To my Democratic/liberal brethren and assorted Progs, Bernie Bros and whatnot: seriously, things are getting way outta hand. I say this as a Christian, as a fellow citizen. I’d say this as just a concerned onlooker or a distant relation who has been called into a group intervention in this extended family we call America. It’s damn embarrassing what you’re doing to yourselves.
Damn embarrassing. And if you don’t do something quick, you’re going to jump over an electoral cliff and it’ll be too late. The dirty little secret is that we need a (sane) opposition party. Maybe two or three for that matter. If nothing else it keeps us honest. But at the rate you’re going we’ll be studying about you the same way we study the Whigs or the Know-Nothings.
Look, I get that Hillary got “3 million more votes” than Trump. Leaving aside the fact that there were hundreds of thousands –if not millions–of illegal votes by criminals, aliens and others not qualified to vote–the fact remains that we are a constitutional Republic. We always have been. That’s why some of our presidents have been elected by a minority: Lincoln, Wilson and Clinton spring instantly to mind. The Electoral College and all that.
But seriously; things are getting out of hand. The blind, murderous, white-hot rage y’all feel at the election of Orange Hitler has now been transformed to the people that voted for him. Dudes, these are your own countrymen we’re talking about.
Incidents of violence, even attempted murder, against those who you disdain, has got to stop. Case in point, the attempted slaughter of several dozen Republican Congressmen by James T Hodkinson III. You may say he was an extremist but in looking at his social media and the many letters to the editor he wrote over the years, his words were no different than any of the talking heads that appear day in and day out on CNN or MSNBC.
The inability of Progressive eminences to condemn him shows that we are veering close to the point of no return. Even people who should no better, like Nancy Pelosi, couldn’t help but beclown themselves in the wake of Rep Steve Scalise’s shooting. Not even 24 hours passed, when it was unclear whether he was going to live or die, and she had to go shooting off her fool mouth.
She’s got an excuse you could say. After all, she’s an elitist to the manor born and like all elitists, it’s her view that nature intended for people like her to lord it over the hoi polloi. But you’re different; you’re part of the great unwashed as well. And therein lies the rub: do you really want to take up arms against us? She and her ilk can agitate all they want against Trump but it’s you who is going to go to prison if you do something stupid. Or be killed.
Now I realize that as you continue to lose special elections for vacant Congressional seats, I predict that it’s only going to get worse. Why? Because Trump isn’t as unpopular as Richard Madcow or Liberal Joe and Mika tell you. They’re lying to you (and most probably themselves), reinforcing the cosmopolitan bubble that the Establishment has created in order to keep the peasants down. If you haven’t figured it out yet, their schtick is nothing more than propaganda. The peoples of the Soviet Union marinaded in it for decades. Our is just more subtle, the talking heads are more elegant.
Think about it. News is now simply a commodity and thus they can keep this charade going for years. It pays well. At least for the time being. When their corporate masters see the bottom line shrinking however, changes will be made. Look at what happened to ESPN.
And don’t forget that anyone of the glitterati you see on the Corporate Media make as much in a week as 95 percent of us make in a year. You don’t. So yeah, they’ve got a good gig going. The fact that they’re walking embarrassments doesn’t matter at least not for the foreseeable future. (Again, look at ESPN.)
But you, the average, enraged liberal, who sees his entire religion crumbling before his very eyes, you don’t got it good like they do. You’re subject to the same market forces that everybody else is. If you’re operating under the illusion that you’re still the majority and that Trump is literally Hitler and that the rest of us are Nazis, then you’re going to do something dangerous. And like Hodgkinson, you’re not going to like the results.
Unless you want a civil war, stop what you’re doing right now. (Helpful hint: we got more guns than you and we know how to use them.) Find a doctor and get on a benzodiazepine. Move to Oregon or California where you’ll be surrounded by other snowflakes. Take up origami. But for Chrissakes’ get a grip.
You lost, get over it. Otherwise, you’re going to keep on losing. And if you insist on doing something foolish, then we won’t be responsible for what happens next.
I have come to realize, that putting any hope into the political process, is fools gold. Unless one is part of the ultra rich, or dirt poor, neither party have anything to offer. No matter if Trump survives the next four years, or even eight, the Titanic is still going to sink. The culture war is over in the western world, and the Muslim keep popping out babies like rabbits.
Leave the hobby of following politics, and strictly follow The Christ of Orthodoxy, every else will let you down. Hunker down, strengthen your parishes, with love recruit as many as possible, win over not only the hearts, but their minds, as hearts will fade without the knowledge Orthodoxy has to offer. The war is lost, but by circling the wagons we will survive, and thrive in Christ for eternity. So the good news is in the end we win!
“After the fall, human history is a long shipwreck awaiting rescue:but the port of salvation is not the goal;it is the possibility for the shipwrecked to resume his journey whose sole goal is union with God.-Vladimir Lossky
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
What will it take for this to happen?
Don’t know what it might take others, but I have seen enough, and I won’t be fooled again!
“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”(Jesus Christ)Luke 18:29-30
Why not go to the Benedict Option, I think Ron Drieher has a point. I think George like the left things the solution is mainly political.
We’re reading The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher at church as our weekly book study, and I agree with you, Cynthia. It’s a stupendous book. I highly recommend it.
Our mission parish is putting on a 6 week course on “Christianity and Community” (the title was purposefully vague) based on the book. We wrap up the final class tomorrow. It was the first time we pulled in significant number of folks from outside the parish to one of our adult education classes (despite advertising them all), and it has obviously touched a nerve both inside and outside the parish. This is particularly true with parents who see the culture now as the real obstacle in raising their children in the faith. We have learned a lot in this first go around and plan on recording (and organizing notes/slides) the 2nd go around for other parishes who wish to do something similar…
Love the Lord thy God (easy He’s absolutely Perfect) and serve Him alone,( not always a smooth road, but it”s straight and narrow. Live by the Word of God, which is absolute Authority, which guides us perfectly to partake of the abundant life the Christ came here to give us. Don’t Tempt God, especially the Holy Spirit, at any cost. Nothing else will work. The politicos don’t even pretend to be interested in the Way of Peace, but are hell bent on slouching to Gomorrah riding that rough beast. Commentary on their journey tends to be depressing and is become very boring.
The Left would love for us to take the Benedict Option. But that is not what Christians have done historically. Monasticism arose in large part only after Christianity had taken over the empire and the monasticism was a seeking out of a deeper Christianity than the simple enforcement of Christian morality. The imposition of the Christian Law of God was a given. What the monastics sought was the deeper theosis of unity with God for which keeping the Law of God is a precondition:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
The Kingdom of God is theosis, one cannot possibly attain to the higher things in life until the lower things are taken care of. Thus, this world matters. We are not Gnostics who despise materiality. The Devil is the Prince of this World and so we live in the world, not of it. That is why we pray and fast and deny ourselves at the appointed times. But all was created good. Evil has no ontological reality. It is not a substance. The illusion is that the world is bad because it is under God’s Curse – the Curse of Perishability. We are condemned to die for the sin of our ancestors. We do not share their guilt, but the sentence is on all flesh. The whole world was made perishable by Adam’s sin.
Nonetheless, there have arisen Orthodox Christian Empires. First Rome was Christianized. Then the capital was moved to the City of Constantine. Lastly, after Constantinople fell, the mantle fell to Moscow, the Third Rome, which leads the Church on Earth at this time – the forces of good in the battle against the forces of the evil one.
Yet evil still animates the feminists and perverts in the West just as it does the Muslims who would destroy us or colonize us into dhimmitude. World War III is already afoot. There is no retreat. Retreat is surrender. Good luck with that. They are not taking prisoners, only reforming accomplices. Truth cannot be tolerated even in the conscience of traditional Orthodox by either the feminist/perverts or the Muslims. Formerly in Islam, Christians were tolerated. No more, no we are beheaded.
Can you not see that we have entered the last days?
Misha, I have been likewise beguiled by Dreher’s “Benedict Option” and find much to agree with it. However, there is a fatal flaw in it. Rather than criticize it myself, I direct any and all to watch this short critique from Church Militant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPzO6ZvQ5RQ
George,
What the fellow on Vortex says is true up to a point. However, he is part of the problem, not part of the solution. The problem is deeper than even he understands. Roman Catholicism is just another heresy alongside the various forms of Protestantism. It is their Evil Mother. Born in lies and devoid of grace, it festered in the West and had a legion of little evil minion offspring called Protestant sects.
Khomjakov was correct that Roman Catholics and Protestants are more like each other than they are the Orthodox.
https://www.archangelsbooks.com/articles/east_west/WesternConfessions_Khomiakov.asp?q=printme
Khomjakov goes a long way toward thoroughly discrediting “the Western Confessions” as he refers to them in the above response to a critique of the [Orthodox] Church.
So, George, I would say your Church Militant fellow has a point, but that the point should consume his heretical sect as well. And beware of lying down with dogs lest you get up with fleas.
Roman Catholicism has almost completely sold out to Progressive Liberalism and this pope is poised like no other to put the final silver bullet in the last spark of holiness in the Roman Heresy. I predict he will do so before his pontificate ends; i.e., that he will so corrupt the heretofore understood “Roman Catholic Faith” that it will be untenable by serious Christians. He has already fired a warning shot with Amoris Laetitia. In and of itself, it is largely irrelevant to us inasmuch as we have a decidedly different take on divorce and remarriage for cause. However, Francis has already signaled his feelings about homosexuality and Islam – he is quite open to both. “Who am I to judge?”
There is a tragic air to it all – Shakespearean.
And the “little evil minion offspring” are all the more culpable, as is the RCC, because they have always had before them the shining example of Orthodoxy, in all of its unity and missionary outreach.
Especially in the US, where persists the other error of freedom of religion. Freed from oppression, Orthodoxy has risen to the challenge, long since!
Or……not.
Tim,
Yes, “freedom” is the issue. Or, to be more precise “liberty”, freedom from government interference.
The problem Christian libertarians face is that something always occupies the field, i.e., something is always “offended” by Christianity such that either Christianity must give or libertarianism must give.
Christianity can be as tolerant as it wants to be, but not because it has to be. And it is dangerous to be too tolerant.
And now a word of encouragement to all the simpletons such as myself, who are just too dumb, or too old, or too tired to read Drehr, take up arms against the impending Moslem horde, or simply try to “love their wives as Christ loves the Church”:
Honestly, I have come to believe that it takes more faith, more commitment, and more humility to surrender to restraint.
Michael S. Absolutely agree with you here. Glory to God. I fundamentally mistrust any modern movement which is the status IMO of the followers of Rod’s book. Rod is an ernest and faithful man. I put no blame on him.
I trust in God’s mercy to lead us properly as the times unfold.
Well George, not sure you needed to link that bit of counter-reformation rhetoric to make your point! This “fatal flaw”, this “big tent” yet little “o” definition of “church” Rod uses is a problematic but mostly on a dialectical level I think. You yourself admit the Spirit is at work in what you call “ecumenism of the trenches”, and it is this spirit that Rod is reaching for in a human, non-perfect way. Indeed, it could be said that coming together (as it were) of little “o” orthodoxy in the nascent persecution is one way that God is working out a healing of sorts. This would be a faith statement however and a speculation (I am not a prophet obviously).
In the end, this aspect of the current cultural situation is something to note but I would be careful about overplaying any triumphalist, militant hand and declaring fatalism…
“Retreat is surrender” Says Misha. Sounds like something Judas might have thought before accepting his bag of silver, instead of trusting in Christ. At least Peter put away his sword at his Lord’s request and came to back to Christ asking and receiving forgiveness, while Judas hung from a tree forever cursed. He who live by the sword, dies by the sword, or becomes that what the sword destroys!
I see no place in theosis for abuse of women.
I doubt we will have the choice or the option. It will be the catecombs or the arena of the martyrs. Though in this age it is likely most such martyrdoms will occur in secret. Perhaps God will reward them openly.
The readiness is all. God is good, rejoice in His mercy.
Misha,
Yes, most of the early monasteries were formed not as a fleeing from persecution or from a pagan world. This is a very important point.
Rather, they were fleeing Christiandom. This is at the time and after St. Constantine. The early monks were fleeing a world where Christianity was in secular power and had become politicized. I find it so odd that so many “Christian” conservatives today seek just that. It wouldn’t suprise me if many monks in monasteries now are fleeing the politicization of Christianity that occurs in “Christian” conservatism.
Excuses, excuses, excuses . . . “fleeing Christendom”, “no place in theosis for the ‘abuse of women'”, “he who lives by the sword . . .”, etc., ad nauseum.
Incorrigible little beta-children.
A PRIVATE MESSAGE TO MISHA ONLY PLEASE
Dear Misha,
I wish there were a private message function on this blog. Perhaps our fellow respectful Orthodox will leave this message for your eyes only as hoped.
I believe we are in the same jurisdiction. You have the gift of zeal and the desire to support Orthodoxy. I have been concerned by some of what I have read, brother in Christ. May I simply ask you to consider, for the good of your soul, our jurisdiction, Orthodoxy itself and any newcomers heeding the call to “come and see” Orthodoxy by visiting this blog:
Please print out all your commentary postings in which you interpret scripture or the Fathers yourself, apply selected passages of the Fathers yourself, speak in any way about women and how they should be treated, and use various nicknames for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Please leave out none of these; present in toto to your Confessor. Please ask for his candid response.
I am praying for you, brother in Christ, to discover how Christ and Panagia truly treat us with love and respect for our free will, how they behaved on the planet, and how they wish us to think and behave toward one another, both male and female, both Orthodox and not yet Orthodox, both in marriage and out. If we all did this, Misha, I believe our priests would be better equipped to help us heal from our own wounds, help us become and sound more Christ-like, more full of mercy as well as truth, and win souls for Christ. I certainly need that myself.
Your prayers please,
Nicole
Nicole,
No doubt I have been belligerent in my tone from time to time, for which I have apologized as I thought appropos. And no doubt my use of such invectives as “filthy whores” was edgy to the point of making many cringe.
But, alas, the fact of the matter is that the underlying dynamic of American life is precisely as I have described it and the radical nature of my jolting interaction is really only a (perhaps futile) attempt to shock or disorient people out of their near catatonic complacency.
Nearly 60 million unborn children have had an end to their lives imposed by feminism since Roe. A human being too young to formulate concepts suddenly felt excruciating, horrific physical and emotional anguish to the nth degree as over a few moments its conscious existence was torn from it, fading . . . . to . . . black.
60 million in the Unites States alone. That’s not counting the rest of the world. That’s not counting the failed marriages, broken homes, economic disorder, homelessness, developmental disorders and the secondary effects of the “gansta” cultural responses to feminism and the drug problem of those trying to escape femtopia.
…
It is not about your feelings. It is about the effects of feminism. Feminism is a satanic ideology. It has insidiously inserted itself into Western life over the decades since WWII. It comes straight from the devil himself, as it could have no other source or pedigree.
…That is the unvarnished truth.
Seriously, Mr. Michalopulos, we must endure being called fags, idiots, heretics, and be subject to Scott’s Netflix & vampire movie prophecies – let alone his blasphemy against the Holy Fathers – on a daily basis, yet now we are asked to politely “stand aside” while Nicole counsels him? Get them a room. Pass his email along. He has dramatically announced his own blog twice, and I have offered him help – sincerely and with Christian love – numerous times, and he has responded to me with nothing short of abusive language. Move along, both of you. The unvarnished truth is that he has free rein on this site and nothing but time on his hands. You can enable him privately on Facebook, Nicole. He can tell you all about, “how to defeat Islam. You will recoil in horror at my tactics…” Pardon me, but who cares?
“Pardon me, but who cares?”-M. Stankovich. I do when Misha/Scott advocates, murder in the name of Christ. Newcomers to Monomakhos yearning to learn more about Orthodoxy, and the politics behind it, like myself a couple years ago, should not be exposed to such blasphemy, especially those considering converting to Orthodoxy. Lines have been crossed before, but killing in the name of Christ has no place on any type of blog that I want to associate with.
So yes I care, when Misha/Scott, who has written articles for Monomakhos, amounts to roughly 25% of all comments on Monomakhos, is enabled, and given 99% free reign by George, and thus will simply lower Monomakhos to just another ” violent, pissed off and grumpy old white man blog”!
Dino,
Calm down. I said that was probably what it would come down to. That is one of those “If all things keep going in the same way they are indefinitely” statements. It is not exactly like I’m getting a team together.
Actually, if you think about it, the mind experiment was designed to save lives, not take them. We should always prefer to convert Muslims. But they grow evermore insistent that they have the right to impose shariah everywhere.
Something will give.
Assuming Misha’s “mind experiment” was on the order of a religio-science fiction alternative history, rather than an actual proposal, thus perhaps redeeming the exercise, it is interesting to think about the Reconquest of Andalusia by the Spaniards. The process took many generations, and was characterized by forced conversion of Moslems to Christianity; although a better word would be “compelled” by the alternative of expulsion, rather than the sword. A rather significant difference, indeed, but still compulsion.
One problem was that the Spaniards became suspicious of the effectiveness of these conversions, which ultimately led to the Inquisition.
Otherwise the Reconquest was completely successful.
Is there any other historical example of a genuine reconquest from Muslims of a significant nation with the concomitant permanent elimination of Islam? I don’t think the Balkans fit the case.
Tim,
Sometimes the losing sovereign in wars also lost his faith’s claim on the conquered realm. Think of Harold of England, for example:
https://orthodoxwiki.org/Harold_of_England
Also, when St. Vladimir converted to Christianity, he issued an edict to all his people essentially saying that if they did not want to become enemies of the state, they would go down to the river and accept baptism, thereafter, pagan religious practices were suppressed. – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kievan-Rus.
There is a recent book out about this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=WfV0AQAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
St. Vladimir, of course, was not a saint from the get go. He saw the splendor and grandeur of the Byzantine court and probably thought that on that basis, Christianity seemed like a good idea. Then he ordered his people to convert and began distributing necessities and largesse as is the Christian custom.
We like to think that the better argument prevails in democracy and evangelism. Islam is a testament to the fact that this is not true.
God works in mysterious ways, no doubt.
But the plain fact of the matter and the bottom line is that Vladimir (the name coming from the Swedish royal house “Waldemar”, traces of Rjurik), decided Christianity suited him for whatever reason and imposed it on the Rus’, which today you can find on a map as the increasingly Christian state of the Russian Federation and as Belarus and the Ukraine.
Misha/Scott,
Ironic that you would tell me to calm down. No where in your murderous post do you say that “things would probably come down to” instead you say-
“I will tell how to defeat Islam.” and follow with “Here’s how you defeat Islam from today forward. I will formulate something for the defeat of The Feminist Borg in later posts.”
You are a back peddling liar. You might know The Bible better than I, and what The Holy Fathers have written better than I, but spiritually you are still a child, with romantic thoughts of wars for the righteous. Thus I will tell you a story that I was told as a child, by my father, told by his father, when children have murder in their hearts, and thoughts about revenge and war. This story coming from a man who suffered much at the hands of the Muslims, and Communists. I never knew if the story was true, but what matters is the message.
During the Greek War of Independence a Greek soldier was to wed his soon to be wife Maria, before setting off to battle. After they married, family and friends went to The Plaka(town square) to honor and feast with the newly wed couple. During the dinner, a platoon of Ottoman soldiers came into the town, and came upon the couple. The Captain of the platoon, without word or warning, came upon the Groom, dressed in his uniform and struck him with his sword, killing him immediately. The villagers fled in horror, Maria the only one left in The Plaka, lay on the ground holding her life-less
husband, while hearing the screams of The Captain’s orders to his troops as they left the Plaka as well.
After burying her husband Maria decided to become a nun, and serve as a nurse during the war. The nuns would nurse both Greek and Turk. One day Maria heard the screams of another injured soldier, except these screams she recognized apart from the others, because these screams were that of the The Captain who murdered her husband.
Maria came upon The Captain, and immediately recognized him. Her first reaction was delight, witnessing his suffering and pain. Her second reaction was to kill him the following morning. In her sleep that night, the most blessed and merciful of all woman, The Theotokos, whom Maria was named after, came to Maria, and spoke the lessons of forgiveness, love and mercy her son taught. Her salvation would be heavily judged from the decision she would make that morning.
That morning as she came upon the murderer of her husband,there next to his bed, a pillow with which she could suffocate her patient, and a bucket of cold water with a sponge to cool off the Captain from the fever burning up his body. Without a second thought she fervently tended The Captain with cold sponge, and stood by him all day, and all night, cooling him, until the fever broke.
That following morning, The Captain opened his eyes while Maria was still by his side sponging him back to health. Immediately he recognized her. At first he did not know if he was still dreaming, as he had many nightmares during his fever, of all those he had murdered. Was Maria there to avenge her husband, and all those he had killed in his past? If so, why was she cooling me with cold sponge, and not killing me in the same manner I killed her husband?
When he summoned the courage to speak, he asked Maria, “Do you not recognize me, sister?” To which she replied,”Yes you are the murderer of my husband, and the road to my salvation.” “How can that be, merciful sister, please tell me more about this road to salvation? ” Asked the confused Muslim Captain, who from that day forward would never be a Muslim again…
…and that is how enemies are vanquished. That is what real power looks like.
God bless you Brian. I was beginning to feel like the odd man out on this site. You have always impressed me by your Christ like behavior and thoughts. Perhaps it’s time for me to move on.
I could never imagine union with God with blood stained hands. Could you imagine our Lord saying:”Job well done good and faithful servant, you have killed well, come and enter….
Dino,
There are times when the better part of me knows that much of what occurs here is bad for the soul, but please do stay for the sake of those who come to this as an Orthodox site. You encourage me. Doubtless you encourage others as well.
I should add that my comment should not be taken as being indicative of pacifism. Government doesn’t bear the sword for nothing, and sometimes Christians are enlisted by the government. Nor do I deny that there are ‘necessary evils’ (for lack of a better term). What I do deny – and hopefully will go to my grave denying – is the idea that the necessity of ‘necessary evils’ makes them somehow good. Evil is evil regardless of how ‘necessary’ it is, and we delude ourselves if we think otherwise.
But having said this, I equally delude myself if I think that because my own hands are clear of blood I have no part in the blood that is shed by others. The soldier and the policemen who are called to resist evil by means of the sword protect me and my family (political nonsense aside). My taxes (which I do not resist paying) pay their salaries and supply their weapons. It is right to honor these servants and to give thanks that my own psyche has been spared the terrible task and burden to the soul that is the killing of other human beings.
The Church both honors their service and provides healing penances for those who kill, even if out of ‘necessity’ or defense of the Church. But she has never confused the tragic result of our common fall into sin with what is good, nor does she confuse the legitimate role of the state with her own role of saving the souls in her care.
Brian,
Regardless if we pay our taxes or not, our Government will still do what they do. For the most part we are powerless to stop them, and the propaganda machine that comes with them. The masses nod their head, because the man on the TV said it is good and right. The blood on our hands comes upon us individually, literally, mentally, and, spiritually. Honoring the foot soldier, or the police that deal with the trash and horrors of the world should be honored, agreed.
I am not a pacifist. A line was crossed into the discussion of whether genocide would be an option to cure us of the radical Islamic terrorist problem. No doubt this is how the seed of The Jewish Final Solution in Nazi Germany or The Orthodox Problem, in The Soviet Union was brought forward, and supported. Convince the masses that our survival, and way of life, relies upon the complete destruction of the other religion, and all our problems will go away. After all the murder by both governments, they are back to where they started, except the blood of the innocent will always be on their hands. Their history will always be blood stained. It is so idiotic, and evil yet here we are discussing it, on a Orthodox majority attended Web site. Ironic how the once oppressed now discuss becoming the oppressors! The worm has turned, and come full circle. Sad indeed!
Of all here, I most identify with you, Brian. This comment should not put me into the beta male, faggotry category, as many “tough guys” here would label, just is what it is. I appreciate the sanity you bring to this site. God bless, brother in Christ!
That is very sweet.
Now, suppose the Captain got up and raped her.
I’m reminded of the story told in Natural Born Killers about the old lady and the rattlesnake:
An old woman finds a rattlesnake by the road that is injured. She feels sorry for it, picks it up and takes it back home. She cleans its wound, feeds it, bandages it up. She nurses it back to health. When the snake is healthy and ready to be released, she picks it up and carries it over to the door. As she places it outside the door, the snake turns around and bites her on the ankle. As the venom courses through her old veins toward her loving heart to still it, she looks with sad weeping disappointed eyes upon the recalcitrant rattler.
“How could you do this to me?”
And it replies, matter of factly,
“Look…you knew I was a snake . . . “
A snake has no conscience. Humans do. Though sometimes I wonder about you.
Interesting George, your friend can bark out offensive comments all day, every day, but my short comment gets censored. Katalava Adelfos Mou. If it makes you happy, you may remove the last word from that comment.
Dino, Misha, Michael, Gail, Dr S, Mikhail, Anon, et al:
You will have noticed that I have moderated several comments from several people. Rest assured y’all aren’t the only ones. Some comments have not been released, others have had certain phrases deleted.
You know the drill.
Seriously, all of us need to take a deep breath and stop reading things that aren’t there. We also need to understand that analogies are not perfect. Yes, we are animals (Darwin told us so) but are we not also “rational sheep”? Otherwise why do we need a Good Shepherd?
As for Misha’s startling war-gaming, don’t think that higher-ups in the military aren’t thinking these things. Remember “Operation Jade Helm”? What do you think that was all about? More will be said about this later.
Do I believe in forced conversion? Not at all! But if you don’t want to be in the position we are in the Middle East there is only one solution: Get out of the Middle East! Stop destabilizing the local governments. Deport all the migrants back to Syria. Keep the populations separate.
Will we do this however? I’d like to think so but for some reason we are beholden to Wilsonian internationalism, the fantasy that all nations and civilizations are equal.
Anyway, enough for now. I believe in free speech and robust debate. (If you didn’t know it by now, I’m a First Amendment Absolutist, hence my admiration for the late Christopher Hitchens.) All I ask is that we try to keep things civil and to the point. And please, let’s not accuse each other of saying things that we didn’t say.
And thank you for your insights, comments and lively debate. I like it here and I hope that y’all do as well.
Good night and God bless!
Dino, that’s a beautiful story, thank you for sharing.
Joseph, you are very welcome. Please share it with as many as you can/wish, and please forgive me if I have offended you in the past. My choice of words are not always well chosen.
To all those who believe it’s time for conversations for” The Final Solution” of The Islamic faith’s fate. May I suggest our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount? Perhaps a quick review of The Beatitudes?
Especially:
“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will called sons of God”
“Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”
And best of all:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward is great in Heaven”
Yes I understand,”Dino you are so simple minded” say The Great Theologians of Monomakhos. I say the world is much more gray, than black and white, which is why I also stay out of the Homo and trangender debates. “Remove thy plank from thy eye” and all that. Just like the transgender who thinks all will be well when they change the outer shell, completely ignoring the inner soul. we dance around the great sins of society , while never looking inward.
Dino, historically Islam has only been stopped by force of arms. Prior to this iteration of the jihad, it was quite clear and there was moral dilemma in using deadly force to stop it.
Islam was a scourage and a threat to everything holy.
In our egalitarian secular age with historically low testosterone levels, nothing is holy and only the leftists, the jihadists and criminals have the will to fight.
Nothing energizes like ideology it seems.
There are times when evil must be stopped physically. The Old Testament is full of such examples. Luke 22:38 seems to suggest a place for it in Christianity unless I have it all wrong.
The question then becomes how much force and under what circumstances?
I find Misha’s thought experiment, assuming that is what it is, lol extreme but it is a question that needs to be addressed, personally and corporately. It is a question that requires a lot of contemplation.
Pacifism (not to be confused with martyrdom) has no natural home in Orthodoxy. Modern religious pacifism is largely a product of deterministic faiths. It can even take on the quality that Islam, for instance, is a punishment on we Christians and should not be resisted.
Michael,
I would prefer to convert them. In fact, regardless of whether it’s possible to convert them all, we should endeavor to convert as many as humanly possible before relying on other tactics.
But there are only three ways to deal with Islam: Convert, Kill, Surrender
That’s it. They give us no other choices.
Conversion requires their cooperation. Good luck with that. I will endeavor myself to deconstruct Islam along the same lines as St. Gregory Palamas did using the Word/Spirit commonality to reason them out of their darkness. But it is darkness – utter darkness.
And surrender means dhimmitude which is well documented and a disgrace to Christus Victor.
I sincerely believe that Christ-God Himself gave us viable alternatives. My take on the New Testament witness and the consensus of the Fathers is that killing in war is not counted as murder, to paraphrase St. Basil. Christ was laying down civil rules for life in civil society or under occupation where there was no serious possibility of freedom. And He made copious use of hyperbole as well, which is often misunderstood.
To understand the saints, one must put oneself in their place. In the early years, resistance was futile in any case. Later, the circumstances of martyrdom were usually that of the powerful taking advantage of the powerless; i.e., non-violence was the weapon of choice. One could escape, of course, as Christ did at times. But the odds were not in favor of the good guys and so, having a robust faith in the afterlife, they fought with the only weapon they had – their spirits which would either prevail or be released to a heavenly repose.
That may well be necessary again. And it is happening right now in the Middle East. And that is not even slowing down ISIS and al-Qa’ida. Bombs and artillery slow them down, martyrs, not so much.
There is a God. He is real. I believe in Him.
There is also an Evil One. He is not a god, but a fallen angel. Yet he is the “prince of this world” and has quite a bit of power here. God has granted Satan, and us, free will. Only God knows where the real limits are drawn and what He is willing to allow and when and how He will push back and take the victory.
But He will.
I have personally witnessed two conspicuous miracles within the last year. They were only a few days apart. I saw on two separate occasions things happen which cannot happen under my understanding of the laws of physics. They involved food and water. The necessities of life. It was gaudy and shocking and it happened right in front of my eyes and part of me was jolted and couldn’t believe it at first but I knew it was true.
I’m sure I have at least a loose grasp of what is going on in the world and we are definitely heading toward the eschaton.
Misha, many from Islam are being converted. The Coptic priest, Fr. Boutros Zacharia who has a price on his head brings many to Christ, unless you reject his work because he is a Copt.
I have read stories of direct conversions through a visitation by Jesus Himself.
Muslims convert when they realize the lies of Islam. They have to be confronted with those lies.
Are we willing to do that? Even from a safe place.
You’re talking about forced conversion, Misha, i.e. to fight unbelievers until they are either converted, dead or in a permanent state of subjugation. This came right out of the Islamic playbook: https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/forced-conversion.aspx
Is that who we want to become? Some “knock-off” version of the enemy? Because I think God would have all kinds of problems with this, beginning with the fact that we feel the need to take matters into our own hands rather than rely on His providence. Not one of His Apostles or Saints picked up a sword to convert the enemy and neither will I. As a matter of fact, you’ll need to kill me (and others like me) if you insight people to move in this direction because I will stand directly in front of you. Will you kill me, too, Misha? How far would you go? I’d like a direct answer to this question.
Wars are conflicts between nations and state. When you cross over into religious ideologies, it becomes a battle of principalities and we must fight it God’s way:
Wisdom of Solomon 5:17-20: “17 The Lord will take his zeal as his whole armor, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies; 18 he will put on righteousness as a breast plate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet; 19 he will take holiness as an invincible shield, 20 and sharpen stern wrath for a sword, and creation will join with him to fight against his frenzied foes.”
I don’t see a lot of us preparing for this battle.
Gail,
When you look at what is happening in Western Europe as well as the spread of Islam in the United States and the so-called “terrorist” incidents, you should come to the conclusion, based on what Islam has always taught as the substance of its religious faith, that Muslims in their adherance to Islam intend to conquer the world, by force if necessary (and it is and always will be necessary).
The religion from its inception, unlike Christianity, extolled violence as a means of propagation. The Islamic conquests of its early centuries are well documented. There is no comparable phenomenon in Christianity in any period of its history. Even the Crusades were not the initiation of violence but merely a response to the fact that Muslims had overtaken such vast territories previously controlled by Christians.
Jihad is essentially a sixth pillar of Islam and if you knew anything about Islamic law you would recognize that. It is an integral part of their religion in exactly the same way as evangelism is a part of Christianity. “Go forth and baptize all nations . . . ” was Christ’s command to His apostles and followers to spread the Gospel. Muhammad’s false gospel was from very early on – just as soon as he realized that Jews and Christians would largely reject him – mandated to be spread by violent conquest.
In Islamic law, there are three statuses of territory on earth: The House of Islam (wherein Islam and sharia are dominant), the House of War/Conflict (territories not controlled by Muslims but by unbelievers, including the People of the Book [Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians/Parsees], and later on, in some schools of Islamic Jurisprudence, the House of Treaty (temporary arrangements where Muslims sign accords with non-Muslim entities until the Muslims have the material strength to overtake them). The House of Treaty is a cloudy concept but is based on temporary treaties that Muhammad made during his lifetime motivated by pure expediency. He did not at that time have the military means to impose Islam on those with whom he made these agreements.
Islam’s sole function from its inception has been to conquer the world by force if need be. Islamic law cannot be changed by all accounts. It is fixed and immutable according to their own scholars and the “doors of interpretation” were closed after the last of the four schools of Sunni Islam was established and all contingencies had been reasoned out under the reasoning of sharia.
You need not take my word for this. You can research it for yourself.
We are dealing with a Monster. A Monster composed of believing little monsters. They are Amalek, Grendal, whatever you want to call them. And they cannot be contained because their ideology is stronger than Western Secular Humanism – Progressive Liberalism. We see that in the news every single day.
The only people who have been successful at containing them are the Russians and, to a lesser extent, the Chinese. That is because they are authoritarian societies where the central sovereign can act with firm resolve and both these societies have not been terminally weakened by feminism and excessive concern for collateral damage and “human rights”.
The Russians waged a quasi-genocidal war on the rebellious Chechens until one of their leaders (Kadyrov) rose up and imposed an ideology of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) upon his people as the only accceptable form of Islam. Sufism is their “internal jihad”, the counterpart of our Hesychasm. Basically, Putin forced them to amputate “external jihad” from their religion and did so with the compulsion of the prospect of genocidal extermination, at which he made a running start. This was a similar dynamic to the one which had to be used against the Japanese to end the war against them. They worshiped the Emperor and were fatalistic and had to be convinced that their entire culture and ethnicity would be wiped out if they did not surrender before they would even consider it.
That is the world we live in, like it or not. Strong men are able to face it and deal with it as it is. But the beta males and Hillary’s of the world simply are too weak and spiritually enfeebled to even begin to deal in these conceptions and so they are a menace to the continuation of Christian society.
WWIII for all intents and purposes began in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran returned to his home country from his Parisian exile and began the Islamic Revival. The state he founded is named “The Islamic Republic”. Notice, it does not have “Iran” in the title of its name. The reason is that like Sunni Islam, Shiite Islam teaches that the Islamic nation must expand in all directions to engulf the world and so borders are always temporary matters.
There are some differences between Shiite and Sunni Islam which can be exploited by Christians in the course of the War, but both are hell bent on conquering every last square inch of Earth and imposing their resepective versions of sharia on everyone without exception.
Again, you do not have to take my word for it. Research it and you will find that it is true. Jihad is often not counted technically as one of the “five pillars” of Sunni Islam although in Shiism it is counted as one of the ten “Practices of Religion”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini
“As important as jihad was, it was/is not considered one of the ‘pillars of Islam’. According to one scholar (Majid Khadduri, this is most likely because unlike the pillars of prayer, fasting, etc., jihad was a ‘collective obligation’ of the whole Muslim community,’ (meaning that ‘if the duty is fulfilled by a part of the community it ceases to be obligatory on others’), and was to be carried out by the Islamic state.[67] This was the belief of ‘all jurists, with almost no exception’, but did not apply to defense of the Muslim community from a sudden attack, in which case jihad was and “individual obligation” of all believers, including women and children.[67]” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad
Wiki is just the easiest online source. Do not trust their spin or opinions of the significance of things but read the articles and the sources and search on your own. You will find that every word I have written here is true and you can take it to the bank.
Islam is a time bomb. It won’t explode all at once unless there is some “Grand Finale” near the end of the conquest(s). They move by immigration as well as expansion of their official territory. The are prolific, their women reproduce at a much greater rate than Christians or post-Christians.
It is simply a matter of time – a short time.
In the meanwhile, what we have to look forward to is more “terror attacks” and more apostasy of the secular/feminstic Borg in the West which merely assists the ummah in its designs.
There are no “terrorists”. “Terrorism” is not a problem. Terrorism is merely a tactic that can be used by anyone.
Islam is the problem.
One more thing…and make no mistake about this:
All gods are jealous gods. That is true of the One God who actually exists as well. When a new lion comes to take over a pride, sometimes one or more of the lionesses will challenge him indirectly as he kills the old cubs to make room for his own. The lionesses, however, never stand directly in his way because they know what he knows to be true:
He wouldn’t hesitate to kill the lioness if she tried to stop him and he is, by God given design, quite willing and able to do so.
Christ Himself is the Lion of Judah and He will defeat feminism, one way or another.
Heard you loud and clear Misha. You would kill me and others like me. In your Neanderthal mind you think “we” are yours and you would kill us and our children to take over “your” pride, populate it with “your” protege and defend it. The problem is, we are neither yours nor are we part of your animal kingdom. You would be the lion going back into the jungle with his tail between his legs, as none of us would have you.
Don’t condescend to me. I know about the dangers of Islam. I just think your fantasies on how to defeat them are juvenal. However, your greatest liability is that you don’t have God on your side. You habitually twist and distort the teachings of His Church. Without God’s help even the most brilliant plan would fail and yours are far from brilliant.
I am really surprised George posted this. I am shocked.
Gail, Agreed 100 percent! Except Saint Constantine, might have had a little blood on his hands, especially when crushing Paganism.
Lord forbid we become, that what became of Serbians, after Yugoslavia dismantled. Wholesale killing of woman, children, and babies. Yes murder on both sides! But what would have distinguished us from them, is lost forever as the world watched Serbian Orthodox Christians, behaving just as barbaric( perhaps worse) as Muslims.
In conversations of the past, I had with relatives, during that conflict, I would state/ believe, that I would stand in front of a Muslim child, before allowing a Serbian Orthodox’s bullet, to kill her. Thank God, I have never had to make that choice!
Dino, your arguments are not invalid but please don’t fall into the trap of what the Serbs supposedly did after the fall of Yugoslavia. Much of what we were shown on CNN was contrived and shown in the worst possible light.
Indeed, the anti-Christ NWO signaled its intentions when it purposely bombed Serbia on Orthodox Easter. All I’m saying is that there’s more than meets the eye regarding the entire Yugoslavia breakup; it wasn’t all Serbia=bad/everybody else=victims. Far from it.
George is right here, Dino. Surely the experience of the Greeks under the Turks taught them something. I don’t doubt that some Serbs did commit atrocities during the fighting. I knew a Serbian lady whose father was a Chetnik during WW II. He told her, ” In war, nobody’s hands are clean.”
I think what happened to the Serbs caused many Greeks and Greek Americans to reconsider just how real their Western friends are.
Even non-Orthodox peoples like the Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians have awakened.These people have survived the Nazis and Communists. They are not about to be meekly led to the slaughter by the Islamo-Nazis.
Actually, the Czechs and Poles were among the first victims of WW II. The Czechs were given to Hitler on a silver platter in Munich. The Poles were the first country to be invaded by Hitler and his then-ally, Stalin. Finally, both these peoples and the rest of Eastern Europe were handed to Stalin on a silver platter. Greece narrowly escaped this fate; while Finland, while never turning Communist, was obliged to maintain a friendly policy towards the Soviets. They could have no anti-Soviet parties and were obligated to return escapees to the USSR.Any person who DID escape had to make his way to Sweden before being truley free.
George, I get it, trust me. Nearly twenty five years ago CNN WAS a bit more respected, of course now we know better. I also remember the NWO could care less when a million Rwandans were killed about the same time period. A far greater genocide, but little was done. Right or wrong is not the question, it’s where NWO, and this nation’s interests lie. Clinton needed to keep his Islamic brothers happy, just like our nation needed to keep the Turks happy, during Cypress conflict, in 1974. We like our missiles in Turkey, after all.
I agree our nation chose the wrong side. BUT! Someone did kill a lot of Muslim civilians, instead of shipping them off to Muslim territories. Yes the majority were young boys and men(fighting ages) but in many cases woman and children were slaughter. Most likely back and forth reprisals. Still we should not make excuses for murderers regardless if they are Orthodox, or not.
Michael Bauman, I read your post three times. Why so vague? Do tell what you really believe , at least Misha doesn’t hide his thoughts.
We have been killing Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan for fifteen years now, and now our bombs are dropping in Syria, not enough? Wholesale widespread killings and conversions is now the topic?
Conversations, “questions that need to addressed, personally and corporately, “about Christ approved genocide? Count me out.
Dino, conversatiom about the use of deadly force. It will have to be used unless we just capitulate. Not just against Muslims BTW.
I have a Colt 1911 semi-auto hand gun. A powerful weapon. If I start carrying it I have to be ready to kill or it’s worse than useless.
Personally I think this whole Muslim mess could have been significantly less if LBJ had carpet bombed the Beka Valley or at least found a way to take out Yassar Arafat after his thugs hijacked the Achille Laro and murdered Leon Klinghoffer.
Politically the spirit of Neville Chamberlain directs our foreign policy.
The question is how much violence am I willing to use if I am directly threatened and how much vilolence are we corporately willing to use.
Misha presents nearly the extreme. Frankly, it is one potential political option. I don’t like it because of the forced conversions.
Islam is an evil force that wishes us subjagated or dead. Islam is not compatible with our political-economy or our faith. The corporate wisdom of the ancestors of the founders of my parish is: Don’t trust them.
It really does not matter what I decide except to me and my family. How far are you willing to go to fight Islam? Guns or martrydom? The Orthodox Church has no doctrinal position. We each have to decide and prepare. Simply rejecting Misha’s idea is not enough.
Preparation is necessary in either case.
Christ is Risen!
Michael Bauman, I have many weapons, but they are only to be used in a defensive manner, to protect immediate family and friends. I never plan on using them in a offensive manner, to steal, or destroy that which is not mine to take, like a soul. Please also read my response to Gail.
Dear to Christ Dino, your position is honorable and worthy. Apart from glad and willing martyrdom, however, it seems to me that sometimes defense is not enough to defeat an aggressive, lethal enemy which knows only that might makes right and who will not quit without being brought to heel and shown that the god and prophet they follow are impotent and fallacious. For this its either the blood of the martyrs or a concerted plan to destroy that enemy. As for the blood of the martyrs, it was effective in the end because of Constantine’s conversion. So what will it take for the Shah of Iran or the King of Saudi Arabia to turn to Christ? Will it be surrender, martyrdom and continued worldwide dhimmitude? an aggressive opposition? the return of Christ Himself?
lxc
Lexcaritas, Trust in Christ. Did Judas trust in Christ? No, he desired rebellion. Did Jesus trust The Father? Did he expect his executioners to witness his miracles and follow him, and when that did not work, did he kill his executioners, or accept his Father’s will to the cross. Did his Apostles convert with the sword. No! They converted with The Way, The Truth, and The Light!
We as Christians, especially Orthodox Christians are set apart from the world, and expected to live our lives, far apart from this fallen world in so many aspects, yet for some reason many seem so anxious to go on the offensive to convert or kill. I understand we must defend, and go after the small percentage of Muslims that are Islamic terrorist, that have chosen a life of death, and for that matter any criminal or terrorist of any religion, but wholesale killing of innocents is a great crime and sin, especially when committed in the name of Christ!
Who is to lead this charge? Did our Lord come down from Heaven and sound the trumpet of war? Did I miss it? Many believe our Lord’s return is coming sooner, than later. What will take for The Shah of Iran or The King of Saudi Arabia to convert to Christ? The return of Christ perhaps, but I doubt even that. Look at the Jews, when they were face to face with their messiah, most thought it better to spit, torture, and crucify him, than to follow him. It is written: “If they do not listen to Moses and The Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”(John 5:31)
Dear Dr. MS (in reply, I hope!):
No FB for me, too time-consuming and distracting, hence no PM, just endlessly absorbed in reading instead! Had hoped by my intro, you and all would just skip right over my message to Misha and his reply if he chose to give one, thus redeeming your time and looking away from a quiet interaction between two people. Even at a big party, there can be brief stepping aside to a quiet corner for a private word. Usually physical distance and body language signal the wish for privacy, so I “used my words” instead. I usually stay away from big parties (and blogs with comments), so promise that will be a rarity.
All the best to you in your challenging work for Christ and those made in His image who are suffering and God be with you in your personal life,
Your prayers please,
Nicole
I pray you’ll stop catering to narcissists like Misha who crave the attention. This is the internet, what you post is there for the world to see. I took George to task once when another narcissist, Michael Warren, was savaging Bishop Tikhon. I really didn’t expect thanks from the retired bishop, but in typical liberal gratitude, His Grace savaged me for my conservative opinions. Nonetheless, I pray for him daily.
‘I read something today that I did find stunning informative. The Sun shall be darkened and the moon will not give it’s light. This infallible Holy Scripture has always left me clueless. The scripture says the time will come to destroy those who destroyed the earth. The shadow government scientists claim they can create a Pinatubo scale volcanic eruption with their climate control weapons. They can also claim this will cause global warming to reverse as the sunlight is blocked day and night. I believed the scripture that the Holy God could do it with a meteor strike or natural volcanic eruption. But, it is more likely now, that evil men will cause it. It seem seemly to me that the wrath of God is to allow evil mankind to destroy itself, after persecuting His people and rejected the Truth.
Also, in the Book of Revelation this passage: 6:12
“I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the SUN BECAME BLACK AS SACKCLOTH OF HAIR, AND THE MOON LIKE BLOOD.”
Here, in The Book of Revelation like so many things in this Book we are looking at
a metaphorical meaning. Interpretation I have heard is that this will be the “emotional state of mankind” when the Lord returns. When all the heathens heretics and apostates, Democrats liberals and regressive progressives, neoconservatives and neoliberals and Deep State operatives, all those who war against God, and and, we are all sinners, honest church going Republican conservatives as well, we all have skeletons and plenty of them, indeed, Revelation warns us ALL. The moon “blood orange” that sure does conjure up some sad remorseful image of how so many will feel deep inside their souls when living life so prideful and so self sufficient putting all their stock into the “princes of this earth” …. and forgetting the Lord!
Further in Chapter 6:
“And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GE-sfEbJ7I
Sheep rock.
You will weep for the rocks and the mountains
when the stars begin to fall.
I will tell you how to defeat Islam. You will recoil in horror at my tactics but something like it will be done in the end if we are to prevail over them. You can see the Rightist parties slowly gaining ground in Europe and the way the climate has changed here in America. As the al-Qa’ida/ISIS type terrorist attacks continue and grow ever bolder and more voluminous, the popular mindset will change.
In war, we always tend to become in some ways more like our enemies. It is certainly true in the middle and late 20th century that we became more socialistic and totalitarian during the pre-WWII and post-WWII periods where Marxists, National Socialists and finally the Soviet Union were our enemies.
We will now become more fiercely religious, as our enemies are fiercely religious.
Here’s how you defeat Islam from today forward. I will formulate something for the defeat of the Feminist Borg in later posts.
The Muslims imagine us to be Zionist-Crusaders. Heretofore we have declined to behave like Crusaders. “Be careful what you wish for, for you will surely get it.”
We should revive the Sacred Order of the Dragon of St. George, one of the last “Crusader” orders founded by a Serb in the 14th century. We should be open to all the fiercest tactics used against the Muslims during the Crusades on an as needed basis. Orthodox Christianity has no “Just War” doctrine, despite constructive assertions to the contrary. This does not mean that we do not engage in warfare. What it means is that we are not at all restricted in warfare by the theories of St. Augustine (who is an Orthodox saint, but not an Orthodox Church Father) as to the declaration of war and its conduct once it is underway. Nor should we be. All methods that were given by God to the Israelites, including “herem”/”the ban” are permitted to Orthodox Christians. Our episcopacy should be clear about that and that Islam has incurred the curse of Amalek – a tribe condemned to be eradicated by God in the Old Testament.
Now is the perfect time. We start with the military of one Islamic country where we have a decisive military presence and can control the certain backlash from what I am going to suggest.
You arrange for a meeting of the higher echelons of the military of the country with representatives of the Order of the Dragon (ODSG). It should be conducted under a press blackout, away from any cameras or reporters of the independent media. Only ODSG film crews, perhaps some Marine personnel for security and a few Serbian Orthodox priests (priests who have seen the worst of Muslim atrocities in the Balkans and would not flinch from participating in what I suggest).
The meeting would be held in an airplane hangar at a US military base in the country. Part of the hanger would be sealed off as private rooms for processing but much of the hangar would be left open. The doors to the hanger, however, would be closed for the entire duration of the meeting. At the meeting, which would have at least several dozen or up to a hundred of the senior military personnel of the country as attendees, these officers would slowly be taken in small groups to a series of enclosed rooms where first their weapons if they had any on them would be surrendered and then steel handcuffs and ankle cuffs connected with a chain would be put on them. Nothing particularly uncomfortable. Just so that they could not bolt or move around too quickly if they became alarmed at what they were about to witness and participate in.
Once they were disarmed and cuffed, the Muslim officers would be led back into the main part of the hangar where there would be on one side of a podium coffins, on the other side of the podium baptismal fonts and a table of gold crosses.
A short summary of the present political situation would be delivered by a senior member of the OSDG with a sermon explaining the falsity of Islam and the Truth of Orthodox Christianity. At the end, the officers would be invited to die as Muslims or live on as Orthodox Christians.
One by one they would be brought forward and the same senior officer would ask them one simple question, yes or no, any answer other than “yes” would constitute a “no”:
“Is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God? Yes or no?”
Those who answered “yes” would be directed to the right where they would receive baptism, chrismation and a new krjestik (baptismal cross).
Those who answered “no” would be directed to the left where there would be an open coffin propped upright to a 45 degree slant for them to lie back in, and a member of the ODSG would duly administer two shots to the head and close the coffin for nailing and later cremation.
There would be no exceptions.
I would expect 25% casualties based on the fact that between half to three-quarters of Muslims in Muslim countries polled say they believe that shariah is the revealed will of God. Given human frailties and the ubiquitous fear of death, I would expect that up to half of those that sincerely hold that belief might be willing to die for it. Maybe a bit higher or lower.
Later the senior military who survived would repeat a similar process with the ranks below them, and so forth and so on until the officer corps was converted or deceased.
Thereafter, senior military officers would meet with the leadership of the civilian police force and repeat the same procedures. Shortly thereafter, the Christianized leadership of the military and police force would meet with the upper echelons of the civilian government and repeat the same procedure.
As the military and police ranks were converted, mosques would be ceased, cleansed of all Islamic paraphanalia, consecrated as churches and services commenced immediately with proper Christian symbols being raised thereupon.
Government employment would be conditioned upon conversion. Social services would be rationed based on religious affiliation. Missionaries would be sent in to instruct the people in their new religion. Military personnel and police would be ubiquitous and resistance would be punished severely and swiftly without mercy.
It would be rough at first. What you would have succeeded in doing is not actually sincerely converting most of the people who chose to survive. You would have, however, forced them to apostacize from the religion of Satan such that they would be guilty of apostasy under Islamic law and so there would be no turning back for them. They would have to make peace with their own souls. Their children would be brought up in the faith and after a generation or two it would be done.
Incidentally, what I am suggesting is not really any more harsh than what the initial Muslim conquests accomplished, especially in places like the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent (present day Pakistan and Bangladesh).
What is necessary is the will to do it. As word spread of what was going on, a stark terror would take over the Islamic world which would make any appeal of al-Qa’ida and ISIS dissipate like smoke in the wind. They would know that terrorist activity would avail them nothing, that we cannot possibly be intimidated by anything, and that Orthodox Christians were committed to converting or killing every last Muslim without exception, no matter what.
And the hunted would become the hunters.
Every day Misha seems more, and more like a recruiter for ISIS. Islam has always converted with violence, and hate. True Christianity has always converted with truth, and love.
I don’t know if George condones such Stalin like tactics of murder. I imagine he does not. Regardless George, why not just scrap all moderation on this site, and allow all comments. Misha is condoning murder, in the name of Christ, does this not offend you George or anyone else?
I understand no one cares, but if this type of crap is allowed to continue, I for one am gone from Monomakhos forever.
I see your point, Dino.
The reason I published Misha’s comment is to spark debate. I didn’t view it as a “what are we to do” stratagem as much as “this is what’s going to happen down the line if the Muzzies don’t get their crap together” kind of thing.
Kind of like predicting the Ferguson Effect: if grievance groups like BLM keep on hating on the police, then The Thin Blue Line will snap and the ghettos will become even more hellish than they already are.
Point taken however: Misha, dial it back a notch or two.
Duly noted, George.
I do not mean to create a clear and present danger. My speculation was just to have the idea out there because, frankly, so long as Muslims believe in Islam, Christians and Jews will be hunted.
Islam is the only religion in the world which is predicated upon the extermination of Christianity and Judaism. Isn’t that odd? It’s raison d’etre is that the Jews corrupted their scripture and the Christians corrupted their scripture and therefore God had to call an illiterate Arab as His Prophet to set the record straight.
That is what it all boils down to.
Not that God would work through His people, Israel, and then, from among them, raise a Messiah who would graft all men into the tree of life. No. Because Christians had a religion and Jews had a religion which seemed acceptable to God, Arabs should have a religion too. Don’t you think?
Do you recall Cain and Abel?
And so Muhammad, with a little help from a certain mischievous angel, shall we say, invented a new religion to replace all others but especially Judaism and Christianity. They are specifically called on the carpet by this angel as being particularly misguided. They got the idea of one god right, but they messed up the details, said this angel. “‘Do not say “three'”. “He does not beget, nor is He begotten.”
Alas this angel too was fallen and he invented a religion specifically dedicated to the eradication of the Light on earth. Overcome Judaism and Christianity both, and there is no well from which it can spring.
No well other than this one.
That’s why Islam was murderous from the get go. That’s why Muslims are compelled to wage jihad against Christianity. That’s why they tear down crosses and slit the throat of a Syrian refugee girl in a camp for daring to wear a cross. You remember that story. The Pope blamed it on those who would not take in refugees.
It is the evil one at work.
Do not be deceived.
Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
Misha, I could have sworn George promised me he would reign you in, specifically with respect to your low opinion of women (which he has clearly failed to do), and now you’re talking about your plans to defeat the Feminist Borg?! What are you going to do? Line us all up in a bunker and slaughter those of us who are too old to have children because we are past serving our purpose? Would you interrogate the rest: “Did you ever have an abortion?” If the woman says, yes, slit her throat; if she says, no, dress her in white, baptize her and auction her off to the highest bidder as a concubine? For those not yet of age, would you fit them with chastity belts and send them to indoctrination classes where they’d watch reruns of Donna Reed all day? (I would study the audio tapes of Warren Jeff. He could be of great help to you here.) Of course, our economy would spiral out of control because you’d lose THE half of the workforce who are better educated. Men will be out for blood, too, because you’d be depriving them of their chief source of enjoyment, i.e. having sex with women with no consequences (the TRUE source of feminism, BTW, due to the reality that women can’t rely on men to do right by them). Men would return to their Neanderthal roots and slay dragons to get to the young girls, who would happily go with them just to escape your grasp. Because men aren’t conditioned to care how many of their offspring are aborted, abortion rates would go through the roof. (Ever hear of a man calling a woman after a one night stand and saying, “I just thought I’d check back with you in a few weeks to see if you’re carrying my child. . .” Neither have I.) It goes without saying BOTH sides would eliminate you and we would FINALLY be free of your rants! – How’s THAT for a happy ending to a D- rated movie?!
Gail dear, calm down.
I am honoring George’s request and toning it down. I suggest everyone else do the same. Remember the date of this post. From here on out, I will endeavor to abide by the maxim “A soft answer turneth away wrath”.
I’ve made my point. Perhaps it didn’t need to be such a jagged little pill, but that’s where we are as a society, no? I give as good as I get. I made my point. Now I can afford to be more restrained because everyone knows what I’m capable of theoretically.
There was a method to my madness.
http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/06/29/president-trump-rsquo-s-thin-evangelical-line
This is not easy for any of us, Gail…
I’ve paid my dues many fold, I have my spurs, my conscience is as clear as that breathtakingly blue water one sees in the pictures off the Greek coast. I keep it clean though, perpetually repenting. “Lord, have mercy x n”. Isihasm. Pray if ya got ’em.
I am a licensed attorney and have rank in Kenpo as well. What Kenpo taught me is that if one is shown one corner of a table, one should be able to find the other three.
Intelligence is a hobby of mine, you might say. I mean “intelligence” in the sense of “intelligence services”.
Now, here’s what I truly believe/feel at a visceral level regarding women:
I love them. God is love. He would have me do no less than love them wholeheartedly, after Him and myself. I hate to see women abused. I hate to see what is happening in Europe today where hordes of Muslims gang rape from time to time.
It happens.
Google “niqab” and “burka”. Google “female genital mutilation” and “honor killing”.
That is the true face of Islam. And that, dear Gail, is what I would protect you from.
But in order to do that, women are going to have to see that the quest for equality has been a total bust and has resulted in an enfeebled society, an approaching demographic winter, mass-murder of the unborn and an invitation to Islamic colonization.
The stars might lie but the numbers never do.
So let’s tone it down and be civil. But let’s be truthful as well. This is really happening in real time on your tv screen and mine.
And it is going to reach out and touch all of us eventually.
Misha, the facts don’t support your implication that women are responsible for the “mass-murder of the unborn.” Men are equally complicit. “One study found that only 5% of 1000 men surveyed felt they had been forced into the decision, while a massive 84% felt the decision was a joint one. Disagreement between couples about abortion is rare, and few cases reach the courts. The law regarding men’s right to have a say in their partner’s abortion is unequivocal.” (Edited extract of the chapter ‘Abortion: should men have a say?’, by David Nolan, originally published in Abortion Law and Politics Today (ed) Ellie Lee, Macmillan 1998)
You say you “love women.” Men who love women do not fear them. They don’t fantasize about subjugating them or using corporal punishment. They don’t dishonor them by suggesting it’s acceptable for a man to have multiple partners (concubines).
Honestly, your ideology is more Islamic than Christian: You share the same view of women, you want to kill people who don’t convert and you twist the teachings of the Church.
Gail,
” . . . the facts don’t support your implication that women are responsible for the ‘mass-murder of the unborn.'”
That’s because I never suggested that women alone were responsible for the mass murder of the unborn. Feminism, an evil ideology, is responsible. It comes straight from the devil. Let me give you a definition of feminism:
Feminism is the notion that women should be equal to men on the social hierarchy rather than the patriarchal arrangement which prevailed throughout Christendom from its inception. Feminism is the impetus for women to seek “fulfillment” by imitating men and going out into the workplace to become “career” women rather than fulfilling their Christian roles as wives and mothers, making and raising babies and keeping house.
There should be no question whatsoever that this ideology led to the mass murder of the unborn and the high divorce rates we have now. There is no other plausible explanation. I do not let men off the hook at all and have condemned “dating” and “playing the field”/”sowing ones oats”. The Playboy lifestyle, you are correct to point out, is also to blame. And women would not have the power if men did not give it to them.
But you see, that is the problem, that women have the power.
For example, the problem with pornography is not really that it demeans and objectifies women. That is abstract gobbledy-gook. I do no peruse pornography but I have seen it in the past and it appeared as though everyone involved was having a good time.
The problem with pornography, speaking from a patristic perspective, is that it empowers women. It allows them to trade sex for money. Just like prostitutes. That is fornication/harlotry. Women were meant to be dependent upon men and to be, in turn, worthy assistants to them. Charging for it, whether it is in a whorehouse, a porn studio or on a date “hooking up” is all the same – fornication.
And, you are right. It takes two to fornicate. But, as you know, men are tomcats by nature and so all they need is a girl who is open to transact business.
As to concubines, that was really a different era. The main concern of the Fathers was that the women and children were supported. You read the phrase “widows and orphans” frequently in Scripture and the wider Tradition and that is because these people are essentially strays in need of support. One should not create strays in need of support. That is the core of the Christian sexual ethic. Not some mish-mash that the evangelicals and Papist prudes dreamed up.
Yahweh is a warrior (Exodus 15:3). The sexual stuff is important because it disrupts the flow of grace in society. Adultery and fornication/harlotry create unnecessary spiritual turbulence. Men boinking servants on the payroll and taking responsibility for any progeny does not create spiritual turbulence. At least that seems to be the considered opinion of the Church Fathers.
Now, I do not want a harem. This is not about me. The reason that I even bring up this little divergence which you seem to have a problem with is that we have a demographic problem created by feminists. My point is merely that as I read the Church Fathers, they did not seem to have an objection to men having sex with their single female servants as long as everybody was supported. I have quoted them repeatedly in the past to this end and have grown weary of the exercise.
This also has implications for the discussion regarding homosexuality. It is incorrect to say that all sex outside marriage is necessarily sinful and that that is the reason that homosexual sexual relations are prohibited.
Homosexual sexual relations are prohibited and sinful because God decreed them to be an abomination repeatedly in the Old and New Testament. Deeper than that, they are in fact an abomination and an affront to the Law/Word of God and fabric of reality because they are passions chasing a lie. No progeny can come from that type of union. The equipment is not even matched correctly. There is something deeply wrong, a glitch, a demon, a psychosis, at the root of that behavior.
“You say you “love women.” Men who love women do not fear them. They don’t fantasize about subjugating them or using corporal punishment. They don’t dishonor them by suggesting it’s acceptable for a man to have multiple partners (concubines).
Honestly, your ideology is more Islamic than Christian: You share the same view of women, you want to kill people who don’t convert and you twist the teachings of the Church.”
Hear, hear!! Well said, Gail.
…
Gail, men have long been the driving force behind abortions. No question. Feminists pushed to make it legal. Most men, including this one, are quite selfish when it comes to such things. Only when our innate desire to protect and defend focuses on a virtuous woman does that selfishness begin to wane. Virtuous women who are lovers of God are more than capable of revealing to men our better selves. Without such women we are quite likely to slide headlong into the slime yelling, “Hold my beer and watch this!!! That is one reason why devotion to the Theotokos is so crucial.
I fear you are correct regarding Misha though he has taken some genuine insights into patriarchy, extracted them from good context, injected steroids and thrown the mess against the wall admiring it as art.
Ah, well truth will prevail. Pray to Mary for him and for us all. Manliness is neither taught well or supported in our present day. Nevertheless good men are around willing to lead. We need each other.
Forgive me a sinner.
Michael, we’re on the same page.
Unfortunately, it is as unacceptably easy to draw false conclusions from reading the Holy Fathers, as it is to accumulate (and report) statistically significant evidence for a false hypothesis. Interpreting the Holy Fathers was NOT intended to be an individual sport for laymen, especially if one’s conclusions fly in the face of what the Church teaches.
Better minds than ours have distilled simple truths. If we’re taught, and we are, that sex outside of marriage is a sin, then we accept it. If we are taught that the icon for marriage is the way Christ treats the Church, then we aspire to it. If we are taught that both male and female are equal in Christ, then it’s a fact. If one argues something else, he is being influenced by the enemy.
Now, more than ever, we need to be careful about where we plant our feet and resist the temptation to entertain ideas that are not supported by the Church. We aren’t dealing with flesh and blood; we truly ARE dealing with principalities and none of us are immune. Holding to the teachings of the Church and supporting our Hierarchs (to the degree that THEY hold to the teachings of the Church) is all we can safely do.
Those who are self-taught by the digital Tower of Babel should probably be avoided.
Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχάς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις. – Ephesians 6:12
My contention, as well, is not with flesh and blood. I am no racist nor am I particularly bloodthirsty. I save scraps of bologna (since it is fast) for the cats around the shelter.
We contend with an ideology and an ideology is like a virus (“powers and principalities”). We struggle with ideas and with immaterial demonic beings, not with flesh and blood.
Yet the material world is here. It exists. And ideas have consequences just like computer programs produce output. Islam is Amalek, not Arabs, not Persians, not Afghanis, not Pakistanis – Islam.
Now, you say I am as bad as “our enemies”. No, I’m worse. If “bad” means “fierce” then I’m more fierce than they are by far. So is Yahweh/Christ. He would have to be in order to defeat Satan, would He not?:
“And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” – Revelation 19:16
Not for the squeamish, no.
So long as the virus of Islam has carriers, the terroristic violence and misogynistic subjugation will continue. That you cannot distinguish Christian patriarchy from that is your own myopia and a sign of your lack of faith. Islam can be fought in various ways. Conversion is one, containment is another, eradication is yet another.
But Christianity is not a pacifistic religion, no matter what the OPF people would have you believe. Christ was not a pacifist in the sense of telling His followers to renounce all violence. He cleared the Temple and told them after the Last Supper to sell their garments and buy swords to protect themselves when they went out among the Gentiles.
Swords are used for killing.
And why beg the question? He who lay in a manger also struck down the firstborn of Egypt, no? Did Christ-God not order the extermination of Amalek? Yes or no?
Is the God of the Old Testament the God of the New Testament or are we Marcionites?
…
Misha, you say, “I’m more fierce . . .” and then follow with “so is Christ.” Herein lies your Achilles heel, my friend. If you were drawing from Christ, you would mention Him first, rather than suggest He is like *you.* We know His voice and I’m not hearing it.
A sword is a metaphor for an ideological conflict.
Christ never picked up a sword and He chastised Peter for doing it so the answer to your question is, “No.”
We have a Triune God, Misha. Three separate and distinct persons. Let God, the Father, smite whom He will, with whom He will. His plans will be made known to the Church and the Church (not you) will reveal them to us. We will fulfill our respective roles as dictated by the Church. We will not be coming up with our own game plans as you’re attempting to do. We will follow the Church because this is what the Church teaches us to do. If we allowed ourselves to entertain our own thoughts and ideas about such things, we’d run the risk of being delusional. The evil one is always at work and we know we are not immune.
Follow the Church, Misha. Let everything else go. If you do that ONE thing, you will find that people will follow you. If you don’t, more and more people will challenge you and see you as the enemy.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/240234/linda-sarsours-jihad
This is what it has come to. I had to laugh out loud.
But there is hope:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trumps-warsaw-speech-threw-down-the-gauntlet-on-western-civilization/
Douthat laments a bit about it, looking at the tea leaves:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-west-and-what-comes-after.html?ref=opinion
Misha, you say, “I’m more fierce . . .” and then follow with “so is Christ.” Herein lies your Achilles heel, my friend. If you were drawing from Christ, you would mention Him first, rather than suggest He is like *you.*
A sword is a metaphor for an ideological conflict.
Christ never picked up a sword and He chastised Peter for doing it so the answer to your question is, “No.”
We have a Triune God, Misha. Three separate and distinct persons. Let God, the Father, smite whom He will, with whom He will. His plans will be made known to the Church and the Church (not you) will reveal them to us. We will fulfill our respective roles as dictated by the Church. We will not be coming up with our own game plans as you’re attempting to do. We will follow the Church because this is what the Church teaches us to do. If we allowed ourselves to entertain our own thoughts and ideas about such things, we’d run the risk of being delusional. The evil one is always at work and we know we are not immune.
Follow the Church, Misha. Let everything else go. If you do that ONE thing, you will find that people will follow you. We know His voice and He speaks through the Church.
Thanks, Doctor Phil
Disregarding the fact that by killing off unrepentant Muslims, you might be killing off those who might someday come to Christ and be saved.Plus forced conversion would make us no better than the Muslims themselves, nor the Poles and Hungarians who forced the Union with the Papacy upon the Orthodox by misrepresentation.
Here are the two basic flaws in the plan: 1. Even if you could get the West to agree to converting the Muslims, they would sooner give that task to some Hillbilly Baptist preachers than to Serbian Orthodox priests. Why, we bombed the Serbs when they were defending themselves against Islamists! I would love to see the West take the Serb’s part, but we’re more likely to see a restoration of Tsarist Russia.
2. Serbs don’t baptise, they sprinkle. If they are loath to immerse an infant, what is the likelihood that they will baptize adults. Just saying….
http://circa.com/politics/accountability/did-the-fbi-retaliate-against-michael-flynn-by-launching-russia-probe
George,
This smells true. Have to wait and see. Could be big.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circa_News
Amen George, amen.
Peter A Papoutsis
Lest we forget:
https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2001/09/14/this-is-war-n865496
I think this show of Democratic outrage is strategic. The leaders of the left are using Trump to unite and motivate their troops. Given Trump’s manifest unfitness for the office, I expect it to work. The only thing that could possibly go wrong is that they’ll peak prematurely, suffer outrage overload, and burn out before the midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Trump is the worst thing that could have happened to the right. At the same time he has united liberals, he has divided conservatives. In the wake of Obama’s 2012 reelection, the prospects for national revival were already pretty dim. By permanently dividing the opponents of progressivism, Trump’s election has ended all hope of national revival via the political system. Now we need to take back the culture before we will have any hope of fixing anything else, including the government. That will be a long, hard slog.
Arimethean, your analysis is fine on the surface but what you do not take into consideration. The reality is that the entire political-economic system is now founded on nihilism and has been progressing that way since the time of the Reformation. Therefore a real political solution can never happen. Historically the best of any government is at the beginning. All governments show a entropic decline resulting in dissolution either through being conquered or gradually falling apart.
The Republic of the United States ended with the Civil War. There will be no revival. All that is in question is how long the remanents, now being chewed on by the ravening lions of the rich and powerful, will last.
Trump’s election has shown quite clearly the reality of the rulers lacking all sense of decency, virtue and humility. Much of the pretense to actual public service has been stripped.
He is likely to be the only President in modern history to loose wealth while in office and to loose power.
His so-called unfitness is magnitudes smaller than many of our past Presidents. From Martin Van Buren on less than a third of the President’s could in good conscience be described as fit. Since Eisenhower maybe two.
Our rulers reflect us. We are a vulgar, narrcissistic people unGodly in nearly every way possible. What should we expect?
Actually we got better than we deserved.
Did a little calculation. By my standards about 23% of our Presidents have been fit starting with Van Buren. I count the first seven as fit BTW. With them a massive 36% of all our Presidents have been fit.
A lot of similarities between Trump and Jackson BTW.
Bottom of the barrel: Fillmore, Buchanan, Harding, LBJ, Clinton, Bush II, Obama. Top: Washington and Madison.
What you see today is what it will always be, a spin to the left, a spin to the right, nothing changes except the dollar continues to shrink, our national debt continues to grow, and “personal freedoms” continue to expand. Meanwhile our politicians have black and white, left and right middle America at each others throats, distracting us while they continue to rob us blind.
I pray there will not be blood in the streets, but it sure looks that way. Our endless freedoms will destroy us. My opinion is God is just waiting for the nuclear option to finish us off, as more and more have access to nuclear weapons. When the dust settles he comes in and cleans up the damage done. Sometimes I wonder if God’s earth is one big continuing experiment, to see how good or bad society will get, and how far along we will we go, until we destroy ourselves. Perhaps Adam and Eve, were not the first, first couple, and the experiment continues, with new Adam and Eves in God’s hope that his children might get it right, and not destroy the riches, love and beauty earth, and humanity has to offer? Maybe I need to get some lunch, before I really get more wacky.
Anyway freedom has limits, and that line is completely crossed, we have just begun the beginning of the end, there is no turning back, endure the ride, evangelize, trust in, and pray to Jesus Christ, to forgive us sinners!
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” John 15:18
“But when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DmYLrxR0Y8
The methane cathrate hydrate gun has been fired with full fury like a Gatling gun..We have to live with the life destroying effects. A 2C rise in global temperature releases over 5o unstoppable self reinforcing feedback loops that estimates a maximum 16 C global temperature increase. Where were it not for the sake of the elect, no life would be spared.It’s all over the INTERNET, take a look for yourselves., All life in the sea dies, first, as the Holy Scripture says. but the Christ will not return until after the sun is darkened and the moon does not give it’s light. Glory be to God for All things.
“Do not put your trust in men in power, or in any mortal man, for he cannot save. He yields his breath and goes back to the earth he came from, and on that day all his schemes perish.”
ReaderEmanuel,
Tis true. God is leading all of this. He is in charge. He allows Satan and the enemies of Christ free will, but He aids and supports His people, the New Israel, the Church, and those who call on the name of the Lord of Hosts/Jesus Christ sincerely in the West among the heterodox confessions.
We all know how the story ends.
It may be a rocky road but faith makes it smoother.
Although it is certainly the case that a fetid stench of diabolical malice can be discerned on this blog also, sometimes, the following, brilliant diagnosis of the more common problem among human beings sums up rather beautifully the situation here, and in TrumpAmerica more generally. Enjoy.
May God speed that most direly needed external liberation from that which subdues the wretchedly, nauseatingly stupid, here and in Russia. Amen.
Dr. Stankovich? Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald? Not quite sure which might have shared such wisdom. Nevertheless thanks! Tid bits like this is why I frequent Monomakhos, or perhaps the jokes on me if the poster considers me as said stupid person! LOL!
Thankfully that was the longest Bonhoeffer passage I ever read. Hopefully it is the last. Confirmed my suspicion that I will not be missing anything. This diagnosis, if one could call it that, is really deficient.
I have never before commented here, but the “liberation” which is needed comes from Christ, whom is conspicuously absent from this unmerciful diatribe.
lol
Looks like it was better that you had not ventured to comment before. You stand out at once, even here. Proverbs 17:28
Appreciate the ad hominem in reply to my comments on your wall of copied content. Yawn.
What’t the point of “replying” substantively to a silly crack as mindless and unaware as your glib dismissal? When it’s little more than a bizarre, incoherent squawk? An hilarious self-condemnation of your own gravely defective reading comprehension skill set and ignorance? Bonhoeffer is a modern saint and martyr, also a profoundly Christian thinker. Who are you?
I do commend, however, your sensible reaction to Misha’s madness. Proves you’re not completely out of contact with reality, unlike more than a few here. But that guy’s been a major head case for years. He’s probably earned a spot on the FBI’s radar by now, too. As a matter of fact, I’d guess some others here should expect a visit from the FBI or other officers of the American IC in days to come. George in particular is probably in very hot water, along with a couple of priests. (Russian spys and fellow travelers with gangsta kleptocrats out to subvert the rule of law and the independent press in liberal democracies are not going to fare well in what’s coming.)
Bonhoeffer,
I am not aware of any Christian confession that has glorified or canonized Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a saint. Which Christian confession are you referring to when you proclaim Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a modern saint?
I rest my case.
Bonhoeffer,
If Dietrich Bonhoeffer was raised from the dead, I would have to think that he would be horrified by the ELCA. This man brilliantly and courageously stood against a politicized Christianity in Nazi Germany, and now the ELCA has become exactly that, a politicized Christianity.
True that! My friends in the Missouri Synod are horrified by ELCA.
Under the date of April 9, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) commemorates “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, martyr”. White vestments and paraments are specified.
I do not believe Bonhoeffer is commemorated by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) or the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).
Very interesting.
By the way, Misha’s comments above are truly and horrifyingly disgusting.
Since I commented on this page, didn’t want anyone to mistake that as tacit approval. I just find this Bonhoeffer wall of text to be immensely arrogant, unchristian and daft.
But yes, Misha, I think your comments above are borderline illegal. I am glad I am only a very occasional visitor here, with content like that. I do enjoy your columns though George, for the most part.
And once again: LOL!
Y’all have an amazing “gift” for doubling down ridiculously. Stubbornly digging into the derp. You a Trumpista by any chance? Sure sounds like it. If so, best of luck with that…
Gotta love it when a frequenter of this radioactive blog poses as all authoritative on the “immensely arrogant, unchristian and daft”. Que rico!!!
Un Tipo: “From the mouths of babes . . .” (Given you are new to the site.) I agree with your assessment of Misha. I hope no one gets hurt now that he has announced he is working on something that will allow him to engage the “enemy” more directly. Because he targets women, it is especially concerning, yet he remains undeterred in spite of all the negative feedback he has received on this list.