The war the elite fears.

How should we restore the house of God? How should we build? For we will be mocked. Harshly. The enemy will take over, and control the funds. They will leave us with ruins. Every church that becomes a mosque, or a home, or a nightclub is a victory. But two can play at that game. … Continue reading The war the elite fears.

Act with discipline [I Tim 4].

I don't use the revised common lectionary, but the Book of Common Prayer. So the sermon today was from James: we talked about being doers of the word, and not hearers only, and about the plans of osme of our congregation to go and with Habitat for Humanity in Nepal (Earthquakes resonate in NZ. We … Continue reading Act with discipline [I Tim 4].

All institutions are hypocritical.

Never underestimate the hypocrisy of those in power. Never. For they will be pious, they will cloak whatever they do in righteousness, and they will be careful to keep the regulations of the culture. But they will game them. For many in power -- regardless of where you are -- the labels matter more than … Continue reading All institutions are hypocritical.

If saying the hope of the world is Christ is hate speech, say it anyway.

There is a lot of noise at the moment about the Commonwealth Games. The festival -- together with a local soccer team beating West Ham in a friendly -- is on the front page of the herald, followed by publicity of the two acceptable wars: accusing the Russians of covering up or interfering in the … Continue reading If saying the hope of the world is Christ is hate speech, say it anyway.

The destruction of the West would be just.

There is a very good bit of satire making the rounds of the blogs at present written by a David Huntworth. It applies directly to the text for today, for it states the delusions of this age in plain English. "At the beginning of the Twenty First century a new religion rose to great acclaim … Continue reading The destruction of the West would be just.

Flee this pagan public religion.

We are not living in the times of Jeremiah, nor in the times of Paul. They wrote for the people of their time, and in that context. But we believe that their words are inspired, and can correct and reprove us. This morning when I look at the readings I think firstly that the idol … Continue reading Flee this pagan public religion.

Steadfastness is an act of secular subversion.

Over the last few weeks I have been using photos from around Florence. They are a bit old -- I was there for a meeting in 2009 (staying in the cheapest hotel in town, with high school students in most of the beds, I blew out the daily living budget my employer has with accommodation … Continue reading Steadfastness is an act of secular subversion.

Academic Twits, one each.

There is always opposition. There are always those who will not only choose evil, but preach it. Who will see what they are doing as good, and not in any way account for the blowback. In fact, they may censor you if you try to say something that criticisms them, or predict consequences they do … Continue reading Academic Twits, one each.

Quote of the day.

Anyway, as America’s cultural exports — not just movies and music, but things like Facebook too — become ever more poisonous and destructive to traditional culture it will be interesting to see whether it will dawn on the left that foreign anti-Americanism has less to do with imperialism, colonialism, or a cartoonish theory of capitalism … Continue reading Quote of the day.

The social democratic experiment is over. [Quotage]

There is an endgame for social democracy. As Margaret Thatcher said: socialism endeth when you run out of other people's money. And that will not look good. Sadly, for the beneficiaries and the benefactors (more accurately, parasites and producers), this system cannot last. For there are some Malthusian mathematical limits inherent into this system. What … Continue reading The social democratic experiment is over. [Quotage]