Scripture as the Collision of the Sacred and the Mundane

I first became an intentional Christian my freshman year of college (making it relevant to my studies) and who took my first course in New Testament studies and Lehigh from a Yale-trained biblical scholar my sophomore year.

Being raised in a modern world and having taken high school courses in Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics, world cultures, and English, and lived in a pluralistic culture emphasizing tolerance for those of different beliefs, I had no problem scraping a year of fundamentalist Bible interpretation for the historical critical study of the Bible.,

I have always lived in a world with no "Berlin Wall" between my Sunday religion and the other six days of the week. God is in the details, whether it be loving one's enemies, running one's restaurant, or developing a more advanced form of machine learning.

I gave the secular cultural reason above.

The reason given in Christian culture is God in Christ crucified in the incarnation evident at Creation, Christmas (or Solstice if you wish), and the Eschaton.

Incarnation (Wikipedia)

AN "OLDE" APOSTOLIC REFORMATION: CHRISTIAN REALISM

 The modern representative of Christian Realism is considered to be Reinhold Niebuhr.

It is not the only flavor of the Christian faith by any means, but it portrays all creatures - including us Christians - as the frail, fallible people we are rather than as those to whom God has given divine authority to execute His "revealed" a plan for Christian dominion of earthly empires.

"I’m an Anglican by conviction as well as by birth, and that will inevitably influence the way I approach Christmas."

*   *   *

"Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to those of you inclined to celebrate that holiday, and seasonal greetings to everyone else. Whatever your faith or lack of it, however you understand the meaning and purpose of your life, may the Christmas season be a time of rest, relaxation, and healing reflection for you that brings you closer to those you love, makes you more generous to those in need, and leaves you more in tune with that wiser, happier, richer, and more generous self that it’s your hope, your joy, your duty, and, with the help of a merciful God, your destiny to become."

<CONTINUE AT The Fourteen Posts of Christmas: 2024–2025 Edition>

OLIGARCHY 2.0: NEW AND IMPROVED!

Peter Hickey has pounded me for years, obsessed with oligarchy (and guillotines).

I've told him that oligarchy is not only normal in democracies but in ANY human grouping. To steal from John LeCarre, some must lead society and so some must reluctantly claw their way to the top.

But we're on the precipice of something QUALITATIVELY different. 

The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory first developed by the German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book Political Parties.[1] It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of the organization.[1]

Michels' theory states that all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies. Michels observed that since no sufficiently large and complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy, power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise. As he put it in Political Parties, "It is organization which gives dominion of the elected over the electors. [...] Who says organization, says oligarchy."[2]

-"Iron law of oligarchy" (Wikipedia)  

But, as demonstrated just a week ago, one particular oligarch - Elon Musk - managed to BLOW UP a carefully negotiated (and unlikely) agreement between House Democrats and Republicans by unleashing multiple O-DARK-THIRTY tweets threatening any Republican supporting that bill (their own REPUBLICAN bill negotiated by President-Elect Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson) with a primary if they passed it.

They folded like a house of cards and Democrats had to rescue them on the rebound.

This ISN'T a further development of Oligarchy 1.

It is a qualitatively different beast.

THESE oligarchs create and control the infrastructure that maintains the increasingly significant VIRTUAL aspect of our lives: algorithms that determine what we do and do not see as well as increasingly powerful artificially intelligent systems that will augment - and possibly replace - human decision making. 

"Behind the Curtain: The Great Upheaval" (Axios)

The Christian religion is a religion of power, BUT...

 The Christian religion is a religion of power. But it's an ironic power manifest in history as suffering, failure, and death with the "happy ending" mythically occuring beyond the end of history.

Nietzsche hated Christianity but dignified to the extent that he UNDERSTOOD it better than our modern, dominionist, Seven Mountain Christo-fascists: it's a religion for losers, freaks, and low life.

The above mentioned factions, which appear to be coalescing under the banner of the New Apostolic Reformation.

The "New" part is their central founding myth that while God has ordained leaders such as evangelists, pastors, and teachers since the closing of the NT canon, that we're at the VERY end of the end of history, He has dusted off and restored the offices of apostle and prophet equal or greater than their New Testament forbears: the Twelve, Paul, and - per some - Jesus himself!

As such, they have access to direct revelation from God KNOWN ONLY TO THEM, are self-authenticating, and have been instructed to act in ways VERY different from the New Testament apostles and prophets.

They not only share the common Christian mandate of influencing culture, God has told them they are to SEIZE CONTROL AND DOMINATE the entirety of civil governments worldwide.

And to oppose these super-apostles (see 2 Corinthians, their ACTUAL forbears) is to oppose God.

It is Christofascism on the road to totalitarianism.

What’s the Difference Between Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism?

Celebrating Murderers

Every time there is a school shooting, there is hooting and hollering for gun control / gun safety / pick your euphemism in the midst of the public grief of the families and coverage of the many funerals and the response is that now is NOT the time to shamelessly exploit a terrible tragedy for political gain.

Now we have a shooting of a health insurance CEO and there is hooting and hollering for healthcare system reform and the response that now is NOT the time to shamelessly exploit a terrible tragedy for political gain.

I must have a complicated personality; I feel the first is completely justified and the second is a descent into barbarism.

Maybe its because murdering a school room full of children victims in the first case is much more exploitable for the media than is the same number of children dying due to being uninsured or underinsured and the privacy and anonymity of the families' private grief.

But whatever my contradictory emotional responses to what appear to be similar similar situations (even leaving out the additional aspect of turning the perpetrator in both murders into a role model - which might be the actual commonality), I'm becoming interested in the ideas of C.B. Macpherson.

""Possessive individualism" is a political theory, primarily associated with C.B. Macpherson, that describes a social and political perspective where individuals are seen as the sole owners of their abilities and capacities, essentially "owning" themselves and owing nothing to society for their skills or talents; it is often linked to the idea that society is primarily composed of market interactions between individuals who are self-interested proprietors of their own labor and lives."

-AI Labs (Google) at Google Search

"what is possessive individualism wiki"

AN ENGAGED CIVIL SOCIETY: Democracy's Not So Secret Weapon

 AMERICAN CIVIL SOCIETY is MORE POWERFUL than autocracy.

THAT is why Trump, and the "thought leaders" of the MAGA movement (Flynn, Putin, Orban, Carlson, Bannon, Stone, etc.) attempt to pit Americans AGAINST each other.

WE MUST NOT FALL FOR IT.

We must see are MAGA friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family as RECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITIES for democracy and LISTEN to their anxieties about culture and globalization.

[And "immigration" has always been an effective weapon utilizing BOTH concerns that demogogues use to stoke fear in their supporters.]

"Korean civil society, from student groups to religious organizations, maintains robust networks that can rapidly mobilize against perceived threats to democracy."

What Just Happened in South Korea?

WHEN WANNABE DICTATORS SCREW UP

 I generally consider civil disobedience the LAST resort in a civil resistance campaign.

But, in South Korea, the FIRST thing citizens did when Martial Law was declared was to defy it, assemble, and go into the streets.

They did that IMMEDIATELY.

A cunning and patient autocrat will gradually "capture" the government by making incremental changes where it just makes sense for individuals to "go along to get along" because it is easier, safer, and allows them to deny the reality and indulge in the myth that it is "just a phase" or "the guardrails will protect us."

Timothy Snyder ("On Tyranny") told Nicole Wallace last night that he hated the term "guardrails." "Guardrails" implies a physical barrier that will stop a car.

He said there are no guardrails in that sense, only "signposts" (that is, traditions, norms, even laws) that will NOT protect democracy unless people put themselves at risk to DO THEIR DUTY.

Trump is neither cunninig nor patient and his display of naming the most unqualified (in competence AND character) to some of the most important and powerful cabinet positions seems to be helping Senate Republicans develop, belatedly, at least a bit of a spine.

DeSantis is a policy menace but at least has the basic competance to DO THE JOB of Secretary of Defense. Had he been Trump's initial choice, he'd have sailed right through. The same for other "second choice" cabinet candidates.

Maybe he wanted to see how far he could push Republican Senators and, at least with Matt Gaetz, now he knows.

DAMN! MY THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION MIGHT ACTUALLY BE USEFUL.

 Who knew?

So... Christian NATIONALISM is an *IDEOLOGY* where Christian's have a DUTY to love their "nation" (that is, their own people, the Christian Church) whereas Christian PATRIOTISM is an EMOTION Christian's feel and FREELY (to varying degrees) exemplify their (at times, sacraficial) love of their state.

So far, so good.

As a Christian I DO have a duty to love my fellow Christians (as individuals and as a community) and I am FREE to partriotically love my country, America, without necessarily approving of every action it takes in the world.

The fatal theological flaw of WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST HERESY (or the New Apostolic Reformation or the 7 Mountain Mandate or Dominionism) is their claim that God gave Christians the American state TO THEM just as God is portrayed in the Bible as giving Israel to the Jews.

And now they claim that THEIR LAND (and Christian culture) was stolen from them by the liberals, the socialists, and the heathen and / or non-White immigrants.

And they mean to take it back, by fair means or foul.

"The Puritans were inspired by the passages in Revelation about the New Jerusalem, which they interpreted as being a symbol for the New World. The Puritans saw themselves as the builders of the New Jerusalem on earth. This idea was foundational to American nationalism." (See "New Jerusalem (Wikipedia)

Needless to say, NONE OF THIS is in the Bible.

Patriotism vs Nationalism (Philosophical Distinction)

RESPONSE TO CHARLIE SYKES

With respect, this is just wrong.

You keep saying "we can't treat any of this as normal" but that seems to be exactly what you are doing.

I don't believe Biden would have pardoned Hunter had Harris been elected. Because THAT would have fit the consequences you are saying will happen.

He simply saw what I thought you saw so clearly: the pro-democracy forces are fighting an asymetrical cold civil war against an emerging fascist attempt to capture the government.

And it looks like they could very well succeed.

Donald Trump's selection of Attorney General, FBI Director, and Secretary of Defense clearly shows he intends to make good on his multiple promises to use the DOJ and - "if necessary" - the military to seek revenge and retribution against his enemies. And to use his pardon power to free the "political prisoners" who attempted, at his instigation, to overthrow a free and fair election and the US Constitution.

The rules that obtained on November 5th are done.

Harris' loss to Trump is a wormhole through which we're being delivered to a dystopia whose final state would remind us of "The Man in the High Castle."

The only judgment a future free America can make on any of our actions is did we stay within the law (as did Biden's pardon) and were we disciplined enough to restrict necessary law-breaking of unjust laws to protect the Constitution and vulnerable targets of Trump's wrath (whether Hunter Biden or Alexander Vindman or undocumented immigrants) to non-violent civil resistance.

The Bible tells us we must be innocent as doves yet wise as serpents.

Or, as the Ben Franklin character in "1776" tells John Adams, "Don't worry, John, the history books will clean it up." <smile>

Bill Bekkenhuis
Bethlehem, PA

See Charlie Syke's blog at the link. I think he's totally wrong on this but he and other Republicans paid a price to warn America about the danger of Donald Trump.

"Remember. A clown with a flamethrower still have a flamethrower."
-Charlie Sykes

https://substack.com/home/post/p-152513566?source=queue

THE BIDEN REVERSAL (POSTSCRIPT)

The more I think on Biden's reversal of his - and his wife's - insistance on not pardoning his son Hunter, the more I tend to believe he would NOT have done so had Harris won the election.

Aside from a father's care for his son and the question as to whether Hunter got the book thrown at him for the crime of being named "Biden," I believe President Biden is letting all Americans of ONE THING through his actions if not his words.

He is letting us know that, informed by President-elect Trump's repeated promise to use the DOJ (and possibly the military) for a campaign of revenge and retribution AS WELL AS his EXTRAORDINARY cabinet picks, that Donald Trump - like fascists before him - means to do EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID he would do.

Response to Reed Howard in Maverick (substack)

Biden’s pardon undermines the integrity he…
Reed Howard
A father’s love is commendable, but the presidency demands impartial justice. This pardon is a grave mistake.

See Biden’s pardon undermines the integrity he promised to restore

In normal times, I would agree with you. But these are not normal times. 

President Biden did not set a precedent. Former presidents have made questionable pardon decisions. 

But it was President Biden's immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, who ignored the entire pardon process and pardoned any number of people such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Souza, Paul Manafort, General Michael Flynn, Charles Kushner (the possible future ambassador to France!), Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Steve Bannon.

And he has promised to pardon those who HE INCITED to storm the capital on January  6th in an attempt to throw out the results of a free and fair election. 

Donald Trump should consider himself fortunate if this is all President Biden does to monkey with the rule of law considering Biden is still president for another month and a half and that the Supreme Court has given him immunity from criminal prosecution so long as he uses the powers of the executive branch to commit the crime and to justify the crime through some broad reference to the official duties of his office. 

But I'm afraid we will have to wait for President Trump to cross that line.

THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS

 William Stringfellow considered this quote from The Revelation to St. John an exemplary verse regarding what Luther called the theology of the cross (as compared to theologies of glory).

For a book using such an abundence of symbolic, mysterious, and coded language, it's a plainspoken statement of Christian realism.

Christians and all of history lie within a Holy Saturday, of sorts, between suffering, crucifixion, and death of God in Christ on Friday's cross, and God's final, complete, and public victory over death at the end of time.

We live in the REALITY of suffering, death, and the temptation to nihilism and yet with the hope guaranteed by God at the end of temp, already anticipated in history by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[Yes. That's a mythological assertion. I know. Deal with it. ]

It is, indeed, the starkest biblical rebuke to the cults of positive thinking, prosperity gospels, and "7 Mountain" theologians of glory rather than humanity's broken toys living in a real world exemplified by the cross of Christ.

"5 The beast was given a mouth speaking arrogant and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also, it was allowed to wage war on the saints and to conquer them.[a] It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.[b]"

Revelation 13:5-8

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

AMERICAN ANTI-INTELLECTURALISM

 AMERICAN ANTI-INTELLECTURALISM

(or, in a more positive lights, Pierce's and Willaim James' philosophical pragmatism.)

The importance of rationalism - or the lack thereof - has been a Western cultural battle since the Counter-Enlightenment of the 18th and 19th centuries.

But it's particularly close to the American "can-do" mythology.

I've studied New Thought for the last 30 years (though I didn't know it by that name) and, in the Age of Trump, have come up to speed on the Counter-Enlightenment, the actual HISTORY of New Thought, esotericism, traditionalism, the occult, chaos magick, and quantum mysticism (which sounds redundant, but I was a psych major so it's ALL mysticism to me )

Needless to say, since becoming an intentional Christian in 1972, I've always indulged what I would call the trans-rational (going beyond rationality, NOT overthrowing it)

Enlightenment thinking has emptied the culture of the language of mystery, paradox, poetics, emotion, along with the sense of individual and cultural significance, value, purpose.

THAT. As well as the cultural and economic threat to the working and middle classes, has left us vulnerable to demagogues and magicians of various stripes: including Christian Seven Mountain Dominionism and the Prosperity Gospel.

"In The Campus War (1971), the philosopher John Searle said,

"[T]he two most salient traits of the radical movement are its anti-intellectualism and its hostility to the university as an institution. ... Intellectuals, by definition, are people who take ideas seriously for their own sake. Whether or not a theory is true or false is important to them, independently of any practical applications it may have. [Intellectuals] have, as Richard Hofstadter has pointed out, an attitude to ideas that is at once playful and pious. But, in the radical movement, the intellectual ideal of knowledge for its own sake is rejected. Knowledge is seen as valuable only as a basis for action, and it is not even very valuable there. Far more important than what one knows is how one feels.[8]"

Anti-intellectualism (Wikipedia)