One such piece that appeared recently was "The Mirage of Financial Singularity" in which he writes that even with all the newfangled information technology, becoming more newfangled every minute — Moore's Law? Ha! That's a laugh, way too slow — even with the way people can now so finely process information about the real financial value of a thing, he writes it is not possible for there to be a single standard measure of the actual value of any given item. This is Shiller's claim, anyway. Even if all the information were perfectly known, hmmph, still no one will ever get it. He adds that it is all just stories, all just craziness, and, as the title of his book states, all just irrational exuberance, and as long as those things are all still around, there will never be a financial singularity. Those stories and exuberances and irrationalities will always prevent it from happening. Of course, this means something that is regrettably left unsaid. As long as significant information can still be hidden or disguised, financiers and arbitrageurs and insiders and uberbrokers and the retirees and future retirees who hire them will continue to carry out their exploitation of markets to hack off the parts of others they're desperate to have. Furthermore the implication is that if there were the financial singularity, then let's face it, no one would have any incentive to move capital anymore. Too few juicy cuts of the choice meat to slobber over? It'll run the economy into the ground! This is ugly, it truly is, this assumption that we must be resigned to the irrational criminality of all value assessors and in turn the standard value extraction all World inhabitants endure. Shiller is not incorrect here! Let's face it. Truthfully, everyone is a criminal, and everyone likes committing human sacrifice against one another. The problem comes with two grave misapprehensions championed by behavioral economists like Shiller. The first is that there is even such a thing as irrationality. Virtually every behavioral economist embraces this claim as gospel — "Look at how irrational the irrational man is!" Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler, Dan Ariely, Steven Levitt, George Akerlof are just a handful of the more celebrated, all blithering in some form that if we'd just get in touch with our irrational selves and see all the silly emotional biases we have and goofy thinking mistakes we make, we'd be ever so much better. That irrationality, ::grrr::... Truth is, it doesn't exist. It doesn't. There is no such thing as anything that is irrational. Every individual on the planet has, does, and will think, feel, and do every single thing for a perfectly rational reason. Those "animal spirits" the geniuses revile so much? Perfectly rational. And yes I do agree: Government must be in the mix to manage them. Also very rational. The most violent elements of the culture war — exceedingly rational. What these geniuses are doing, their second mishap, is they are mixing up rational with righteous. For you see, while everything is rational, not everything is righteous. And that means that, yes, there is indeed a standard. A standard for the measure of that righteousness. Indeed it is not an it but a He. Jesus Christ is the objective, absolute, perfect Standard for the measure of value for everything single thing in the universe, material and immaterial, intellectual and spiritual, by heaven and by earth. Everything. And do you know what that means?
He is the Financial Singularity.
In fact, if you want to talk about a financial singularity, like the creation singularity when the universe came into existence at the big bang, the financial singularity was at the cross, when Jesus Christ demonstrated the full measure of that value. When He died taking our sins with Him, He proclaimed to all powers and principalities that the measure of any meaningful value was His love. The measure is God. The value is God. The impact of anything you do can only be realized, recognized, conceptualized for what it is by that perfect, beautiful, wondrous value. When people claim, as behavioral economists do all the time, that value may be created, they rather pathetically belie their genius status. Anything we like has already been established by God. We may discover value, yes, indeed that adventure is rapturous — discovering exactly what God made us to enjoy and value. It may be universal (we all must eat to survive) or it may be particular (some like butter pecan ice cream and others like fudge ripple, if God made them to like ice cream at all).
It is funny, there is a movement now to make something else the standard of that value. It is going full steam among people who refuse to see the above truth — that God in Christ is that Value, period. Wow, do so many slough that off. They do so at their peril, and here's one more example of how. They already don't take God seriously — "He's just a fairy tale you know" sometimes peppered with the phenomenally patronizing "But I respect what you believe." While they'd like gold to be re-established as that measure they do correctly acknowledge that shiny yellow rocks have their myriad liabilities. The Federal Reserve or whatever central bank apparatus you like has genius economists working really hard at being skilled in setting value, but, well... Anyway, the genius humanist power-player types out there are now consumed with making their last-hurrah attempt this:
Math.
Genius! If we can just get that algorithm down pat, the one that our superfast information technology will help make happen, thennn we can really really really know the value of things. A fascinating book lucidly details the complexion of this fantasy. In The Black Box Society, Frank Pasquale writes about how much this approach to things is taking hold across the globe, and he has a terrific chapter on the chronic financial instability that festers unabated in light of the ever increasing IT godhood. In direct relation to Shiller's point, he writes, "Whatever haggling takes place between the buyers and sellers may reflect the bargaining power of either side or random conditions of the negotiations rather than the actual value of the equity." Yes, people have stories and crazy ideas about things, but what about the actual value of the equity? When the financial industry's habitual value extracting gets too uncomfortable — you know, notorious hedge fund collapses and stock market flash crashes and bank LIBOR fixing and London Whale failed transactions and AIG default swap flops and and and ad nauseum — he writes after all the feeble attempts at law enforcement, "All but the most connected investors feel lost, unable to discern real value amid carefully orchestrated fakery." Damn. Um, did he just say, "real" value? What could that be?
Or even better, the Algorithm! The latest comedy is blockchain, have you heard about this? It is just a computerish way to process transactions so they aren't so clumsy, you know, with all those pesky stories and irrationalities getting the way of our human sacrif — er — building our nest eggs. Thing is, after gleefully extolling its virtues in a featured piece, the Los Angeles Times wrote that the blocks of information that are supposed to secure the value assignments "are locked tight by theoretically unbreakable computer code." Ahh. I see. "Theoretically." The confidence in a "theoretically" impenetrable system is just coursing through me right now. And thank goodness everyone with their hands in it all are so wholesomely righteous that no theft will ever occur through these systems they're just so gol-danged advanced.
I'm just thinking of the words in the 92nd Psalm. Here they are in case they're not quite on the tip of your tongue. "How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts! Senseless people do not know, fools do not understand." There are so many geniuses out there, but so many of them are fools. It isn't that they merely won't grasp the things of God, they simply don't want to. They are like Cain, completely out of His presence. The best behavioral economists are actually even in his employ, keeping benighted people tied to the System, immersed in the best human sacrifice practices, believing that if you cut back a bit on the irrationality and you're signed up with the Algorithm then you're going to be okay.
Your soul is still in extraordinary danger.
Ahem.
There is a Kingdom option.
But it isn't just Jesus.
It is all those who live by His righteousness who assess value by His measure.
I will confess, however, I don't see much of its manifestation out there. Sadly, most churches are just God clubs tied to the System through their 501c3 non-profit tax-exempt incorporations. No matter how rigid their Christian belief system most people in them still wallow around in fear and loathing. Too many of them are richly Catholicized, not grasping at all the truth that the Roman Catholic religious network is designed to do Cain's ecclesiastical work, shredding sinners with guilt and shame to keep them compliant. Among all the things I've written about in this webzine, I believe the Kingdom will be manifest most when all the motivational gifts of its members are mobilized. I believe that right now two critical gifts among them are being woefully dismissed and as such the Kingdom's impact is crippled. Rome has succeeded in virulently infecting the organizers and the givers. The best organizers are the lawyers and business managers who, if they'd see sin for what it is and the System for what it is, may just have an impassioned desire to be leaders in authentically living out Christ to others and as such helping worship assemblies be ungrafted. The best givers are those very financiers and entrepreneurs who know well how to generate material wealth for the expressed purpose of furthering the spiritual kingdom. Yes, how about that. What a concept. Instead of for value extraction... Capital movement for the sake of Christ's love. Some may claim, "But churches use lawyers all the time to arrange all that non-profit status stuff!" That's precisely the point. All they know is how to more firmly gird a church as Caesar's instead of Christ's. Kingdom lawyers, on the other hand, would courageously get churches detached from all those contractual obligations completely unnecessary for Christ-worshipping communities to thrive. Some may also argue, "What about all the wealthy givers who do support all those churches and ministries? There're a lot of them!" Yet do they claim a tax deduction for their giving? Are they handing over huge swaths of that wealth as tribute to Caesar's operatives whether political (non-required tax payments), financial (usurious interest payments), or ecclesiastical (tithes to 501c3's who preach a milquetoast gospel)? What if the full measure of wealth generated by the best givers were put into the most joyfully abundant sowing for the Kingdom? I ask, when will these two gifted individuals — wholly given over to Christ and the breadth of His love as the value assessment — when will they plug in their bountiful talents to bring the Kingdom? There are lots of encouragers, teachers, servers, mercy-providers, and prophets (though I think the church is also terribly deficient in what prophecy really is). When will these geniuses in management and finance turn and deftly comprehend the destructive enslavements with the World and fully employ themselves to help vibrantly liberate those communities of Christ followers?
See that opening quote from Peter Coy I put there at the beginning of this piece? After he said it he added remarks about simply listening to the collective, to the group-think. That's the World for you. The other quote, the one from Jim Cramer who by the way makes a fine living from his bombastic investment pronouncements? It was followed by a sobering remark about just how much those "big players" have out there. Follow them, they've got the most stuff! Is the mainstream "collective" your Lord? Is the most rich guy out there your Lord?
Or if you are still quite fearful, will you now make your Lord
The Algorithm?
Better be right, because I'm not sure how much of an income stream the Algorithm's going to be able to provide for you when you're dead.
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The other day my daughter was watching the latest rendition of
Mysterious Island on cable, it featured tough-guy movie star
Dwayne Johnson. I thought, hmm, I wonder if I can catch some of the
old one, from 1961, the one with the Ray Harryhausen special
effects? I did find it on YouTube, and I enjoyed it up until the part I was looking for. The part with the giant crab. And if you haven't seen this film, you should know that this crab is indeed giant. The scene begins with something unusual rising in the sand beneath the feet of one of the characters. It is a large claw! And it grabs him! I will never forget that image. The simple reason is that I saw this film as a small impressionable seven year-old boy, there at the local recreation center on a lazy Saturday afternoon. That scene so scared the nmmhph out of me — there I sat, mortified over witnessing a monster crab about to devour these poor human beings, all in bold living color. Indeed, I could take no more. I bolted from the room and ran home. Fear. What a concept. I share this because there are things that should scare us but don't. The things the media throw in our faces are mostly "Lions and tigers and bears oh my" type things, designed merely to convince us that more tribute to Caesar is required to see that they don't bother us anymore. But when you prayerfully study Scripture and insightfully examine the advances in technology and accompanying intrigues faithfully performed among the minions of Cain's legacy, you'd start to see things that should really compel you to run into the arms of the One Who Saves From Fearful Things. Don't believe on Christ? Be prepared to see things that'll move you to cry out for huge rocks to fall on you. Don't worry though. Seems like God is giving you a bit more time. He's waiting. But it won't last forever.
This past Sunday morning I was driving to church at about 7:30 in the morning, and I noticed something quite interesting — as I always do every Sunday morning. The freeways were barren. I drive to work around this time every weekday morning, and it is a parking lot. Why? It is very easy. So many people are beholden to Mammon as their god. Monday morning is their day of worship, and the dollar is their god. Why aren't the freeways just as packed Sunday morning with people eager to go to a place of worship and vibrantly express their adoration for a God who provides with the richest abundance? Oh I know lots of people go to church, and I'm sure many are sincere worshippers. Don't mean to be that cynical. Big churches with stained glass windows are fine, though I believe the church should have its base for ministry in cell groups, and those may convene on any day of the week. I concur that for the follower of Christ the workplace can be, in a sense, a cell group where Christ is preached — or modeled in one's conduct — so going to work itself is not a bad thing. But the fact is far too many haven't a clue about God, couldn't care less about God, or at best tepidly hold to the god of moralistic therapeutic deism. If any do go to church they endure stiff, tedious liturgies filled with pithy things they're told to do to live a nicer lifestyle. Most have given up on all that emptiness and just find some other diversion. Wow, did Pascal get it right. Damn, have the Jesuits done this well. But I completely understand. Churches are simply civil religion zones, being tied to Cain with their 501c3's and all. Go, and tolerate it, or just don't go at all and have a Sunday morning stroll to experience some quasi-appreciation of the trees God made — that's the substance of your faith.
One of the things people do is try to find something meaningful not religion. Recently there is a lot of talk about religious liberty, and I can't tell you how many articles, essays, treatises, and remarks there are extolling the profoundly inviolate nature of this thing — RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. From conservatives and liberals, from traditionalists and progressives, they all agree — don't you dare touch our 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit positions! This, ironically, is the very thing that keeps people away from these places in droves. The people who go are simply registering their attendance at the God club, much of that to find a way to assuage the tremendous guilt that haunts them every moment of their existence. But hey! We must protect religious liberty at all costs! What is the exact thing that people should understand? It is that the concept, religious liberty, is a brilliant concoction of the World Operatives laboriously working to keep as many in the fold as they can. The truth is God doesn't need religious liberty — He can do anything He wants in a creation that is His anyway. Are you on board with what is in His will and purposes? Are you ministering His Truth and Grace to dying souls wherever you are situated? You will be accomplishing His ends no matter what Caesar and his Ops are doing. Excuse me, but Paul was in prison, um, how many times? Never did he appeal for his "religious liberty", not a single time. He did make eloquent legal arguments for Caesar to respect his own law. Sorry, but upsetting zealously habitual idolaters is not a crime! Think about that for a moment. If you enthusiastically expect the law to govern what you do with your religious liberty, what exactly are you doing with your religion that requires the ruthless execution of Caesar's adjudication? Yes, I do know about the vast history of religious persecution, and I do understand the purpose of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — but I also know about the 13th chapter of the book of Romans, and the second chapter of Peter's first letter. If you are actually loving others with Christ's love, then Caesar will even commend you, and leave you alone to keep loving others! The only true religious liberty is to believe on Christ, enjoy being freed from sin, and extend the only tribute owed: your boundless love for another. Along with it comes liberation from death, despair, hell, the devil, and the devil's machinations exercised through the World System. The religious liberty most fiercely embrace is merely the excuse to stay immersed in those machinations and their grip on assemblies of people who desire Caesar's exemptions and subsidies in spite of their still raging iniquity.
One of the common mistakes even today is that there is religion, generally considered that thing for superstitious, judgmental people, and there is not-religion, that thing for other more enlightened folks finding their own thing in stuff that is real and broad-minded. How many people believe this, believe this idea, without even knowing how or why they believe it? The reality is that everything is religious. Anything you do is based on what your spiritual perspective is. Even if you don't have one, whatever you do with not having one is indeed a spiritual endeavor. And that silliness about never being judgmental? Everyone makes judgments, all the time. It is idiotic to say, "I'm not judgmental." Is that itself not a judgment? Why do you get up in the morning, for what purpose? Why do you go to work, for what reason? What is your destiny, what do you think about that? You may answer these questions with the most brain-dead response, but it doesn't mean it isn't religious. On an evening this week at one of the top colleges in the nation, I attended a lecture by Stanford professor James Sonne, who regaled the attendees with the ins and outs of his student law clinic specifically designed to address religious liberty questions. He told us about this case and that case, each with standard mainstream religion types involved, you know, Jewish people or Muslim people or Christian people and so forth, all seeking redress for the protection of their own particular brand. Sprinkled about were the basics of their instructional approach at the clinic. Interesting was the abject dearth of any expressed truth foundation upon which to argue for favorable judgments. It was all only about that one thing — you know... Religious liberty. But then again, on what basis should you rule in favor of one person or another? It is funny, the very first question from one of the students was, "What is your criteria?" With all due respect, please — the answer was, essentially, "Um, yeah, um, well, yeah, um, err..." They don't have it. They don't have it because bright, intelligent scholars recognize in the depths of their souls that The Standard is whatever the higher-ups tell them it is. And who are they? Whoever their "higher-ups" tell them it is. And... Who are they? They are the ones who've pounded into the national psyche the bountiful benefits of a moralistic therapeutic deistic civil religion that champions religious liberty at the cost of truth, grace, righteousness, justice, mercy, forgiveness, salvation, fellowship, and life itself. Churches feed from the same trough. Let's try to bring more people in with more extravagantly deep things to say, more novel art pieces on the walls, more expansive ways to give stuff to people so givers can feeel goood. Please know I'm not saying these things are necessarily bad things. Churches do say meaningful things about Jesus. But if they're contractually beholden to Caesar instead of Christ and they're viciously entrenched in absorbing the input of the higher-ups, then the effects of those things will be muted, stunted, derailed, and the most fearful thing, ultimately, is that dying people never catch sight of the Kingdom. What is even less understood is that Operatives doing Cain's work are authoritatively doing the bidding of powers and principalities beyond physical dimensions. Without Christ, one must hopelessly flail about to shove away the fearful prospects of all they bring. Coincidentally I write this home page piece on Halloween night, and so many revel in the fun they have turning up their noses at the most notorious imaginary beasts. It is a cathartic experience intended to courageously confront fears and to get that emotional thrill that the things causing our fears won't prevail. They can't grasp what an empty highway on Sunday mornings really means. Because that would mean confronting the worst evil of all. And that is too uncomfortably close to each of our hearts.
The photograph that says just about everything about the harrowing nature of that confrontation
***
You know, I must share this with you in closing. I actually considered not doing a home page piece this month. I thought, eh, I'll just change my commitment to instead write one once every three months, or even once every four months. If you'd noticed I'd even put an announcement to that effect a week ago, and it lasted about a day when I removed it and I deeply felt, no, I'll still go once every two months, as I have been since this endeavor started eleven years ago. I confess I do get discouraged when I see the things I do. I'd love to share so much more of those things here, but I have a lot of work I do regularly and a lot of family to love richly. Even more than that I'd like to see people actually acting boldly on these truths whether I share them or someone else does. Please, I ask this simple question. Is it true there simply aren't others who say they have the name of Christ on their lips who can see what I see? And do so in great numbers — to the extent that the church can really be an apocalyptic catalyst? I may be wrong about some of this, but if I am, where are those sharpening my faith? Telling me — telling all of us — what it is to be the most powerful Kingdom-bringers? So as it is, I'm still going to write home page pieces, even if this particular one is more modest one than many others I've written. This one may not have all the accoutrements of other pieces, but others to come may. Check out this page with a menu of all my other home page pieces. And yes, I would love to know what you think. My email is here. Whatever the case, I always pray readers come here to find Him, that's all.
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Watching a bit of Planet Earth the other day with
my daughter, we were introduced to life forms that were quite
incredible. I'd never before seen or heard of cordyceps, but
there they were, types of fungi each one infecting a particular
insect host, killing it, then emerging from its corpse to spew its
spores for more victims. As my mind was working through the amazement of all this, sure enough there were the typically gratuitous sprinklings from the narrator, you know the ones, they are uttered so frequently you don't even think about them. "It is truly remarkable what evolution has done here..." You know. In other words, it is truly remarkable how all of this biological intricacy and complexity just assembled all by itself through wild chance through the ages.
Do these people realize just how idiotic that sounds? Do they
realize that it is
scientifically impossible
— by the very rigorous methodological standards they
champion (as they should!)
— for a cordycep agent to evolve when each
one is only capable of infecting a single particular insect
classification. 400 cordyceps requiring perfectly suited matches of 400 different kinds of
insects to achieve
The explanation is not difficult. God made nature to grow and breathe in a dynamism that makes it glorious and beautiful, and He did it for us to enjoy. Elements of nature live and die, endure and decay in a pulsating rhythm that forms that perfect ecological balance to sustain a world man can enjoy — and of course: a world man is asked to tend and nurture as God commands. Absolute best explanation. In fact, it is the perfect explanation, right there in general revelation (nature) and specific revelation (Scripture). Detractors only detract because they don't get how society's human cordyceps work — World operatives sublimely adept at hypnotizing people with sophisticated pap that feels so good to have festering in one's brain. Here is where the cordyceps reality is the perfect metaphor for the present people condition. They don't know what they don't know. Wow, that there are these cordyceps things, fascinating. My eyes have been opened. Wow that people were originally wonderful creations of God, until they messed it up. Not just Adam and Eve, but you, and me, and that guy over there. We're so far from God that there's a place set up just for us. It's called Hell. Those living in the immense industrialized-world comfort of the spiffy fortresses they call their homes simply haven't a clue about what man can do to his fellow man. They may say they do, but they don't. Criminals and bureaucrats alike have the power to do the most ghastly things — this is why so many like their guns and so many like Sharia law. Law — what a concept. Thank God He set that up, so we'd know what we need to do to not do evil. But the law can never justify one before God — it only proves your spot is reserved in Hell. You'll do evil anyway. This is why Caesar loves to provoke it — it is viscerally compelling to prosecute in ferociously imaginative ways. The latest version? Microaggressions. How phenomenally insidious is this brand spankin' new form of splendid World convocation. A microaggression is a statement that implies disapproval of some sanctioned, yea, elevated status. It is political correctness on steroids, and it is reaching the point where if you say you favor a thing, you're microaggressing because by default you discard the opposite. It is most pronounced in the virulently racialist sentiments coursing through everything nowadays. Do you like a particular culture? Must mean you don't like the others. Bitch. It gets ridiculous. Like blueberry muffins? A vicious microaggression because you aren't giving pumpkin spice muffins equal billing. You can do this with anything, really. Being offended now brings the greatest honor. "Celebrate me, I'm officially a victim." The insane thing is that the one crying, "Help, microaggression in progress!" is doing nothing other than committing a microaggression against the microaggressor. What if I claim to be a natural microaggressor? It's in my genes. Isn't your objection a microaggression against me? The doubly insane thing comes from recognizing who must classify the microaggressions. As it is everyone's microaggressions are just smashing against everyone else's. If the understanding about what's actually right isn't based on God and His standard of justice and righteousness, then it must be based on Caesar's whims. Sure enough powerful interests are metastasizing to employ grand rent-seeking and draw on that seven-fold power to definitively codify the group's victimhood. The political correct police becomes a reality, the totalitarian nature of Cain's legacy comes into focus. The wild irony is that when people scream that they don't want the law to apply to them — what is the law except a massive institutionalized microaggression — they are implicitly conceding the value of the law! "Law enforcers" they screech, "please use the full force of your aggression against those aggressing me in the name of not being aggressive!" Recently powerful homosexualist-promoting organizations have been lashing out against Christian-minded colleges about their refusal to extend the most enthusiastic endorsement of sodomy. The colleges are pushing back, but to what success? They are, after all, receiving federal dollars, so yes, Caesar then does have a say in what they must say ("Gay is okay!") for them to avoid prosecution!
Ick. That image of the poor innocent zombified bug. Thing is, in today's world of epidemic indoctrination of the System's belief memes, that bug is none other than You. No matter which visible World performance artist you like or loathe — Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Janet Yellen, Warren Buffett, Bill O'Reilly, Pope Francis — the spores of their superiors are right now crawling around in you to keep you throbbing in the culture war spitting out vitriol filled with hate and fear.
The only out is Christ.
Please, it is true, He'd be considered the worst microaggressor of them all. Oh no not delightfully tolerant Jesus! Ahem, want to know what He actually said? Go check it out. Go on. Read the seventh chapter of John, for starters. In fact, what an insult to call Him a micro aggressor — no, it's all macro from top to bottom. He told the most rich, powerful, influential power players that they were going to die in their sins, a number of times. He said He was God and He was really in the mix of that, over and over. He did add He was the answer, the antidote, the Kingdom — that to believe on Him you'd have eternal life but you'd have to give up your cherished place in the spore streaming. He even pointed out their abject blindness to these truths, often. Ouch. I can't see how any of that would get past the microaggression police today. I mean, eternal life only from Him? You mean not in my own innate goodness? Not by my 501c3 protected club of like-minded crusaders? Not from some other religion or spirituality (how narrow-minded!)? Not by government protecting me from others hurting my feelings? Jesus mentioned those who said it like it is — who spoke boldly of the Kingdom as the alternative to the World — would also be considered as maliciously, but it wouldn't be because of them but merely because of Him. "The world hates you because they hate Me," He said. And how they do. It is a microaggression, it is. Nailing God-in-flesh to a cross is kind of a microaggression, but in the name of stopping microaggression they did it with extreme prejudice. Still. Jesus loved them anyway. It is now the rage to zealously rail against perceived microaggressions wherever they be found — or whichever ones Caesar tells you to be violently aggrieved about. Still. Christ's followers love with deep self-sacrificial love. When you find the Kingdom and joyfully tell others about this Jesus Who Is The Only Savior — The Only One, Period, you too will be apprehended in some way by the microaggression police. Yes, Jesus said as much. Will you be blessed as one who is not ashamed of Him? And bring the Kingdom... Still?
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Aaron Swartz was a prophet. Call him a prophet of the Church of the Open Source. His creed was essentially, "Free the information!" An incredibly bright college student when he began his noble crusade, he was revered by many devout humanists who hold to the idea that if the information about all things were just ever-so spread about, no longer constricted by any bounds — no chains no strings no fences no walls no nothin' holding it back — democracy would fully flourish, everyone truly knowing what's what about everything breaking the shackles of ignorance and liberating all peoples to the fullest expression of knowledge and goodness and then, then...
Then what?
Turns out Swartz was so hounded by law enforcement for violating copyright law that his distress moved him to commit suicide. It is an appealing notion, however, the assurance that life could be made that much better if only all the ideas out there were just made far more accessible. That's really what the open source movement is all about. Have a good idea? Give it up. And really, because of information technology the marginal cost of information transfer is effectively zero. The problem is there is still a price. The information itself still has value. And anytime the price of something exceeds the marginal cost you'd want to get more of it, and you'd still have to pay the price. Someone somehow still expended energy and erudition in some measure to introduce it. The question is, what kind of information are you seeking? Furthermore, what means is being used to distinguish between the valuable information and the worthless information? A thoughtful philosopher may say worthless information is valuable as a contrast to the valuable, but still the question remains. How does one identify that? Certainly philosophers through history have always thrown into question knowledge itself, its limits, how one may know truth — all that epistemological and deconstructionist navel-scrutinizing. Always the irony shines brightly: Right now the big story is how Apple is refusing to disassemble encryption that is preventing federal law enforcement from finding the treasure trove of information they presume is in the cell phone of now-dead terrorists after they murdered 14 people in cold-blood. Oh the questions! Why did they do it? With whom were they affiliated? Who else may be plotting nefarious things? When and how will those things occur so they can be stopped?
And here I kind of thought Apple was made up of hip, with-it, progressive types who are all in regarding the open source vision. Seems bank accounts, travel arrangements, and certain communiqués with associates deemed morally questionable are still off-limits to some. Please. All of this is just part of the ruse, part of the ruse to keep our eyes and ears away from the real, the meaningful information. Not hard to see why, actually. The story is simply too widely broadcast. Federal agents can do anything they want to get any information they need. Why are they in such a tizzy over this? It is always intriguing, this tactic of redirecting attention by highlighting something that sounds as if it is REALLY SOMETHING TO BE WORRIED ABOUT — and it always sounds so important! — but it is actually a mere partial hangout, sometimes called a limited hangout, a place that goes beyond the simple "red herring" in that it involves including NEWLY RELEASED SECRET INFORMATION that is merely more propaganda. Seductively herd everyone's gaze over here, when the real action is over there.
What's the truth, over there?
I mean, really, that's what we want, isn't it? The truth? I caught sight of a recent book called Get the Truth by three former CIA agents. It is chock full of methods for unlocking what the actual truthful real information is right there inside any given individual's noggin. After all, the key to all of this is what resides within each mind thinkin' up things thunk about things out there. Is there a code to unlock that? There is one, the one (and only) totally effective one, really. It is in the words of Scripture, words which richly detail it all by identifying that which spills from the deepest nether psychic regions of someone living fully by the world, the flesh, or the Prince of the World. You don't need the most crafty covert op dexterity to get it. You just need His word. If you've been paying attention to what He says you can look at truthful things and see them. It is really not that hard. Moreover no matter how hidden or encrypted the information, someday the meaningful truth of everything will be shouted from the rooftops. Know who said that? Jesus, someone who knows everything going on with every single person on the planet anyway. Kinda makes fools of all those who think they can hide as well as those who think they pry it all open with their bare smarts. It's not even the information at all. Information is information. Data is data, ready to be evaluated. Truth is truth — it all comes out in the wash in the end. The real issue is in the disinformation, the stuff gorged on by people who are fed a steady diet of humanist dreck by the best World Operatives. Not listening to God? You'll listen to the Prince. Often he sounds good and wholesome and godly. But he wants to eat you for dinner. The disinformation is all the slop Cain's agents fling at World inhabitants to keep them in their benighted state of abjection for optimum control. It is actually a good thing, God allowed it millennia ago, good for keeping murderous people a little less murderous.
It is exciting and thrilling and mesmerizing watching those intrepid Boston Globe reporters cleverly dig up that dirt dammit on those pedophile priests and — it's for the children! — how brave and courageous and valiant those reporters are! Oh and how that Catholic Church, errgh how it just won't let us in on what it's doing behind its nefarious sex abuse cover-ups! ERRRRGHCK! "FREE THE INFORMATION!" World journalists paid handsomely by Caesar have the most arrogantly inflated conception of themselves. No reason they shouldn't, they're the ordained information proprietors. The Los Angeles Times wrote "[Spotlight] quietly but potently illustrates society's need for old-fashioned investigative journalism, the kind of labor-intensive telling-truth-to-power work that's increasingly in jeopardy." Not really. They only care about hypnotically drawing people into their thinking. That "truth-to-power" pap is a dead giveaway, postmodernist "metanarrative" drivel bilged into the mainstream. These people aren't about truth, only their make-believe story labeled "truth". Amazing the film has splashed investigative sleuth guru Carl Bernstein's quote on all its promotional items: "The press remains our last chance at holding institutions accountable through the best obtainable version of the truth." Ahh. That's makes it much better. These gallant souls are all about constructing "the best obtainable version of the truth." Ahh I see. We get the golly-gosh best attempt at this silly thing — truth. Good thing. ...As much as we are entranced by a spiffy movie version of what we're supposed to think of the Roman Catholic Church... Very nice. The truth? When you get right down deep into the core information, there are only three ways, to look at Rome, only three. The first is that Rome is the church, the authority, the reigning power over one's affairs. This view is held by most — all religions lead to Rome. People who aren't Catholic proper will still give it the most gratuitous lip service, refuse to critique it appropriately, whimper things like "It has its faults but oh well we're all not perfect." Catholics look at the priest scandal and either strive to somehow make things ever-so better or shrug that at least the folks in the church are trying to do something about it at-least-we-all-hope-they-are. The second common take is that Rome must be reviled, whether this comes from a religious person like the rabidly fomenting Protestant or a secularist like the bitterly zealous atheist — he/she hates Rome and bleats that it should be reformed, altered, censured — something to demonstrate that Rome is changing its ways to be better in some way. Don't think you're doing any of that? You are if you pay codependently excessive tribute to Caesar in any number of ways or you do some kind of wholesome public service work through an organization sold out to Rome through its tax-exempt non-profit incorporation privilege.
These two approaches are the only ones the World journalist sees. He loves to enrage both to battle one another — the ugly culture war between the Devout Romanists and Radical Selfists always makes for great entertainment. In fact you'll note that most everything on the evening news is related to this dynamic. The Roman church militant operatives have been the deep politics impetus behind Spotlight because it all seems so righteous, but the spectacle encourages people to vibrantly experience the fine catharsis and the impassioned indignation, yet afterwards settle back into driving home to the comfort of knowing the things propelling the "family secrets" may still be vigorously protected, rationalized, dissembled, and yet virulently protracted. That's the essence of life lived richly in the Catholicist nation.
The third perspective is just as veritable as the other two, only scarcely adopted into the information storehouse of most minds and hearts. It is that Rome is Cain's primary governing apparatus for those who need their lies and murders managed. As such it is quite perilous to extend the challenge against it too enthusiastically — as much as you enjoy seething about it, Roman officers salivate over the rebellion about which it may justifiably prosecute with the most extreme prejudice. How to address Rome? Be Christ's. Believe on Him, believe what He says about Rome, and the Kingdom. Then live your life from there, leaving Caesar to do his things as he must, ruthlessly executing justice as a legitimate sin management official. Will Caesar's minions commit heinously evil acts like sexually abuse children? They can't help but. What of it? Will they be merciless in showcasing their attempts to thwart religious zealots no matter how wayward or unconstitutional those attempts are? Naturally. What then? If we all get at the mother lode of information regarding Catholic Church peccadillos, then what? Just like the FBI as it tries to get the juiciest data about terrorists from a cell phone — then what? Glory be! — Now Caesar is fully enabled to keep all bad things from happening ever again, the enemy has been vanquished, behold a world of incessant peace and safety! All thanks to Boston Globe reporters and Apple's cooperation with federal agents! Happy happy joy joy.
You know, in our men's Bible study we'd been reading from the letters of James, Peter, and John, and after doing our study of the third chapter from Peter's first letter, I was taken aback by what he wrote about the water. All through Scripture the water refers to the Word. For instance your own words can be a fountain of bitterness or refreshment. Jesus (not Peter!) has always been The Rock, and during the Exodus Moses drew water from Him to satisfy the people's thirst. At the well with the Samaritan woman Jesus spoke of drinking from His well so she would never be thirsty again. He was speaking of His words, ones which will never pass away. In Peter's letter Noah is mentioned, and baptism is mentioned. In the first instance God's word flooded the earth with judgment — no one had an excuse, everyone but Noah and his family destroyed by virtue of their own refusal to abide by the Word. What I found so striking is that the Word was a flood — you absolutely cannot miss it. The second instance refers to your own immersion in the water. Have you been baptized by the Living Word, which now is all about mercy and grace and charity?
Jesus is That Word. He is The Information. At the time of Noah people rejected The Information. Jesus tells us right now we're living in a time no different from Noah, going about our lives, marrying and giving in marriage, obsequiously listening to what Rome tells us we're supposed to be doing... Aaron Swartz saw the persistently festering sewer that all this was and ranted "If only we had all the information." Well, you can have all The Information you need. Information with the highest price tag ever, you cannot miss it. For us to know it, to know Him, the cost was His very life.
Really, information is only anything if it is about that very thing, the most valuable thing of all.
Life.
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In one scene this middling trader from some gargantuous bank, played by Ryan Gosling, introduces these truths to a small group of investment firm traders led by the character played by Steve Carrell, and rattles them off. "Rock-bottom FICO scores — no income verification — adjustable rates — dogshit." The investors are incredulous, and Vennett realizes halfway through his schpiel he must amplify the impact of his claims by insisting "No one is paying attention." He even repeats it.
No one is paying attention.
The Big Lie is obviously sustained throughout the financial world, and I am convinced that is the place where you can see its ugly deceit the most — if you're paying attention. Actually, really, it isn't that hard to see, you know, every time The Lie is unraveled and the economy tanks, every, oh, ten years or so. And it does happen every ten years or so. Thing is, so many people aren't paying attention that it doesn't stop. The general populace of the globe is so thoroughly Catholicized that not only do they live in a fantasy world that the System is its savior and it can't possibly be so duplicitous, but many of them are in on the take. Indeed, it is in their best, shall we say, financial interest to keep up The Lie. And lie about it.
The Society's work is bearing great fruit.
One of the best examples of The Big Lie ravaging people today is through the ever expansive consideration that the U.S. government do much more to be a loving and caring government. I wrote a home page piece about this exactly a year ago, related to the tepid "Je Suis Charlie" protestations after a horrific terrorist attack in Paris. The latest happened in Belgium and was followed by "Je Suis Bruxelles". More of the same. The impotency of "democratic" government to do much of anything truly meaningful about systemically entrenched criminal activity comes largely from the fierce dismay so many have about the truth that if any law passed by the government is to be effective, law enforcement must be willing to shoot anyone who violates that law. Otherwise the law is meaningless. So intense is the hypnosis among the "government must be loving and caring" folks that very few grasp this truth, at their harrowing peril. One may screech, "What about a parking violation?" Well, if you don't pay the fine, then what? If you then don't appear in court, then what? If you then don't serve your jail term, then what? Then what? If government continues to dismiss any of an offender's abrogations, violating laws and flaunting government's spinelessness, then government means nothing. But people want government to do things, it's just they want government to shoot the other guy, never them. This is the essence of rent-seeking — see that government favors you and your proclivities. Even if your behavior is morally suspect, the expansively projected loving and caring government has your back, its impotency augmented by its potency in seeing its patrons gratified — with that seven-fold vengeance, of course. A terribly egregious way this has started to fester is through the raging transgender movement and its demands that everyone celebrate the homosexualist pathology. It isn't merely that transgender individuals are insisting on using their bathroom facility of choice, it is that a loving and caring government endorsing that kind of thing is vibrantly contributing to the abject destruction of our communities. The sodomous rent-seekers have been successful at getting their way, hammering into humiliation anyone who honors transcendent moral standards. What's started to happen is startlingly revealed in a newly released study showing that a significant number more white middle aged males are being devastated by drug and alcohol abuse, suffering from mental illness, and committing suicide. The recent increase of these incidents has been cause of some concern. It is my firm belief that this destructiveness is engendered by this kind of "celebrate diversity" bullying. Most white middle-aged men actually care deeply about their families and communities and the steadfast morality that protects and nurtures those things, and they are now being told "Butt out, you're just a racist, sexist homophobe with nothing to say about these things anymore." Rank marginalization is a terrifying thing.
Why are so many jumping on the "We insist on a loving and caring government!" bandwagon? The core reason is because they don't know God. As more people abandon a God who truly, objectively, actually, transcendently sees and hears and engages in people's lives — as more people see Him as merely a figment of whichever one's interpretive community says He is and of no real matter, then they must find the love and care from somewhere else. What is even more frightening is more and more young people are looking to government because everyone intuitively knows that government has seven-fold strength. At least they are richly sincere regarding their allegience — they become enraptured with someone like Bernie Sanders who sounds about as loving and caring as anyone. I don't think they quite understand that even he will still use the barrel of a gun to get his policies implemented. Sanders is merely doing the work of Cain — indeed anyone who is president or legislator or bureaucrat is doing as much. And because fewer and fewer know Jesus, more and more only see Cain. I'd like to direct you to Maureen Mullarkey's piece in the webzine The Federalist. It has the most boldly honest Catholicist perspective about how all this works. It is truly eye-opening, even though she doesn't have a clue what she's revealing. And what she's revealing isn't anything that revelatory, for those who've been paying attention it's just more confirmation. She begins by lamenting how much the Catholic Church is taking positions about things that are not as conservative as she wants them to be, what with the pope saying we need to be more tolerant of homosexually-minded people and abortion-supporting people and rent-slavering migrants flooding into industrialized countries. She fears this will result in a lot of people renewing attacks against the church like all those attacks from history, and she details several. Then she goes on to cite all the areas of U.S. governance in which Rome has its hands. It is nothing other than a detailed catalog of how Rome runs the United States, and has been for decades! Rome and Washington, the pope and president, the General and the bureaucrats — it is a richly symbiotic relationship — and as much as wholesomely conservative Maureen Mullarkey is aghast at this truth — It — must — be. Appear to be the loving and caring government for those who pay, but be brutally oppressive to those who don't. That's Rome for you. The System was established millennia ago, for the expressed purpose of managing the sin of a reprobate populace and mitigating the effects of the necessary human sacrifice that must take place within such an environment. But, yeah, with so many simply falling under the spell of the first sacrificer who was expelled from the Kingdom, the only place from which one may see with clarity and hear with understanding — it is no surprise that
No one is paying attention.
The Big Lie — It must be. The rent-schlurping class and contemporary human sacrifice — It must be. Rome arranging it all with so few any paying attention — that's simply how it must work. Every single governance item emanates originally from deep within the Roman Catholic ecclesia. Every single one. All of it proper, legitimate, and authoritative. Because the pope is a seasoned Jesuit, it appears much more loving and caring all the time. Yet all the sodomy enabling, migrant victimizing, religious liberty bleating, opiate injecting, and taxpayer rescuing that is ravaging the globe right now is only elevated to horrifically distended proportions to destabilize society so everyone will be in a morbidly incessant state of rebellion.
Hillary Clinton is starting to coast to the Democrat nomination, and you'd have to wonder how in the world this could be happening when she is such a political lightweight smothered in so much rentier baggage, what with the rife corruption of the Clinton Foundation and her wantonly selling off chunks of U.S. propriety as Secretary of State. But then, there it is. It's not about Hillary at all but how much of her media concocted persona can be the face of the real rentier powers. It's not even Donald Trump, he's just a loutish celebrity. It's not anybody in particular. It doesn't matter who it is, Rome's ordained militant operatives will get their way through their proficiently programmed drones by seducing anyone and anything they can. It is just so obviously pronounced in this election — It's just — is anyone paying attention?
This isn't a new phenomenon by any means. History is rife with examples of large swaths of people making decisions between schlurping up the dregs of World spewdom, or actually entering into communion with Jesus Christ and living by the Kingdom.
Then, The people stood up and paid attention. They wanted to see the Lord do His thing. Humble, gentle, confident. Know what happened? The invading armies miraculously retreated, even beating the tar out of each other on the way out. It was all God. Jesus is the loving and caring potentate, so much so that He does comprehensively beat the tar out of those who threaten His own. Check out what Jesus does in The Revelation, last book of the Bible, you can't miss it. But hey, there is the authentically loving and caring part, which is the fact that He died so you could be His own. "But wait, isn't Jesus then just the ultimate rentier?" Not really. Remember, rentier power-brokers will always take a chunk of your soul as payment for letting you in on their turf. That is itself the whole idea of this economic principle rent. The World System does it by extracting your value through taxes, tariffs, fees, interest payments, tithes, fines, bribes, kickbacks, shakedowns, indulgences, any kind of tribute to proudly proclaim who is governing whom. Indeed Cain has seven-fold strength to execute such a program. But he doesn't have unlimited strength. Jesus, on the other hand, already has it all. Yes, I guess you could say he's just "renting" the world out to him to govern evildoers, but on the last day Caesar and his entire operation will be thrown into hell. The amazing thing is that Jesus already made your payment, He did so with His very blood. He already owns everything, He doesn't need you or anyone else. The System is merely doing its gruesome work to give you a chance to see this, understand it, find Him, and respond — for while He doesn't need you, He does love you. Your place, with Him, already paid for, the whole thing.
You know, when I go on my hikes in the foothills near where I live, occasionally I see a small white butterfly fluttering about, and think of the marvel of God's creation. Just look at that thing — amazing. Paying no more special attention when I went out on my most recent hike, I happened to see that a couple of those butterflies had red tips on their wings. Sorry, but this was just too wonderful a metaphor for God and His Kingdom. Think about it.
Oh that you'd pay attention to what the Son of God did.
And how much He already wants to give you the Kingdom.
No System rent-begging required.
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hate Speech Laws
Because words do matter, nowadays you've got your trigger warning requirements and your safe speech zones and your microaggression classifications and your campus speech codes and your myriad righteously crusading organizations working valiantly to ensure offensive language is kept neatly in check by dutifully registering any and all officially recognized slights and offenses and feeding them into the World's megaphone for all to experience the requisite shame and guilt followed by the proper fealty to the brave, brave correction officers proudly on the job. There is indeed ripe sarcasm there, yes, but I — ahem — hate to say it, but
I'm fully in favor of all that stuff.
Oh, trust me, I do see how idiotic much of it is. Trust me, any kind of politically correct speech prosecution by Caesar is a truly ruthless thing. But that's exactly the point. What exactly is coming out of the mouth of people that destroys another, even the listener's own soul? I understand there are many things we hear that we must steel ourselves against and just cope, I got that. But I'm afraid there are dozens of speech violations Caesar prosecutes and we are all perfectly fine with them. Say I stood outside your home there at the side of the street with a megaphone and spoke through it about what a rotten person you are, continuously, directed straight at your house while you were there. Would the police be justified in asking me to stop or I'd be dragged away? I think so. What if I did the same thing, but I said fine things about you, how terrific you were. Would that make a difference? No, it wouldn't, my removal and likely arrest would still be wholly justified because it is improper to say anything in that setting. Sure it'd be different if I were a firefighter or police officer and I was warning you about some dangerous incendiary or criminal threat. That is different. But that's just it then, isn't it? It depends precisely on what is happening and why. This means that there are a variety of factors that go into this thing speech which sadly, so many don't take the time to examine. I mean, for the duration of my amplified vocal vitriol, those in the house may employ closed shutters covered in fine sound-muffling material. I mean, they don't have to listen. The problem is that the words are still being heard in other places, where people are picking them up whether or not they choose to do so. I guess make sure everyone has earplugs? I share what may be considered a preposterous example because I'd like now to ask you the following questions. What if instead of me out there, there is a splendidly eloquent speaker, coiffed hair, suit and tie, authoritative delivery. Instead of a megaphone, there is a microphone. Instead of the side of the street there is an eye-popping studio set in which the speaker is situated. Instead of my beat-up old Civic delivering me (and my message) to the curb, there is a multi-billion dollar broadcasting network to get the word out. Instead of the open window, there is a telecasting device through which the words (and appropriate images) may be gently transmitted for the most casual digestion. And whereas it is just me bellowing things at one person (and a few others who happen to hear), this expansive network benefits from all those who are listening to hop out and repeat the established pronouncements to everyone else they encounter.
Especially when they are not counseled by God to know exactly what it is they are saying.
For you see, the things the World System blares through our eardrums destroy. This is not news by any means. Everyone is aware of the "spin", of the deceitful ways the System makes its regal pronouncements. In spite of this "awareness", the problem is people still leap right on board with embracing the insidiously evil things the System spews at them! Here is a sampling.
"It is best to endorse the behavior of people who do sexually untraditional things with one another in the name of celebrating our differences and embracing our individual liberties." "It is best to be wary of American-English speaking, conservative, older, masculinity-oriented, white males because they are mostly angry racists." "It is best to enlist government people to fix income inequality by rearranging wealth in the name of charity."
I understand the best intentions behind such statements. People without a conception of God grounded in reality have an instinctive need to make things better. But all they can do is perversely favor individuals or groups for whom they've adopted an affection either to make themselves feel more righteous or to wage a righteous crusade against some constructed evil. Either way, it is nonetheless hate speech. As much as the sodomist will shout, "That's homophobic bigotry!", or the racialist, "That's patently racist!", or the socialist "That's institutionalized greed!", they are all just as guilty of hate speech and the law condemns it as such. The intractable humanist will rail vehemently against this assessment, particularly when those with a Christian mindset challenge them. Then the response from those speaking through the indoctrination broadcasting network is generally
"It is best to assert that the Bible is merely one of many books with words, having no more merit than any other such literary item." "It is best to leave the concept 'God' to the realm of fairy tales because there are so many versions, even as it is best to politely humor those who hold to one of them." "It is best to disregard anything labeled 'religious' because it is by definition not scientific and unworthy of serious consideration."
I understand the best intentions behind such statements. Those who've rejected God must grip robust rationalizations for their positions so they do not feel scorned by anyone. The network has done a magnificent job of bleating the essence of the naturalistic humanism reigning in the public square today, and ironically it is belched up by as many God-believers as anyone else. The truth is, concepts like sin, justice, and mercy are scientific concepts. They apply to everyone in every circumstance, scientifically so. The Bible, Jesus, and His authority and work are evidences with overwhelming forensic and historical weight, and are just as valid as any scientific claim. As such, in light of the fact that these statements are used in the name of fighting hate and upholding hate speech laws, the radical truth elucidated here:
All of the italicized statements above are themselves hate speech crimes.
Thus, the law. Yes, I too don't want people destroyed by the wicked behavior of others — good thing there are hate speech laws. When I say, "Don't mistake me for a marriage pluralist, I'm a marriage upholder, and firmly believe that the endorsement of subjecting a same-sex couple to institutionalized immorality should be prosecuted with the law," I like it when they say "MICROAGGRESSION!" because I can then firmly stand on the truth that someone accusing me of such an act is indeed being just as aggressive with their speech and should be subject to the same hate speech laws. "You're violating my safety zone!" "Well, you're violating mine" so I eagerly welcome the hate speech police to do its job to prosecute them. "You didn't issue a trigger warning!" "Well, you didn't issue a trigger warning that my still truthful statement was going to disturb you! If you deal with it, great, accept the truth of things — if you want to talk about it, that's fine too. But if you revile me openly by berating me verbally, then you're guilty of violating the law." Thank goodness for hate speech laws. The problem is now, in a sense, we're all guilty. But then, that's what the law does. If we were to be convicted for every hateful thought that came through our lips, we'd all be in prison. This is one of the main reason followers of Christ should be enthusiastically celebrating hate speech laws — the law is very good...
For condemnation.
Um, then what?
See, that's the key. Without Christ, there is no escape from this body of death. All there is is condemnation all around. With Christ, speech becomes healing, spiritual refreshment, wholeness, salvation, graciousness. Yes, it is quite dogmatic, but I want the truth speech about Christ and His work to rescue sinners from the depths of their stupidity to be as boldly, firmly, loudly, and yes, dogmatically truthful as it can be. What is that? What exactly is the antidote to hate speech? Yes, it is Christ, the embodiment of that antidote, but in a real what-actually-comes-out-of-our-mouths way, it is readily found it Proverbs. I've thought about scouring the book just to find at least a few examples to put here, but please. I won't needlessly belabor the point. You may read them for yourself, I graciously invite you to do so. There are dozens related to what comes out of our mouths. One I do want to include is this powerful one.
Words are either death or life, evil or good, hate or love. Even the most benign "Take a left at the corner" means something. Words have an impact, they have consequences, right there in peoples' real lives. Acknowledging there's a law governing that is merely accepting the truth about that — it's that simple. How many people actually read Proverbs, regularly, and practice "health speech" if you will? I'm not saying there aren't a lot who do, there are, thank God for them. But a whole lot of people do just hypnotically heed the microphone-holding studio-enveloped broadcasting personality whose words plow through the massive dissemination network. We can't neglect to call attention to another component in the network, a critical one, one that is mostly unseen and as such frequently disunderstood. The broadcasting personality is not alone. There is a whole copywriting team behind him. For the most part he's just reading from the script. His handlers are brilliantly educated in what is truly a Jesuit-run university system, and most times the copyreading personalities aren't boorish newscasters but the delightfully charismatic actors and actresses working through the panoply of invigorating film and entertainment. Thing is, who's providing the substance of that copy to them? Are you willing to discover the brutal truth about who they are? Because of their power, I accept that I will never be able to outrun their accusations of hate speech violations against me. Cain and his metamedium minions can never comprehend that I have nothing to do with law enforcement, I'm only about expressions of mercy and hope and forgiveness. Oh I know there is sin all about and the law as the power of that sin to make that meaningful, but "Mercy triumphs over judgment" as it says in the letter of James. Cain only knows the law and his favored rent-clamoring patrons, so when I say, "It is evil to brazenly favor sodomous behavior" and sodomists actually get itchy about the force of that statement, I understand it is me who will be prosecuted. The fascinating thing is that Jesus said as much Himself. I accept that. I understand it is getting to the point when I'll be dragged before the magistrate for saying truthfully healthy things but will be considered hate crimes for those who haven't a clue about the Kingdom, I understand. At the earliest moment of the wholesale spread of Kingdom truth and grace, Peter referenced a couple of phenomenal truths from the Old Testament.
Jesus is Lord, listen to His words. Yet know this: the nations are against Him. After a severe reprimand from the System's speech police for what they were saying, Peter and John, still considered woefully uneducated men, still expressed full commitment to openly sharing what they saw, heard, and knew. For those who understand this and believe on Christ, they too are assaulted by the authoritative System personality. These hate speech items are much less addressed, yet just as abundantly allowed to poison the soul:
"It is best to keep yourself in a constant state of rebellion against the ordained potentates - they are your only salvation - even if you must rant and rage and holler at them in some form." "It is best to consider the Roman Catholic Church a meaningless religious entity featuring nice people in fancy outfits who are only about helping the poor so they can't be bad at all." "It is best to be pleasantly daft about insightfully examining the tribute payments you make to any and all System offices - government, bank, church - because if you said something you'll be made to look like a fool."
Again, I do understand the best intentions behind such statements. Cain's legacy must labor industriously to keep his operation legitimatized — it needs its clientele, its constituency, its debtors and parishioners and rent-gougers. Humanists and religionists alike are harrowingly fearful, and the personality's words come across as assuring and comforting. But fearful people thrash about in hateful speech. That's until they meet authentic love. It's the World and it's the Kingdom. Don't quite get it? That's okay. It's all extraordinarily complex and multi-faceted, but it is not unfathomable or incomprehensible — that's what the entirety of the webzine is about. And more. The more is the beautiful adventure of understanding and knowing Him, in vibrantly fellowshipping with those who are committed to immersing themselves in that, in breaking all of this down and getting it so we can actually love others. Are you in? Will you engage this? Let's talk. Let's say things that should be said. Are you willing? Here's my email. Let's go. Because all of this is not just about speaking. It is about acting. People want to be around action people. People are desperate to be around people who actually care about them with words that are truth and grace. People want relationships with people who are willing to be honest about truthful things, but wear Christ's love all over them — a love that is rich and open and meaningful and powerful and penetrating and giving...
That's the Kingdom in action. And action for the Kingdom is the only thing that matters.
Who else to listen to about how to do that than The Living Word.
*** If You say "Go" we will go If You say "Wait" we will wait If You say "Step out on the water" And they say it can't be done We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come - "If You Say Go" by Diane Thiel
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*** Scripture | Homepage | Site Map #
All photographs inserted were taken from the web. Forgive me for not including attributions. I make no money directly from this web effort. Thanks nonetheless to those who posted them so I may reproduce them here. Thank you. This page was originally posted by David Beck at yourownjesus.net on October 31 2015 |
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Robert Shiller is a genius. He is a certified economics genius. He's
been a Yale professor for eons, he invented the most
prominently referenced housing price index, he writes cogently about
economics stuff all the time.
But
thank goodness there is Math! Yay, all hail the god
Math!
their divinely ordained
purposes.
Don't we all need this information? I mean, FBI director James Comey
recently said that if they don't get Apple's cooperation, then it's
a sign the FBI will be unable to use its power to get into certain
information technology to thwart all sorts of criminals
— other murderers, thieves, hackers, even pedophiles.
Pedophiles, hmm
— stay tuned.
A terrific example of the way the top showmen World Ops put on a
great circus extravaganza while they fatten you up is the recent
Academy Award winning film Spotlight.
The terrific film The Big Short could easily be called
The Big Lie. It is about how a handful of perceptive
individuals looked at the value of the stuff
— sometimes tagged with
the phraseology "the underlying assets of the economy"
— and noted that it was,
in the words of character Jared Vennett, dogshit.
Right now Donald Trump is running away with the Republican
nomination for president because Rome's operatives make it that
way. He says he's so into "the deal," but what is "deal-making"
except holding some kind of rentier power over those who covet the
goodies? Trump is mostly just the media concoction "bully" to be the
face of those are really controlling rent distribution. Do you know
who they are
— are you paying attention?
When Judah was being swarmed by armies from Moab and Ammon, King
Jehoshaphat prayed. It was a simple prayer, albeit fervent and
heartfelt. It was pretty much along the lines of "The battle is
yours, Lord." .jpg)
I usually do not attach titles to home page pieces, but I thought
this would be an appropriate one. Inspired of course by Stanley
Kubrick's wonderful film about the idiotic things that people can say, and
then of course do. I don't think we realize how contemptibly
destructive the very things that come out of our mouths can be.
Doesn't matter if you're a megapowerful rich guy or a mild-mannered
shopping cart pusher.