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thrillorarc · 3 years ago

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misconceptions regarding judaism and jewish characters that i’ve seen perpetuated through the rpc over the years:

“ judiasm , as an organized religion doesn’t allow you to ask questions ” this is fundamentally antithetical to judaism. we as jews are encouraged to ask questions and interpret our texts. in fact , one of our most important texts is literally a bunch of old rabbis arguing about everything in the torah. while different sects of judaism may interpret and follow the word of g-d strictly , there isn’t one right way to be jewish and by enforcing the fundamentalism of christianity onto jewish characters , you are showing you completely misunderstand the ethn-oreligion of your muse. ALSO !!! AND THIS IS IMPORTANT !!! RELIGIONS ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE !! BECAUSE YOU GREW UP IN ONE RELIGION DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN SPEAK FOR THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF FOLKS FROM OTHER RELIGIONS !!!

“ lilith is a pagan figures and therefore okay for non-jews to write ” lilith is actually specific to judaism , which is a closed practice. it’s one thing to write a character who is jewish while not being jewish , we all write characters whose identities don’t align perfectly ( or at all ) with our own , but lilith is a figure in judaism and therefore is not up for the interpretation of gentiles. period.

“ all jews are ashkenazim ” whether or not you know what ashkenazi is , this is a super common theme i’ve found throughout the rpc. judaism is a diasporic ethno-religion and as such different communities of jews have grown and cultivated their own unique cultural practices. for example , not every jew has a connection to yiddish. ladino and judeo-arabic are two other languages that immediately come to mind for me personally , but there are so many. this also affects traditions during holidays , food , and even styles of worship. diasporic judaism is beautiful , and as a mizrahi jew , i implore you all to do your research. additionally , as a diasporic group , we are also racially diverse and have communities all over the world.

“ judaism is a sector of christianity ” i wish i was lying , i really do. i wish this isn’t something i’ve seen and had to correct when folks were writing jewish characters. alas... here we are. firstly , judaism pre-dates christianity. secondly , christianity has tried to eradicate judaism for nearly as long as it has existed through both cultural and literal genocide. to believe judaism is a branch of christianity is a form of violence. we also aren’t “ basically christians who just don’t believe jesus was the messiah. ” our interpretations of our texts and our traditions surrounding them , are all unique to us. the “ same ” line in the torah and the old testament are always going to be different due to the vastly different lens through which judaism and christianity function. also , if i see one more person relate a crucifix to a jewish character , i’m going to mcfreakin lose it.

“ so-and-so is a canonically jewish character who i write as gay , so i’m going to make their parents violently homophobic to them ” i’m not here to invalidate the lived experiences of any of my fellow jews who have had to deal with homophobia at home. i know it happens , we live in a violently homophobic society and my heart aches for you. but the truth is , jewish communities outside of the ultra-orthedox are historically more progressive towards gay members of their community than christians. starting in the 1960s , jewish organizations began to campaign for the decriminalization of homosexuality in the united states. when gentiles write this trope of homophobic parents , it is almost always coming through a lens of christianity. you say “ah , this character has a Religion , this must mean that Religion hates gays. ” to make this assumption is supersessionist and antisemitic. again , this isn’t to say this doesn’t happen , but i’ve seen this enough for it to be an alarming trend that doesn’t align with the actual history of jewish support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

“ at this point , christmas is a secular holiday so it’s okay if my jewish character celebrates it. ” there are jews who love christmas. there are jews who come from interfaith homes and celebrate christmas every year. there are also jews who hate christmas. christmas can be an isolating time for some jews , a time where we feel excluded or dismissed. there’s an excellent quote that goes “ two jews , three opinions. ” we tend to argue about everything , even -- or especially , amongst ourselves. that being said , christmas is a christian holiday. be cautious and mindful of the way you have your character engage with it. even if i personally despise christmas , i don’t speak for all jews. just be mindful. also , as is a common theme here , don’t just put chanukah under the umbrella of christmas if you decide during the “holiday season” to shift towards it. make an effort to learn about it as a holiday separate from christmas and not just the “jewish equivilant.” that being said , if you incorporate chanukah into your interpretation of a jewish muse , but not any other jewish holiday , you are doing a major disservice to the character and your jewish followers. we have so many holidays that are important in shaping our lives. do your research.

“ conspiracy theories are fun and harmless to incorporate into roleplaying. ” listen we all love a good ‘ trudeau is actually castro’s son ’ moment , but there is a long history of conspiracy theories that are linked back to centuries of antisemitic propoganda: lizard people , flat earth , the illuminati just to name a few. if you’re someone who likes a good conspiracy theory and wants to weave it into your writing , please please please make sure it isn’t just n*zi propaganda that’s been disguised to look like something else.

honestly , there is more that i could say , but i’ll leave it here. if any other jews would like to add on , please do ! and remember , like with anything else , please do your research when writing a character that doesn’t share your same identity , be mindful of your own assumptions and biases , and when in doubt: google is your best friend.*

*everything mentioned above can be easily googled. i even googled things myself to make sure i wasn’t just speaking out of my own ass.

#jewish rpc #jewish rp #please feel free to share !!!#long post //#antisemitism //

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summeryewberry · 4 years ago

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I’ve just finished reading the first 10 books from M. J. Trow’s Marlowe Mystery Series. The books vary in quality, but all up I’ve absolutely enjoyed it.

It’s historical fiction, set in Elizabethan England, and revolving around the playwright Christopher Marlowe solving mysteries, working as a spy, and writing the plays he’s known for today.

The language isn’t completely period-accurate, but I assume that’s to make it more readable for a modern audience to immerse themselves in. Still, it’s solidly entertaining, with a fair amount of humour. It’s well researched, although obviously with some forgivable creative licenses taken.

The series starts off with Christopher Marlowe at 18/19, a student at Corpus Christi, Cambridge University, which was at the time a direct path to a career in the church, except that Marlowe's dream is to become a playwright in London. A modern equivalent of that would be someone who studies law or politics, gets their Master's degree, and then decides to become famous with a death metal band instead.

Marlowe starts off as a young scholar who spends most of his time doing what he likes (rather than what his teachers want from him), including getting drunk, fighting, and sneaking in and out of his college after dark. His fellow students call him “Machiavel,” and he's set up as a clever, cheeky troublemaker with a temper and impulse control issues. Luckily, trouble is a place in which he thrills at being; it excites him, and he has full confidence in his own abilities to handle anything.

But he's not without a heart, as much as some people around him might think so. He's a loyal friend and protective of the innocent. He has a sense of justice, and is willing to kill to put things right.

Marlowe is an atheist during a time when England was forcibly Protestant, at a time when churches still ruled daily life. As a result, the books mostly steer away from anything overly religious or supernatural, sticking with Marlowe's cynical, secular view.

Marlowe's homosexuality is hinted at, but there's no love interest in the first 10 books anyway (I haven’t read the 11th). Whether that's believable to you or not, you'll have to judge for yourself. The books choose to focus on the mysteries that drive them, and on the world around Marlowe, rather than on any emotional inner life.

As the series goes on, you get to know Marlowe as someone who picks up skills like a sponge, who only needs to hear something, see something, or try something once in order to remember it. He’s not always a reliable narrator, but he’s always sympathetic. While his relationships with the women around him are lovely, full of respect and empathy, partly because there's no kind of attraction there, and party because he grew up with five sisters, just as independent-minded as him.

There are plenty of historical figures who show up throughout the series, including William Shakespeare before he becomes famous. If you know your history that adds some nice little bonuses to the books, but it’s not really necessary to know who these people are before reading the books.

The books:

Book 1: Dark Entry - Set just as Marlowe is finishing his Bachelor degree at Cambridge, with a murder mystery among the students and teachers there. The book ends with Sir Francis Walsingham recruiting Marlowe for Her Majesty's Secret Service, and thus begins his career as a spy.

Book 2: Silent Court - Kit's first mission: head towards the Netherlands to protect the King. He does this by joining a caravan troupe of travellers where he learns tricks and sleight-of-hand, things that will serve him well later in his career as a spy. Very little of the book takes place in the Netherlands, and the plot does a whole lot of meandering before you figure out where it's all leading, and with a disappointing ending it's my least favourite book of the series. However...

Book 3: Witch Hammer - Builds directly on the last book, with Marlowe needing to rebuild his confidence, so that makes book 2 retroactively better. Marlowe joins a travelling theatre troupe and immediately has his first play stolen. We meet a young Will Shakespeare in Warwickshire and prove that witches are not real, but evil hearts and minds certainly are.

Book 4: Scorpion's Nest - Marlowe is sent to Catholic France to track down a fugitive. It's the last book set in an academic setting, and it's full of wonderful characters, and Marlowe always needing to stay one step ahead of the suspicious college authorities. One of my favourites.

Book 5: Crimson Rose - Marlowe has finally graduated with his Master's degree and made it to London, where his play, Tamburlaine, is starting to gain attention. London is a riot of personalities, actors, familiar faces, crime, betrayal, breaking Shakespeare out of gaol, harbouring him as a fugitive, and Marlowe then having to clear his own name on top of it all. It's loud and entertaining, and my personal favourite of the series.

Book 6: Traitor's Storm - Marlowe is sent to the Isle of Wight to find out what happened to a fellow agent, and discovers a whole series of murders. The book involves the Spanish Armada, pirates, and again, a bunch of wonderful personalities.

Book 7: Secret World - We get a glimpse of Marlowe's family, before he is once again swept up in a murder investigation that has something to do with Francis Drake, the English privateer. As Marlowe does his own investigating he meets a Jewish jeweller, gets briefly arrested for murder and inspired to write The Jew of Malta. There are seeds of Marlowe's eventual downfall by introducing Robert Poley, and ending with Marlowe having murder on the brain, but he’s never anything other than sympathetic.

Book 8: Eleventh Hour - After the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, Marlowe sets out to prove it was murder. We meet the School of Night, a group of thinkers, occultists, and early scientists, and Marlowe begins work on his most spectacular play, Doctor Faustus. It's a more sombre book than the others in the series.

Book 9: Queen's Progress - Sent ahead of the queen to scout out locations, Marlowe discovers a series of violent attacks that are a little too conveniently arranged. Along the way, he's joined by friends old and new, which leads to Henslowe's crew staging their greatest production so far: placing Queen Elizabeth herself centre stage.

Book 10: Black Death - The plague rages through London, but it's not the only killer stalking the streets. Marlowe just can't let a mystery lie, even when he hates the victim. The book introduces Bedlam, and comes full circle by Marlowe returning to Cambridge. The difference between the man he was when he left from who he is now is stark.

Book 11: The Reckoning, came out in 2020, and I haven’t read it yet, but with a title like that you know it’s going to be the last of the series. I’m not planning to read it yet either, because I’m still enjoying labouring under the delusion that if I don’t read it, it won’t end as badly as history says it will. I’m only half joking.

It’s not the greatest series ever, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the series as a whole. I’ve loved spending time with the characters and seeing their stories unfold. I almost wish there were more books in the middle there, with more historical characters and more adventures. I’m going to miss following this version of Kit Marlowe on his adventures.

Are the books meaningful or profound? Not really.

Are they historically accurate? Sometimes.

Are they entertaining? Oh, so much!

#m. j. trow #summer blogs #christopher marlowe

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freuds-cokedealer · 6 years ago

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Particular aspects of the extermination of European Jewry by the Nazis remain inexplicable so long as anti-Semitism is treated as a specific example of a scapegoat strategy whose victims could very well have been members of any other group. The Holocaust was characterized by a sense of ideological mission, by a relative lack of emotion and immediate hate (as opposed to pogroms, for example), and, most importantly, by its apparent lack of functionality. The extermination of the Jews seems not to have been a means to another end. They were not exterminated for military reasons or in the course of a violent process of land acquisition (as was the case with the American Indians and the Tasmanians). Nor did Nazi policy toward the Jews resemble their policy toward the Poles and the Russians which aimed to eradicate those segments of the population around whom resistance might crystallize in order to exploit the rest more easily as helots. Indeed, the Jews were not exterminated for any manifest “extrinsic” goal. The extermination of the Jews was not only to have been total, but was its own goal—extermination for the sake of extermination—a goal that acquired absolute priority.

No functionalist explanation of the Holocaust and no scapegoat theory of anti-Semitism can even begin to explain why, in the last years of the war, when the German forces were being crushed by the Red Army, a significant proportion of vehicles was deflected from logistical support and used to transport Jews to the gas chambers. Once the qualitative specificity of the extermination of European Jewry is recognized, it becomes clear that attempts at an explanation dealing with capitalism, racism, bureaucracy, sexual repression, or the authoritarian personality, remain far too general. The specificity of the Holocaust requires a much more determinate mediation in order even to approach its understanding.

The extermination of European Jewry is, of course, related to anti-Semitism. The specificity of the former must be related to that of the latter. Moreover, modern anti-Semitism must be understood with reference to Nazism as a movement—a movement which, in terms of its own self-understanding, represented a revolt. Modern anti-Semitism, which should not be confused with everyday anti-Jewish prejudice, is an ideology, a form of thought, that emerged in Europe in the late nineteenth century. Its emergence presupposed earlier forms of anti-Semitism, which had for centuries been an integral part of Christian Western civilization. What is common to all forms of anti-Semitism is the degree of power attributed to the Jews: the power to kill God, to unleash the Bubonic Plague, and, more recently, to introduce capitalism and socialism. Anti-Semitic thought is strongly Manichaean, with the Jews playing the role of the children of darkness. It is not only the degree, but also the quality of power attributed to the Jews that distinguishes anti-Semitism from other forms of racism. Probably all forms of racism attribute potential power to the Other. This power, however, is usually concrete, material, or sexual. It is the potential power of the oppressed (as repressed), of the “Untermenschen.” The power attributed to the Jews is much greater and is perceived as actual rather than as potential. Moreover, It is a different sort of power, one not necessarily concrete.

What characterizes the power imputed to, the Jews in modern anti-Semitism is that it is mysteriously intangible, abstract, and universal. It is considered to be a form of power that does not manifest itself directly, but must find another mode of expression. It seeks a concrete carrier, whether political, social, or cultural, through which it can work. Because the power of the Jews, as conceived by the modern anti-Semitic imagination, is not bound concretely, is not “rooted,” it is presumed to be of staggering immensity and extremely difficult to check. It is considered to stand behind phenomena, but not to be identical with them. Its source is therefore deemed hidden—conspiratorial. The Jews represent an immensely powerful, intangible, international conspiracy. A graphic example of this vision is provided by a Nazi poster depicting Germany—represented as a strong, honest worker—threatened in the West by a fat, plutocratic John Bull and in the East by a brutal, barbaric Bolshevik Commissar. Yet, these two hostile forces are mere puppets. Peering over the edge of the globe, with the puppet strings firmly in his hands, is the Jew. Such a vision was by no means a monopoly of the Nazis. It is characteristic of modern anti-Semitism that the Jews are considered to be the force behind those “apparent” opposites: plutocratic capitalism and socialism. “International Jewry” is, moreover, perceived to be centered in the “asphalt jungles” of the newly emergent urban megalopoli, to be behind “vulgar, materialist, modern culture” and, in general, all forces contributing to the decline of traditional social groupings, values, and institutions. The Jews represent a foreign, dangerous, destructive force undermining the social “health” of the nation.

Modern anti-Semitism, then, is characterized not only by its secular content, but also by its systematic character. Its claim is to explain the world—a world that had rapidly become too complex and threatening for many people.

Moishe Postone, Anti-Semitism and National Socialism

#postone

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didanawisgi · 6 years ago

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written by Terry Newman

“Remember when the scariest kid in your neighborhood was the football jock who terrorized the high school with his minions in tow, and got bailed out by his rich parents when he went too far? Or it was the gothic malcontent with the switchblade and the swagger. Either way, what made these high-status alphas so terrifying was that they came at you in numbers. They travelled in packs. This has been our narrative, in the stories we tell—from Henry Bowers in Stephen King’s It, to Biff Tannen in Back to the Future, to Billy Hargrove in Stranger Things, central-casting bullies attracted followers. They belonged.

As any grade eight schoolgirl who’s been bullied off Instagram can attest, this stereotype still holds. But when it comes to the most dangerous and sociopathic actors, the opposite is true. All three of the young mass shooters who terrorized the United States in recent nationally reported scenes of carnage—Connor Betts in Dayton, Ohio; Patrick Crusius in El Paso, Texas; and Santino William Legan in Gilroy, California—acted alone. The old image of the bully as locker-room alpha or goth leader now seems passé. Often, it is the kid who used to be the fictional protagonist, the social outcast, the member of the Losers Club from It, whose face now appears on our screens with a nightmarish empty stare.

These recent shooters fit a similar profile. They were outsiders, all seemingly socially awkward, who became emboldened through fringe online communities that act as mutual-support societies for violent malcontents. This phenomenon is fuelled by hate, guns, mental illness and ideological extremism. But there is another factor at play here, too. Before a youth makes the decision to murder, before the gun is stashed in his backpack, before his state of mental health is so deteriorated that he commits the unthinkable, what has happened to him? It’s important to remember that these murders are also, in most cases, suicides.

In his 2008 article School Shooting as a Culturally Enforced Way of Expressing Suicidal Hostile Intentions, psychiatrist Antonio Preti summarized existing research on school shootings to the effect that “suicidal intent was found in most cases for which there was detailed information on the assailants.” The research also indicated that “among students, homicide perpetrators were more than twice as likely as their victims to have been bullied by their peers, and also were described as loners and poorly integrated into school activities…In most of the ascertained cases, perpetrators prepared a well-organized plan, and often communicated details about it to acquaintances or friends, who failed to report threats because they did not consider them serious or were embarrassed or ignorant of where to go for help. The most antisocial peers sometimes approved the plan, sharing the same anger against the stated target of violence.”

Preti’s article predated the rise of some of the most notorious web sites—including 8chan, which was shut down this week after several mass shootings were linked to its users. But the nihilistic phenomenon these killers represent predates modern social-media culture. Indeed, it predates digital communication, and even broadcast media more generally.

In 1897, French sociologist Émile Durkheim noted that suicides overall were increasing in society. But there were differences among the affected populations, he noticed. Men were more likely than women to commit suicide—though the chances decreased if the man was married and had children. Durkheim observed that social groups that were more religious exhibited lower suicide rates. (Catholics were less likely to commit suicide than Protestants, for instance.) Durkheim also noted that many people who killed themselves were young, and that the prevalence of such suicides was linked to their level of social integration: When a person felt little sense of connection or belonging, he could be led to question the value of his existence and end his life.

Durkheim labelled this form of suicide as “anomic” (others being “egoistic,” “altruistic” and “fatalistic”). Durkheim believed that these feelings of anomie assert themselves with special force at moments when society is undergoing social, political or economic upheaval—especially if such upheavals result in immediate and severe changes to everyday life.

Durkheim came from a long line of devout Jews. His father, grandfather and great grandfather had all been rabbis. And so even though he chose to pursue an academic career, his experiences taught him to respect the mental and psychological support that religious communities supplied to their members, as well as the role that ritual plays in the regulation of social behavior. In the absence of such regulation, he believed, individuals and even whole societies were at risk of falling into a state of anomie, whereby common values and meanings fall by the wayside. The resulting void doesn’t provide people with a sense of freedom, but rather rootlessness and despair.

Durkheim’s thesis has largely stood the test of time, though other scholars have reformulated it for modern audiences. In his 1955 book The Sane Society, for instance, Erich Fromm wrote that, “in the nineteenth century, the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century, the problem is that man is dead.” He described the twentieth century as a period of “schizoid-self alienation,” and worried that men would destroy “their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life.”

In her 2004 book Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, Katherine Newman described findings gleaned from over 100 interviews in Arkansas and Kentucky. The male adolescent shooters at the center of her study, she concluded, “shared a belief that demonstrating strength by planned attacks on their respective institutions with (too) easily available guns would somehow mitigate their unbearable feelings of inadequacy as males and bring longed-for respect from peers.” Ten years later, in a 2014 article titled The Socioemotional Foundations of Suicide: A Microsociological View of Durkheim’s Suicide, sociologists Seth Abrutyn and Anna Mueller set out to update Durkheim’s theory about how social integration and moral regulation affect suicidality. “The greater degree to which individuals feel they have failed to meet expectations and others fail to ‘reintegrate’ them, the greater the feelings of shame and, therefore, anomie,” they concluded. “The risk of suicidal thoughts, attempts, and completions, in addition to violent aggression toward specific or random others, is a positive function of the intensity, persistence, and pervasiveness of identity, role, or status-based shame and anomie.”

Writing in the 1890s, Durkheim was highly conscious of all the ways that industrial capitalism corroded traditional forms of social regulation in society, often at the expense of religious—and even governmental—authorities. (“Depuis un siècle, en effet, le progrès économique a principalement consisté à affranchir les relations industrielles de toute réglementation. Jusqu’à des temps récents, tout un système de pouvoirs moraux avait pour fonction de les discipliner…En effet, la religion a perdu la plus grande partie de son Empire. Le pouvoir gouvernemental, au lieu d’être le régulateur de la vie économique, en est devenu l’instrument et le serviteur.”) But if he were to visit us in 2019, Durkheim would be surprised at the extent to which once-dominant ideas with no connection to economics have been marginalized as regressive and hateful—such as nationalism, patriotism and even masculinity.

This is one reason why so many people now feel unmoored. As Canadian science fiction writer Donald Kingsbury eloquently put it in his novel Courtship Rite, “Tradition is a set of solutions for which we have forgotten the problems. Throw away the solution and you get the problem back.” Faith in god, country and manhood might be seen as regressive by modern lights. But insofar as they were holding back male anomie, we perhaps neglected to consider what damage would be done if we discredited those ideas before finding replacements.

In the history of our species, there has never been (to the knowledge of modern scholars) a human society that did not express belief in some sort of supernatural force—which suggests that we are programmed by a need to believe in something bigger than ourselves. Sociologist Max Weber warned in 1919 that “science deals with facts. It can’t tell us what to do or what’s important.” This is to say that while the scientific revolution did a good job of helping us explain and harness the natural world, it did nothing to fill the god-shaped hole that Blaise Pascal identified in the 17th-century: “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”

If we are to resign ourselves to the fact that “God himself” isn’t going to intercede any time soon, then we are left with the ordinary tools of policy, such as Robert Putnam outlined in his famous 2000 book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of the American Community, in which he pointed to the value of “the connections among individuals’ social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.” These connections could be strengthened, Putnam argued, through improved civics education, more extra-curricular activities for youth, smaller schools, family-oriented workplaces, a more enlightened approach to urbanism, technology that reinforces rather than replaces face-to-face interaction, as well as a decentralization of political power. These recommendations were written 19 years ago, before Facebook, Twitter or 4chan existed. It would be interesting to know how he would revise his recommendations now that we have a better appreciation for the massive effects of digital culture on our social dynamics.

In a 2017 article I wrote, titled Towards a Theory of Virtual Sentiments, I argued that real-time empathy generation often requires some degree of eye contact—which is hard to generate through online interaction. Moreover, it is shockingly easy to get worked up into a rage when you are interacting with an online avatar of a person you have never met. Simply put, the more we physically see each other, the less likely we are to be awful to each other. As Louis CK said in an interview about youth and technology, “They don’t look at people when they talk to them and they don’t build empathy. You know, kids are mean, and it’s cause they’re trying it out. They look at a kid and they go, ‘You’re fat,’ and then they see the kid’s face scrunch up and they go, ‘Oh, that doesn’t feel good to make a person do that.’ But when they write ‘You’re fat’ [online] then they just go, ‘Mmm, that was fun, I like that.’” Even putting aside the extreme cases of forums that cater to homicidal shooters, I remain unconvinced that any community that exists primarily in online form can be a force for long-term good. Perhaps more time offline is a good start for anyone seeking to enhance “the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness.”

Do we need a new nationalism? A new religion? What common human project can we collectively embrace that gives a sense of mission to everyone, regardless of skin color, religion, economic class or ideology? It would be presumptuous for me to suggest I have the answers. All I know is that men who see human life as meaningless are symptoms of a larger sense of anomie that, in less dramatic and destructive form, increasingly grips us all.”

Terry Newman is currently an MA student in the Sociology Department at Concordia University in Montreal. Her SSHRC-funded research is on the candidate controversies that took place during the 2015 Canadian federal election. She is also a Teaching Assistant in Concordia’s Engineering Department. She tweets from @tlnewmanmtl. She is the author of the Quillette article Through the Looking Glass at Concordia University.

#Anomie #violent crime #ideological violence #psychology #society #sociology #social commentary #tribalism #gun control

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wavesofanalysis · 5 years ago

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Home-Style Terrorism

In their article entitled, “White Terrorists Give Political Cover to Other Americans’ Prejudices,” Ibram X. Kendi asks the question:

“How many people do white terrorists have to kill before America treats them as more dangerous than people of color?”

Domestic terrorism, as described by the FBI on their websites’ page detailing what they investigate, describes it as: “Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”

This definition, one that seemingly decries all acts of violence against those of minority status, is one that the Unites States often uses selectively.

On December 7th, 2019, a gunman opened fire at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where three individuals were killed and eight more of them left with injuries. The effects of this shooting devastated the Florida community and have left many in mourning and asking the question: Who is responsible?

The FBI made a public statement identifying the gunman as Mohammad Alshamrani, a 21 year-old student naval flight officer at NAS. Rachel Rojas, FBI special agent leading Jacksonville’s Field Office, stated that the FBI is conducting its internal investigation under “the presumption that this was an act of terrorism.”

Since the advent of the shooting, many articles describe Alshamrani as having a fascination with videos that contain mass shootings and displaying a penchant for anti-American rhetoric. Comments across many media outlets look unsurprisingly similar:

Public outcries about “Muslim murders” and keeping Saudi people “at arms length,” are just the beginning. It is clear that the public, government officials, and the FBI are viewing this event as a major problem. Rachel Rojas, one voice among many, is voicing the opinion that if the FBI treats events such as these as acts of terrorism, then we can “take advantage of investigative techniques that can help us more quickly identify and then eliminate any additional threats to the rest of our community." So why is the FBI so quick to label the shooting at the NAS as an act of terrorism, when such a label incites such panic? And where are these types of serious responses when it comes to white nationalism?

The answer, therefore, can be found within our own racism and prejudice within our country’s institutions and rhetoric.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), white supremacy is the root of 78% of America’s own domestic terrorism.

In Frontline’s documentary “Documenting Hate: New American Nazis,” A.C. Thompson follows an American extremist group Atomwaffen, a group that “embraces Nazi ideology and and preaches a hatred of minorities, gays, and Jews.” During the shooting of this documentary, the group was estimated to have 60 enlisted individuals and approximately 100 individuals on a waiting list. They participate in “hate camps” that teach survival, guerrilla tactics and weapon training, as well as encourage “lone wolf acts of terrorism.”

It seems that while terrorism rooted in white-nationalism is on the rise in The United States, and has staggering percentages rooted in the killings it perpetuates, it doesn’t garner the same kind of attention that say, Mohammad Alshamrani might.

Groups like Atomwaffen are born from extremism and hatred, and spread across social media platforms like Twitter and Youtube like wildfire. Despite this ongoing threat, there isn’t any reception from the White House, and federal resources, even when allocated, are often quickly rescinded and distributed elsewhere.

When asked whether or not he saw white nationalism as an ongoing threat after the mosque attacks in New Zealand, President Trump responded with: “I don’t, really.” Although shocking, this remains unsurprising, and as Joshua Inwood describes in “White supremacy, white counter-revolutionary politics, and the rise of Donald Trump”:

“Trump is firmly grounded in a long history of white supremacist politics,” and then later, “it is imperative that we not view Trump as a peculiarity; instead, he is part of a broader context in which white supremacist practices suture to American politics.”

If our President dismisses this ongoing threat, and the FBI only allocated 20% of it’s counterterrorism agents toward domestic threats, how is the public supposed to take these threats as the serious ones they are? In order to start tackling domestic terrorism across the board, the FBI and public officials need to start calling white nationalism what it is: acts of violence that are disrupting our nation at a startling rate, and a national issue that needs immediate addressing.

Sources:

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/12/08/navy-names-the-three-sailors-killed-in-pensacola-shooting-spree/

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/08/786089099/fbi-is-investigating-pensacola-shooting-as-terrorism

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/white-terrorists-help-other-people-deny-their-prejudice/586198/

https://time.com/5647304/white-nationalist-terrorism-united-states/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-rise-white-nationalism_n_5c8c055fe4b0db7da9f33cd4?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFWcbczbwdrIuTaU4spTu-S59zOD22OKLOEq0XMl6IZD9y0Fqt6IJis7GnbhKZ75VXEN3YeUwfphoETudxUilnHbnhO9-n_s7uqPOkG5iaiuy5xqUKJW2pTP1fkoprZNKTYxndGtwU51XVzsHiSSX6VvrDDvpaE4jD9Y8rtGtqSP

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/08/florida-gaetz-pensacola-shooting-078109

Documenting Hate: The New American Nazis (PBS Frontline)

Inwood, J. 2019. White supremacy, white counter-revolutionary politics, and the rise of Donald Trump. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 37(4), 579–596.

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marcjampole · 7 years ago

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Trump’s policies all feed the fear that many white Americans have of anyone or anything different from their lifestyle and beliefs

Something quite wonderful happened to my wife and me the other day during our annual public humiliation, which is how we refer to our one trip a year to buy sweet kosher wine—always for our Seder. We entered the neighborhood liquor store near Hunter College and sheepishly asked a group of employees gathered in front, “Where’s the sweet kosher wine?” I added, as if telling a joke, “You know, once a year…” to which the store manager answered with a lilting empathy that seemed to come from years of experience, “I know, once a year!” We were sharing a moment.

Except the manager was most certainly a sub-continental or Persian, and thus probably Muslim or Hindu and not Jewish.

In all, six ethnic groups were involved in this public ritual that always proceeds our private religious-cultural celebration: A secular Syrian Jew and his Quaker wife of German-Dutch-English descent are served first by a South or Central Asian who asks his Latino employee to show us where to look—he said, “Jose, show them.” The cashier is a very friendly African-American woman.

Syrian Jew, WASP, Asian, Latino, Black—that’s five cultures. Six, when you count the man to whom the store manager was talking the entire time we were in the store—a jovial heavyset, tow-haired guy with an Eastern European accent.

Diversity and respect for everyone. It’s what I love about New York City, and what I love about America.

And it’s what Trump supporters fear.

Core Trump supporters fear the other—other cultures, other skin colors, other religions, other sexual predilections, other nationalities. They fear being invaded or physically harmed. They fear losing their traditions. They harbor a completely irrational fear of being displaced, after centuries of enjoying preferential treatment.

Virtually all the Trump positions that appeal to his white, mostly rural or working class, base begin with a fear of the other: The policy to build a wall, shut down immigration and deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible. The policies to get tough on crime and gut poverty programs, which appeal to the many white Americans who mistakenly believe that the majority of both criminals and the poor are people of color. The defense of Christmas, which isn’t so much a defense against encroachments on religious celebration as an attempt to assert the prerogatives of one religion as dominant and therefore normal. The anti-LGBTQ policies such as Trump’s several attempts to kick transgendered people out of the armed forces. The gun policies, as surveys show that those hoarding guns and spewing out NRA rhetoric tend to be whites who are afraid of African-Americans. Even Trump’s “America first” foreign policy reflects a fear of the other.

If it’s different from the normal defined by Walt Disney in the 1950’s, then Trump’s America hates it.

But it’s differences that I love in my America, an America I share with more than half the population, congregating primarily in big cities and their immediate suburbs along the coasts and major rivers and transit points.

In our America, we don’t fear the other, we embrace all others, as we’re likely an “other” ourselves. We enjoy our freedom to express our culture in our homes, our community centers and yes, sometimes in the streets. We love to see others express their cultures. We love to dabble sometimes in the culture of others—Native American, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Ethiopian, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Turkish, Persian, Indonesian and a myriad of other cuisines, parades, neighborhoods, music festivals and exhibits. We are not threatened by diversity. Diversity makes our surroundings more interesting and provocative. Being part of a big-tent America also protects us—or is supposed to protect us—from discrimination.

Those who fear the other have always been around to impede what Martin Luther King called the long arc of our history towards justice for all. Fear of the other has a long tradition in American culture and politics. It served as a justification for both slavery and how we treated freed African-American slaves. Fear of the other animated the nativist political movements of the 19th centuries and our restrictive immigration policies between the World Wars. It guided our housing, mass transit, urban renewal and land development policies and fueled the flight to the suburbs after World War II.

Over the past twenty years, the country seems to be polarizing around these two visions of American more than ever before. With the Republican and Democratic Parties taking turns as the dominant political force, our national politics must appear bipolar to the outside world, as we violently shift between policies that stultify diversity with those that encourage it.

Sadly, the GOP even before Trump has for years exploited the irrational fear of the other to gain support for an economic agenda that has inflicted severe harm on the very constituency most susceptible to their fear-mongering—less educated, rural and working class whites.

The ironic thing about this never-ending Kulturkampf is that Trump’s Americans—the evangelicals, the cultural conservatives, the gun lovers and even the white supremacists can live their lives as exactly as they want in the privacy of their own homes, community centers and hunting lodges in an America based on diversity, as long as they don’t insist on foisting their beliefs, cultural artifacts and definitions of normalcy on others. You do your thing and let me do mine. And we’ll keep public places and institutions secular and open to all.

I’m reminded of a heated discussion about what constitutes America that I had with my much younger step brother when he was in his angry white guy phase decades ago. He was blasting away against anti-American values and the threat of Blacks and foreigners, all the while eating a taco from a fast food emporium. When I pointed out that he was eating Mexican food, my then callow step brother insisted with some vehemence, “No, I’m not. Tacos are American.”

You’ll get no argument here.

#america #multicultural #passover

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eretzyisrael · 1 year ago

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Meet Tara Tarawneh – a current undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. After attending King’s academy in Jordan, she came to Penn to follow her interest in English literature and art.

She’s also a big human rights activist: in a letter published in support of “Palestine Writes festival” she states that “it is about time that Penn begins changing its behavior towards marginalized groups on campus and the greater Philadelphia community”. Festival objectors who fear their lives on campus are only promoting “an old, colonial narrative that posits Indigenous peoples as inherently violent, irrational, dark savages”, she added.

Yet Tarawneh, the great humanitarian, turned out to be… a violent, dark savage.

Last Saturday she was speaking at a protest, praising Hamas’ “glorious October 7th” actions and calling to eradicate the Jewish state “from the river to the sea”. Ms Tarawneh felt empowered by the photos posted that day. See below video.

Moreover, according to students on campus, Tarawneh was also charged with vandalism by Penn campus police, as she ripped an Israeli flag from a dorm.

Let me be clear: We #Penn #alums demand no less than ZERO tolerance to antisemitism. This means:

- Zero tolerance to violence motivated by hate to Jews (or other minorities) - Zero tolerance to supporting terror acts or organizations - Zero tolerance to inciting violence, or calling for the destruction of the Jewish state (or Jews).

Tara Tarawneh has allegedly committed all three. Violent act at the dorms (taking a flag), supporting Hamas and inciting to violence.

Penn should immediately put this case to the ethics committee, and if those turn true - expel her, and declare those values do not correlate to Penn core values. Anything shy of that is just shameful.

Stop ‘sympathizing’ with us. We don’t want your sympathy. Start #doing. Tara's inciting speech: https://lnkd.in/dtVgAGqP Profile: https://lnkd.in/d3TW2FCX DP article: https://lnkd.in/d-h2Z7uH University of Pennsylvania Harvard University University of California, Berkeley Stanford University Columbia University Yale University Princeton University New York University UCLA Massachusetts Institute of Technology United Nations

The video is on Linkedin. I think it's an Instagram video.

#tara tarawneh #university of pennsylvania #human rights #jew hater

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friend-clarity · 5 years ago

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York University launches review after event with ex-Israeli soldiers met with massive protest

“Hateful anti-Semitic chants, sirens being used to disrupt the speakers and protesters screaming insults at students attending the event are alarming and intolerable,” Levitt said. “The need for police protection from the violence and hate displayed by protesters is shameful in our pluralistic and democratic society.”

Videos posted online of Wednesday’s event shows a large crowd filling a campus hallway, chanting, “Viva, viva intefadeh!” referring to a Palestinian uprising [a.k.a. terrorism] that began in 1987 and lasted several years.

Comment: The Ontario province has required that universities demonstrate that there is free speech on our campuses. York University has issued such a statement -- but it is more bureaucratic double talk than reality. There is no free speech on our campuses especially with respect to Jews and Israel. At a time when militant Islamic terrorists in Gaza are bombing Israeli civilians with missiles keeping hundreds of thousands of students in their homes and in bomb shelters in the South of Israel, Jew hatred is alive and well on our campuses.

Joseph Brean, National Post November 21, 2019 TORONTO — York University has launched a review of how it handles free expression on campus over the Middle East conflict, after a Jewish student group’s event featuring former Israeli soldiers was disrupted by a massive protest Wednesday night.

“I want to emphasize in the strongest possible terms that acts of violence are not tolerated on our campuses and York University has zero tolerance for hate. There is simply no place for it in our community,” said York’s president Rhonda Lenton in a statement. She said she was “deeply disappointed” by the “verbal and physical confrontations.”

“I also believe it is essential to proactively develop strategies for fostering a more productive dialogue around these issues,” she said. “I hope we will continue to challenge ourselves, as a university and a community, to debate and protest passionately, but to do so with respect for differing points of view and generosity towards our opponents.”

York University president Rhonda Lenton CNW Group/York University Politicians and Jewish groups expressed concern about hatred, racism and violence they said was on display at Vari Hall, York’s main student centre.

“I am disappointed that York University allowed for a hate-filled protest to take place last night at Vari Hall. I stand with the Jewish students and the Jewish community,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Toronto’s Mayor John Tory said he supports free speech and the right to protest, “but there is absolutely no place for hate or violence in Toronto.”

Video posted to social media of the protest showed little outright violence, but many people jostling in an unruly crowd overseen by police, and loud chanting of “Viva viva Palestina,” “Occupation is a crime,” “viva intifada (uprising)” and “One two three four occupation no more five six seven eight Israel is an apartheid state.”

Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook told the Canadian Press there was a physical altercation involving several people, and one person suffered minor injuries.

There were no arrests although some people were removed by police.

The event was disrupted by the protest but managed to continue, aided by police barring the doors and eventually escorting attendees out. They had seen a presentation by Reservists on Duty, a group of former Israel Defense Forces soldiers who speak on campuses in opposition to anti-Semitism and especially the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to delegitimize Israel.

The event was organized by Herut Canada, a branch of a resurgent movement with a long history in Israeli politics. Herut Zionism is a movement that has relaunched on campuses in Britain and Canada, describing itself as “unapologetic Zionism.”

York University’s Vari Hall is divided by pro-Israel and pro-Palestine supporters during rallies held on Feb. 12, 2009. Aaron Lynett/National Post/File

In Israel, Herut, which means freedom, was a far right-wing nationalist party, founded in 1948 by former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and merged into the Likud party in 1988

The Canadian chapter was launched at York this year and last month was denied official student group status, but that decision was quickly reversed under pressure from the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which had sought access to records of the decision under freedom of information laws.

The protest comes just as Canada changed its traditional course on diplomacy toward the Middle East by voting in favour of a United Nations resolution calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state that maintains the “territorial unity, contiguity and integrity of all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

It also follows a move by the United States to change its position and recognize some Israeli settlements as legal.

Michael Levitt, the local MP for York Centre, said the situation at York was “grossly unacceptable,” and that he was “shocked and appalled by the chaotic scenes of intimidation and anti-Semitism.”

“The community has to take urgent and immediate action to provide security for Jewish students in addition to removing hate groups like Students Against Israeli Apartheid and reforming the administration and the student federation to enable the university to ensure a welcoming environment to Jewish students,” said Avi Benlolo, CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, placing blame on York for creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students.

“The Toronto Police Service and York University should be commended for ensuring that this event could be safely held,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada. “Enraged mobs cannot be allowed to prevent lawful and peaceful gatherings from taking place on campus. Further investigation is required into how a registered student group was permitted to glorify terrorism and attempt to intimidate those peacefully assembling on campus. There must be consequences for violent behaviour.”

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hymnrevival · 6 years ago

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Sermon Given on JULY 4th 1988

“We need more troublemakers in the church! I pray that every member of the body of Christ would become a troublemaker! We need an army of troublemakers who have become so full of the Holy Ghost they will stir up and trouble New York City and every other city around the world; trouble their wicked institutions — challenge the established dead churches — trouble the leaders, the mayors, the city councils, the community leadership! In other words, we need Holy Ghost troublemakers moving in the Spirit, proclaiming the kingship of Christ so effectively that whole cities are stirred!”

Read Full Sermoun Here: <a href="http://tscpulpitseries.org/english/1980s/ts880704.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow">tscpulpitseries.org/english/1980s/ts880704.html</a>

We Need More Troublemakers In the Church! Plain Text File + Home Page + Subscribe + Copyright By David Wilkerson July 4, 1988 __________ We need more troublemakers in the church! I pray that every member of the body of Christ would become a troublemaker! We need an army of troublemakers who have become so full of the Holy Ghost they will stir up and trouble New York City and every other city around the world; trouble their wicked institutions — challenge the established dead churches — trouble the leaders, the mayors, the city councils, the community leadership! In other words, we need Holy Ghost troublemakers moving in the Spirit, proclaiming the kingship of Christ so effectively that whole cities are stirred!

Paul and Silas were two of the world's biggest troublemakers! The Bible speaks of "men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 15:26, NAS). Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy were such men, walking in the power of the Spirit. As seen in Acts 16, when the Holy Ghost forbid them to speak the Word in Asia, they obeyed. When they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit would not permit them, they went instead to Troas, under the Spirit's direction. Paul then had a vision of a man calling them to Macedonia, so they set out immediately to Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia. When they arrived, a fortune teller followed them about, crying, "...These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17). After enduring it for many days, Paul turned and "...said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour" (Acts 16:18). Suddenly the whole city was in an uproar: this fortune teller was apparently a big tourist attraction, but now she was healed and praising the Lord!

Paul had upset the status quo. He had challenged the devil who had been having his way for years. The slave-owners of the delivered woman then dragged Paul and Silas into the marketplace to stand trial before the city magistrates. The charge was, "...These men...do exceedingly trouble our city" (Acts 16:20). "And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison...and made their feet fast in the stocks" (Acts 16:22-24). It looked as though Satan had won. The new converts must have been stunned!

But all the power of God is with Holy Ghost troublemakers! "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God...and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed" (Acts 16:25-26). The jailer, seeing what had happened, even fell down before Paul and Silas, saying "...Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). Those city officials and religious leaders went to bed thinking, "We did it to them! That's the last we will hear of those vagabond troublemakers. We really shut them up and scared them!" But what a commotion the next day! I can imagine sergeants knocking on the doors of the mayor, city council members, and the religious leaders, telling them, "Quick! Get down to city hall — we've got a big problem!" In a state of shock, the officials probably responded, "What? An earthquake? The prison doors opened? Their chains all fell off? They didn't even try to escape? The jailer joined their faith? They're Romans?!?" Now, they were really afraid. It was a crime to beat Roman citizens (Paul and Silas were both Romans). "What do you mean they won't budge from our jail? They demand what? For us to come down and apologize and escort them out of jail?" And they came...and brought them out...begging them to leave the city" (Acts 16:39 NASB).

I love it! Here they were, not flaunting their spiritual authority, but merely acting as ambassadors of King Jesus. As they had witnessed Christ's power being mocked, Paul and Silas now wanted that little riverside prayer group to see how God manifests His power to those who stand up against the forces of hell. They went directly to the house of Lydia — and what a meeting that must have been! I would think Paul told that house group, "See! The devil can rage, the powers that be may threaten — but God has all the power! God will stand by you if you take a stand!"

I preach a great deal on prayer and I believe in the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous. But praying alone, praying by two's and three's, or even in a large prayer meeting will not alone shake a city! Elijah was a man of powerful prayer, but it was more than his prayers that shook Ahab's kingdom and enraged Jezebel: He called the false prophets to Mount Carmel and challenged them. Jezebel had slain God's prophets and led Israel into apostasy and the horrible idolatry of Baal worship — and no one had challenged her! Seven thousand believers had not bowed, but they were silent, unknown, and afraid. So along comes Elijah, the troublemaker! Ahab called him "the troubler of Israel!" (1 Kings 18:17). Elijah ended up at the Brook Kishon with a sword in his hand, slaying hundreds of Baal's false prophets "in the name of Jehovah."

Elijah was not a polite gentlemen with the devil and his crowd. While "...they leaped upon the altar...Elijah mocked them [derided them]" (1 Kings 18:26-27). The church of late has cowered before the powers of darkness due to the lack of holiness, for the Scripture tells us, "...the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). Some will say, "But Jesus was meek — He never opened His mouth or resisted when they took Him to be crucified!" But that was because the hour of darkness had come, the hour He was to be given into the hands of the enemy. He was not silent in the temple when driving out the money-changers. He was not silent when calling religious leaders serpents — blind guides — whited sepulchers — a brood of vipers (see Matthew 23). He even told some boldly that Satan was their father!

Many churches today are full of silent, gentlemanly diplomats, not wanting to make waves! Nobody wants trouble! So the devil's kingdom goes unchallenged. We have more than enough smiling, mousy Christians! I heard the raging of a man who said to me, "Let's you and me make a bet — any amount of money! You people in the church can't stop anything! You'll get a little publicity, but nothing ever changes. You can't shut anything down! You're powerless in this league!" He was speaking of abortion and I could detect the mocking of Satan in his voice. It was a dare! It was as if to say to all Christians, "You're all spiritual wimps. You won't last — you'll give up when the opposition comes. You'll just run back inside your safe walls and hide!"

Let me show you how and where the apostolic men of God challenged the powers of darkness — the areas where we too must act.

Paul and Silas Challenged a Dead, Corrupt Religious System!

"...they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and...reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ" (Acts 17:1-3). The synagogue at Thessalonica had probably conducted quiet meetings for years, undisturbed. They diligently taught Scripture and in outward appearance they seemed very holy.

Then Paul, the troublemaker, came on the scene and in just three weeks of preaching the kingship of Jesus, he turned that whole area of Thessalonica upside down! He knew from experience that only a few devout ones would listen to Christ's demanding word, that the majority would not give up their hard-shelled religious traditions. He also knew they would be filled with envy and hate towards anything that disturbed their way of doing things. Paul declared that the preaching of his gospel caused contention: "...we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention" (1 Thessalonians 2:2). The New American Standard says "with much opposition."

What caused the contention, the violent opposition? Paul and Silas were not loud or provocative — they were not robbing churches? Later, in a letter to those in Thessalonica who went on with the Lord, Paul wrote, "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile...not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness.... But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children...we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us" (1 Thessalonians 2:3-8). These religious people who had for years acted so demure and God-loving are now enraged. They became an angry mob, assaulting the house of Jason and troubling the people and rulers of the city. (See Acts 17.) The cause of all this contention was this one uncompromising word: "There is another king...Jesus" (Acts 17:7).

Paul's preaching on the lordship of Jesus was not like what we hear on that subject today! It was not a cheerleader's slogan or emotional hype. I believe Paul stood for hours before those religious Jews, laying down the whole cost of following Jesus as King. He preached the laying down of all idols and giving up the pleasures of sin. He preached self-denial and suffering for Christ's glory, even to martyrdom. His message of Christ's kingship included a warning to no longer follow men or teachers or their doctrines, nor be led about by men who make merchandise of others; but rather, to adopt a life of holiness and separation from all appearance of evil, having no fellowship with evil men.

I know of Christians who are absolutely in love with their pastor and church, even where it is known for certain there is pride, domination of spirits, manipulation, and flesh. But they say, "We hear the right message. We hear about holiness, about the lordship of Jesus! Sin is not condoned in our church! If that is so, why do those same ministers and congregations become so enraged and hostile to those others who begin to preach and live out the true cost of making Christ king in their lives? Why is there such opposition to believers who faithfully practice the Lord's uncompromising commandments?

"These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also" (Acts 17:6). Whose world is upside down? It is that religious circle where nobody takes the kingship of Christ seriously. A minister's wife here in New York City told me, "Times Square Church has upset just about every charismatic church in the city! You know that, don't you?" I did not know that. I don't know if in fact it is true. But if it is, and if it is because of arrogance in this pulpit or from people going out bragging that this is the only church preaching real holiness, then we would be in great error! But on the other hand, if ministers and congregations are getting "turned upside down" because we preach the uncompromising kingship of Christ — if people are leaving some of those churches because their sin was not exposed and challenged — if people go from here, becoming more like Jesus, walking in His purity — then we are Holy Ghost troublemakers of the right kind!

I can assure you from the Word of God that nothing shakes up or angers dead, compromising churches and preachers more than someone moving in the fullness of Christ who lives and preaches Paul's demanding gospel of holiness. It's a reproof! In every church you will find those few "devout Christians," as Paul called them. But the day you say with Paul — "The things of this world are as dung. I have turned from idols to serve my King. I will no longer serve two masters. I have seen a great light and have come out from among the wicked, the unbelieving, the apostate, the workers of iniquity" — that is the day you are marked as a troublemaker! Are you also to "go in unto them" as Paul did and share the light you have received, to pull others out of deception? Absolutely, yes! By phone, by visits, by tapes, in every way go in unto them, willing to even lay your life down for them.

"The brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night..." (Acts 17:10). Once again it looked like Satan won the battle with the two of them having to sneak out of town in the dark of night. Just imagine the proud boastings of the people on the next Sabbath: "Some revival that was! We were here before they came and we're here when they're gone. People just don't want that kind of preaching around here! Let us go on with God with no more interruptions from these holiness troublemakers!" But Paul and Silas had so turned the converts eyes off themselves and onto Jesus that they could leave town and the body still flourish there. Under persecution the church in Thessalonica became so strong in faith that they became a powerful witness to all of Asia — and the joy of Paul's heart!

Paul Stirred Things Up in the Market Place.

Paul stirred things up right on the job by preaching Jesus the King with resurrection power: "...in the market daily with them that met with him...he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection" (Acts 17:17-18). If there is any one place Christians hide their light more than any other place it is on the job, in their workplace. There are multitudes of Christians in this country who sit in God's house proclaiming their intense love for Jesus, yet when they go to their jobs, they're timid and ashamed of Christ! Like Peter, they say by their silence, "I don't know the man!" They fear losing their jobs as well as being ridiculed or rejected.

Why is there such cowardly silence about Jesus on the job by Christians who pray, devour the Word, and walk in holiness? It is because, unlike Paul, our hearts are not stirred, as we see all around us a people given to idolatry. (See Acts 7:16.) We dare not say, "But Paul was a preacher. He was called to this work!" We are all ambassadors of Jesus Christ and are all commanded never to hide our light under a bushel.

These Athenians were exactly like the people you work with nowadays, spending "their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing...in all things...too superstitious" (Acts 17:21-22). Many Christians were led to believe that the President was a born again believer in Christ, while all along it appears he and his wife were following stars! It is now apparent that those who live in the White House are superstitious and have been guided by spiritualistic channelers! I believe God is angry about it because we lied to the whole world by proclaiming "In God we trust." God's anger is expressed in Isaiah: "Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance...for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee...Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth.... Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries.... Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee" (Isaiah 47:3, 9-13). "Though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down..." (Obadiah verse 4). According to these Scriptures, such leaders will be put to shame!

So it is throughout this nation: the majority of those around you on the job are given over to idolatry, gossip, and superstitions of all kinds. On Wall Street the newest thing is "crystal power"! Intelligent, rich power brokers put thousands of dollars into a hunk of crystal or jade and place it in their office to receive "radiant rays" and "vibes" to imbue them with secret knowledge. Others are into yoga, meditation, the occult, and many now won't do anything until they consult their guru or stargazer!

Athens was a city wholly given over to idolatry. Their sin and wickedness had to be even more overpowering than what we have here in New York City because there was no gospel light, no church there. The population was under the sway of two powerful doctrines of delusion: the Epicureans and the Stoics — twin doctrines of devils! The Epicureans did not believe in life after death. They believed that death is the end of all things and that happiness is achieved by a meditative detachment, and joy is to be found only in friendship. The end result was sensuality, gluttony, and exotic pleasures. The Stoics, on the other hand, had a religion of human reasoning, of closeness to nature. They reasoned that to serve one's fellowman through love would cause one pain and sufferings; therefore they urged each one to find his salvation in nature, by aligning the will with universal wisdom." It was so hopeless that it often led to suicide. [Today we call it "new age" as Satan seeks to become the universal mind.] The Athenians ultimately degenerated into blood-thirsty sadists, finding pleasure in the gladiators' slaughterings.

In its time, Athens was one of the most modern, advanced, and intellectual cities in the world. It was palatial, busy, powerful, and godless! I can imagine Paul, a tentmaker, as he waited for Silas and Timothy to arrive from Berea, going to the marketplace to look over the latest needles and thread, comparing canvases. Paul had visited many cities and had seen it all: the drunkenness of Corinth, the homosexual spirit that ruled Rome, the spiritual darkness of Jerusalem. But he never let his heart get hard; he could still be moved by it all. As he walked through the Athens marketplace weeping, "his spirit was stirred in him..." (Acts 17:16). Paul had no strategy, no plan of evangelism, no scheme or tactic. He had only a broken heart full of the burden of Christ. He said to himself, "They're all going to hell. They're all lost, all blind. Someone has to do something!"

For those of you who live in New York City or who have visited, have you never stood in Times Square at midday and looked at the multitudes, at masses of business people going helter-skelter, or at night seen the wandering dregs of humanity? Have you not wept, "Lord, they are lost! This city is going to hell — the devil is having his way and no one seems to be challenging this mess!" Or have you become so used to the darkness, so burned out with all the beggars, the poverty, the crime, and the filth that you are no longer stirred? I know how it feels to be bombarded on all sides with beggars, knowing that handouts are going to drugs and alcohol. You can't keep up with it all; but there is the danger of allowing callouses to form over your heart, so that on the job you're no longer stirred by the sin and hurt all around you.

Paul Focused on the Resurrection Power of the Gospel.

Paul was not put off by the immensity of the problem. He wasn't overwhelmed by Satan's hold on the city because he knew he had a secret weapon against it: the gospel of resurrection power! Paul took his eyes off what the devil had done and focused on what Jesus could do in the resurrection might! It did not matter that they called him a "babbler," meaning a sponger, a loafer, a preacher of nonsense. Have you ever been called "a troublemaker babbler"? Has anyone ever said to you, "Stop infringing on my rights. Stop pushing your religion on me. Stop trying to make me believe like you do!" None of that kind of mockery could stop Paul because his heart was bleeding. Let them say what they will or call him any name they please — he knew if he didn't take his stand for Christ they would die in sin without a witness.

It is not enough to just live right or to "set a good example." For too long we have hidden behind the old cliche, "Actions speak louder than words." We claim to be silent witnesses living His life. The testimony must include the spoken Word: "Thy watchman shall lift up the voice..." (Isaiah 52:8). "...How shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14).

There is a "Philip" Ministry for Every Believer Who Walks in Christ's Holiness.

"Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city" (Acts 8:5-8). Philip was a layman, full of the Holy Ghost. He was not a pulpit man, but a lay person who simply believed in Christ's power of resurrection life. So he went everywhere expecting miracles. He was a man of the marketplace. We will never impact this city or any other until every member of the body becomes a Christ-consumed Philip, a lay evangelist with faith to cast out evil spirits and with faith to pray for the salvation and healing of fellow workers. We can and shall stir up this wicked city!

If We Do Not Obey the Lord's Command to Preach the Gospel We Will Become Self-Centered and Obsessed with Our Own Problems.

The Plymouth Brethren started in Plymouth, England many years ago. They were a godly group who took the gospel to the streets. What a burden for souls they had! A great revival broke out and Christ was revealed to them as a glorified man in heaven. But they became so consumed in studying Christ, so focused on their form of worship, they lost their burden for dying souls. They split up into two groups, the open and closed brethren. The closed brethren ended up permitting no one to partake of fellowship with them except by invitation. Today all that is left of the original movement are the great writings of men like Darby, Stoney, Mackintosh, and Raven, all of which are wonderful teachings on Christ and holiness. But spiritual elitism had crept in, with no burning passion for the lost. We need the deep, pure Word and the burning passion for the lost.

You can hear so much preaching and teachings that you become "dull of hearing" (Hebrews 5:11). I receive reams of prophecies, long involved "spirit" writings, from Christians who claim to be spending days and weeks and even months in prayer. It is a barrage of "thus saith the Lord," much of it with no meaning at all! One husband asked me to set his wife straight. She had been telling people how she supposedly died and went to heaven, danced with Jesus, and went skydiving with Him! She claimed her revelation came to her after praying for hours.

Why are these dear ones not out among the people, preaching a resurrected Jesus? Why are they spending all their time reproving others, with no brokenness for the lost? The best cure for "flakiness" is getting out among sinners, preaching, healing, and casting out devils. We pray, "Holy Ghost, come!" But for what? To simply bless us and meet our needs? Or to equip us and reveal to us the broken heart of our Lord? The last words of Jesus before leaving this earth were, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).

We have been praying that God will close down the transvestite bar next door to Times Square Church. The proprietor said to us, "You people are in real trouble. You don't know who you're dealing with?" No! He doesn't know with whom he is dealing! Jesus said, "All power is given unto me..." (Matthew 28:18). Therefore, "we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13:6). Paul prayed that "ye may know...what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ...far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under His feet..." (Ephesians 1:18-21).

"My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10). Satan has made some of you afraid: afraid of falling, afraid of a besetting sin or a hounding habit, and afraid of men. But the Word says, "...Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). You are not the one who runs! "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus..." (Acts 4:33). "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.... For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in His pavilion...he shall set me up upon a rock" (Psalm 27:3,5).

--- Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O. Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 USA.

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the-record-columns · 6 years ago

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Jan. 30, 2019: Columns

I still miss Dr. Call…

Harold Call

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

It is now the time of year when I recount the story of the bitter cold day when I was at Harold’s Restaurant over on Hwy 115 just across the top of what for years was affectionately known as Liquor Hill in North Wilkesboro.

I had asked the owner, the late Harold Call, for a Band-Aid for my sore thumb and he asked me what had happened to it. I told him I had bumped it on the car door as I got out coming into the restaurant and it was killing me-and that it would be killing me all winter. I went on to tell Harold that it was cracked open by the dry winter weather so badly it looked like there was a hot coal inside my thumb and I could even feel my heart beat in my thumb as I suffered.

And my mother, Cary, knew, my daddy the preacher knew, my brothers know, and all my wives know–I do not suffer very well. And certainly not in silence.

Well, on that fateful day, Harold, or Dr. Call as we liked to call him, smiled broadly, handed me a Band-Aid, and said, “All you have to do is wash your hands in cold water all winter and your problem will go away.” That seemed just too easy, but it worked–perfectly–and changed my winters for all time. As time went on Harold relayed many home remedies to me that were simple, safe, and they worked. We lost our friend Harold Call on Aug. 10, 2015. He was a truly wonderful man and everyone who was fortunate enough to know him misses him every day.

Which brings me to today’s story:

Many times in this space I recount a visit from someone who stopped by The Record and Thursday Printing’s offices. Sometime back, a man who introduced himself as Fletcher Jones from Boomer stopped in. He immediately went to the banjo on the counter, a very rare short scale 5-string banjo, and picked it up. He held it like it was an infant and plunked out a few notes. We began to talk, and I learned he was a musician who could play many things including the piano. I, of course, love my piano, and asked him to play something for me. He held up his hands, and I could see that they were badly gnarled with arthritis, but he said he would try. After he played for a while, I remarked that I would have loved to hear him earlier, because, even with his crippled hands, he played remarkably well. Mr. Jones was a fascinating guy and I very much enjoyed our expanded visit that day.

Mr. Jones later returned. I felt sure it was him, but something was so different and I chose not to say his name. He didn’t mention his name again either, so finally I asked him to remind me who he was. “Why, Fletcher Jones,” he replied, “I’ve been in here before.” I assured him that I remembered him well, but frankly I remembered his hands looking markedly different before. He proudly held out both his hands and his fingers were in unbelievably better condition. I honestly do not know how to adequately describe the improvement.

When I asked him what he had done, he told me a story. He said that not long after he was in our office he was at a store holding the door open for his wife to enter. As he held the door a stranger noticed his twisted hand and asked if he could speak to him for a moment. That stranger told him to begin taking a large spoonful of olive oil each morning and his hands would very likely get better.

Skeptical, but willing to try most anything that appeared safe, he began the olive oil regimen. As the months passed by his hands began to get better, and better. He said it was almost like a miracle, the transformation he had watched right before his very eyes, and went on to say he was planning to take a large spoonful of olive oil every day for the rest of his life.

His eyes sparked when I asked him to play my piano again, and he set it on fire. Truly it was a blessing to see Fletcher smile and play that day. I told him the “cracked fingers” story and about my friend Harold Call.

After he left I couldn’t help but think that Dr. Call would be proud of this one.

Ken Welborn is the Publisher of The Record and Thursday Printing. To contact him, please email [email protected]

Big shoes to fill

Betty Rowland

By HEATHER DEAN

Record Reporter

Last October, I was invited to join the Women’s Auxiliary at North Wilkesboro VFW Post 1142. I was given a form to fill out and told what information I needed to complete it. As both my grandfathers and one grandmother all served in WWII, I was beyond eligible.

Well, you know how things go…life happens and time passes and before you know it three months have passed. Last Thursday, I filled out my papers at the Women’s Auxiliary meeting. I had planned on using my maternal grandfather’s information, as I have his original DD214 from the U.S. Navy. But the more I spoke about my Gramma Betty, a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, and how she was life member of the National VFW; a life member of the National American Legion; a life member of the National AMVETS organization; Post Commander in her county; she was appointed as the first woman in North Carolina, to the position of State Commander of the VFW, there was a collective: “Oh, use her info!”

It just seemed fitting to follow in the footsteps of my grandmother, I suppose.

The next day, Friday, I looked up the number for the VFW post my grandmother attended in Pittsboro. A thousand scenarios crossed my mind- what if this took several weeks? What if I had to prove who I was? How would I? These people don’t know me from Adam’s housecat, and you can never be too sure these days, you know. A man named Lee picked up the phone. I told him I was Betty Rowland’s granddaughter, and explained what I was doing and the information I needed.

Silence

“Here we go,” I thought wondering what the secret password was going to be.

“Did you say Betty’s granddaughter?” I replied to the affirmative.

“Wow! Betty’s grand-daughter!” he replied much to my astonishment. “I knew you’re grandmother! She — and your grandfather — were dear friends of mine! Do you know what a trailblazer she was? And you’re joining you’re local post? Proud of you! But, you should know, you’ve got some mighty big shoes to fill missy.”

Honestly. I didn’t know whether to be proud, or worried. I was just used to Gramma going and doing what she did, being a nurse, helping people and being very active in her work with the veterans all over the country.

Everyone knew her. She and Jesse Helms were bff’s. At her swearing in as State Commander I stood beside her as Elizabeth Dole walked up and asked my grandmother for an autograph. I met many people over the years that I didn’t know, but knew who I was because of her. But to me, she was Gramma, the matriarch, the one always in charge, the woman my grandfather loved fiercely.

For the next 20 minutes, Lee, a Navy man like my grandfather, and I talked. A writer himself, he is also the webmaster for VFW Post 9100. He directed me to a link that had stories of past members, including my grandparents, and he shared stories about his service. He ended the conversation with email exchanges and the information I needed for the forms, then he said, “What a pleasure to talk to you! Come see us, we would love to meet a grandchild of Betty’s. Your grandparents would be so proud of you. Remember, you have big shoes to fill…go make her proud.”

At four-foot-eleven, with a size five-and-a-half, I have never had quite a daunting mission as filling my grandmother’s trailblazing shoes.

More than they are willing to pay

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

Often I write about the Palestinians and for good reason. We are living in a world which seems to have turned upside down and inside out. The Palestinian leadership are corrupt terrorists yet they are being accepted as legitimate heads of state even though they have no state, no legitimate nation and no country. We are indeed living in a very confusing time and the truth is often hard to discern.

The Bible talks about a time when the world will be in constant turmoil and we should be under no illusions – that time is surely upon us. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is but one example but it is an important one as it involves the most contested piece of real estate on the planet. A tiny bit of land no larger than the size of one of our smallest states is often the focus of international attention. As long as Israel and the Jewish people continue to exist, there will be no real peace with the Palestinians or with any Muslim country.

Occasionally, Hamas will agree to a truce with Israel but it’s never for the purpose of hammering out a pathway to peace. Any truce between Hamas and Israel is merely a tactic Hamas is using to buy time to restock their lethal arsenal and secure additional recruits and Iran and Hezbollah are quite willing to provide both. If Hamas can push Israel beyond choice thus forcing her to take serious action, they will have achieved a great victory. The media is always quick to condemn Israel regardless of the facts and the media is largely responsible for shaping public opinion. Hamas will never cease their violent intent to destroy Israel and they will use any means available.

For quite some time Hamas has been busy stockpiling missiles to launch a massive strike against the Jewish state. Death to Israel is part of the Palestinian DNA. It’s hard for Americans to understand such a culture of hate but it is bred into them from a very young age. Unlike schools in America where students are taught English, history, science, math and other essentials to prepare our young people to contribute to making the world a better place, Palestinian children are taught that Israel has no right to exist and that the Jews stole their land. They are taught that there is no higher calling than to shed one’s blood in working toward the goal of eliminating Israel and killing Jews. In fact, this is true not only of the Palestinians but of all dedicated disciples of Islam.

One ghastly example of the Palestinian education system is that young children are often taught to calculate math by using formulas that teach them to determine at what point they can inflict the greatest harm on Israel and kill the largest number of Jews. It will take generations to wash such evil out of the Palestinian psyche. Without a change, future conflicts with Israel will become increasingly violent as generation upon generation will believe that Israel and the Jews must be eliminated.

Back during Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005, my wife and I lived in Israel for that entire year. In addition, I have visited the Holy Land so many times that I have depleted two passports and am working on a third. From first-hand knowledge and experience, I can say without hesitation that Israel regards war as a last resort. Death is appalling to all Israelis and this includes the death of Palestinians. Israel’s passive response to Hamas’s aggression has only served to embolden them to create more acts of terror. I firmly believe that Israel needs to get tough. One of the principal obligations of any state is to provide security to its citizens however the residents of southern Israel have been living as refugees in their own country. Almost daily, Jewish residents living in the south find themselves and their families running to bomb shelters not just in the daytime hours but throughout the night as well.

To be tough, the choice need not be full scale war but it must be convincing enough to let Hamas leaders know that Israel means business. If radical Islam is to get the message, then the cost of attacking Israel must be seen as extremely high making it more than they are willing to pay.

Sizzling on the grill

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

Upon arrival, Sylvia said, “this morning’s ice on the roads were the worst I have seen in my 50 years of driving a school bus”. I was setting at the counter waiting for breakfast to come off the grill when those words drifted through the air. I had seen a little ice on my drive to Alvin’s Dockery Grocery & Snack Bar in Traphill, NC and I knew that school had been delayed for a few hours, but I did not realize that the early drives had been so challenging. The thing that stuck in my head most was not the ice but rather the fact that someone had just announced that she had been driving a school bus for 50 years.

I ask Sylvia if her bus did much sliding on the ice, not really, she replied, I’ve been driving long enough to know what I am doing. Way to go Sylvia.

I try to visit Alvin’s place at least once a year, I enjoy the random conversations about life and a good country breakfast.

Ray was talking about the single digit cold weather and the cows that stand in the pasture, and for whatever reason, they do not huddle together for the benefit of combined body heat. This line of conversation opened the floor for other cold weather stories.

Another fellow shared a story about the cold weather causing iguanas to fall from trees in Florida. Some in the room thought that they were frozen to death, while others seem to think that maybe they were hibernating due to the cold weather. Iguanas like it above 45 degrees. And when they get colder things move much slower and they become frozen, and that’s why they were falling out of trees like ripe fruit. In most cases, active life will return to the iguana when warmer weather returns.

Another story about the effects of cold weather surfaced about Swamp Park, in southeastern North Carolina. The alligators found themselves living under a frozen lake. Before the lake is frozen over the alligators will stick their nose above the water line so they can breathe as the lake freezes over, and then they just wait for warmer weather.

Alvin stays busy at the grill preparing food but always finds time to share colorful thoughts and often it relates to a reflective memory from youth or maybe a movie reference.

It is evident that for the most part, he enjoys the people he serves, he’s been on the grill for a long time. And it seems like everyone is treated like family and friends.

We all deal with things in life that at times overwhelm us, so maybe we can learn a few things from our shorter legged friends. Maybe we just need to poke our nose out of the muck and just wait for things to get a bit more comfortable.

I ask Alvin for his quote of the year, “When I was young, my mind was always moving fasts. Now my mind is more focused on profound thoughts with purpose, (he tilted his head and with a classic smirk says) O hell, I’m just getting older, now go and have a nice day.”

And so, it goes, Sizzling on the Grill at Dockery Grocery & Snack Bar.

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maximuswolf · 4 years ago

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What are your thoughts on this other philosophical/theological argument for Christianity? via /r/pagan

What are your thoughts on this other philosophical/theological argument for Christianity?

Here it is:

“My explanations make up for deficiencies you see in Christianity at large as a faith or a religious community; but we all benefit from a deeper mutual understanding. I am certainly richer as a Christian and a human being for my understanding of different Pagan practices and beliefs from my time as a practising Pagan (primarily of the Celtic variety).

It's absolutely true that there is no immediate contemporary evidence for the existence of Jesus but that truly isn't very remarkable. To non-Christian contemporaries Jesus was barely worth paying attention to - he was, in their minds as you say, the leader of a small fringe Jewish cult, and not someone the Romans or the Jews had much need to write about. There are similar problems with confirming the existence of Socrates or Alexander the Great: the truth is it's very difficult to find surviving records from most of these periods because no one was thinking "this will be big history in 2020!". For all three men, we rely on the accounts of people who knew them and/or lived soon after them to know about their lives. If you want to deny Jesus' existence based on a lack of contemporary documentary evidence, you probably need to also deny the existence of Socrates, Alexander the Great and a large number of other ancient figures.

If you were going to make up someone to follow, Jesus isn't terribly logical as a choice. You could invent a Messiah who much better fits the expectations of 1st Century Judaism - you would probably not have called him 'Jesus', for one, because as you note the name is utterly unremarkable. If your goal was power and influence, then you probably wouldn't have had Jesus give the authority to build a Church to Peter, a working class, illiterate fisherman. It's very doubtful you would have John the Baptist in your story at all as someone who is shown, even momentarily, to have some kind of role over Christ. You almost certainly wouldn't have your grand narrative of Jesus' life end in his brutal execution at the hands of the Roman authorities in Israel with the man who becomes the founder of the Church, Peter, depicted as a traitor to the cause who weeps with guilt at what he's done. Instead of having Jesus die and rise again, your story would probably focus on having Jesus win some immense miracle victory over the Romans and then ascend into Heaven triumphant - you would probably cut out the part where he dies and his followers despair. Scholars believe that the earliest books of the New Testament, some of the authentic letters of Paul, date to within two decades or less of Jesus' death; Paul, despite having been anti-Christian for some of his life, does not seem to be aware of any movement to deny Jesus lived. In the 3rd century the Pagan philosopher Porphyry wrote an extensive condemnation of Christianity; Porphyry did not attack the idea that Jesus existed but instead sought to depict Jesus as a false prophet. Bart Ehrman is one of the leading experts on early Christianity in the world: he is also an atheist. There isn't much of a case for suggesting Jesus didn't exist.

With regards to the burial of Jesus and the bribe, theserenitysystem is (totally understandably!) confusing two similar incidents. You're right that the Romans would not have taken the time to bury someone like Jesus. The Bible tells us that this was possible because a Christian sympathiser, possibly a Christian himself, who was in good standing within contemporary society went to Pilate on the night of the execution and asked if he could take Christ's body for burial, and this request was granted (Matthew 27:57 - 60; Mark 15:43 - 46; Luke 23:50 - 53; John 19:38 - 42). This is in fact directly relevant to your observation that crucifixion did not necessarily mean being nailed to a cross and often simply meant being hung or whipped to death on a tree. Ancient Jewish law held that the body of anyone executed on a tree was cursed, and that the land their body was kept on would be cursed until it was buried (Deuteronomy 21:22 - 23). Joseph - the follower who went to request the body - almost certainly persuaded Pilate to hand over the corpse of Jesus on the basis that if he did not do so, the local populace would think it an affront to their God and in keeping with Roman attitudes towards local religion, the best thing to do would be to let Joseph, as a man in good standing, bury the body safely (Joseph, of course, told the followers of Christ what he was doing and took care to give Jesus a decent burial). For Christians that Christ was executed in a way that is profoundly humiliating in ancient culture, and in a manner that the ancient Jews believed meant the deceased was cursed, is an important part of our understanding of what Jesus' sacrifice on the cross means: faced with God incarnate, instead of celebrating Him, we murdered him in the most violent, degrading, brutal way imaginable.

Matthew 25:29 is absolutely an interesting verse! But it's part of a parable; a simple, short story used to illustrate an ethical or moral perspective advocated by Jesus. It was one of the main methods of preaching employed by Christ in His earthly life. In this case, the passage you quote -Matthew 25:29 - is actually a call back to an earlier, identical saying of Jesus in Matthew 13:12. If you read 13:12 first you see that Jesus is using this phrase in reference to believers and non-believers. He explains to the Apostles that he teaches in parables so that those who do not truly listen to him will only hear the superficial story, whilst those who look for the deeper meaning - like the disciples did - will understand that within the story there are important moral and theological lessons. Matthew 25:14 - 29 is a parable that uses the imagery of money as an allegory for how Christians should behave in their faith on the understanding that the Earthly world will pass away; that they should be bold, knowing that change is coming. It follows on directly and explicitly from another parable about the faithful being prepared for the arrival of Christ in His Second Coming (Matthew 25:1 - 13). Just as that parable, which concerns itself with ten virgins, is not a literal story about ten virgins, neither is the parable of the talents concerned with financial affairs.

Matthew 26:8 - 11 has to be appreciated within the context of the particular event that moves Christ to say these things. In this situation, it is the Disciples chastising a well-meaning woman for wasting valuable ointment on Jesus when it could have been sold to benefit the poor. What the Disciples are doing here is not making the argument that these things are wasted economically; there is already the understanding and acceptance that Christ preaches the need to redistribute wealth and support the impoverished. Christ is instead accusing the Disciples of being unnecessarily harsh to the woman and focusing on the worth of her actions rather than considering the sincerity of her faith, and her genuine attempt to do something selfless. He is essentially saying "come on guys: are you really annoyed at the waste, or are you trying to show you're a better disciple than she is?". He is exposing pride disguising itself as charitable concern; concern trolling, essentially. The Lord's seemingly callous words here, about the poor always being with us, are in fact a call back to Deuteronomy 15:11 with its explicit instruction:

Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land."

Matthew 10:34 - 37 is not a religious commandment to violence or division. First of all, 'hate' or its equivalent is not a word that appears in the original Greek text; a more literal translation is "whoever sees greater value in his mother or father than in me", not "whoever does not hate his family". The NRSV, the most widely accepted scholarly version of the Bible, renders the passage as "whoever loves father or mother more than me". This passage is a warning to followers of Christ that, at the time of Jesus' life, taking up his faith will make families cast them out and make parents turn against children. Christians are still called to answer this with the peace and love Christ commands in Matthew 22:39; the warning is that this peaceful evangelism will be met with exclusion, marginalisation and violence, as Christ himself demonstrated when his peaceful surrender to the authorities lead to his own brutal, torturous, slow murder at the hands of the Romans. The specific phrasing Jesus uses is a call back to Hebrew scripture once again, specifically to Micah 7:6, which describes a period of turbulence and violent unrest in ancient Judah in which "the son treats the father with contempt [...] your enemies are members of your own household". Christ is warning his followers that, just like in Micah's time, the Gospel will anger people so much they will condemn even their own children for following him. His message here is essentially: "Don't think I've come to cushion the truth just to make things easier. This is how things are, and if you want to follow me, people will marginalise and oppress you for it". The quote from Micah, incidentally, is further significant: Jesus quotes Micah twice, and one of the more notable parts of Micah is its condemnation of the hoarding of wealth (Micah 3:1-4), especially by religious leaders.

Matthew was written as a single volume to summarise its author's understanding of Christ's life and teachings from the source material available. Whilst passages out of context seem contradictory, read together, they make sense.”

Submitted September 14, 2020 at 03:10PM by Competitive_Bid7071 via reddit https://ift.tt/35ArKVf

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mychristopherstokes66world · 6 years ago

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The government has become the enemy of the people. No one can deny that they are colluding with social media to censor everyone on the internet. Both parties are calling for unconstitutional gun control measures from bump stocks to silencers to Red Flag Laws. How long are we going to pretend that our government serves the people? Or that the people really have any say? I for one will not abide tyrants and have every intention in engaging in open rebellion against Jews, pedos and traitors. They are clamping down hard on free speech, gun rights, going after "hate crimes" and pushing the idea that whites are domestic terrorists. Day of the Rope draws nigh. http://bit.ly/2JWUqOh You can call for violence and revolution as much as you want with ZERO legal culpability in the US. http://bit.ly/1B8OCb1 What this means: Unless your speech directly inspires some one to commit a violent crime in your immediate vicinity immediately after expressing your speech AND this was your intent, you are 100% protected. Here, let's try it out: You can even directly threaten some one online: Don't be afraid of being put on a 'list'. We are all on the list already. See: mass surveillance. They are just trying to intimidate you. Look at the legal precedents and firmly exercise your rights. Who are our symbols or important figures? I've made a small list but we should add more. We need to develop a year-round schedule of events and people to remind the public of what we are fighting for. Ted Kaczynski Brenton Tarrant Seth Rich Aaron Swartz Reddit founder Marvin Heemeyer The Killdozer Julian Assange Gary Webb We must win the infowar before we can fight the race war. A fuckton of people have woken up the the Jewish agenda but we still need more to reach that oh-so-essential critical mass. We also need to start getting organized IRL in "friend groups" that meet and train and discuss tactics. Don't openly call yourselves militias or white nationalists but work towards those ends regardless. Symbols: Tricorn hat Revolutionary Figures New Figures: Ted Kaczynski Brenton Tarrant Seth Rich Aaron Swartz Reddit founder Marvin Heemeyer The Killdozer Juliana Assange Gary Webb Terry A. Davis Symbolic events Waco Ruby Ridge POSSIBLE ALLIES: Amish Japanese Hindu Indians Mormons Ethnic Europeans THE ENEMY: Jews Pedos Traitors Muslims Jews Chinese Socialists Should Terry A Davis be considered? I believe he holds a special place in this Pantheon. He is the most Chaotic of the bunch.

the revolution you speak of is already underway - there is no putting it back into the box - there are tens of millions of people that have “nothing left to lose” they’re fukin pissed and ready to kill - they’re not rednecks but 18 - 35 yr old’s who have lost hope - they work at wal mart and ready lubes and starbucks who spend 1/2 their income to degenerate hypocrite boomer landlords who will feel the full wrath of their anger - sonif yer legit pray for a carrington event - it will make it much easier with the comm system down...

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves, and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free2 if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending2if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? hall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitableand let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! The truth and violence, but it MUST be in that order. Most importantly though, whites need to start viewing each other as blood-brothers and allies. (((Individualism))) has poisoned out society and eroded community bonds. This damage must be healed but I'm not exactly sure how other than pointing at a common enemy. We need to start organizing into small, unofficial militia groups with similar agendas. Jews are so powerful today because they ENJOY working together to cause mayhem and to further their own wealth and power. Jews almost never betray each other and seem to have evolved to mob together to get what they want collectively. It's literally instinct for them. We must emulate this to an extent but with waging an actual war rather than the soft-power games that kikes excel at. Also, JOIN THE MILITARY. We need lot's of allies embedded within the armed forces, because without their help we will never win.

I think you doth glow too much. But just in case you don't, you need to be realistic. The few hundred people here and the 'tards with their own militias are way too small to accomplish anything before getting mowed down by the national guard. You can't do it like this. You have to start with a militia, start in small towns where people see this kiked bullshit and grow yourself a movement. How did the revolution succeed? With wide support, like over 60%. You have like 0.6% and want to take down a heavily funded and well oiled machine. You can't. Build an "SJW" like movement and then we can talk.

We are going to take this seriously and go step by step. Create a list of grievances, a list of enemies, and discuss ways to move forward in ending Tyranny in the United States. We need a calendar of events to draw peoples attention and give us reason to make noise constantly. Ebba Aukerlund Waco Ruby Ridge Seth Rich Otoya Yamaguchi

We need the minds before the power goes out. That's why we need to start propaganda now. Detail who the problem is, what crimes they have committed, start a public discussion and demand change. We need another name for this besides Open Insurrection... so we can talk about it on other forums Organize and train in your local community. But don't just prepare for the day of the rope. If you bunker up with MRE's and guns you will be called a cult and the swat team will descend upon you. The proper course of action is to nominally engage with society as it is, while changing the communities you occupy. This doesn't mean riots or protests, it means starting projects to improve neighborhoods, and following through on them. The ONLY way to avoid being false flagged is to present yourselves consistently as above reproach. But the only way to cause bigger reverbrations is to be seen as better men. This means you and your lads must relentlessly pursue intellectual and physical supremacy. To be /fit/ and /lit/, one and all. By happy coincidence, lifting together and deb8ing each other will foster comeraderie, trust, and solidarity. THE WAY TO TAKE BACK OUR LAND IS INCH BY FUCKING INCH. This is my whitepill, and I hope it's yours as well, anons\\ word from the editor the only way to do this is to red pill as many as we can.. once people know what is going on no one will stand for it and they will all stand up... we have the right to take our country back remember that we can do this with out fighting or anyone getting hurt.. why destroy all we built https://thedevilman666.blogspot.com/https://www.facebook.com/groups/qanonreports https://twitter.com/CIACLOWN1 https://www.bitchute.com/channel/ciaclown16661/

#CIA CLOWN #RED PILL #REDPILL #ANON #HONKHONK

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