe, are all potential roads writers can go down.Simply…
We serve whatever our hearts are tethered to
What people think matters; how people see us matters. We anchor ourselves to the opinions and values of others. Men and women latch their value to the people we see as giving us value. Our worth is then neatly packaged into the confined space of that other person’s thoughts and whims. This is all okay up to a point. Humans were built for community, we need good government and organisation; men and women, living in fellowship, not in isolation, are human together. However, people tethering themselves to the thoughts of others without caution, spells potential disaster. For example, when we…
Reagan’s reminder: “The martyrs of history were not fools.”
This has the sharp edge of poignant relevance painted all over it: Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender. Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only…
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