Under Siege

By Charlie Johnston

Let me start with some good news. On Friday the National Abortion Federation (NAF) voluntarily dismissed 7 of the 11 counts in their federal lawsuit against David Daleiden and his organization, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). The only counts NAF has not dismissed are those that are necessary to try to preserve the gag order on the truly toxic videos Daleiden took at an NAF convention a few summers ago. The guardians of the culture of death desperately do not want the general public to see those videos, particularly before the mid-term election. I told you a few weeks back that Planned Parenthood (PP) and its ilk were in much worse shape than anyone in the media or general public knows. This is the beginning of the unravelling that will take place over the next few months.

The ghouls of the abortion industry are used to getting their way by bullying critics with the cooperation of both elected officials and the establishment media. They thought they could wear Daleiden down or bankrupt him. Now that that has not worked, they are left with some very lame legal arguments that are going to be exposed for the fraudulent strongarm tactics they are once things move outside of California. Shoot, it’s starting to look so bad that even California judges can’t be completely relied upon to go along. Now the abortionists are desperately trying to figure out how to manage the mess before the indictments (both federal and local) start dropping. The rest of the year is going to be very good for those committed to a culture of life.

Long before I started writing this and my former website, re-building a culture of life has been my guiding star, my stella maris, as it were, on these stormy seas. (Stella Maris is Latin for “star of the sea,” the star by which ancient mariners would navigate their course with certainty. It is why I sign most of my notes, “Ave Maria, Stella Maris.”)  It is what I have quietly devoted myself to even as I publicly write here. I am thankful to see steady progress and signs of breakthroughs on this, as everything else has become too absurd to parody.

I have a hard time taking the news seriously any more. Everything that is necessary to be revealed has been revealed. People are choosing sides with their eyes wide open. It is frankly horrifying to me.  Paul Manafort, briefly Trump’s campaign manager, sits in solitary confinement awaiting trial on tax and bank fraud charges from 13 years ago. The Justice Dept. considered the evidence in these cases too flimsy to prosecute…until Manafort did something REALLY bad…he was associated with Trump. That’s the real reason he sits in solitary. Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer had his office raided at Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s behest. The action not only trashed the Constitutional privilege between Trump and his lawyer – but that of Cohen’s other clients. But hey, this was to get Trump, so who cares about Constitutional protections? It was leaked that Cohen has a recording of Trump and him discussing paying a former Playboy Playmate to keep quiet about a dalliance with Trump. Who cares that this is privileged material between lawyer and client? It sticks it to Trump!

The indictments of Russian individuals, intelligence agents and businesses for “election interference” is not just absurd because such nationals cannot be prosecuted, but because setting this precedent opens up the door for hostile regimes to use their own legal systems to persecute Americans while they are on foreign soil. Stupid, stupid, stupid – and endangers American citizens…but hey, it sticks it to Trump, so why not? Let’s be clear, these Russian nationals have been indicted for expressing their opinions online, not for hacking any results. By what idiotic logic can the left maintain that aliens who cross our southern border have all the rights of American citizens, including the right to have US taxpayers pay for their abortions and health care while simultaneously maintaining that Russian citizens who are outside our borders but dare to express an opinion on our election must be indicted? That is not just stupid; it is incoherently stupid and malicious. The left has abandoned all standards, except that if it sticks it to Trump it is good and if it doesn’t, it isn’t.

Everybody knows now that the Russian collusion business is entirely fraudulent, simply a tool to execute a coup and overturn the results of an election. Even the most obtuse and malicious on the left know it. I am shocked that almost all the Democrats have chosen to back an obvious and malicious fraud. The only Democrat who has been full-throated in his opposition to this scandalous malice has been civil libertarian Alan Dershowitz. Of late, former Clinton pollster Mark Penn has also expressed public discomfort that mounting a lynch mob despite the evidence is not going to work out well for Democrats – and is dishonorable. The issue is incredibly clear. All that is left is to finish choosing up sides. The sides are not between right and left. The choice is between honor and dishonor, good and evil. Those who choose dishonor or evil think it gives them an advantage in gaining power. To the contrary, right in front of God and everybody they are busy filling in the details of their own indictment. It was 18 years ago this month that my angel tersely told me, “You must tell them true, and they must choose or perish.” I am, indeed, shocked, that so many have chosen to perish.

I am shocked that so many in the middle who have not firmly chosen sides yet are not marching in the streets, demanding simple justice. I don’t understand. The left has openly chosen to weaponize the law to punish opponents and reward allies. Whether the full force of the law will be brought to bear against someone is entirely dependent on where they stand on Trump – or whether they are serious Christians. This cannot last. Our whole culture is on a knife’s edge, tottering between a return to objective standards of law and morality or descent into the abyss of unending war for power. In the temporal realm, I do not know which will prevail. It certainly isn’t looking good for the rule of law. Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Peter Strzok, Lois Lerner, Andrew Weissman and a host of others should not just be out of a job; they should be in prison. But up is down and down is up.

There are few serious men in public life today.  Leftists make absurd claims, malicious allegations – and even some on the right pretend to take it seriously. This last week, a big charge is that Trump took the word of Vladimir Putin over American intelligence agencies. Well, actually, that is not what happened. Trump DID decline to blast Putin at their joint press conference. But even if this story were true rather than just more fake news, these are the intelligence agencies which have routinely been getting it wrong for several decades on key issues – and then added to their marginal competence by making up lies about Trump for the last three years in order to overthrow him. When you decide to trump incompetence by becoming openly partisan hacks, you tend to dilute your credibility. Actions do have consequences. I hope Trump does not take our intelligence agencies at face value. I sure don’t – and won’t until there has been an accounting and a complete clean-up. Right-wing politicians and media who think it treasonous not to believe the politicized intelligence and justice agencies are chumps – useful idiots for the left.

Even as religious authorities get more flaccid in defending the fundamentals of the faith they are actually responsible for, they get more insistent in asserting a political authority they don’t have. I don’t like it that they are usually wrong, but it embarrasses me that they are so shallow and irresponsible. They make semi-moral assertions without grappling with any of the real problems inherent with what they suggest. It is just shallow virtue-signaling. Adding technical jargon does not make it any deeper – and the lack of seriousness squanders the moral authority that more serious religious authorities of the past amassed.

It seems like almost every institution is being run by third generation wastrels who busy themselves spending down the capital their industrious ancestors created. People angrily busy themselves interfering in what is not their business in order to mask their abdication of their actual responsibility.

Everything is in a precarious tension right now, waiting to see which way things fall out. There will be fireworks however things fall. Honor cannot be yoked with dishonor. Justice cannot make common cause with corruption. It is possible that neither side wins, but at least one must lose.  The stakes and the battle lines are perfectly clear now. ‘Tis the eve of battle and even the ponderous moments of quiet portend the strife to come.

It is to God that the only victory in this terrible battle will go. The only path to victory is to hold tight to Christ, to actively work to be on His side rather than to vainly and impotently claim Him for yours. The satan has no chance at victory. He has always known this. His simulacrum of victory comes from peeling as many children of God off to destruction as he can. And so, the fiery trials come. These last few months almost every person and institution I know has come under assault. There are assaults from without, betrayals from within, the noble struggling to maintain their nerve, the ignoble inflamed with passion. “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12)

Neither be surprised that the satan attacks you at your weakest point. Were you expecting him to attack you at your stronghold? He is evil, not stupid. It even pleases God to let you lose a battle or two, that you remember it is not by your wit or might that the battle is won, but by your fidelity to the Master and by your cry, “Have mercy on me, a poor sinner.” Last week a nasty virus tore through me like a hurricane through Houston. For the first time in 40 years, I lost my voice. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are a delirious blur. Yet I well know that he who will be saved is he who endures to the end (Matt 24:13) so today, before my first appointment, I will spend a little time in adoration. Then back to work.

We have entered into the time of choosing. Do not be deceived by the sound and the fury surrounding you. Though there is more to be revealed, all that is necessary to be revealed to make your informed choice has been revealed. The only path to safety is to humbly choose to serve the Lord. It is horrifying and disheartening to see so many choose destruction – and to see them so jubilant at their choice. For you, though, when assault comes from without, acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around you. When you stumble of your own fault, acknowledge God. When betrayal comes from the midst of those you love, shake it off and take the next right step. When it is too much for you and you can’t go on, go to a quiet place and rest a spell, then be a sign of hope to those around you. You choose whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15) by what you do. Choose the Lord.

In the midst of this time of trial, know that the Lord intends not the destruction of those who resolutely serve Him, but a future and a hope. “Call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you.” (Jeremiah 29:12-14)

The Lord has not forsaken you. It pleases Him to let the goats reveal themselves. Know, in the midst of the storm, that your redemption is at hand. You find your way to it by choosing, with persistence, to acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around you.