Decline of the West

I think this is a very good demonstration of where today's yutes are. They have all the modern technology at their finger tips. In fact, cell phones are incredibly powerful tools. But these kids don't actually have the social skills, or desire to actually speak to each other. 

If there is an Anti-Christ, I think an argument can be made that it will come from within the Church. Does Francis fit the bill? I suspect he does. A Catholic can only wait for God to strike him down. 

That is not so say that the Catholic Church has not had its share, some would say more than its share) of scoundrels, criminals and such. But Francis would appear to be something altogether special in the modern era. One cannot help doubting that he is a Christian in any sense of the word as it has been understood for a couple of millennia. 

As to the overall decline of the Church, McCarrick is a wonderful example of what happens to an institution which has been around for any length of time. Careerists, crooks and scoundrels burrow their way in and destroy such institutions from the inside. Some may wish to destroy the institution, others don't necessarily wish to destroy the gravy train, but do so anyway by the mounting rot of their corrupt and dishonest lives. 

I remember McCarrick well. He was a very smooth, grinning character who put on a completely false front for decades. 

I went over and browsed the topics of a discussion board of an old friend of mine...just to get the Catholic take on the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. It's not a busy forum (much like this one). So it's probably not fair to draw too many conclusions.

But although I found some diatribes against Trump, I found nothing about the recent murder of Jews by Hamas and their "Palestinian" supporters. It's no wonder that perhaps Jews are not aligned with Christians...or at least they are unable to make the distinction between Catholics and Protestants, because surely this is an issue with Protestants.

I perused my old friend's blog posts there and he has "mixed feelings" about the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. He doesn't like that " the Republican Senate used two dirty political tricks to install Judges Neil Gorsuch and Amy Barrett." He also writes, "I've spoken to Catholics who don't think they even have a right to consider voting for a Democrat, or pro-choice candidate. I wrote an essay on the fallacy of this position sometime back."

Maybe this is one reason he is sort of a former friend. He seems to be the archetype of the neutered intellectual who can never find a reason to be firmly against anything...but always finds a reason to be against those who are (if they are on the right, at least).

I took a quick (very quick) look at other Catholic forums that I could find. I saw no mention of Israel. I took a very quick look at Protestant forums. I did find one thread titled "Women should not vote." No comment. And on that same board I found "Learn How Israel Created Hamas." Charming.

Surely The Puritan Board would have some mention of Israel. More crickets chirping.

Is the fate of Israel relevant?



But apparently not according to online Christians. It's crickets chirping for all intents and purposes.

How about the "Current Events" section of this forum? Nothing.

Because you're only getting one side of this story, it is incumbent upon me to be as fair and objective as possible. Regarding former friends, I know that I can be an ass, am too pedantic, too opinionated, and generally disdain wishy-washy fence-sitters. That is, I'm at least half at fault in all transactions regarding former friendshipism.

But I remember one day when I made a quip to this old Catholic friend of something like, "I think my true calling is to be a Jew." There wasn't an immediate chilling, but something changed. And it was then that I realized that a religiously unattached person who is searching (as I was and still am) is like catnip to religious types, especially Catholics. And as soon as I was off the table, so to speak, I was then not so interesting.

The funny thing about Jewish heresies is that Jesus was busting the balls of the Pharisees and etc. because they were basically heretics in their own religion. I like the King James Version of this: "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Heretics don't generally speak in this way regarding ancient Jewish texts and prophecies.

We'll leave the "Jesus as 1/3 of the Trinity" question aside for now. Could be. Maybe not. Jews could be wrong about this. God certainly has it in His command to write new chapters in the Book of Life.

But certainly Antisemitism and rampant smugness amongst Christians toward Jews didn't help. It didn't help then and it doesn't help now. Funny thing is, my atheist brother is running in one direction (away from his religion) while his "crazy" wife is ensconced in a very Jewish-oriented Christian church. (I don't know which one.)



All I can do is quote Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” For those souls in pain, who are suffering loss or injury, who feel or are abandoned, who have suffered more than their share of slings-and-arrows, please do hurl your fire-and-brimstone, if need be. I get it. I don't have a qualm with you. This is why Jesus said "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Life is a game that tends to shit all over the innocent and the weak. And I would be ashamed of any God who didn't move Heaven and earth to take them into account. And certainly a religion purporting to be based on revealed truths from God must therefore do so too.

But for the rest of the"Christians." I admit a fair amount of disdain as their religion often seems like little more than a veneer to help them level-up on the Virtue Signaling scale. The Christian religion is supposed to help fix flawed human nature. But many times all it does is amplify those flaws.



You've heard the expression, "Don't shoot the messenger." Well, the bureaucracy combined with a group-think cult-like mindset tends to make Catholics insular and blind to many things...including the moral message of Jesus.



For every Oskar Schindler there are ten million sober Lutherans. That is probably true wherever you go. Religion isn't about the other guy. It's about raising one's one "moral esteem" in one's own eyes. But deep-down reform? That is never very easy. But a superficial gloss takes only moments to obtain. Perhaps that's why I'm a little standoffish to baptism and Confession, for example.

But yesterday's idiots need not necessarily decide the present or future for us. That's one reason we are talking here. I hope others are listening.

Oh, indeed we are obstreperous. However, consider it took Rome three wars to subdue us and although Rome continued on into the 5th century it's grandeur faded. We still speak the same language we spoke 2000 years ago. Any educated Israeli can read scripture in the original Hebrew. I believe it was Lord Rothchild responding to an antisemitic attack in the House of Lords who said, "yes I am a Jew, my people were priests in the temple of Soloman when yours were running around naked and painting each other blue".


They kept to themselves, did not assimilate and added virtually nothing to Western political philosophy or culture during this period. Interestingly, after almost two millennia of quiet, the Jews burst upon the world and again started making major contributions to culture, politics and science.

Consider, Moses Maimonides who codified the Mishina in the 12th century contributing to the growth of Spain as a world power with commentaries on law, medicine and philosophy. Spain expelled the Jews in 1492 and that began the downfall of Spain as a world power. The exiles went to Germany, Italy and the Ottoman Empire. Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, encouraged Jewish merchants to come to Rome as did the Ottoman Emperor. 

In the 17th century Baal Shem Tov offered a new revival of Jewish thought that contributed to the growth of the Western Enlightenment and there was Moses Mendelsohn, the father of Felix, who almost single handedly brought about the German Enlightenment. In spite of discrimination, Jews excelled in the arts, medicine and philosophy throughout the centuries from 71 CE on, Often the mere fact of their Jewish heritage was covered by nominal conversion or was covered up or just ignored.

One of the fastest growing religious movements in the South is Messianic Judaism. People who abide by the basic religious and cultural traditions of Judaism yet have decided that Christ is their personal savior. A strange group, too Jewish for most Christian denominations, and too Christian for even Reform Jews. I believe there is a place for all, as Christians and Jews have differing world views, but are compatible side by side. Christians ask a basic question, "How can I have a personal relationship with G-d?". jews ask another question just as important, "How can people live together in peace and what law(s) will enhance that process? It is not an either or question and the answer must be that both are right. 

That is simply not the case. There was no "Spain" until it was united in AD 1492 by Isabela and Ferdinand when they defeated that last Muslim stronghold of Granada. Some months after that victory, they financed Christopher Columbus' first voyage for the Far East, which ended up with him discovering America. 

Over the next 100 years or so Spain grew in power and wealth and was considered the most powerful nation in Europe, perhaps the world. It probably reached its peak under Emperor Charles V who was the grandson of Isabel and Ferdinand and Charles' son Phillip II. Spain ruled Portugal, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia. Much of the Benelux area belonged to it. It claimed much of South America except Brazil, and much of Asia.  The purple colored parts of the world map below are part of the Spanish Empire. The pink are part of the Portuguese Empire which was ruled by the Spanish King Phillip II.








When I was young, I learned that Spain lost power due to huge inflation which resulted in the influx of precious metals from the New World. This supposedly made the country lazy and sit on its laurels. 

Later readings deny this and show that while the New World mines in Mexico and Peru produced huge quantities of specie for the Empire, a very large part of that specie found its way to parts of the Spanish Empire, most specifically the Low Countries which were the wealthiest countries on earth. Spain didn't produce a lot of manufactured goods, it was an agricultural society, and the Low Countries did. 

Furthermore, the government of Spain was very inefficient as compared to those of France or England.  Under Charles V, the empire held together, but the other powers, particularly France, could not allow such power to rest in the hands of a unified Habsburg family. Charles V was forced to split it into Spanish and German/Austrian spheres. Unfortunately for Spain, the Low Countries which went with Spain, wished to have more autonomy than Spain would give them. As a result Spain and the Low Countries had an ongoing war for about 80-90 years. That bled Spain. And of course, France and England helped bleed Spain as much as they could. 

Did the mass emigration of Jews from Spain hurt Spain. To some degree. Did it help countries like the Netherlands and Italy and Germany? Yes. 

Very interesting and reasonable perspective. STONE HIM!! STONE HIM!!!!

At the time, there were major disagreements between Pharisees and Sadducees. The Essenes thought very differently from both. I wonder how many people realize this and try to study what is behind the expression?

For this Jew and many like me it doesn't matter. Just like it doesn't matter what "true" Christianity at the time was. The last 2000 years have made changes in both that 2000 years ago the founders and leaders would have not condoned or even anticipated. Just look at the changes in the US in less than 250 years. Some of the changes in both religions have been profound and others are just arguments about how many angels can dan on the head of a pin. Some are legalistic and others are moralistic. Many are argument for the sake of argument.