NOT ONLY did Christians in the ages of faith observe fasts with much greater intensity during the 40 days of Lent, they also abstained from legal proceedings, hunting and war under edicts of various rulers.
Dom Prosper Guéranger, in his “History of Lent, describes these times of calm and reflection which “ennobled the soul.”
In the 4th century, we have the Emperor Constantine the Great enacting, that no military exercises should be allowed on Sundays and Fridays, out of respect to our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and rose again on these two days, as also in order not to disturb the peace and repose needed for the due celebration of such sublime mysteries. The discipline of the Latin Church, in the 9th century, enforced everywhere the suspension of war,during the whole of Lent, except in cases of necessity. (more…)
The advertising campaigns for the Super Bowl that demonize hatred are a prime example of the misguided attempts to suppress the natural and God-given emotions of mankind.
Hatred is a natural part of being a Christian because it is a natural response to evil. We are commanded to hate what the Lord hates and to hate evil. This is not the same as personal animosity, but rather a response to the sinful nature of the world.
The Bible teaches that Christians are to love their neighbors as themselves, but it also teaches that we are to hate what is evil. This includes hating sin, wickedness, and anything that opposes God’s will. It is through this hatred of evil that we are able to sincerely love what is good and righteous. Romans 12:9 – “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
The demonization of hatred is a result of moral relativity and rampant secularism. It is not wrong to hate what is evil. These advertising campaigns are promoting a false narrative that hatred is something to be ashamed of.
Instead, we should be promoting the idea that hatred of evil is a necessary part of our Christian faith and always has been. (more…)
COMMENTS on Telegram: Tucker Carlson's interview of Putin is honestly his best one ever. It confirms everything we knew about the war. That it wasn't about NATO's expansion but Russian imperial expansion. The irony of this all is that Tucker was running excuses for Putin earlier by blaming the US and not Russian (Putin's) internal motivations. Now he won't be able to. Tucker didn't want to hear Putin's historical lecture (Putin's casus belli for why Ukraine doesn't exist) and that is why he was interrupting him so much. What Putin said in this interview completely overrides every single excuse that Tucker has previously assigned to him. [...] So Ziggers, remember: this is your current narrative. Russia is at war with Ukraine not because of US has provoked it or NATO has expended too close into Russia's borders but because Ukraine doesn't exist and that is why it must be ruled by Moscow. Full transcript of interview.
WHEN King Wenceslaus of Bohemia became ill in 1297, his doctors and aides agreed that it would be best for him to eat meat during Lent to regain his strength, even though Catholics at that time were forbidden all meat during the forty days of the annual season of penance. The king appealed to Pope Boniface VIII for a dispensation, the only way a person -- even the king himself -- could violate the rules of abstinence with a clear conscience. The pope granted the exception on the condition that the king continue to abstain from meat on Fridays, Saturdays and the vigil of St. Matthias -- and that he not eat meat in the presence of others or do so with excess. Lent was so rigorous in the Middle Ages that everyone collectively refrained from meat and from more than one meal a day. In the 19th century, Dom Prosper Guéranger commented in his famous Liturgical Year, from which this account of the Bohemian king comes, that the gradual adoption of milder forms of abstinence and fasting was due to a "decay of piety, and the general deterioration of bodily strength among the people of the western nations." Can you imagine what he might say about "the bodily strength" of Westerners if he visited an average Walmart today? In 1741, as he recounted, Pope Benedict XIV issued an encyclical to all bishops, warning them of dire consequences: The observance of…
VICTORIAN England is often romanticized in movies and mini-series. Americans relish scenes of English manors, butlers in livery and rolling countryside. But for the poor, it was a hellish and callous society. With many small farmers forced off the land and into cities, industrial England was a place of squalor, disease, Malthusian disdain for the poor and inhumanity, all famously depicted by Charles Dickens in the 19th century. It is not surprising that Karl Marx found refuge in London and published his famous Das Kapital there in 1867. The horrors of 19th-century capitalism were largely responsible for the popularity of his views. To call industrial England of that time a "Christian society" takes quite a stretch of the imagination.
"DR. Frank Garlock, in his book, The Big Beat, describes rock as 'characterized primarily by repetition; strong, driving beat; and intense, loud volume.' "It is actually a type of noise which has no moral or cultural value. The dictionary describes 'noise' as 'a din.' The word, 'din,' is defined as 'Noise: particularly loud, confused sound that is continued.' The verb form of 'din' is defined in this way: "to assail with loud noise, to press with constant repetition." "In those two definitions of 'din' we have two of the basic and most fundamental components of rock: intense, loud volume and constant repetition! "In his book, How to Sing for Money, Charles Henderson tells some of the secrets of captivating audiences with modern music, with the help of instruments which scoop and slide, using unresolved dissonances (6ths, 7ths, and 9ths) and repetitive use of the same few chords. Never-changing, throbbing syncopation occurs. Often two or three syncopated rhythms are played simultaneously. There is a heavy beat, with dissonances and rhythms which keep the nervous system keyed up and tense. Heavy emphasis on rhythm instruments: drums and bass guitar. "Add to this the 'mike in mouth' syndrome, producing the intimate sensual sounds. "Finally, combine all these into a 'total sound,' then amplify it to a screaming extreme—and you have rock." FROM Inside Rock Music
"AS has been said, Christianity cannot be accused of failure: it is European man that can, with strict justice, be accused of failure, because, on the whole, he has failed to respond to the appeal of Christianity. It is more than doubtful if it can be maintained with any truth that, at any time, since the beginning of the Christian era, any body politic whole-heartedly accepted and applied the full Christian programme in the organisation and regulation of its life. Doubtless such an application has been made partially and, on occasions, even to some considerable extent. But the Christian philosophy of life, in its political and social aspects, was never given full and unhampered play in moulding the public life of the nations of Europe." --- Why the Cross?, Edward Leen (Sheed and Ward, 1938)
FROM Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville:
I think then that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world: our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I am trying myself to choose an expression which will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it, but in vain; the old words “despotism” and “tyranny” are inappropriate: the thing itself is new; and since I cannot name it, I must attempt to define it.
I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest—his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind; as for the rest of his fellow-citizens, he is close to them, but he sees them not—he touches them, but he feels them not; he exists but in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.
Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness: it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances—what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living? (more…)
“POLITICAL correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” -- Theodore Dalrymple
"MONARCHY is when your rulers do what they want and you blame them when things don’t work. "Democracy is when your rulers do what they want and voters blame each other when things don’t work." -- Mark Taylor
GOVERNMENT forces threaten Irish civilians protesting radical transformation of their nation through mass immigration, funded by NGO's and the government. Ireland is for the Irish. Yet, these protestors are denounced as bigots by many of their countrymen.
SECRETARY of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas responds to criticism for his refusal to protect the southern border.
Below, from 2015, Biden envisions “an unrelenting stream of immigration” and says “people of European descent will be in the absolute minority.” Mayorkas sits next to him.
A MOTHER, in an interview at Children's Health Defense, describes the sudden personality changes in her son at the age of two. Years later, after continuing problems, a brain scan revealed heavy metals. The only source of these, she concluded after much research, was the childhood vaccines he had received.
