By Charlie Johnston
The iron rule of economics and of human behavior: What you reward you get more of and what you punish you get less of
Conventional wisdom says that the election was a split decision – with Democrats picking up the House and Republicans adding to their majority in the Senate. Conventional wisdom also says that the next two years will be nothing but gridlock. I doubt it. I think some unprecedented things happened election night that are deeply consequential.
I was more wrong than I have ever been about the results of an election. Oh, I have looked more wrong at times…but, again, something very deep and fundamental happened here, something that last happened 90 years ago.
I was working with hard data that showed the past partisan history of the individuals who voted early – and was further modeled based on the past partisan performance of individual precincts for those voters whose partisan history was unknown. That showed a big lead for Republicans in the suburbs of Dallas – and in most spots across the country. Yet when the returns started coming in, the early votes were almost the inverse of what I had expected. It made me wonder if some voting machines had been programmed to “flip” votes. But I was watching four suburban counties – and that would have required a truly massive, coordinated conspiracy. Absurd. I just did not understand, at all, what had happened.
On Wednesday I saw preliminary numbers from around the country that showed suburban women had voted at a 64% level for Democrats. Suburban women have been majority soft Republican for decades. This would have to be a massive shift. As I looked around the country, the results fit that data point. In the Houston and Dallas suburbs, the Republican Party was decimated. I looked at the Chicago area. Thirty years ago, Chicago was blue, while suburban Cook and the five counties which surround Chicago (Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane and Will – called the “collar counties”) were all solidly red. Twenty years ago, suburban Cook had gone purple, but the collar counties were safely red. This year Cook and all the collars went blue, In Denver, the sole suburban Republican Congressional District went Democrat. Republicans took losses in Orange County – the previously conservative bastion of the Los Angeles area. Suburban women had, indeed, shifted their allegiance suddenly and decisively from red to blue.
The last time a significant demographic cohort had done such a thing was in the early 1930’s. Until then, blacks had voted overwhelmingly Republican. It was partly the legacy of Lincoln, but also because the Republican Party was the firewall against the Ku Klux Klan, then the paramilitary wing of the Democratic Party. Under Franklin Roosevelt, blacks started voting Democrat. It was astonishing, less than a decade after the “Klanbake,” – the 1924 Democratic convention where nearly half the delegates were Klansmen. Republicans were slow to pick up on the sudden demographic shift. Once they did, they considered it a fluke brought on by the Depression and figured that, once the crisis was past, blacks would come back home to the Republican Party. Didn’t happen.
On election night, completely baffled, I spoke with a successful, young executive in the equities market I knew. He is about 30 and I had been impressed by him earlier in the cycle. He told me we were just caught up in a cultural wave that couldn’t be stopped. He said that people of his generation do not vote on rational grounds, but just go by feelings. I objected that surely all the violence, suppression of speech and intimidation could not be justified by them. He smiled and said, “Oh, but my generation DOES think it is justified.” I looked at him in astonishment and said that if that is true, we will not be able to preserve liberty. In the most chilling comment of the cycle, he calmly told me that of course we won’t be able to…that he has long known that his generation would be the one that would finally forfeit liberty in this country. I was utterly speechless.
On Wednesday, I was disbelieving as I dived into data that confirmed the sudden, dramatic shift of suburban women from soft R to moderate D. Perhaps they were turned off by Donald Trump talking mean…but how could that trump the constant rioting, violence, intimidation, censorship and mob action of the left? Is identity politics really more important to them than the prosperity and safety of their own families? I am still baffled.
Actions, though, have consequences. Perhaps suburban women thought they were sending a corrective message to Trump. If so, they sent a more powerful message to Democrats and the media. They rewarded leftist rioting, violence, intimidation, censorship, and mob action with their votes. The Democrats have learned they will pay no serious price for mob violence. The establishment media has learned that there will be no serious price for a constant barrage of false narratives. Social media companies have learned they will pay no serious price for routinely censoring Christian and conservative speech. If unelected bureaucrats want to oppress Christians for trying to live their faith, the electorate just told them to have at it. We may tut-tut, but there will be no serious price to be paid. The left may be civil for a time, but even if they are, they have learned they can go to violent mob action with impunity any time they want or need to. What you reward you get more of and what you punish you get less of.
Right now, Democrats are actively trying to steal the governor’s and US Senate race in Florida. Why not? They may fail, but they will pay no price for trying. A few nights ago, a left-wing Antifa mob surrounded Fox News Host Tucker Carlson’s home, terrifying his poor wife who hid in a pantry and called 911. They vandalized his house and his car. Why not? Authorities seemed pleased they had dispersed the mob – but I have heard of no one being thrown in jail for it.
This is deadly serious. In the 12 years between 1905 and 1917, Lenin’s relatively small group of revolutionaries had their ups and downs, always pushing the envelope with violence. Russian authorities came to think they could live with them and that the sporadic, intense violence didn’t mean much of anything…until the Revolution succeeded. Within a year, it was an absolute dictatorship and all semblance of individual autonomy for Russian citizens was gone. In the 12 years between 1921 and 1933, Hitler’s Nazi Party had its up and downs – with the future Fuehrer even spending time in jail. Always, it pushed the envelope with violent mob action to achieve its aims. Eventually, otherwise responsible German officials and businessmen convinced themselves they could live with it – and even ultimately control Hitler. In 1933 he became Chancellor – and within a year the states that formed the German federation were stripped of all autonomy and made into mere administrative districts of the federal government. All individual freedom was stripped from the people and Hitler made himself absolute dictator. Ironically, when the terror came to their respective countries, many of the most enthusiastic advocates of both Hitler and Lenin were jailed or executed. These thought they were guaranteeing their own dominance by subjugating the people of the nation, but they were only sealing their own doom.
Authoritarian movements have an odd and arrogant certainty of their own moral superiority. They never say they want supreme power because they are power mad. They make up a good cause – a cause so good they can use it to justify their violent mob tactics – it is for a greater good. For Lenin, it was all for the good of the workers. The bourgeoisie was the enemy, relentlessly vilified and oppressed. Ultimately, ownership of a cow and a goat was sufficient to get you imprisoned. By the time Stalin took power, picking up unauthorized fallen wood from the forest for your stove was sufficient to get you summarily executed. With Hitler, it was all for the German people, who had been betrayed and stabbed in the back by “perfidious Jews,” foreigners, and politicians who had a different opinion than Hitler.
After he took power, Hitler was relentless in vilifying Jews, blaming them for everything that went wrong. Last Friday was the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the hideous night in 1938 when the Nazi’s relentless attacks on the Jews burst forth in horrifying nationwide violence and murder, It was prelude to the Holocaust – and all done on behalf of the “gentle, peace-loving German people.” And if any of those gentle, peace-loving Germans disagreed, they were obviously fellow travelers of the “perfidious Jews” – and could join them in the camps.
For a good decade before the Hutus in Rwanda murdered Tutsis en masse, the Hutus had vilified and scapegoated the Tutsis for all their own governmental failures – just as the Nazis did with the Jews for over a decade before the persecution erupted into murderous violence. The details vary, but the larger sweep is always the same. When the restraining power of the law corrodes, a society without God is just a raw scrabble for power. The scrabblers never say it, but that is all it is. The quest for power without reference to God justifies any means for attaining it. The reality is that the atheist left has become the idiot spiritual heir to the Communists, the National Socialists, and the Hutus. They lack the intellectual heft of some of their forebears, but have all the imperial certitude in their own moral pre-eminence. If you are a believing Christian or Jew; if you value family; if you value liberty for all, then you are the new bourgeoisie, the new Jew, the new Tutsi – fit only to kneel before the social justice warriors or be exterminated.
The spirit of anti-Christ is deceptively simple: it is the belief that good can be done without reference to God. It is as futile as the belief that thirst can be quenched without reference to water. Oh, it is persistent, though, for its adherents actually delude themselves that they are doing good, that their intentions are noble. Throughout history, leftist movements have arisen which insist that sand or sawdust are the only proper ways to quench thirst. (The fundamental feature of modern leftism is its belief in absolutist centralized power that tolerates no dissent. Under those terms, all the evil totalitarians of history can properly be described as leftist in the modern sense.) As they fail and things turn quickly and starkly desperate, they blame dissenters for the failures rather than even consider that they may be wrong. They persecute, imprison, and then execute their dissenters…and then many scapegoats from their own movement, until they finally choke on all the sand and sawdust and it all collapses under the weight of its own folly. Sometimes a society can rebuild from such folly; more often it just trades persecutors. The spirit of anti-Christ is ascendant in the world these days.
Many expect the next two years to be a complete stalemate. More likely, it will be the intense and violent skirmishes that precede outright war. Incoming Democrat committee chairmen promise to wage war against Trump, issuing subpoenas and endless investigations. Trump is not a docile little lamb, though. He can launch criminal investigations into Democratic corruption by some of its top leaders. He has something the Democrats don’t have; actual evidence. But the Democrats now have something he doesn’t have; suburban women and millennials. Millennials are almost uniformly overly credentialed and shockingly uneducated, thinking (like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz) that their diploma makes up for their lack of brains. In the last century, the variants of socialism have murdered over 100 million innocent civilians. Just in the last decade, socialism turned prosperous Venezuela into a desperate hellhole where pre-teens turn to prostitution to help their families survive. So what ideology do millennials prefer as the most just? Socialism. They have become invincibly ignorant, unable to ask the critical questions necessary for independent thought, only able to parrot the indoctrination they received at the leftist mills that were once universities. It is both tragi-comic and heartbreaking to listen to some ignorant college kid who has embraced fascist ideology and fascist tactics accuse others of being fascist for arguing with her. They are proud of and even insistent upon their malicious ignorance, thinking it enlightenment.
I had deeply hoped for a solid conservative victory. It was our best hope to get out of this battle with the least amount of violent strife. If the larger populace is committed to equal justice under law for all, arrests and jail for all rioters and activist thugs could have tamped this thing back down. But once the bulk of the populace no longer believes in objective standards of law, equally applied, the political system must inevitably fall. The political levees are under assault. I don’t think they are going to hold. Meantime, the hierarchy of the Church and the churches are as weak as they have ever been. The worst are predators or busy themselves making war on the faith established by Christ and passed on by the Apostles. Even the best are ineffective at defending the levees of the institutional churches – or holding predators to account. And yet, “…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong…” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
On their pilgrim way to the promised land, the Israelites were attacked by the powerful Amalekites (Exodus 17). Moses went up to the top of the hill overlooking the battle with Aaron and Hur. As long as Moses kept his hands up in prayer, the Israelites had the best of it, but when he wearied and his hands dropped, the Amalekites would prevail. Seeing this, Aaron and Hur lifted up Moses’ hands for him when he tired – and the Israelites won the battle. The battle is to those who call and rely on the one, true God. Neglect neither the duty of Moses nor the duty of those soldiers of Israel. Lift each other up when weariness overtakes you. The battle is the Lord’s, no matter what the odds seem.
It is written that the time would come when scoffers will arise, following their own ungodly passions and setting up divisions; worldly people, devoid of the spirit. (Jude 1:18-20) A man recently observed to me that liberty and the Constitution are not the point; faith and family are. I acknowledged the truth of that while noting that liberty and the Constitution are the terrarium in which faith and family can safely thrive. Scoffers have now mounted a full-scale assault on both the faith and its terrarium. Neglect neither, resting assured in the knowledge that Christ is with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
Last year began the process of everything being revealed. All have chosen their sides. Now begins a year of judgment, in which each shall reap what he has sown; destruction for the scoffers, mercy for those who have persevered and endured in faith. It will be far more unpredictable, volatile and incendiary than any can now imagine. With full knowledge, each of us has given witness before God to who we are. Don’t go wobbly as the winds and waves rise.
Mordor approaches. Keep your arms to the battle as you raise your hearts in prayer, lifting each other up when weariness encroaches. We have entered the terrible times, but those who endure in faith will see the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the renewal of the world.
A Sign of Hope 
This quote from Martin Niemoller bears repeating after Charlie’s somber assessment of the MT election results:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
We calmly tolerate the liberal, progressive insults to our freedoms as if only a passing phase, but they are creating a treacherous peril to our nation’s destiny.
LikeLiked by 6 people
I might add for those unaware that this quote comes the era of Nazi control of Germany. Here is a sketch about him from the wiki, ” He was a national conservative and initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler,[3] but he became one of the founders of the Confessing Church, which opposed the Nazification of German Protestant churches. He vehemently opposed the Nazis’ Aryan Paragraph,[4] but made remarks about Jews that some scholars have called antisemitic.[5] For his opposition to the Nazis’ state control of the churches, Niemöller was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945.[6][7] He narrowly escaped execution. After his imprisonment, he expressed his deep regret about not having done enough to help the victims of the Nazis… ”
My point is that our Christian toleration of the evil temperament growing in the Democrat Party may ultimately produce the destruction of citizen independence and freedom under our remarkable Constitution.
In fact, Charlie’s observations here are far more foreboding than my mention of “somber.” The times are down right depressing. God help us all.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Amen, Jack. But for the grace of God we’d despair. Acknowledging God and taking next right steps in the little we can do not only allows God to make of us a sign of hope to others, it fuels the Flame of Faith and Love within our own hearts and souls as we tend to those around us.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Jackhiller, you are right on the money. This is the scariest post I have ever seen from Charlie. Yes, I am praying hard, but shaking in my boots as I do so.
LikeLiked by 2 people
WOW! The Missouri Bishops have written, with courage, a forthright and insightful letter! (Emboldened text my own)
Again, from Catholic News Agency this afternoon: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/missouri-bishops-release-letter-urging-usccb-action-on-sex-abuse-crisis-18768
St. Louis, Mo., Nov 12, 2018 / 03:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of Missouri released a letter Monday expressing support for proposals meant to help address the sexual abuse crisis in the Church, shortly after the Holy See directed that the proposals not be voted on at the US bishops’ general assembly this week.
“We must keep at the forefront the survivors of the horrendous evil that was perpetrated against children, minors, and seminarians, who suffered greatly and whose faith in the Church, in many cases, has been destroyed,” the Missouri bishops wrote.
“A culture of silence and cover-up by the hierarchy has brought the Church to this moment of crisis.”
The bishops released the letter Nov. 12. It was dated Oct. 6 and was addressed to Bishop Timothy Doherty of Lafayette in Indiana, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People. An enclosed statement was also released.
Earlier in the day, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the US bishops’ conference, had announced that the the American bishops would not yet be voting on two of the proposals, at the instructions of the Congregation for Bishops.
These items include a new code of conduct for bishops, and the creation of a lay-led body to investigate bishops accused of misconduct.
In their letter, the Missouri bishops wrote that they hoped their statement could help to provide direction for the fall general assembly, taking place in Baltimore Nov. 12-14.
While supporting the action items which were to have been voted on, the Missouri bishop had said, “we fear these measures will not be enough in either substance or timeliness to meet the demands that this pastoral crisis presents.”
“We must pay attention to that which threatens our communion with one another. Transparency, accountability, and genuine reform in the way in which the Church handles issues of abuse of power by the hierarchy are required,” they wrote.
In the letter the bishops expressed support for the establishment of a third-party hotline for complaints of sexual abuse by a bishop; the development of policies to restrict bishops who have been removed or resigned because of allegations; and a full investigation of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, with “competent laity” given access to “appropriate files held by the Holy See” as well as the relevant chanceries.
“We bishops need to publicly renew our commitment to utilizing the charisms of the laity in our exercise of pastoral governance as bishops,” they wrote.
“We cannot solve this crisis on our own. We need the laity to help us.”
McCarrick was able to perpetrate years of sexual abuse against seminarians while operating at the highest level of the Church in the United States. The bishops said many believe “there has been a breach of trust between the Church in the United States and the Holy See over the Archbishop McCarrick scandal and the consequent refusal to take immediate action for those responsible. This breach of trust is already catastrophic and endangers the very communion of the Church.”
They noted that the Church’s credibility “has already been seriously damaged by a persistent silence and inaction over many decades,” and said that the “immediate acceptance of resignations from all hierarchs who voluntarily resign because of their complicit action or inaction in the Archbishop McCarrick scandal would regain credibility and trust.”
“On behalf of our people, we recommend a complete and transparent investigation into Archbishop McCarrick’s advancement in responsibilities and how he continued to function as a Cardinal when his misconduct with seminarians and others was known,” the bishops wrote.
In addition, the bishops endorsed a revision of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People to include measures to hold bishops accountable.
They also called on all diocese and eparchies, as well as religious institutes, societies of apostolic life, and secular institutes to release all known names of clerics credibly accused of abusing a minor.
Robert Carlson of St. Louis and his auxiliary and Mark Rivituso, W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, James Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and Edward Rice of Springfield-Cape Girardeau all signed the letter.
LikeLiked by 9 people
Yet another piece from CNA. This one speaks to the dismay of the Bishops gathered and their discussions of what exactly happened and how to proceed. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/usccb-meeting-what-just-happened-and-what-might-happen-next-30605
LikeLiked by 6 people
The below demonstrates that the Left (Media/Academia/Democrat Party) have been very successful in their “Mission” to demonize, marginalize and ostracize anyone who does NOT support ALL of the Left Agendas of Abortion, Open Borders, LGBT, godless Socialism on Steroids and whatever Idiocy of the Week that DNC/CNN touts. This does not bode well for Peace, Prosperity & Good Will. The Left has also demonized Police, Military and Border Patrol (ICE) which may become a Silver-Lining … one day soon.
I’ll say again! We, simply, don’t have 10 more years to save The Republic or Christendom. Too many Old Guard are passing! 50 years of PC has done it’s awful work in Church, Society and State …….. 61% …. BLM …. ANTIFA …. Union Thugs …. enraged lunatics in restaurants, gas stations, theaters, county fairs, ball games, churches, schools, streets, once quiet neighborhoods, “Social Media” …….. we have become numb to the “News” of the past 15 years ;-( Capt. Parker had it right on Lexington Green in 1775. “”Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here”.
We (Citizens/Church Members) have not held our ground nor reacted when “fired upon” these past 50 years …. so there we are then ;-(
“Poll: 61 Percent of Democrats Say Republicans Are ‘Racist,’ ‘Bigoted,’ ‘Sexist’
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/11/12/poll-61-percent-of-democrats-say-republicans-are-racist-bigoted-sexist/
GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
LikeLiked by 8 people
On a social media forum a little while ago, not Facebook, but one where you would expect people to act more professional and mature especially since real names are used, I angered people with two posts, as follows:
1) I dared make the claim that no, I am not a goddess, and that yes, I support and encourage men in the successful achievement of their dreams, as well as women.
2) 2 + 2 = 4
I kid you not. Wow, did people throw a tantrum at my saying 2 +2 = 4. Two of them even ganged up on me in an attempt to socially shame me for it. For daring to claim that THE truth was more valid than “his truth”, “her truth” … in other words, THE truth is more valid and more valuable than mere opinions.
Then, this evening at the grocery store, I literally found myself in line between a suburban housewife (actually, I’m just guessing she was married) and a millennial guy. The housewife mentioned Michelle Obama, I mentioned President Trump, the millennial kept saying “yeah” in an obsequious, sing-song tone, in an effort to try and be sympathetic … and it seemed his “yeah” became more relieved when we began talking about the sad death of Stan Lee (creator of Spiderman, etc.) and shifted away from outright politics, though we were all courteous enough to each other throughout the exchange of atmospherically charged pleasantries.
Definitely time to increase those prayers! A reminder is always good, thank you!
LikeLiked by 6 people
P.S. My goodness. Q just posted 2+2=4.
Coincidence?
LikeLiked by 6 people
Hear, hear! Lord have mercy on us, and on the whole world. ❤
LikeLiked by 4 people
Oh Charlie…this piece leaves a tear in my eye (both actually) for I am one of the weary ones and you have just lifted me up! Thank you and God bless and keep you always, always!!! xoxo
LikeLiked by 8 people
Has anyone ever listened to the Luke21 podcasts by Steve Woods? Oh my gosh! So amazing… I think it was like #47 or somewhere around there that Steve Woods talks about how God looks at these times from His thrones and laughs….laughs…at men who think they can win over Him… I’m obsessed with these podcasts! These podcasts, Charlie and Fr. Ripperger!!!! lol
LikeLiked by 4 people
Charlie, Mark Levin said tonight immigration is causing the states to turn red. And migration. People moving out of those same states and keeping the same voting pattern . Said Regan won so great and Bush too. At the time, you didn’t see how could get Dems could get a prez again. Now due to migration, don’t see how we can get back a republican prez again . Plus republicans did not act on the wall when had both senate and house. Said even Texas going this way. This makes sense. he said they blame president trump, but says it has Nothing to do with President trump. Loved the article HE will fight! (I’m glad God has a plan, because I’m worried! Have to be honest. ). And I suppose the caravan is still on the way. The media has conviently failed to mention much lately.
Loved the article He will fight!!!
LikeLiked by 9 people
PS since we just got back from seeing the Tilma, I’m waiting on Our Lady to show up.
LikeLiked by 11 people
There’s definitely a counter-response by the left to move us “2 steps back” after we make “1 step forward” in the right direction.
I get the impression that the events in the book of Daniel about the (fall of humanity’s empires and establishment of Christ’s kingdom) is coming to fruition. (The statue of different metals.)
In the Biblical patterns that I see, I wonder if the fate of us who are holding the line against evil, that we are to be nothing more than a stepping stone for a future more promising generation. Like the Israelites who left Egypt, we have a lot of baggage & attachments to this corrupt society which will eventually pass away…
I wonder if we share a similar fate of desertlike hardships…
LikeLiked by 6 people
It’s looking pretty bleak.
There’s nothing else for it,I guess, all of us here have to become saints where ever God has put us. (The ballad of the extraordinary ordinary man so to speak)
“The wisdom of God is so great that He also knows exactly what I would think and do under every possible circumstance and situation, and he placed me in that state of life and situation best suited for my salvation.”
-Mother Angelica
LikeLiked by 9 people
Amen, Andy!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Charlie, do the last two paragraphs of this piece, especially the sentence “All have chosen their sides. Now begins a year of judgment, in which each shall reap what he has sown; destruction for the scoffers, mercy for those who have persevered and endured in faith.” come from your own intuitions/reflections or are they prophetic or a mix of both? Thanks, Lilia
LikeLiked by 7 people
MILINET: Articles for Christians 12/13 Nov
========================
“I would have made a good Pope.” —President Richard Nixon
Pope Francis should learn from Tricky Dick …. It’s the Cover-Up that will be the end of you! ;-(
God runs the Show so I try not to worry but do what I can as best I can.
Pope Francis asks U.S. bishops to hold off on sex abuse vote
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/11/12/Pope-Francis-asks-US-bishops-to-hold-off-on-sex-abuse-vote/8921542042789/?sl=8
Editorial: ‘The Catholic Church proves incapable of exorcising clergy sex abuse—again’
https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=39397
Ex-Supreme Court Justice Kennedy: ‘This culture is becoming vulgar’
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/12/anthony-kennedy-warns-culture-becoming-vulgar/
Dhimmitude: UK Turns Away Pakistani Christian to Appease ‘Sections of the Community’, Islamist Terrorists
http://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/10/dhimmitude-britain-turns-away-pakistani-christian-appease-sections-community-islamist-terrorists/
…and:
Why Divinize the Pope?
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/why-divinize-the-pope
Longing for Eternal Presence
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/longing-for-eternal-presence
GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
LikeLiked by 6 people
A happy video– it’s fuzzy. But this is a rosary pot luck dinner at our church. My daughter was nagged by the Holy Spirit to organize this. About 100 people showed up to say the rosary and share a meal. Lots of little children, young people and adults praying the rosary together. We’ll do it once a month. So glad my daughter listened!
LikeLiked by 5 people
Thanks for sharing, Kim. Beautiful. The young and the old praying the Rosary. A Sign of Hope!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is inspiring Kim. ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s fantastic, Kim! You raised one heckuva daughter. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
You’re sweet, Mick–she had a real leap forward in her spiritual life after she was diagnosed with a chronic medical condition. Our crosses are such a blessing!
LikeLiked by 4 people
We ain’t in Kansas anymore and The Democrat party will continue to push the Agendas of Abortion, Sexual Perversion, Drug Culture, Open Borders and any number of other society destroying “Programs” that their lunatic fringe “constituents” dream up in their quest for POWER, CONTROL and $$$$.
Kansas {DEMOCRAT} Governor-Elect Wants to Block Law Protecting Religious Adoption Agencies
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/emily-ward/kansas-governor-elect-wants-block-law-protecting-religious-adoption-agencies
Rep. {DEMOCRAT} Nadler: ‘We Will Certainly Pursue Our Sensible Gun Control Legislation’
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/rep-nadler-we-will-certainly-purse-sensible-gun-control-legislation-one-
…. and anyone speaking like our new acting AG is someone who must be destroyed personally & professionally:
Acting AG Whitaker on Judges: If ‘They Have a Biblical View of Justice,’ They’ll Be Good Judges
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/acting-ag-whitaker-judges-if-they-have-biblical-view-justice-theyll-be-good
Black escapees from Democrat Welfare Plantations and their Conservatism can’t be tolerated either:
Walter Williams: We Have an Identity Problem
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/walter-e-williams/walter-williams-we-have-identity-problem
Allen West: Honor, Integrity and Character – A Reminder That We Still Live in America
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/allen-west/allen-west-honor-integrity-and-character-reminder-we-still-live-america
The below is somewhat encouraging but the fact that 49% of “Catholics” STILL vote for Democrats and The Global Left Agendas is …. ;-(
CatholicVote.org on Midterms: ‘Devastating Blow to Left-Wing Catholics’
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/emily-ward/catholicvoteorg-midterms-devastating-blow-left-wing-catholics
GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
LikeLiked by 6 people
Thanks for including a link to the Allen West article, CrewDog. I don’t have very many secular heroes, but Allen West is one of them.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Oops. Here’s the video.
LikeLiked by 4 people
It is great to see the many generation represented there together. ❤
LikeLiked by 2 people
Let me see, the Pope told USCCB to hold off on sex abuse vote, Bishops were told not to extend an invitation to Cardinal Burke to speak in their diocese. Bishop Athansius Schneider restricted from traveling. I recently did see the good Bishop speak in our diocese.
This Pope is bringing down the church and we must speak out.. When Pope Paul VI said, Smoke is in the church in 1965, now we can see we have gone from Smoke to the One Holy Catholic Apostolic church is on FIRE, and is burning from within.
This Pope must be stopped, or he will continue filling our diocese with Bishops and priest that will fulfill his diabolical wishes.
We the remnant must step up to the plate. We must stand behind Our Good Bishops and Priest.
We cannot allow the Pope to silence them. We are in a confrontation between Heaven and Hell.
We are the Church militant.. We need to start calling our good Bishops And priest and support them. This is a very bad Pope, and we must follow what the church has taught for over 2000 years and yes if need be, the removal of this Pope.
As always, pray that Heaven intervenes very soon.
Immaculate Heart Of Mary, we pray for your intervention, as we know Jesus your son does not refuse your request.
LikeLiked by 4 people
The Papacy plays a rightful role in world moral and ethical leadership. Thus it has been distressing to see him espousing ultra-liberal goals. The final straw came for me when he explicitly contradicted God’s covenant in the OT by declaring that Israel must cede land to the PLO, “The Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your fathers, secure and at peace with its neighbours, within internationally recognised borders.” ( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/13/pope-bethelehem-palestinian-homeland ), and he has recently added his personal objection to the US recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol,”I cannot hide my deep concern for the situation that has been created in the last few days, and at the same time, I offer a heartfelt appeal for the commitment of all to respect the status quo of the city in conformity with the pertinent UN resolutions.” So, this pope has no issue with validating the UN as a superior authority to God.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Central control seems to be this pope’s answer to all the world’s problems. I can hardly imagine why he thinks central control will tend to be benevolent.
LikeLiked by 4 people
@JackHHiller
Of all the nutty things this Pope has said or seemed to say about the faith his statement about supporting the creation of a Palestinian state is minimally significant.
Pope Francis supporting the creation of a Palestinian state is not a contradiction of God’s OT covenant. The pope’s sentiment on this matter has nothing to do with faith or morals in the strict sense.
The teaching of the Church Fathers is that the geographical state of Israel is no longer the subject of God’s covenant promises to either the Jews or the Christians. This land doesn’t “belong” to anyone anymore by divine right. The Old Testament Covenant became null and void the night of the last supper when Christ instituted the New Covenant with his own body and blood. The blessings God promised to the Jewish people in the OT became null and void when they crucified their own Messiah. To be clear, God didn’t break his covenant with the Jewish people, it was the Jews who broke the covenant God made with them by committing the ultimate sin (deicide) and in doing so forfeited the land that God gave to their ancestors. Yet at the same time, the New Covenant opened the door to a future more glorious than anything the Jews were promised in the OT. With the New Covenant, God promises no one a worldly kingdom but instead the Kingdom of God. He promises not to save Jerusalem but to save the soul. From the time of Christ’s death to the end of the world the temple of the Lord on earth is not a mosque, a synagogue or even a cathedral but our own souls.
So if you’re going to reject the Pope, it cannot be for his stance on this issue. The teaching of the Church is that Israel no longer belongs to the Jewish people by divine right. And, if i may critique the Pope’s statement, the dual-state thing may work for a while but that land will not know lasting peace under Star and Moon but only with the Son.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gee, I thought it was the Romans who crucified the Lord, with a circumscribed set of Jewish “leaders’ complicit, not the entire population.
Truly, I am mystified by any assertion that God has altered a covenant He set, with His knowing all along that frail humanity would be sinning afterwards.
As for the Covenants in the OT having been overridden by the coming of Christ, He himself stated that He came to add to the OT, not to abandon it: Matthew 5:17:
” New International Version
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
New Living Translation
“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
English Standard Version
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ”
ChadPro, I am pleased to have this discussion, as it may serve to clear away common misperceptions.
LikeLike
First a question: are you a Catholic?
If not, then i understand why you wouldn’t necessarily subscribe to the Church’s teaching on this matter and why what i’m saying would seem odd.
The Church teaches that the Catholic religion is the fulfillment of the Jewish religion in the Old Testament. Christ, being the sinless son of God and a high priest in the line of King David, instituted a New Covenant in his blood with his death on the cross. Jesus is the ultimate and final high priest of the Jewish people and as such he alone had the authority to do this. Jesus took the religious authority away from the Jewish leaders and gave it to his disciples. From the time of the apostles to this very day, each time a Mass is said by a Catholic priest (the successors of the apostles) they are offering up the only acceptable sacrifice to God the Father by transforming bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Also, the Jewish people of today have no temple, no priesthood and no sacrifice. Modern day Judaism is Talmudic Judaism and it began not in Old Testament times but in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
In a nutshell: the Catholic Church teaches that the Jewish region of today (Talmudic Judaism) is not the religion of the Old Testament. The Jewish people of today may be genetically related to the Jews of the Old Testament but the actual religious practices are different. As i mentioned above, the Jewish people do not have a temple, a priesthood or a sacrifice as they did in the Old Testament. Plainly speaking, the religion practiced by the Jews in the Old Testament is not only not practiced today it is not even possible to practice today. The temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the priesthood (or the authority to offer sacrifice to God) was taken away from them by Jesus, and the animal sacrifices became obsolete with Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross.
The new Temple of God is the mystical body of Christ and any soul of any person who is baptized into that body and follows the commandments of Christ. The new priesthood is the Catholic priesthood instituted by Jesus. And the sacrifice is no longer bulls, birds, or goats’ blood but the perfect blood of the Lamb of God.
The promises of the Old Covenant are fulfilled and completed in the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant the chosen people of God (the Jews) had a homeland (Israel) and with it offered sacrifice in the temple and obtained the forgiveness of their sins. But with the coming of Jesus the chosen people of God is no longer exclusively the Jews but anyone who follows Christ. The biological component of being a part of God’s chosen people is now obsolete. The homeland of this chosen people is no longer any particular piece of land but anywhere that people do God’s will (Jesus said: my kingdom is not of this world i.e. not limited by geography or national boundary and he also said: a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem). Jerusalem is no longer the Holy City by virtue of being in Israel. Israel is no longer the holy nation just because it is populated by people who are biologically Jewish. Finally, the salvation that once belonged exclusively to the Jews through the Old Covenant now belongs to everyone under the New Covenant through the death Jesus on the cross.
Again, i don’t know if you’re Catholic. But the above is a broad and incomplete outline on Catholic teaching in this area.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Chadpro, Thank you for responding, and I do disagree with the gist of what you write (while yet fully accepting that what Christ says in the NT is sacred and accurate, as is the quote from Matthew . I happened to help edit a scholarly book devoted to analysis of the history of the OT covenants that was recently published and is available on Amazon. Fact is, what you have written here will be illuminated by study of this text ( The End from the Beginning: The Origin of Western Civilization Aug 8, 2018, by Clayton Willis, https://www.amazon.com/Clayton-Willis/e/B07GBFV614/ref=sr_tc_2_rm?qid=1542264566&sr=1-2-ent ).
Clayton worked on and off of this book across 25 years, performing considerable research. An important theme of this book is that the diaspora of the Israelites spread the Judeo-Christian culture into Western Europe, and, furthermore, specific covenants, that were never cancelled by God, remain to be fulfilled. Given Charlie’s great scholarship, he might also take an interest in this text (if by a Protestant).
LikeLiked by 2 people
The only institution on earth that can infallibly interpret Sacred Scripture (both the Old and New Testament including the words of Christ) is the Catholic Church. No one else. And the Church teaches that the Old Covenant was fulfilled by Christ and that we are now under the New Covenant which is eternal and will never change. Also, the Church has never taught that the restoration of geographical Israel (to the ethnically Jewish people) is part of the New Covenant.
Ultimately, Catholics believe that only the Church has the authority to declare the definitive interpretation of Holy Writ. To put it even more clearly, Catholics believe when the Church speaks on an issue of faith or morals she does so with no less authority than God himself. No other person or institution can claim that.
So if you are not a Catholic i completely understand why you would not accept the above as Divine Revelation. Really. If you don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches i don’t hold it against you. Why would I? But as a Catholic, i am bound by conscience to accept what the Church teaches on this matter even in the face of alternative interpretations (however plausible they may be).
Awesome discussion!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Love your discussion, Chad and Jack. For further understanding of the Catholic perspective, I would simply like to add a few resources from excellent Catholic Biblical scholarship which enflesh the idea that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, in revelation, in covenant, in law, in worship, in every aspect.
One resource which is quite skeletal, succinct, in expression, yet, foundational in content is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and found here.
The additional resource is actually a volume of a book series with the erudite Scott Hahn as editor and can be ordered from here.
From the Editors’ introduction: “On the day of his resurrection, Jesus’ exposition to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:25–27, 32) and shortly afterwards to his eleven apostles and other disciples (Luke 24:44–47) included ‘all the scriptures’ ‘beginning with Moses and all the prophets.’ An idea implicit and underlying Jesus’ expositions in these two episodes is that a unity of purpose exists throughout the many diverse sacred books of the Old Testament. Jesus discerned there a story line, an orderly plan—a Divine economy—unfolding throughout history and expressed in the inspired record that would culminate in his own saving work. The idea of Typology is implicit and flows from this unified story—this Divine economy—that we find in the Bible. The scriptures encompass a single story, but it is composed of two parts: the Old Testament and the New….The other New Testament writers follow his example in applying ‘all the scriptures’ to the doctrine of the church and Christian moral, ascetical, and sacramental life. It is not merely, or even primarily, a correspondence of prediction and fulfillment. It is, rather, a pattern of analogy. What began in the Old Testament is fulfilled partially even within the Old Testament, but definitively in the New, in a way that is both restorative and transformative…This issue of Letter & Spirit seeks to explain and demonstrate the propriety and necessity of interpreting the Bible using the hermeneutics of the divine economy and typology.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
BECKITA, Thank you for providing the Catechism reference which generally makes sense for me. I would add two points to it.
Re this statement: ” 52 God, who “dwells in unapproachable light”, wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. ” The NDE reports are all about God bringing individuals directly into his “light” which is overwhelming with love but not blinding; thus, God in His Heaven, makes Himself directly accessible, whereas in Earth life God’s immediate presence is hidden.
The second point is about an other way in which we individually may know about God. Yes, the prophets told the people. Yes, JC came here and told us, and so we may not expect further revelation by scripture. I have to add that we also know God by the unvoiced ideas that emerge in conscience to guide us, granted they are imponderable to any but the individual recipient. Consistent with guidance presented by our conscience are the reports from the NDE experience–nothing scientifically provable, but consistent with scripture as John Burke well documented in his book, Imagine Heaven.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, Jack! Amen to: “I have to add that we also know God by the unvoiced ideas that emerge in conscience to guide us, granted they are imponderable to any but the individual recipient.” Amen. Jesus introduced the Person of the God who communicated with Adam and Eve and Abraham and Noah, and all those in the Old and New Testaments with whom He chose to speak, as our Father, Abba, Daddy. Naturally, just as a good human father walks and talks with his precious children, so too, our Abba did, does, today, and will continue to do for all eternity. In Catholic teaching, we understand this happens by the Power of the Holy Spirit and those “unvoiced” communiques can be both life-enriching and life-changing. Charlie has often expressed that God speaks in a thousand whispers. And so it is. Yet, we must be listening. I, often, experience such “unvoiced ideas” at unexpected moments and in surprising experiences. Most of all, such communication comes to me when God, in His ineffable Light, beaming from His Eucharistic Presence, overshadows me.
When I was at a conference last spring, I took a break at a cathedral to adore Eucharistic Jesus and attend a Mass. The Mass was offered at a side altar and I wanted to take a picture. I took two and, when I took the second one, I saw an image of the Light of Christ radiating all around my iPhone… not from the phone but shining all around it. A kiss from heaven, reminding me that Jesus IS truly present in the Eucharist and He has so much to give. We just need to show up and, in adoring Him, He generously beams out graces and gifts beyond all telling for each and every one of us.
The first photo:
The second one:
LikeLiked by 3 people
Beckita, Then I will tell about two of mine. Years before I got into the NDE literature, I daily attempted to try to figure out how or why there is existence, and, of course, never made any progress, just mounting frustration. How could God or any random material flux have always existed– cannot imaging any truth to that. Ok then, how could God or a random flux spring into existence from nothingness? That does not work either. I was lying on a couch getting more and more frustrated, and in my mind asked for help to understand. Not any instantaneous reply, but, after a while, the unvoiced thought came in, and it did so with a palpable humor saying, “I don’t know either.” I laughed and laughed for weeks– that surely was not my mind playing any trick.
The second instance came a few years later when I was extremely upset about a problem. I was thinking hard about why “things” had to change. The unvoiced voice conveyed (with no humorous tone to this one)that if there were no change, then life and all of existence would be frozen dead, and not worthy of being. Once told, this became an obvious truth.
I have also benefited from a few minor miracles, one of which spared me from being present in the Pentagon office of LTG Tim Maude, to whom I directly reported as my boss in the Pentagon, when on 9/11 the aircraft flew directly into his office during his regularly scheduled staff meeting.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Wow, Jack. I love that God pursues us and watches over every wee detail of our existence and knows us better than we know ourselves. Thank you for sharing these stories.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Jack, I would call it a major, rather than a minor, miracle that your life was spared on 9/11. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mick,
Then I’ll quickly tell of two more. Driving too fast around a curve on a wet road, I started to slide into the side rail of a narrow bridge. If I hit the rail, I would have bounced a few inches into the other lane, just at the time a car was coming from the other direction, creating a head on. Just as I was a hair away from hitting the rail, my car was pushed sideways away from it, and then also straightened out in the middle of my lane, so there was no crash. I did not have time to make any maneuvers, and did not even try. The force of the car being pushed away from the rail was strong enough that I felt it and knew there was an intervention.
Now, Imagine a two year old African Grey parrot whose wings are never clipped. Moving into a new house, on a Monday, with the garage door open, I stumble, and instead of him flying back to me as usual, he goes up outside, then higher, and flies around 300 yards away, across a culvert, landing on top of a neighbor’s roof. By the time I drive over there, he is gone. I search (in Albuquerque) for a week, but of course never spot him. The bird is very intelligent, very talkative, and after having him for over two years, more like a child to my wife and me (the real kids having grown up and left), so you may imagine the grief. Saturday morning, I get the dumb idea (more like was given) to place a wanted ad in the local newspapers. But my rational mind says, that’s dumb, the bird could have flown past the city by then, and do not proceed. But then I get a nagging thought to call anyway, and reluctantly call the main newspaper’s wanted ads section.
Nice lady taking the call asked if I had seen the local news last night, and I had not. She says that a local animal shelter showed an exotic bird as lost, and gives me their tele number. I call, and schedule to drive right over, about 6-7 miles away. Get there and there is a tv news crew over to watch. While I’m signing in at their front desk, my wife opens the bird’s cage door about 20 feet away. Bird immediately flies over to me and starts singing his happy song and actively kissing me all over my face. We go to leave with the bird, Shakespeare, in his carrying cage, and as we start to go through the front door, Shaky bird turns around to face the camera crew behind us and shouts, “Au revoir.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
What amazing stories, Jack. Thank you very much for sharing two more of your miracles. 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Chadpro, appreciate your response. My turn of mind, and scholastic training, is not automatically to accept any human authority, to include all functionaries belonging to organized religions and to the sciences (e.g., many climatologists are now outrageously on government doles and thus motivated to blame virtually all of human activities for variations in climate more easily attributed to Solar fluctuations). All humans are susceptible to impure motives; this liability was unfortunately displayed by the Sanhedren that worked against JC, and likewise has been true of the RCC (Pope Alexander IV being a prime example), as well as in Protestant sects. However, my reading of the NT impressed me that what JC is reported to have said is sacred and valid (I have also found that most of the experiences regularly reported fore the NDE align with what is said in the NT by JC; see John Burke’s Imagine Heaven for a thorough review and supporting conclusion, https://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Heaven-Near-Death-Experiences-Exhilarating/dp/080101526X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542305274&sr=1-1&keywords=imagine+heaven+john+burke ).
So, when Matthews reports, according to all of the translations, his simple, literal statement that JC came here to fulfill the prophets of the OT, including Moses, I have not the slightest caution about dismissing subsequent reinterpretations by human religious authorities that dispute that fact.
LikeLike
Very well put.
But what it comes down to at the end of the day is whether a person believes the Catholic Church is instituted by God and divinely protected from error when interpreting the Bible. As a Catholic i happen to believe that. If a person doesn’t believe that then they won’t necessarily go along with what the Church says about this or that issue.
And while it’s true that the Catholic Church (like any other Church) is made up of fallible, sinful humans, it is the only Church on earth (so Catholics believe) prevented by God himself from teaching any error on faith and morals. It is, out of all the religions on earth, the one true faith. If a person doesn’t believe that then of course they would view the Catholic Church as nothing greater than “human religious authorities.”
So our disagreement re the Old Covenant and its implications in the New Covenant comes down to having different faiths. Having different faiths, we lend credence to different sources of authority. And we each view the other’s sources of authority as prone to mistakes (or, as you said, “susceptible to impure motives”).
I am not sure how to get around this impasse because we do not see eye to eye on fundamental issues. That being said, i do not question your good will nor the good will of the authors in the links you provided.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Last thing:
i would “like” your comments as you have liked mine (and because i genuinely like them!) but i don’t know how to do it.
Souls flee from purgatory every-time i try it 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).”
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html
Today’s Homilist spoke of this quote during daily mass. He stated like wings, when 1 is not present the bird falters. We live in an age of ‘lacking reason’ and base our decisions on emotion. I immediately thought of Fr. Chad R. comments of the devils influence. The Pastor further reiterated we need to understand this in both rediscovering ‘reason’ and (more importantly) to discover a means of evangalizing this generation. For the moment in time I was listening (comprehending) it was uplifting.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Heard or read some time back that the next world war could start in a very unusual and unexpected place. Could it be possible the Vatican which is a state could be the unusual and unexpected place.
We have never had a Pope who inserted himself into politics like this Holy Father. Just wondering.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Charlie:
I wonder if there is a connection here. Here’s a statistic that parallels urban women voting democrat.
The majority of today’s yoga practitioners (62.8 percent) fall within the age range of 18-44. Women compose 82.2% of the cohort. 68% of all yoga practitioners make more than $75,000 a year.
The author also notes that “the more people practiced yoga, the more likely they were to decrease their adherence to Christianity and the more likely they were to adhere to non-religious spirituality and Buddhism.”
https://www.spiritualdirection.com/2014/01/29/what-is-yoga-catholic-perspective-part-i
LikeLiked by 1 person
Charlie, have you considered the possibility of voting fraud in some of the contested areas? The shenanigans in Broward County, Florida, for example, seem fishy to me.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Oh, there is absolutely far more vote fraud than ever before – and more overt and brazen to boot. But that is still not sufficient to explain the collapse of the suburbs. We are going to keep getting more vote fraud until people get serious jail time for trying it. The left is not angry about so-called “Voter Suppression;” they are furious that some Republicans are trying to engage in “Fraud Suppression.” This has got to be taken seriously by serious jail terms to stop it, regardless of the leftist howls. BUT, we would make a serious mistake to think that is the only problem. The collapse of the suburbs is real – and more dangerous than even vote fraud. Vote fraud can be stopped by merely taking it seriously and punishing it resolutely (though most of the GOP is far too timid to do it). But a serious demographic shift does not just endanger an election; it endangers all future elections as well.
LikeLiked by 4 people
It just blows the mind Charlie, on how the devil used Hitler & his Nazis to create a irrational hatred & fear of right-wing ideology, so people would go to the Antichrist left instead. I guess the same tactic was used against the Catholic Church with pedophiles.
It just goes to show how small & insignificant we truly are in the grand scheme of things, a person could live an entire lifetime and not put 2+2 together…
LikeLiked by 4 people
It is particularly bizarre considering how Hitler’s ideology and politics were fundamentally left-wing rather than right.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Interesting observation, I always found the political left more comparable to Nazis than the political right, but never really understood why, then again I always found politics boring, and ignored politics for most of my life until recent times when issues became too insane.
It would seem that association alone is enough to fool people, just like the ignorant associate all priests with pedophiles.
The education system over the past while has been sabotaged by the political left creating a whole generation of people devoid of critical thinking skills. A zero fail policy in children’s schools ensure learning is at a all time low.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You peaked my curiosity Charlie. I did a little digging and found that Hitler was a irrational tyrant that cared little for fitting inside a political mold; he was inegalitarian who used whatever ideology that supported his goals & power.
Egalitarianism is often championed by communists & Liberals alike, but it’s only an illusion, as someone needs to loose something for someone else to gain something. True fairness is only possible through God, not the ideas of humans.
For me, political left are the anti-God/anti-Christ irrational people out there who seek to enslave us all using communist ideas. Once the political left cements their power, the egalitarian ideology dissipate, and they will persecute all who don’t support them (Christian ideology isn’t comparable).
LikeLiked by 4 people
Please change the last word “comparable” to “compatible”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry, Al, I already cleared your first comment. Now, we have the correction from you and you know our love for the Holy Souls when typos happen.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Becrita, Actually, in context, both terms work to communicate this valid point. All’s well that ends..
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Jack. There you go, Al.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure how the process of editing works. It’s not easy to proof read stuff from a small handheld device, and auto-correct gets annoying too. My career isn’t writing intensive, so naturally my points are not always crystal clear, I do my best to clarify when people have questions.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I so agree about auto-correct provoking annoyance, Al. Unfortunately, Word Press does not allow commenters to self-edit. Please, no worries at all about typos. They’re a common occurrence,
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just keep at it, Al. I appreciate your contributions here – and even when you challenge me, you help me sometimes illustrate or dig deeper into my point…and often give voice to things that I am sure others here are thinking. You are a solid asset here.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I try to help out anyway I can by offering a different take/observation/emphasis on issues. I admit I sometimes miss the mark, but discussions sometimes open up new avenues of thoughts & information issues. Silence & inaction are our greatest enemy at this point in time, talking about topics here gives me courage & confidence to confront people around here, hopefully I can wake up some sleepers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You did strike on one of the key hallmarks of Hitler’s character and method: what he was just about to destroy he pretended to be part of. When he spoke of autonomy for the churches, it was just before he started relentlessly persecuting them. It was on the very day that he addressed and offered support for the trade unionists that he began the purge of them, shortly concluding in the execution of many of their leaders and the complete destruction of the movement. If Hitler started complimenting you and pledging solidarity with you, you needed to flee right then, for that was the most reliable cue he gave that jail and executions would soon follow.
Hitler DID have contempt for the concept of “international” socialism. He wanted a purely German variety. He shared socialists commitment to complete centralization and absolute dictatorship. His innovations to the movement were primarily in the realm of economics. He supported private ownership of business and industry, but with complete regulation of these industries. Thus, he had complete control while the industrialists could be blamed for any problems. He also made it a systematic policy to reward and punish companies entirely based on their collaboration with his Reich – regulation and crony capitalism are the defining principles of economic fascism.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Beckita,
I read this this morning. Sad heart about it. If it has already been posted by someone else please discard.
NEWSCATHOLIC CHURCHThu Nov 15, 2018 – 11:12 am EST
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-has-broken-with-previous-popes-causing-heresies-schisms-vatica
Pope Francis has broken with previous popes, causing ‘heresies, schisms’: Vatican theologian
Amoris Laetitia, Catholic, Dubia, Heresy, Nicola Bux, Pope Francis, Schism
November 15, 2018 (edwardpentin.co.uk) –In a forceful interview with Italian Vaticanist Aldo Maria Valli, Msgr. Nicola Bux has warned that the current pontificate is issuing statements that are generating “heresies, schisms, and controversies of various kinds” and that the Holy Father should issue a profession of faith to restore unity in the Church.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks HTTP. I’ve read two pieces by Msgr. Bux and noted the gravity of the times when a leading theologian in the Vatican makes such a request of the Holy Father. We carry on in prayer and TNRS.
LikeLiked by 2 people