This is just another example of “gun violence.” You can clearly see that the guns have taken control of the shooters’ minds, causing them, against their wills, to shoot people caught in a traffic jam. How and why inanimate objects are able to acquire this power simply by crossing the border of Chicago remains an insoluble mystery. Thus the only rational policy option is to confiscate all guns from all law abiding citizens in the United States to prevent any guns from crossing that magical border of Chicago. And when the illegal guns already in Chicago find themselves alone they will experience a deep moral catharsis whereby they will cease their murderous mind control and rather use their power for good. Yes, the Progressive rulers of Chicago will finally be vindicated in their moral, intellectual and spiritual perfection as tens of thousands of gang bangers are compelled by their guns to turn in their guns, and, freed from their control, will thereafter live lives of quiet contemplation.
Sometimes it takes a two-by-four to awake those sleep-walking towards disaster.
If we understand the Identity Politics of the Woke to be a heretical form of Christianity that has yet been embraced by many Christian pastors and parishioners, then we must address the spiritual disease at the root of this development. In reality a large portion of this blog has been focused on just that issue, with an emphasis on my denomination, the PC(USA). When I collected this material into an eBook it surpassed 300 pages.
But what is needed here is a relatively concise summary of our current predicament and its causes. One excellent effort can be found in the recent book by Matt Walsh titled Church of Cowards: A Wake-Up Call to Complacent Christians. There are limits to the efficiency of language in conveying information on a broad, complex topic; so I hope you will therefore accept that the following very long excerpt is necessary to address this issue.
“The times they are a-changing,” Bob Dylan sings. And he’s right. Time does change. Time is the agent of change. But the truth does not change along with the time, because the truth stands outside of time. What was good and holy two thousand years ago is good and holy now. What was debased and evil two thousand years ago is debased and evil now. Our ability or willingness to discern one from the other may have changed, but the reality has not.
We seem to be confused on this point. We think that the essence of reality—and especially of moral reality—has changed, for the better, over time. Our “chronological snobbery,” as C. S. Lewis called it, may be justified when it comes to technology and medicine, but it is disastrous in the area of theology and morality. It is one thing to prefer the new iPhone to the brick-sized mobile phone your dad carried around in his fanny pack in 1992; it is quite another to prefer newer notions of moral and theological truths to the moral and theological truths espoused by Christ and affirmed by the church for two millennia. But this is precisely what we have done. We have decided that our technological superiority must somehow ensure moral superiority, as if our high-tech gadgets have given us access to a higher understanding of life.
The modernist assault on the faith does not revolve around any one particular doctrine. Christians today, unless they are Jehovah’s Witnesses, are not likely to outright deny the Trinity or Christ’s humanity. Arianism and Docetism were heresies for a more thoughtful age. The heretics of the past at least had the wit and wherewithal to attack a specific dogma and suggest a different dogma to take its place. But modernism is, as Pope Pius X described it, an obscure “synthesis of heresies.” In practice, it is more of a general feeling or a prejudice. The modernist, moved by emotion and self-interest, cooks up an incoherent heretical stew whose ingredients can hardly be identified. He isn’t so much worried about the theological points. He could take or leave the Trinity, the Resurrection, the Incarnation, and the atonement. His real beef is with Christian morality.
This discussion identifies a plausible source for our contemporary moral arrogance and traces that source to its theological and moral consequences. I think that Mr. Walsh’s diagnosis of this disease’s source has significant similarities to those discussed by Dr. Peterson and Dr. Weinstein in a recent series of posts. That is, the amazing technological advancements in communication and social media have fooled many into believing that human morality has experienced a similar transformation for the better.
However, when you descend into the actual behavior of those in thrall to communication through social media, more often than not you land in a cesspit of vicious wickedness. But so blinded are these practitioners of Wokeness by their supposed social media magnified power that they are utterly unable to notice the reality of their behavior. And, so fearful are so many of us that know better of that social media magnified power that we shrink back from saying anything about it.
If there is any institution in the West that should have the moral confidence to speak up against this tide of wickedness it is the Christian Church. The fact that so many who claim to belong to that Church fail to speak up earns them the rightful title as a “church of cowards.”
But, as I demonstrate in the above referenced eBook, in the PC(USA) (and likely in all Mainline denominations) the situation is far worse than that. It’s not that the PC(USA)’s leadership is too cowardly to speak up. No, it’s rather that they are dominated by the very “synthesis of heresies” whose “real beef is with Christian morality.” This false teaching has driven many millions of believers out of the Mainline church. And therefore, many of the remaining membership of this (these) denomination(s) either ignores, tolerates or approves of this “modernist assault on the faith” from within.
My feeling is that this is a “one of these is different than the others” meme. But I really can’t seem to figure it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated…
We find ourselves at a remarkable impasse. Identity politics wishes to return us to the unexceptional condition, the pre-Christian condition: One group—in its current formulation, the white, heterosexual man—is avowed to be the transgressor. All others—women, blacks, Hispanics, LGBTQ persons—have their sins of omission and commission covered over by scapegoating this group. Set against this is the exceptional Christian understanding that man’s transgression, his “sin,” is “original.” This means it is always-already-there before any lineage or inheritance constitutes him as a kind, and therefore that group scapegoating cannot absolve him of his impurity. Hide quietly behind your “identity” if you wish; your anxiety about your own transgressions will not dissipate. Displace your anxiety by relentlessly aiming the arrow of accusation outward at other groups; the haunting specter of transgression will not disappear. Its source is deeper than identity politics comprehends.
As a “white, heterosexual man” I certainly can sympathize with Mr. Mitchell’s perspective. Yes, it’s true that “white, heterosexual man” was the original target of the Woke; and who remains their primary target. However, the idea that “All others—women, blacks, Hispanics, LGBTQ persons—have their sins of omission and commission covered over by scapegoating this group” simply fails when exposed to the facts.
For example Bari Weiss is a lesbian and (of course) a woman, but those characteristics didn’t protect her from being “canceled” by her employer, the New York Times, when she violated “woke” morality. In the last post I referenced the “woke” attacks on white Progressive women and here also note the vicious “woke” attacks on black people who don’t toe the ideological line. I do agree that “white, heterosexual man” is viewed as inherently guilty while these others must explicitly violate “woke” holy writ in order to be destroyed.
But I fully agree with Mr. Mitchell’s position on the way that “woke theology” has twisted the concept of sin into a “pre-Christian” concept that is utterly un-Christian and ultimately evil. And yet supposedly well educated Christian pastors fall by the thousands for this heresy.
Mr. Mitchell’s warning to the Woke that “the haunting specter of transgression will not disappear” reflects the theme brilliantly explored by Wilfred M. McClay in “The Strange Persistence of Guilt,” upon which I commented here.
The arrangement that identity politics specifies has placed the scapegoated white, heterosexual man in a curious position, indeed. In order to escape cathartic rage, he must prove his innocence by virtuesignaling—or more accurately, by innocence-signaling—his support for various social justice causes, so that he, like other groups of innocents, can be covered with righteousness. Only when covered in this way does the cathartic rage that brings social death pass over him and settle elsewhere, as it must.
Although I have commented on the tragicomedic nature of this impulse, the abject surrender of CEOs, university presidents, religious leaders and a host of others to this temptation is nothing less than ominous.
But my ultimate point is that no-one is safe from the “woke” predator. For example, note that the black woman Alexi McCammond was recently expelled from the top editor job at Teen Vogue for many years old racist tweets about Asians. My point is that this personal calamity occurred because the tweets were discovered at a time when the Progressive narrative required sacrificial fodder for its “America is anti-Asian” party line. I’m not here saying that Ms. McCammond’s tweets are acceptable. I am saying that the Woke’s choice of sacrifice depends on utterly arbitrary conditions such as timing, vulnerability, visibility, etc. Thus, although Ms. McCammond may have felt totally safe in her race and gender, events yet transpired in an unpredictable and arbitrary way to destroy her job and character.
This is the world being created by our Woke totalitarians. It is indescribably wicked, but one that is being enabled by knaves and cowards all hoping that the crocodile will eat them last.
A valuable resource for understanding contemporary identity politics.
If we are aver going to defeat identity politics as practiced by the cadre of Cultural Marxists among us we must first understand what it is, what it hopes to accomplish and how it intends to achieve its goals. I have addressed this general topic in numerous previous posts, but now would like to do so explicitly.
In a way this new series is the completion of the troika of mental ailments that combine to deliver the, possibly fatal, pestilence of “wokeness” (which I consider to be a synonym to Identity Politics) into our body politic. The series titled A Timely Challenge to Christianity: “Live Not By Lies” covered the Totalitarian dimension and A Brilliant Discussion covered the Postmodern dimension. Here I will expand on the religious dimension of Identity Politics, which I have previously labeled as Gnosticism. However, as with most broad topics, there are numerous ways of thinking about them.
One valuable resource for this purpose is a relatively new book by Joshua Mitchell titled American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time. Mr. Mitchell zeros in on the religious aspect of Identity Politics without resort to the term Gnostic. However, by describing this new religion as a heretical distortion of Christianity he yet implicitly captures the inherent Gnostic spirit. Here’s a key paragraph from the book’s Preface.
The “identity politics of innocence,” as I call it throughout this book, has transformed politics. It has turned politics into a religious venue of sacrificial offering. Ponder for a moment the Christian understanding of sacrificial offering. Without the sacrifice of Christ, the Innocent Lamb of God, there would be no Christianity. Christ, the Scapegoat, renders the impure pure—by taking upon Himself “the sins of the world.” In purging the Divine Scapegoat, those for whom He is the sacrificial offering are purified. Identity politics is a political version of this cleansing, for groups rather than for individual persons. The scapegoat identity politics offers up for sacrifice is the white, heterosexual man. If he is purged, its adherents imagine, the world itself, along with the remaining groups in it, will be cleansed of stain.
This is an astute insight into how Identity Politics perverts the Christian foundation of our culture to build a new Satanic edifice. And yet, so brainwashed are many of our pastors that they enthusiastically embrace this heresy like a drowning person clutching at a floating straw.
I do differ with Mr. Mitchell regarding the exclusivity of “white, heterosexual man” as the scapegoat. It may start there, but totalitarian evil always spreads its bloody scope to cover ever more people. For example, I have previously discussed how Identity Politics is already beginning the process of destroying white women. But let’s set that aside and continue listening to Mr. Mitchell’s analysis.
Identity politics erects invisible borders between the pure and the stained. Too many of the political declarations we hear today intend only to banish fellow citizens. Neither conversations about nor actions taken in response to our pressing problems are possible if the deeper purpose of a political program—perhaps even more important than the political program itself, which is but a pretext—is to purge a group or humiliate its members into silence. However enfeebled today, Christianity has burned itself into the soul of Western man and, for now at least, holds us back from the real impetus beneath identity politics, which is actual group purgation. We will see what the future brings.
Although I completely agree with Mr. Mitchell regarding the enfeebled state of Christianity, I also suspect that it isn’t just residual Christianity that is holding us back from the brink. After all, the numbers of “white, heterosexual man” plus all the women (i.e., mothers, wives, sisters, friends, etc.) who aren’t all in on their universal depravity make them a difficult target to isolate and destroy. Perhaps this is why most Progressive energy is used to “humiliate its members into silence.”
Having been regularly on the receiving end of those attempts to humiliate I can tell you that they are rendered pathetic and ineffective by refusal to accept the premise and by un-cowed retort. There needs to be much, much more of this if we ever want to neutralize the expansion of this wickedness.
I never thought that one of the most disturbing events in “The Shining” movie would be reproduced by the behavior of the duly elected Mayor of Chicago … but I was so wrong.
Lori Lightfoot was elected Mayor of Chicago in 2019 with almost 74% of all votes (second-round election). This level of support in any election is rare, with anything above 60% being commonly described as a “landslide.” But what has been successfully revealed over the past two years is a level of incompetence, overt racism and immaturity that simply boggles the mind. And Chicago has suffered severely under her leadership.
But now, to this tale of woe we must add the word “deranged.” That is the only word that properly describes an email recently obtained in which she, Jack Torrance style (The Shining), berates her staff using repetitive sentences and phrases. The text simply has to be seen to be believed (see end of this post). This is not just a boss mistreating her staff. This is an incompetent, ineffective, nasty boss behaving in ways that destroy the confidence and respect of her staff.
I have had a business career spanning forty years and nothing even remotely like this has crossed my desk or screen. This is straight up deranged behavior, and the City of Chicago must endure two more years of her “leadership.”
This is what happens when a person lives in the protective bubble of intersectional oppression status.
On the one hand I can see how this sequence of events could be called “funny.” After all, it documents the progressive exposure of the Progressive leaders of Minneapolis for the failures that they are … by simply reporting on their own sequence of actions.
However, there’s something troubling about designating a sequence of events that has led to massive increases in lawlessness and murder as “funny.” It’s at most tragicomedy, but even that’s too generous. No, it’s straight-up tragedy that the elected leaders of our major cities are ideologically lobotomized incompetents and race grifters. That citizens of these communities would elect such people to positions of power is doubly tragic. Perhaps they didn’t realize the consequences of their votes. Now that those consequences are manifest we’ll find out just how corrupted are the majority of voting citizens of Minneapolis.
Our ruling Progressive Leftist Elite has no concept of humility. They have proved themselves incapable of hearing, let alone considering, any idea that departs in the slightest from their ever changing Party Line. They are always right, always virtuous, always wise. Thus, because they have separated themselves from any and all criticism, any and all accountability, they have descended into levels of incompetence and wickedness that shocks the conscience.
But even more, they have presumed themselves to be gods, capable of controlling the earth’s climate, of choosing their gender, of deciding who is to be heard and who canceled. Of all people, it was Agatha Christie who foresaw their ascendance and their madness.
It doesn’t matter—that was Edward’s creed. And suddenly for no reason, a remembrance of that three thousand years old coarse pottery bowl mended with bitumen flashed across Victoria’s mind. Surely those were the things that mattered—the little everyday things, the family to be cooked for, the four walls that enclosed the home, the one or two cherished possessions. All the thousands of ordinary people on the earth, minding their own business, and tilling the earth, and making pots and bringing up families and laughing and crying, and getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. They were the people who mattered, not these Angels with wicked faces who wanted to make a new world and who didn’t care whom they hurt to do it. …
She thought to herself, “Edward, who looks so sane, is really mad! You get mad, perhaps, if you try and act the part of God. They always say humility is a Christian virtue—now I see why. Humility is what keeps you sane and a human being….”
How does this situation relate to our Biblical story?
Daniel 5:22-30
22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. 24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
King Belshazzar and his court showed the same arrogance as today’s elite Progressive Leftists. He and they worship other gods than the one true God. He and they show contempt for all the civilizational treasures that have come from before them through mockery and vandalism. They only differ in that in King Belshazzar there remained a residual respect for the truth and at least some curiosity regarding it.
25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin
26 “Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Please note carefully: It is not the king’s (or our current elite’s) power that limits the extent of their rule, but rather that of the omnipotent God. Our elite has not the slightest concern for this possibility, so deep have they fallen into atheism or heresy.
27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
This one true God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) does indeed “weigh us on the scales” of His perfect justice. And, we are always and completely “found wanting.” The difference is that some of us accept this truth and order our lives accordingly while the elite do not.
28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Apart from God’s merciful grace we can expect only destruction. Our current revolution is being led by godless vandals who imagine that they will build Utopia on the burning rubble of our nation. Should they succeed in burning it all down what they will discover is that they have nothing to offer other than more violence, more division, more death and more tyranny. And they will be destroyed by those who fully embrace power based on violence, as like the Stalinist purges in the U.S.S.R.
29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
Perhaps the king was attempting to appease God’s wrath by treating His prophet well. In this he was terribly mistaken, though at least he is thus acknowledging God’s existence and power. No such hopeless action will be taken by our current elite. Their very lives are built on the assumption of their perfection, so it would be a self-annihilating act to admit error of any sort, or any power beyond their control.
30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
And so, God’s inexorable justice comes to pass. There is no negotiation, only consequence.
In this series I have explored the parallels between Daniel 5 and our contemporary situation in the United States. All of the differences fall in King Belshazzar’s favor. Given this it’s difficult to imagine a future in which the path to renewal doesn’t pass through terrible destruction and violence.
And yet I do hope and pray for renewal without ruins. I see no way for our current institutions to escape their state of utter corruption. Therefore, our main hope is that, in His mercy, God will decree that new institutions, new redeemed men and women will rise up and gradually supplant that which has utterly lost its way. For this to happen our bloody-minded elite will have to lose their moronic self-confidence. How that can occur without blood and tears is imponderable. Our only true hope is that God, in His providential love will look upon the United States and say as He did long ago to Elijah:
“Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18).
Has an extremely high-level Chinese official defected to the United States and provided massive information about their bioweapons and counter-intelligence activities?
I have been seeing occasional articles over the past few weeks claiming that a very high-level Chinese official with deep knowledge of China’s bioweapons and counter-intelligence activities has defected to the United States. I’m bringing the most recent of these articles to your attention not because I’m certain of the truth on this, but rather because the implications are so monumental if it does turn out to be on the whole true. Here’s a summary of what is being claimed about the nature and depth of information brought to the United States by this supposed defector.
Early pathogenic studies of the virus we now know as SARS-CoV-2
Models of predicted COVID-19 spread and damage to the U.S. and the world
Financial records detailing which exact organizations and governments funded the research on SARS-CoV-2 and other biological warfare research
Names of U.S. citizens who provide intel to China
Names of Chinese spies working in the U.S. or attending U.S. universities
Financial records showing U.S. businessmen and public officials who’ve received money from the Chinese government
Details of meetings U.S. government officials had (perhaps unwittingly) with Chinese spies and members of Russia’s SVR
How the Chinese government gained access to a CIA communications system, leading to the death of dozens of Chinese people who were working with the CIA
It is here that the Biblical text and our current situation depart company. For although the king is distracted by revelry and corrupted by contempt, he yet accepts that there are limits to his understanding. And further, he is willing to seek out the opinion of others outside his ideological circle for answers.
In this he is immensely superior to the cohort of ideologically lobotomized Progressives who now seek to impose their wicked wills on the rest of us. For them the idea that there are any limits to their knowledge, any blemishes on their morality, any mysteries beyond their ideology’s ability to explain is unthinkable. No, they are always absolutely correct, even when yesterday they were absolutely correct in asserting the exact opposite of what they are saying today. And, due to the assumed moral superiority of their goal there is no limit on what they feel empowered to do to ensure that their beliefs are put into practice.
Daniel 5:13-21
13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah? 14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.15 The wise men and enchanters were brought before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it. 16 Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
Who might we identify as the Daniel character in our contemporary nation? I say it is that group, small but brave, who are willing to speak up in defense of those national ideals that are under assault. For example, those of the left, right, center and other perspectives who argue in favor of free speech, two biological sexes, traditional marriage, colorblind racial policies and equality under the law.
But there is no encouragement from the Progressive Left of these perspectives. Rather there is vicious attacks on their characters, intellects and livelihoods, that is, cancellation. As the nation disintegrates under their policies with massively increasing crime, accelerating racial division, impending fiscal collapse, institutional incompetence and political disenfranchisement, they prattle on as if nothing but good can occur. They have not the slightest interest in seeking, let alone respecting any other opinion than that which they happen to find appealing today.
17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.
Daniel has no interest in the position of power offered by the king. Likewise those who support our traditional national ideals. Were those dissenters on the left, who are in general agreement with the Progressive’s direction primarily interested in power they would be “on the team” rather than critics. Were those on the right, center or other simply interested in power they would be busy triangulating and compromising rather than directly opposing.
18 “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor.19 Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. 20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. 21 He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.
Note that Daniel prepares the current king for what is to come by explaining how the king’s father was humbled by the “Most High God.” Yes, Nebuchadnezzar had experienced ultimate worldly power and prestige. But he let that incredible privilege go to this head, becoming “arrogant and hardened with pride.” And for that sin he was humiliated and humbled “until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.”
I see not the slightest evidence that our current crop of elite Progressive Leftists realize that there are any limits to their power, prestige or wisdom. They are behaving like two-year-olds high on sugar, running around and knocking down anything that gets in their way. Are they right in believing that there are no limits on their power, no end to their reign? No, that is the conclusion of fools.
This is an astute insight into how Identity Politics perverts the Christian foundation of our culture to build a new Satanic edifice. And yet, so brainwashed are many of our pastors that they enthusiastically embrace this heresy like a drowning person clutching at a floating straw.
The Reformed Sojourner 