Image Bearers in the Age of Images
September 15, 2024 Leave a comment
Ephesus, a major seaport on the eastern Mediterranean and the capital of a Roman province in Asia, was a vibrant hub of commerce, and a center of Roman rule and the Roman imperial cult.
Centuries before becoming a political capital, Ephesus was a center of religious activity. Communities of Jesus-followers living in the Greek city of Ephesus at the end of the first century AD would be confronted daily with political and cultic imagery. The city was renowned for its devotion to various gods and goddesses.
Artemis
Christians in that Greco-Roman setting would be well aware of one of the most prominent goddesses: Artemis. Her temple was famous for its great size and for the magnificent works of art that adorned it (See video below.)
The Greek goddess Artemis was worshipped as the goddess of hunting, wild animals, and fertility. Her Roman counterpart was Diana. Goddess Diana shared similar aspects of deity with Artemis. She was worshipped as a benefactress of the countryside and nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, the night, and the Moon (See video below.)
During his second missionary journey to Ephesus, the Apostle Paul caused a big stir with the Artemis image industry (c. A.D. 52) (Acts 18:19).
“Around that time there was a major disturbance because of the Way. There was a silversmith called Demetrius who made silver statues of Artemis, which brought the workmen a tidy income. He got them all together, along with other workers in the same business.
“Gentlemen,” he began. “You know that the reason we are doing rather well for ourselves is quite simply this business of ours. And now you see, and hear, that this fellow Paul is going around not only Ephesus but pretty well the whole of Asia, persuading the masses to change their way of life, telling them that gods made with hands are not gods after all! This not only threatens to bring our business into disrepute, but it looks as if it might make people disregard the temple of the great goddess Artemis. Then she – and, after all, the whole of Asia, indeed the whole world worships her! – she might lose her great majesty.” (Acts 19:23-28)
The temple of Artemis was one of the wonders of the world. Its great size and lavish decorations were a major attraction for the many pilgrims and tourists who came to Ephesus. Their Artemis image purchases provided the guild of silversmiths the coin to produce more images and to sustain their livelihoods. After listening to Demetrius, “the whole city was filled with uproar” and people shouted “Great is Ephesian Artemis!”
We read in Acts 19 that the town clerk quieted the crowd. A riot would bring the Roman army down on them. He said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?”
Nike
Jesus-followers living in Ephesus would also be conscious of ubiquitous images of Nike, a Greek goddess who personified Victory. That Muse website has more about Nike:
“. . .she was almost always represented in Greek art as a beautiful, winged woman. Her main role in life was to fly around battlefields, rewarding victors. The winning soldiers received a wreath of laurel leaves, symbolizing fame and glory. But she also visited and crowned outstanding athletes and heroes.”
In Roman mythology Nike is called Victoria. She is depicted as holding a palm leaf with her right hand while carrying a laurel wreath on the other. She was worshipped by the Roman army as personifying speed, strength, and victory.
Polytheism
The citizens of cosmopolitan Ephesus were polytheistic. It was common for them to add new gods to their personal pantheon. Like with Artemis (Diana) and Nike (Victoria), different gods had different roles.
Polytheism was not a religion with written scriptures. People knew the multiplicity of Greco-Roman deities by their images and myths – their form of theology. Seeing their gods was a way to believe and to practice their contractual religion (do ut des, “I give that you might give”). Offerings and sacrifices were offered to the gods in return for certain favors.
Contrary to the explicit polytheism all around them – pagan temples, pagan priests, pagan priestesses, pagan worshippers and pagan idols – Christians, along with the Jews, were monotheistic. Ephesians tolerated Christians who worshipped a new and different god (except as noted above with Paul) as there were many gods divided up among many peoples. And it seems, at that time, that the Roman government did not yet have a policy of persecution of the Christians; official action was based on the need to maintain good order, not on religious hostility.
Political and Cultic Imagery
Citizens of this capital of the Roman Empire in Asia Minor would also celebrate and worship deified Emperors who claimed being a divine son of god. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, and subsequent Roman emperors were regularly referred to as “son of god” (divi filius). Coins were struck with the imperial image on one side and “son of god” on the other.
The Roman Empire, claiming divine authority on earth, spread its political influence in religious terms using monuments, iconography, myths, and Imperial cult rituals.
Symbolizing victory, Victoria’s (nike’s) image was vital to the Roman military. Her likeness, with crowns, laurel wreaths, or palm branches as victory emblems, was seen on coins, sculptures, and architectural reliefs, triumphal arches, and monuments.
Worship of Victoria was also thought to bring good fortune and help with politics, business, and personal undertakings.
The goddess Artemis had been worshiped for centuries. Her great temple in Ephesus (one of the seven wonders of the world) and the cult of Ephesian Artemis was vitally important to the citizens, as notes N.L. Gill in his post The Cult Statue of Artemis of Ephesus:
“The Ephesians’ goddess was their protector, a goddess of the polis (‘political’), and more. The Ephesians’ history and fate were intertwined with hers, so they raised the funds needed to rebuild their temple and replace their statue of the Ephesian Artemis.”
The Dispatch
Into this political and cultic context at the end of the first century AD, a circular letter was sent around to Jesus-follower communities in and around Ephesus.
1 John is a pastoral letter that presents a no-nonsense counter-cultural narrative. It is full of contrasts: those born of the world and those born of the father, light vs. darkness, truth vs. falsehood, righteousness vs. sin, love of the Father vs. love of the world, and the Spirit of God vs. the spirit of the Antichrist.
The letter was penned by an eyewitness of gospel events and one who had seen way beyond the images and idols and imperial power of Rome. 1 John is a rebuke to the claims of the Antimessiahs and to the appeal of a pagan culture. It also provided spiritual reinforcement for the letter’s recipients.
1 John was most likely written by John the Elder (and not John the son of Zebedee and one of the Twelve; more below) around 90 AD during the reign of Domitian (81-96 A.D.). (Domitian believed in the divine nature of his rule, aligning himself with the lineage of the first Roman emperor Augustus. He saw himself as an absolute ruler and took pride in being called master or god: “dominus et deus.”)
John opens his letter, not with the typical (“grace and peace”) greeting, but with an authoritative “we” reassurance of his and other’s experience of Jesus, the son of God. He speaks in terms of visual, aural, and physical contact with the Messiah. This is crucial for what he writes against the “Antimessiahs”.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have gazed at, and our hands have handled – concerning the Word of Life!” That life was displayed, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and we announce to you the life of God’s coming age, which was with the father and was displayed to us. That which we have seen and heard we announce to you too, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father, and with his son Jesus the Messiah. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1: 1-4)
John the Elder closes the circle of the fellowship of the joy bound by linking those (“we”) who were physically present with the Messiah with the Ephesian Christians who heard the gospel message and believed that Jesus is the Messiah, so that “our joy may be complete.”
(NB: The “joy” talked about here is not the DNC slogan “Joy”– a cover for the Harris cackle. Rather, John’s “our joy” completed would be the satisfaction of a deep yearning by the “we” for the readers to believe that Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah and for them to be included in the dancing embrace of the father, son and spirit.)
John then writes in terms of the associative “we” about what it means for followers of Jesus to have fellowship with him: we are not to deceive ourselves about our sin, we keep the Lord’s commandments and we show rightly ordered love. (1 John 1: 6 – 2:11).
Conflict Within and Without
The letter’s opening brings to the fore one of the main purposes of the letter: to reaffirm that Jesus, the son of God and the Christ, (mentioned some 24 times in the letter) did have a real body and not, as some were saying, that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion (Docetism). This thinking had come into Ephesian churches.
Stephen Bedard writes at the History of Christianity:
“Docetism was a doctrine in the early years of the Christian church that claimed that Jesus didn’t have a physical body. The name comes from the Greek dókēsis which means “to seem.” It refers to the belief that Jesus only seemed to have a physical body. . .
“It was understood that mind/spirit was good and body was bad. Since Jesus is good, he must be all spirit and not body at all. In modern language, Jesus was almost a hologram. He looked perfectly human but underneath the image, there was no muscle or bone.”
Those worshipping images would not believe that a god would come down and dwell in the flesh. They believed the gods stayed up and away from humans and did their own thing. Intellectual sorts, who were anti-incarnation, unethical, and loveless Gnostics, were deceiving Ephesian Christians (1 John 2:26).
John presented truth tests to discern whether they were false teachers. Anyone who denied that Jesus is the Messiah was not from God (1 John 4:2-3). They were a “liar” and an “Antimessiah” (1 John 2:22).
He writes about “the spirit of truth” and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6). And, that “many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). “They went out from among us, but they were not really of our number” (1 John 2:19)
Denying that Jesus was the Messiah, the Antimessiahs split off from the church community. They didn’t accept Scripture’s references about Jesus or the testimony of eyewitnesses. (They were revisionist historians who, like many in Progressive churches today, homed in on his sayings. They think of Jesus in terms of being a fellow traveler who imparted esoteric truths.) Whatever love or joy the Antimessiahs had went with them when they left the church.
In his second letter, John echoes this warning: “Many deceivers, you see, have gone out into the world. These are people who do not admit that Jesus is the Messiah has come in the flesh. Such a person is the Deceiver – the Antimessiah!” (2 John 2:7)
(Ongoing conflict: Earlier (c. A.D. 52), Priscilla and Aquila, who had come to Ephesus with Paul, instructed a Jew named Apollos in the way of the Lord. Apollos then “vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. (Acts 18:28))
Beside the conflict within the local churches, there was the ever-present Roman Empire that expected worship of the emperor. John writing over and over that Jesus is the son of God (and not the emperor) put the Christians in direct opposition to Rome. But it seems that, at that time, Rome was somewhat lax about forcing the Jews and Christians to burn incense for the emperor. If these two groups did disturb Rome’s Pax Romana, they would be dealt with.
(Calling Jesus “Lord” and having a “kingdom of God” message also conflicted with the Roman empire’s ‘divine’ prerogatives.)
Living as a Conquering Contradiction
As mentioned above, imperial Rome spread political propaganda through religion. And throughout Ephesus there would be visual representations of Roman conquest and power: grand architecture and monuments, centurions and soldiers all around, and the conquering, overcoming, prevailing, subduing, obtaining victory, Nike/Victoria images around the city and on coins.
Perhaps, with all of these images in mind, John the Elder writes:
“. . . everything fathered by God conquers the world. This is the victory (nike, νίκη) that conquers the world: our faith. (1 John 5:4):
Conquering Attitude
We, the “fathered by God” no longer continue sinning (1 John 3: 9; 5:18).
Because we are “fathered by God” we understand that we are God’s children (1 John 3: 1) and that loving one another is a character trait of all who know the father (1 John 4:7).
And because we are “fathered by God” and “God is love” (1 John 4:7-12), we as his children need not live in fear like the pagans who look to capricious gods and superstitious practices and the Roman state for understanding and favor. (Sounds like Progressives today.)
We understand that “the one in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (the Antimessiah) (1 John 4:4).
We believe that Jesus the Messiah has been fathered by God (1 John 5: 1), (The center of Christianity is the Incarnation of Jesus, God becoming flesh and dwelling among humanity. John railed against the Antimessiahs because he and others had witnessed the flesh and blood presence and power of the true Messiah. Jesus wasn’t some esoteric figure floating in the air. He wasn’t a statue or icon of a god. Jesus, son of God, Messiah, was “displayed” to John and others as a new way of being human.)
We understand that “we are from God, and the whole world is under the power of evil one” (1 John 5:19) (As Paul wrote to the Ephesian church some 30-40 years before:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:12)
As the letter comes to a close, John reemphasizes his message:
“We know that the son of God has come and given us understanding so that we know the truth. And we are in the truth, in his son Jesus the Messiah. This is the true God; this is the life of the age to come. (1 John 5:20-21).
The letter of 1 John ends with a succinct pastoral exhortation based on what was said at the beginning of the letter about the reality of what John and others had witnessed: “keep yourself from idols.”
Christians are not to get involved with unreality. They are not to collude with evil. Early Christians believed that idol worship in its various forms was used by demonic forces. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:21–22:
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?”
Those of us born of the father live in the tension of contrasts: light vs. dark, truth vs. falsehood, righteousness vs. sin, love of the Father vs. love of the world, and the Spirit of God vs. the spirit of the Antimessiahs. We are to overcome that tension with the reality of Jesus, son of God and Messiah.
I see tremendous forces (DEI, ESG, LGBTQ, Critical Race theory, WEF, WHO, Globalism, etc.) at work to conform everyone into a monolithic unity of enforced pluralism subject to one Satanic Beast. Those who confess loyalty to the Beast will find it easier to get a job, move up, gain tenure and more. Those who don’t will be called “weird” and sacrificed to the Beast.
In the milieu of this sociocultural pluralism, it would be quite easy to glide into a religious pluralism and end up worshipping the vaunted images of the world and rage against those who don’t – “Great is Ephesian Artemis!”
And, with the multiplicity of political and cultic images generated daily to influence behavior, it would be quite easy to glide into a religious pluralism so as to be accepted, to have “likes” and clicks and to avoid the pressure being applied by the culture. One would thus end up having a form of godliness (virtue signaling) but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Neither John the Elder nor I want anything to do with such people.
For those who question the uniqueness or claims of Christian faith, John’s letter with truth tests would be in order.
Not longer just image bearers of the One True God, we are more: overcoming image bearers of Jesus, the son of God, Messiah, and Lord.
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This circular pastoral letter was most likely written by John the Elder and not John the son of Zebedee, one of the Twelve. John was from an aristocratic family in Jerusalem and a member of the High Priest’s family.
According to Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus late in the second century, John (the Elder), “who leaned back on the Lord’s breast,” was a (Jewish high) “priest” (who had officiated in the Jerusalem temple early in his life), a “witness”, and a “teacher” (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 5.24.2-7). (cf. Acts 4:6 & John 18:15, John’s record of Jesus’ high priestly intercessory prayer in John 17, and his courtyard access John 18:15).
John the Elder was most likely the Beloved disciple who was mentioned in John 21: 20-23. Because of his proximity to Jesus, John the Elder was an eyewitness of the events of gospel history. He was at Jesus’ crucifixion and given charge over Mary. He eventually brought her with him to Ephesus.
“When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:26-27)
Several years younger than the Twelve Apostles, John the Elder survived most of them. It seems that he lived into the reign of Trajan (AD 98-117) as prominent Christian teacher in Asia. (We don’t know why he is called John the Elder. “Elder” may refer to John’s old age (Likely 80-90 years old at the end of the first century) more than an honorific. He writes to his “little children” in his letters.
John the Elder most likely wrote the Gospel of John and the three Johannine letters – 1, 2 & 3 John.
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Temple of Artemis at Ephesus – Sanctuary of the Ephesian Diana (learning-history.com)
Greek Mythology Explained | Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt | Miscellaneous Myths (youtube.com)
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Within days, global elitists will try to put world government on steroids. The perpetrators don’t want us to know it, but that’s the purpose of the upcoming “Summit of the Future” and the accord it is supposed to adopt, dubbed the “Pact for the Future.”
Rather than openly doing so by voting to revise the United Nations Charter, the idea is to launch a “process” to be conducted largely behind closed doors. The UN’s Secretary-General and former president of the Socialist International, Antonio Guterres, however, has let slip that process’ goal – namely, granting him authority unilaterally to declare and dictate the responses to emergencies caused by any of a number of so-called “complex global shocks.”
Read the UN document here>>>> “Pact for the Future” – The Socialist Manifesto (malone.news)
Contact your representatives!!
Take action here>>> THE U.N. IS NOT A WORLD GOVERNMENT – KEEP IT THAT WAY! | AlignAct
9-11-2024:
Globalist Ambitions at the U.N.’s Summit of the Future (rumble.com)
BRIEFING: Globalist Ambitions at the U.N.’s Summit of the Future – Sovereignty Coalition
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My sister sent me this video. I agree with Hamrick:
Church, Unite for the Soul of America! | Ezekiel 33:1-5 | Gary Hamrick (youtube.com)
I get the sense that there are Christians who want to hurry off to heaven. They believe that there will be a rapture and they will be taken away from the trouble on earth and therefore voting doesn’t matter. Understand, there will be NO rapture. That is a misinterpretation of Scripture. Go vote!!
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Nicole Shanahan on X: “Who really are the MAGA People? https://t.co/Zk6rvijCge” / X
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In late August officials [of China’s Communist Party] published regulations for dealing with them [the corrupt, criminal and disloyal], too. The aim is to reform or expel people who show a “lack of revolutionary spirit” . . .
Religious members are seen as another problem. Newbies must swear that they are atheist. But many still harbour beliefs in the supernatural. . . According to the regulations, religious folk should be given a chance to renounce their beliefs—and kicked out if they do not.
How to get kicked out of China’s Communist Party (archive.is)
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Contentious Culture Wars in a Polarized Political Age: A Conversation with Sociologist James Davison Hunter
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[i] Bauckham, R. (1993/2018). The theology of the Book of Revelation. PP 88-89
https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511819858
Cindy Wity 
The 2024 Project
August 19, 2024 Leave a comment
“They start from a desire for unity, and they are taught a contrived notion of right and wrong through criticism and struggle so that we can arrive at a new, contrived unity on a new, contrived basis. Everyone outside of the desire for unity is an enemy of the people.” ~Maoism.
There’s a project afoot pre-election 2024. Maoist in nature, it’s formula – unity, criticism, unity – is being used to transform the faithful into having “correct” political opinions.
Gurus have come out of their ashram bubbles to tells us how to be good little political Christians because . . . “You people are so extreme. We must address divisive forces and soften your stance on everything. You must rid yourself of old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas that get in the way of fundamental transformation. We will free you from wrongthink. We have books, podcasts, MSNBC media spots, and church seminars to stretch you beyond what you know. The goal is to expose you to voices you need to be following so you can learn to love each other better.” So goes the hectoring.
(Submit to our purpose-driven struggle session and over your personal spiritual journey with us you too will soon agree with us on critical race theory, liberation theology, queer theory, climate change, open-borders, gun control, same-sex marriage, abortion, hating Trump, and saving “Democracy!” by any means necessary. We want you to love God and the State!)
I don’t know the motive of these moralizing gurus other than they want to “reclaim Christianity from right-wing extremism” or some such thing such thing. (David French, who has an extreme case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, says he wants to pry away the conservative movement from a deranged man [Trump]. That’s why he’s all in on the radical Leftist Kamala-Walz duo – to save conservatism from itself.)
Is there mal-intent by these evangelists of the Left, these missionaries of Progressivism – for Progressivism is a political religion? Maybe not. They likely have turned their eyes and ears away from reality to follow Wide Way myths – contrived notions of right and wrong. Some have become paid influencers who find ways of being in the spotlights of media’s Great White Way. In any case, they have become disciples of Mao and the Left.
And the Left, like Mao in support of his Cultural Revolution, has shown that it will do what it wants by any means necessary including rig elections, creating hoaxes, spreading lies, censorship, purging of political opponents, and unjust lawfare in the name of “Democracy!” to bring about its own Cultural Revolution.
In order to satisfy their craving for ideological purity, the wolves of Left have no problem gobbling up pastors and Chrisitan leadership in order to steal the flock. (See Megan Basham’s book Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda and video below.)
The Left’s spiritual guides employ the Maoist formula of unity, criticism, unity. They’ll start by talking about wanting to unite Christians in a better way of love and then they’ll criticize in Saul Alinsky-like fashion. You’ve heard the ad hominems: “deplorables” “bitter clingers” “extremists” “conspiracy theorists” “homophobes” “xenophobes”, “authoritarians”, “fascists”, “threats to Evangelicalism” AND “DEMOCRACY!” and the latest put-down: “they’re weird.”
(They finally got something right: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Flannery O’Connor)
They ridicule “Christian Nationalists” as being backward reactionaries and project a threat to Democracy on to them. And it’s no wonder: would-be dictators, Marxists, fascists, autocrats, and MSNBC use the word “Democracy” the most. It’s used by them in a bait and switch scheme.
These “purveyors of Democracy” offer to sell “Democracy”, which they do not actually intend to sell. This is “the bait.” They switch customers from buying the advertised “Democracy” that the seller initially offered into buying a different product or service that is usually at a higher price (loss of freedom including free speech – vox populi – and therefore Democracy!) and has advantageous effect to the advertiser (dictatorship). This is the “switch.”
From a Marxist perspective, the Left wants to subvert the nation-state and nationalism. Marxists think that the Proletarians who embrace nationalism do so out of false consciousness. The working class should therefore abandon their parochial worldview and understand that their struggles against the bourgeoisie, the means of production and capitalism, transcend national boundaries. Nationality would disappear as people come to identify by class instead. So goes Bolshevik theory. The working class has no homeland!
Added 8-20-2024: Victor Davis Hanson and The Myriad Projections of the 2024 Campaign:
. . .the political projectionist knows best his own hazardous or off-putting conduct and policies. And so, he can most skillfully attribute just these liabilities to those who have had no experience with them.
Shaming people till they break down and pledge Progressive values or to at least get them so muddled in their thinking that they back off and become controlled opposition is their means to their unity.
Below are some of the long-form journalistic revisionist (and unsubstantiated) works (ala The 1619 Project) that takes a critical view of backwater Evangelicals living in flyover country (“the ragged edge of the universe”- Nick in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby).
You see, sneering elites and the literati decided that anyone not like them was not worth knowing–an attitude reflected in such quotes as this one from H.L. Mencken, who said of Willa Cather, “I don’t care how well she writes, I don’t give a damn what happens in Nebraska.”
To wit:
Tim Alberta and The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, published December 5, 2023
Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman with White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy published on February 27, 2024
Jim Wallis: The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, published April 2, 2024
The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, Nancy French and Curtis Chang, based on project by David French, Russell Moore & Curtis Chang, published April 23, 2024
And before the 2020 election:
Kaitlyn Schiess: The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor, published September 8, 2020
I wonder. Did these spiritual guides come to their conclusions about people they don’t agree with and are irritated by through Leftist media sources?
Certainly, if one were a disciple of MSNBC, CNN, the NYT, WaPo, The Atlantic, Christianity Today, Trinity Forum, and other Progressive Left sources, one could easily conclude that Christians who are not like them are “enemies of the people.” For, media disciples are an enlightened bunch but everyone else – they don’t know any better, and worse. They are racist rubes, are in a cult of personality and are involved in political idolatry. Christians in this sad group, so they tell us, are making Christianity look bad. But THEY have the answer – be discipled by the Left!
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris (more below) are OK with the disastrous record of destructive monetary and fiscal policies under Biden-Harris. Are they OK with the modern monetary theory of spending and dollar printing that has created high inflation and massive debt for future generations? To pay off the huge debt, the government will come after retirement funds and checking and saving accounts.
Are they OK with people unable to pay their bills and not able to buy a house or maintain their business? How does this show love for your neighbor? Are Evangelicals for Harris OK with soviet-style price controls as proposed by Kamala Harris? David Brooks actually gets something right.
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with the current inversion of justice: criminals without bonds are released to do harm again, great grandmothers are sentenced for praying, political opponents are brought to trial on spurious charges. Many of the political prisoners of J6 are still awaiting trial. This is equity in Harris world. How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with a stolen election and a stolen candidacy and stolen valor. How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with the current geo-political nightmare of wars and potential wars on several fronts that have come about under Biden-Harris. How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder – are they OK with the Afghanistan debacle? Joe and Kamala (of the party of gun control) had the U.S. flee Afghanistan, leaving behind $80+ BN in weapons and equipment and “a security vacuum into which all the Islamic terrorist organizations on the planet flooded. The results will be catastrophic for the entire world. Joe and Kamala never speak of it and do nothing to stave off what is at this point the inevitable.” The Terror Factory Joe And Kamala Built – Afghanistan (substack.com) How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK aligning themselves with those who want to destroy Western civilization? They might not view themselves as pro-Hamas protestors, but the party they are joining is showing its hatred toward Israel, that in truth, is also hatred of Western civilization and America. How does this show love for your neighbor?
Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson:
Foreign Policy cites what it calls Harris’ “mantra” of favoring “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” In practice, this “mantra” and her public statements show a pronounced indulgence toward Iran and a hostility to Israeli efforts to ensure its own survival. . .
A Harris foreign policy promises genuine departure— “what can be, unburdened by what has been”—acknowledging a multipolar world by retreating from its friends in the face of its enemies.
Kamala Harris Would Be Disastrous for the Middle East | The National Interest
Communist China is a threat to Western civilization. Tim Walz, who has made many trips to China, praises the communist system there.
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris (more below) are OK hitching their wagon to the party of anger and grievance? To identity politics, victimhood and the need to constantly produce guilt? To condemnation and holding a grudge? To a party that reconciles itself to all manner of evil and refuses to be reconciled to people not like them? How does personal animus toward Trump and MAGA folks show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with scientism, with masks and mandates, with lockdowns, with the closing of schools, churches and businesses, with snitching on your neighbor, and the ill treatment of the elderly that happened during COVID? Are they Karens? Do they want vaccine passports and everyone to be monitored 24/7 by some government entity? How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with censorship, when Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” How does censorship show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with abortion used as Satanic ritual? Are they OK with the guy who identifies as a Christian and was the former head of NIH, Francis Collins, doing Mengele-like experiments with aborted baby parts. And what about fetal tissue trafficking? How does this show love for your neighbor?
Evangelicals for Harris and the party of death and depopulation: DNC Attendees Will Have Opportunities For Free Vasectomies, Abortions | The Daily Caller
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with arresting pro-life activists? In true Maoist fashion, A Kamala Harris Presidency Could Be a Nightmare, Putting More Pro-Life Americans in Prison:
Recently released videos from a citizen journalist who went undercover to expose Planned Parenthood’s involvement in fetal tissue trafficking — and was subsequently investigated by then-California Attorney General Harris — reignited criticism of her role in his prosecution. As prosecutions of pro-life activists have increased under the Biden administration, Harris’ past actions amplify concerns that her administration would take an even more aggressive stance, using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to selectively target political opponents.
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with open borders that allows in deadly fentanyl and murderers and all kinds of terrorists and disease. Gang leader wanted for 23 murders was released into US: ICE (youtube.com) Do they pretend that Scripture makes it all OK? How does this show love for your neighbor?
Did Evangelicals for Harris join up out of feelings for and a myopic obsession with DEI, CRT, and climate crisis myths coming out their “higher-education” ashrams?
Do they identify with identity politics? Are they Marxist and socialists?
Did Evangelicals for Harris join up to show their hatred of all things Trump like good little foot soldiers of MSNBC? To show their disdain of Trump’s now-distant past remarks and behavior while aligning themselves with characters of all kinds of unscrupulous and perverse behavior? To show their contempt for patriotism and America just like the Left? How does this show love for your neighbor?
Added 8-24-2024:
It seems to me that all such groups like Evangelicals for Harris see themselves as freed up thinkers and Rousseauian in the sense that they feel good about themselves and what they do for they think they are morally good apart from any outside reference except for their tribe. And more so.
They believe that the “politically correct” views they hold would create a perfectly unified democracy. And so, they ply Evangelicals to transfer allegiance from what they hold to be true to what they say is true. As such, they reveal themselves to be the prophets of “totalitarian democracy” – the majority living under the tyranny (“unity”) of a one absolute and perfect political truth.
By any measure – facts, science, Scripture, common sense, and the common good – groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are at war with reality. And, it’s no wonder. They are the products and facilitators of the struggle session known as The 2024 Project.
In Paul’s last letter (II Timothy) he tells his young protégé Timothy what to look out for:
For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. II Timothy 4:3-4
New Whistleblower Book, ‘Shepherds for Sale,’ Sends Regime Christians into ‘Attack’ Mode – The Stream
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Evangelicals for Harris, formerly Evangelicals for Biden, is a project of Faith Voters, a 501(c)4 organization. It is a group claiming to represent evangelicals who are voting and advocating for Harris-Walz.
Apparently, they are running interference for Harris-Walz while seeking to downplay their radical agenda on issues like the economy, race, climate change, open borders, abortion entrenchment and expansion, LGBTQ promotion, destroying the nuclear family, and trans-ing the children – all in the name of Evangelicalism.
Even Billy Graham’s granddaughter has joined Evangelicals for Harris: ‘Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies.’ Apparently, wisdom need not be applied to issues beyond her wrinkled nose. The country can go to hell so long as Trump is not elected. A Faustian bargain, indeed.
A recent Evangelicals for Harris Zoom event was hosted by an activist who has a long history of bashing “Whiteness” and calling for the destruction of police departments.
Ekemini Uwan hosted the Zoom call, one of many identity-based online Zoom meetings in support of the new Democratic Party nominee that have sparked controversy.
Uwan describes herself on her website as a “reparations activist whose work spans the globe, as she has advocated for global reparations on behalf of Africans and African Descendants on the floor of the United Nations three times.”
Uwan spoke at Sparrow Conference 2019 where she gave “a historical, sociological, political, theological and gospel-saturated clinic on racial identity.” At that conference, she said we have to talk about what whiteness is:
“The reality is whiteness is rooted in plunder. theft. In slavery – enslavement of Africans. Genocide of native Americans. We’re sitting on stolen land. Everywhere in America we’re sitting on stolen land. This is the reality of land that was stolen from native Americans. We’re Americans we have to recognize and acknowledge that. It’s a power structure, that’s what whiteness is . . .”
Elizabeth Eziashi comments on what Uwan says:
“WHITENESS IS WICKED”… at a Christian Conference ? | Sparrow 2019 Breakdown PART 2 | Ekemini Uwan (youtube.com)
I wonder. Did the whites on that Wednesday Zoom call, including Wheaton College prof. Amy Peeler, divest from their whiteness?
Just more greed, envy, racism, and class warfare but now encapsuled in the virtue-signaling ‘respectability’ of anti-racism rhetoric. This Christian-coated pill gives groups like Evangelicals for Harris a way to swallow Marxist Progressivism.
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Get to know the Evangelicals for Harris Mind Games at work to woo voters away to their liberal agenda.
For many Christians, “Evangelicals for Harris” sounds like an oxymoron but there is a simple political strategy behind it.
The strategy is this: Harris doesn’t have to appeal to a lot of Republican-leaning churchgoers. She just needs to win over a few, David Brody, chief political analyst for the Christian Broadcast Network, said on American Family Radio Wednesday.
(The following Harris campaign Mind Games clip is meant to shame Trump and those who vote for him.)
Harris wooing Sunday School class while Trump woos Gen Z (afn.net)
The Shift Leftward:
Exposing Corruption in the Evangelical Church: The infiltration of a Leftist agenda, w/ Megan Basham (youtube.com)
Megan Basham: Abuse and accountability | WORLD (wng.org)
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The credentialed elites look down on “muscular jobs” workers.
“Dirty Jobs” Mike Rowe talks with Victor Davis Hanson about his article America’s Lab Rats? – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)
Victor Davis Hanson, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale College, Pepperdine professor, syndicated columnist, bestselling author, and fifth-generation California farmer, argues in his July 29, 2024 article that American society is treating its citizens like lab rats, resulting in harmful outcomes. Read the article here: https://victorhanson.com/americas-lab…
Mike Rowe Takes Up CLASS WARFARE with Victor Davis Hanson | The Way I Heard It. (youtube.com)
Half the country thinks something has gone drastically wrong in America, to the point that it is rapidly becoming unrecognizable. Millions feel they are virtual lab rats in some grand research project conducted by entitled elites who could care less when the experiment blows up.
America’s Lab Rats? – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)
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Mao Zedong wanted to thought-reform, that is, brainwash, the whole Chinese population, and he had a formula (https://www.marxists.org/reference/ar…) for doing it: “Unity – Criticism – Unity.” That is, he sought to induce in people a “desire for unity” so they would join his socialistic cult, and then once that desire was strong enough, criticism and struggle sessions (https://newdiscourses.com/2022/12/sur…) would begin to cement adherence. Finally, through criticism, struggle, and study, unity with the socialist cult would be achieved.
Under Mao Zedong’s drive to “ideological purity” and “unity” millions were murdered.
Man who says he accompanied Walz on trip to China calls VP candidate ‘Maoist to the core’ (alphanews.org)
Mao, Criticism, and Unity (youtube.com)
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Victor Davis Hanson: Why would Kamala Harris brag about this? (youtube.com)
DATA: Most Voters Unaware of Harris’s Radical Views. (thenationalpulse.com)
A “study, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of The Media Research Center, found that on ten aspects of Harris’s political record, between 71 percent and 86 percent of respondents were either unaware or unsure of her positions.
“The issues surveyed include her support for the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE, and eliminating private health insurance. Additionally, the data reveals that many voters obtain their political news primarily from broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and cable channels (CNN, MSNBC). The lack of voter knowledge of Harris‘s record suggests these outlets have not provided adequate coverage of the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.”
Explained here:
Expert warns Kamala Harris’ tax agenda could be more ‘radical, devastating’ than Biden’s (youtube.com)
Who determines “the same place”?
Harris Unveils COVID Vax Mandate for All Campaign Employees, Raising Eyebrows (resistthemainstream.com)
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Filed under 2024 Current Events, 2024 Election, Christianity, Communism, cultural Marxism, Evangelicalism, Political Commentary, Politics, totalitarianism Tagged with David French, democrats, Evangelicalism, Evangelicals for Harris, Kamala harris, Mike Rowe, politics, progressivism, Tim Walz, Victor Davis Hanson