Christianity and the West

Yeah, but you didn’t go home and smear chicken blood on the walls and worship a pentagram. You were (I assume at the time) a believer. I’m just trying to wrap my mind around someone who would attend such a sacred ceremony (and one that speaks openly of the dangerous influence of the devil) and yet is an atheist.

This is Seattle, so no real surprise there. Still.

Although I find the Foundation series of books (so far) readable, but not outstanding, the core theme is the slow dilapidation of the empire. "Psychohistory" is supposedly the magic science that will either stop the ongoing corruption of the empire or at least soften the blow so that there is only a couple centuries of darkness, not a couple thousand years.

We see our own societies disintegrating as they are corrupted. The Church, whatever its prior faults and strengths, has not been up to the challenge of embracing, protecting, and espousing their core beliefs. Much of the Church seems to have devolved to, as you said, a social club.

It's difficult to imagine what can turn the tide. Good men are simply apologizing for the fall, not acknowledging or correcting it. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We are seeing that being played out everywhere today.

A good article, but the advice the man gives is basically the same type of advice our parents and grandparents used to give us. "Love God, be honest, kind to others, say your prayers and work hard. Live your life as if it were an example for others because it is." 

That this is seen as something new and radical is a sign of just how ignorant we have become and low we have sunk.  

I listened to part of a podcast at The American Conservative regarding Boomers and religion.

In it, Rod mentioned a book titled Strange Rites. I neither ask you to listen to the podcast nor read the book, although I did read (skim, really) a few pages of the Kindle sample.

The book starts out weird. It seems more of a self confession about the author partaking in some weird nightclub scenes in New York City. There was a LOT of this preamble before even venturing an opinion about it, which led me to believe this part of the book was more of a confession than anything.

Long story short: There is a lot of weird shit going on out there. Most of us are not aware of it. Is much of this stuff a replacement for religion? Probably. But reading the Kindle reviews of the book, apparently there was no mention by the author about environmentalism as a religion, so that really turned me off about this book. Talk about missing the forest for the trees.

Still, my conclusion isn't so much that TIALOWSGOOT (there is a lot of weird shit going on out there). It's the ascendancy of the soft, chaotic, undisciplined mind, even amongst those who purport to explain WRWTW (what's wrong with the world).

I've seen and read stuff online you wouldn't believe (well....you probably would). I read not only articles but the comments to articles and so I think that gives me some idea of what people are thinking. And "thinking" is a kind word for it. To me, people have been programmed with a thin gruel of atheistic market-materialism. They don a superior mask of dismissive cynicism regarding anything and everything (except, strangely, mask-wearing). A lot of really smart people know that everything except what they believe is bullshit.

So "social cohesion" is almost non-existent. The gist of the book (as far as I can tell) is that everyone is pursuing their own me-based "religion" with no reference to God or deep metaphysics. I don't doubt that aspect of it, for hasn't much of Christianity laid aside God and replaced Him with "social justice" and all kinds of political Marxist-based concerns?

On the other hand, the ubiquity of compliance to masks and the incoherent "social distancing" mandates and such does suggest there is a certain kind of social cohesion out there, one perhaps not yet explained by the experts if only because, like Madge's Palmolive customer, they're soaking in it.

Kind of a ramble here, I know. But what do you think?

What a great post, Artler.

We know that for many women, government is the substitute authority and provider.

We know that for many "people of color," government is considered a provider and protector.

And forget speculation and trying to corral all the sub-groups into explanatory categories. The mindless compliance to masks and all the garbage surrounding the Wuhan flu is clear evidence that the highest authority for nearly all is government. The government "expert" has replaced the authority of the priest.

Another aspect of that is that material concerns (ironic, since the material needs of most are met like never before) trump our spiritual needs. Or, another way of saying it, is that our "spiritual" needs are just materialism/consumerism dressed up in stained glass and rosary beads (or pot, or environmentalism, or atheism, etc.)

Never before in my lifetime have I had to look to old books or movies to find evidence and examples of a better, more noble life. I can't look to my neighbors. Oh, they may drive a nice car. But I don't view them as fellow travelers who are Made in His Image. They are, at best, consumers whose religion is "niceness" and who, when it comes to actual moral behavior, often aren't particularly nice at all.

Fair enough. But if God did not love hypocrites, the churches would be 9/10 empty.



Feminism. Whoops, I skipped ahead again. Because "compassion" has been redefined as "acceptance." Any necessary corollary of "tough love" has been redefined as "cruel" or even "racist."



Good points, Reverend Paul. Let's skip to the end though: Feminism. You just named it without naming it. The masculine must be removed and replaced with the feminine. "Gay," "transgender," and all that is consistent with that because it reduces the masculine. And this is especially so when women "transition" to male. You simply further erode the brand, if you will, of being male.

Why God is a He




Alarming numbers, for sure.



This guy is certainly not an idiot.

Now let me state what should be obvious: The conservative sphere is full of opinionators and bereft of leaders. If this guy believes what he writes, he should run – not walk – to the nearest church and enroll.

But given that our problems tend to be nothing more than theoretical constructs for clever people to analyze, I don't expect that to happen.

The clock has not stopped for the Church of Rome, but it does skip a beat every few years. 

Mike Royko wrote something similar in the mid-to-late 1980s. He maintained that the proliferation of pampered pets was the result of the increase in childless marriages, and that the animals were substitutes for children.  Or something to that effect.