165 Lent 3: Unbelievable
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!" ~ Psalm 95
The first part of the new series Against All Odds is just below. But before we get there, I wanted to take a moment and use this space to say, “This feels like the moment I’ve been waiting for.”
Ever since late 2021, when the dust of 2020 finally began to settle its way across our fractured culture, I’ve been wondering when the next shoe would drop. I’m no prophet, just a student of history, theology, and relationships. But unless something very, very magical happens between now and next year, the economic collapse has begun in earnest. The utter failure of a Forbes 2023 top five bank on Friday afternoon is going to impact a lot more bank accounts than the royal family. With liquidity ties to endless corners of internet commerce and the world of startup capital, we are not merely looking at a lot of missing money. We are looking at a lot of missing money in a wide network of just the wrong places.
There is no foretelling how fast or slow this will spin out. But the de-pegging of the stablecoin “USDC” from the US dollar was real, live alchemy. This was not the earthquake. This is the warning tremor. No matter how it evolves, it signals the new day for money which our elites are hastily drawing up for us. We can’t just print more paper forever.
Unbelievable
(Part 1 in the multipart series "Against All Odds")
The history of the Christian Church is an unmitigated, worldly disaster.
Believing in Jesus Christ is always an exercise in repentance, but when it comes to the article of faith, “I believe in the Christian Church,” we find the need for meek assessment. For while it cannot be denied that the rise in the religion of Jesus is an astronomical and world-changing success, the likes of which the world has never known, it can neither be denied that all too rarely has this success been due to the actions of “the Church.” Just as often, if not more so, the Church that we see in the pages of history is at best a New Testament inflection of ancient Israel, that is, a people bearing God’s name yet in the process of being hurled out of His mouth.
The Reformation’s theology of the Anti-Christ understood this. (Cf. Power and Primacy, 39-40) “Satan takes his seat in the church.” The Pope is one of many antichrists when and as he establishes for himself a Kingdom. But Rome is not the only Christian Church in the history of the world to do such things. In fact, while more and more churches in western civilization close their doors year by year – as anyone who has tried to help such organizations partner together for survival knows – the Spirit had been turned away from these collapsing social clubs in favor of the gods of wood and stone long ago.
Need we talk of schisms? Need inquisitions be named? What of the uncounted missions undertaken in the name of vanity, ambition, and downright hubris? What of the boasts? What of the apostasies? What of the hard-heartedness and greed?
Believing in Jesus Christ is always an exercise in repentance, and ecclesiology is no different. Here, as much as anywhere, what we believe as Christians must begin with an outright damning of any trust in the self that does not proceed from intrepid awareness that, left to ourselves we can only worship the works of our hands, and will do so until it drives us all violently and actively mad. The confidence of the Christian Church is not in her progression but her redemption. The Christian Church’s unmitigated worldly disaster is the success that it is because our faith is not first our own.
“What do you have that you did not receive?”
A regenerating and heedless trust in the arcane supremacy of the crucified God, a faith in the viability of the Christian Church, begins and ends with the fact of His Most Holy Spirit channeling himself into the world via certain and irrevocable promises, contained once and for all in the Scriptures of Jesus Christ.
All of our attempts and efforts remain trapped in the fire which is coming. But These Words will never pass away.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
The Mad Christian
Clickbait Paradise
In this edition of Mad Mondays:
Breaking the bank
Unravelling January 6th
Experts say "no" to surrogacy
And a whole bunch of odds and ends..
Conjunction junction, what's your function?
Jonathan and Meridith opened their Saturday show last week with a discussion about losing pets and teaching children emotional control. The conversation illustrated how many important things are not learned in the classroom. Upworthy published a list of things they wished they'd learned in school and it is interesting what they believe is useful in this modern life.
"Mental health maintenance" was at the top of the list. The writer says that "gaining strategies for managing our thoughts [and] emotions" and skills like "how to spot a narcissist" are valuable. How about "media literacy"? Understanding media bias is a full time job in this information age! The list goes on to include understanding the stock market, how to do taxes and how to navigate the health system. Towards the bottom there is first aid, survival and self-defence.
Much of our school system seems keen to teach children about sexuality, gender and race, so giving kids skills for a good life is probably up to parents. Apart from providing children with ample opportunities to learn from the adults in their lives, chances to fail and take risks, we should teach them the Word of God. Sharper than a sword, discerning thoughts and intentions of the heart. Not only can the Scriptures make you wise unto salvation, Pastor Fisk often reminds listeners to dive into the wisdom of the Proverbs, which is packed with insight.
A twenty-first century life skills set might be a tad different than that of our forebears, but like Dr Koontz often points out, human nature does not change. Whatever failings our contemporary schooling system may have, wisdom can still be found. Socrates said knowing thyself was the beginning of wisdom but Solomon knew better – the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and that is found, not in the classroom, but in the Word.
Blew up the bank
The financial world was rocked at the end of last week by the news that a California regulator had shut down Silicon Valley Bank. The bank was mostly patronized by tech companies and start ups and represents the biggest bank collapse since those in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government would not be offering a bail out to the bank, though she said it would try and compensate the customers.
It is hard to say what this means since even the experts don't seem to agree on what comes next. Some reports warn the closure would spawn a "contagion" collapse spreading through other sectors, including other banks and the housing market. Forbes reported that the panic was "overblown" but did concede that financial institutions will be in tricky territory while inflation remains high. One CEO said unrealistic profit projections added to the way inflation is hollowing out the value of bank investments means "some banks may not be as capitalized as they think they are".
Rev. Fisk spoke about money and stewardship on last week's Stop The White Noiseshow. As he reminded us, "Jesus has all the money". We will not put our trust in princes, but pray to our Father for what we need to do good. As St. Paul reminds us, God did not spare his own son but gave Him up for us all. "How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
A couple of good explainers of events leading up to the collapse for further reading (hereand here).
See the biggest bank collapses in US history.
J6 B-Reel
New footage from the January 6th Capitol riot has caused a pretty big stir. Having been given access to unreleased footage, Tucker Carlson used his platform to challenge a couple of widely-broadcast conclusions. Accusations of "deceptive editing" and cherry picking are coming from both sides of the aisle.
It is unclear how much footage legal defense teams, Capitol police, and other interested parties had access to, including the Special Committee.
So what is the whole story? It's clear that violent episodes broke out in parts of the Capitol complex but it is hard to know the full picture. Mollie Hemingway suggested on a podcast last week that letting lots of independent journalists sift through the footage, as was done with the Twitter files, would be a great way to piece it all together.
The Justice Department has ruled that former President Donald Trump can be sued for the "physiological and physical effects" of the riot, while former VP Mike Pence said history will hold Trump responsible.
No discrimination detected
Members of an Arizona school board have voted to ban student-teachers from Arizona Christian University. The student-teachers were deemed a threat to LGBTQ pupils since ACU holds to biblical marriage. Quizzically, members of the board reasoned that this is not a case of religious discrimination as "there are plenty of Christian denominations who are LGBTQ-friendly".
Albert Mohler addressed this case on his podcast pointing out that, "bad theology produces more than just more bad theology." Although the argument of the Board is ridiculous, liberal churches, "confuse the world about the moral and theological convictions" of Christianity. Yes, they could crack open a Bible to find out what faithful Christians believe, but we can't wait for that to happen. Let's know what we believe and stand boldly on it!
The ACU is suing the board members.
Speaking of religious liberty... The Supreme Court of the USA will allow a Florida prayer vigil case to continue. Atheist plaintiff Art Rojas says the vigil amounted to a state-sponsored religious event. Justice Clarence Thomas said courts should revisit the “offended observer” theory.
Life is beautiful
Experts from 75 countries have called for the abolition of surrogacy. The Casablanca Declaration calls for all surrogacy to stop because it "offends human dignity and commodifies women and children". Spokeswoman Katy Faust tweeted, "Whether paid or altruistic, gestational or traditional, handed over to gay or straight parents-surrogacy always inflicts loss on a child and thus must be opposed." We pray that lawmakers everywhere heed this call for justice.
Although the idea has been floated here and there for a couple of decades, a proposal to use brain-dead women as surrogate incubators does not seem to be going away. Lord, have mercy.
In other ghoulish news, scientists say they have created mice with "two fathers" after making eggs from male sex cells.
To other pro-life battles...Walgreens announced it would err on the side of caution and refrain from selling abortion pills in states with abortion bans in place. Republican attorneys general warned the company that they risk legal action if they contradict state laws. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has thrown a hissy fit in response, saying he will investigate all Walgreens interests in California.
Florida republicans have introduced a bill to ban abortions after 6 weeks in that state.
We love this sweet story of life. The world's lightest and earliest "micropreemie" twins are now a year old and doing very well. Parents Rajendram and Nadarajah were told their babies, born four months early, would not be resuscitated. "There were several instances in the early days where we were asked about withdrawing care, that’s just a fact, and so those were the moments where we just rallied in prayer, and we saw a turnaround."
What happened in Wuhan
Dr. Robert Redfield gave testimony during a Congressional committee hearing that he is convinced that a "significant event" happened in the Wuhan lab in September of 2019. He claims he was locked out of meetings and email exchanges by Dr. Fauci, even while he was heading up the CDC and the coronavirus task force.
Writing at Commentary, Abe Greenwald argues that no one should be "moving on" from covid until the lab leak theory is proved or debunked. He believes that the world paid dearly for China's recklessness and the best way to stop this happening again is to make China pay. That may be easier said than done, as it is clear that the American government was funding research at the Wuhan lab.
The US House voted unanimously to declassify all information about the lab leak.
Odds and ends
Crime
Alex Murdaugh, a third-generation prosecutor from South Carolina, will spend the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of killing his wife and son. The case, which captured national attention in the US, was decided by jury in three hours. The case has revealed that Murdaugh had an addiction to opiates and that he defrauded clients of millions of dollars. (CNN)
Authorities in Atlanta have charged 23 people with domestic terrorism in connection with riots over the weekend. More people were arrested for protesting the construction of a police facility. (USA Today)
Visa and Mastercard had dropped plans to track firearms purchases after pushback (Breitbart)
Finance
President Biden has unveiled his budget plan including a "billionaire's tax" and proposals to cut the national deficit. (CNBC)
Toblerone will move the image of the Matterhorn from its packaging as offshoring has rendered the brand not Swiss enough (BBC)
Ready for Monday...
Health
Major new study shows that exercise is as good at reducing depression as counselling or medication (Not the Bee)
Safer alternatives to ibuprofen (Epoch TImes)
Science and the Natural world
United Nations member states have agreed on a treaty to protect oceans (Guardian).
Winter storms have eased drought conditions in California (LA Times).
The White House is considering mass vaccination of poultry to counteract outbreak of avian flu (The Hill).
A new nuclear plant is open for business in Georgia (AP).
Border
A federal judge has ruled that the Biden administration policies are illegal (Just the News).
A Mexican cartel who killed two American tourists has apologized and turned over the men responsible. In a case of mistaken identity, a group of four US citizens were kidnapped after traveling to Tamaulipas for cheap medicine or possibly cosmetic surgery, depending on which report you read (DW, Fox).
Headlines from far away
Taiwanese authorities suspect that damage to undersea communication cables by Chinese ships is not accidental (ZeroHedge).
Canada is investigating possible Chinese election interference (WNG).
French government adopts pension reforms despite massive protests in recent weeks (Reuters)
Women in Berlin are now allowed to swim topless at public pools if they choose, because: gender equality (CNN)
Indonesia is building a new capital city, as Jakarta is sinking into the sea (AP)
Russia has used hypersonic missiles in a fresh barrage of Ukrainian sites. (BBC)]
India's government opposes same-sex marriage (Reuters)
John Michael Jones Gets a Life is produced for Mad ⳩ Mondays by E. Darwin Hartshorn. Episodes can also be found on Tuesday, along with previous episodes, on Bunny Trail Junction at bunny-trail.com.
Quick Hits for the Eyebuds
☠️ The king who tried to make himself immune to poisoning
🏆 A new world record for paper plane flight
🏴☠️ Where did the pirate accent come from?
🇨🇦 Canada's polar bear jail
🇯🇵 Complex technique of Japanese kumihimo braiding is quite mesmerizing
🇨🇭 Over the Matterhorn by drone
🇨🇭 Elephant detains sugar cane trucks in order to sample their wares
💾 It might surprise you how many things still run on floppy disks
🌽 Why is it called "corned beef"?
🥴 Inebriated shoppers spent $14b on stuff last year
📌 Exercises from 1918 to increase your concentration
A Good Word: Links from the Show Notes
This weekend on Stop the White Noise, Jonathan and Meridith talk about women and give a read from those who want to find a good one.
My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
LadyLike: Living Biblicaly by Rebekah Curtis and Rose Adle
and Truth Comes Out by Willyecho
Promo of Friends
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Sweetness You May Have Missed
The Myth of America
Part 1 - In the Arena
Let us pray: O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.