226 Holy Trinity: The Big Picture
“The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon.” ~ Psalm 29
The Big Picture
The big picture is not always the true picture.
Incoherence, shouted loud enough, is all the devil is really after in the end. If no one understands you, then maybe you’re wrong. When no one understands anyone, then it’s more likely we’ve just been lied to.
We were told many things about the way godlessness would not impact America. We were promised that teaching children they are monkeys would have no effect on society’s morality. We were told that contraceptive abortion was about making such things safe and rare. We were assured that America is one big team, and we’re all rooting for the little guy.
You don’t fight evil by letting it keep lying to you.
Without the right framework, all the power in the world is just a larger liability. If you are unwilling to question the key assumptions that your enemy is using to defeat you, then you will certainly be a loser. If you see the whirlwind coming and do not take cover, then you did not see the whirlwind coming.
Christianity is a positive temporal future vision as well as an apocalyptic Spirit, but it is not a quick fix. Our world is created by a positive sum God, and our Redeemer is a man who holds all the creative genius of our race at the seat of Godhead. Now is hardly the time to roll over and cry. Now is the time to accept the obvious: technology is not a spiritually neutralizing factor within nature. Enlightenment cannot be packaged and sold.
And, an easy riddle isn’t one.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
R.J.M.F
Births, Deaths and Marriages
Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Katie Britt have proposed a bill to enshrine IVF access as a “right,” making states that ban it ineligible for Medicaid funding. When asked several times on a TV interview whether they believed life starts at conception, both senators avoided answering instead pointing to bipartisan support for such a law. In another head scratcher, Senator Cruz said he thought it was great that abortion was left up to the states, but seemed to think reproductive tech should be enforced from a federal level. IVF treatments are provided by an unregulated industry and clinics are cagey about handing over data on how they operate. But according to one report, only 3% to 7% of babies created through IVF make it to a womb and survive the process, which means the practice likely kills more American children than abortion. While the Senators are noble in their desire to give infertile women the chance to bear children of their own, they seem uninformed about the dangers that IVF treatments pose to women and the devastating repercussions of the unfettered creation of embryos. The lack of ethical standards imposed on IVF procedures means that many babies will be continue to be frozen, experimented on or killed. Currently, single people and homosexual couples can also access IVF which sets children up to be separated from one or both of their parents. Access to IVF by such patients also feeds into the surrogacy industry which presents similar harms to women and children. (The Federalist, MadPxMondays)
The US birth rate has declined to the lowest rate since tracking of such things began in 1979. Researchers attributed the drop to the usuals – women choosing careers over having children, access to birth control and the cost of living cooling couples’ plans to start a family. The population of the USA is expected to begin declining in 2080, with “198 out of 204 countries…likely to see a population decline by the year 2100.” (The Week)
An American man has been charged with making and distributing AI-generated child pornography. The man faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted. (WNG)
Video: the crowd boos as male athlete takes first place at Oregon girls' state track championships. (Not the Bee)
Florida has raised the legal age for stripping from 18 to 21 years. The libertarian folks at Reason said Governor DeSantis is treating young adults “like children” and said the legislation was driven by an unfounded “panic” over sex slavery. Florida journalist Chris Nelson wondered why the government would take away a young woman’s ability to pay out “crippling debt” through legitimate (as he sees it) well-paid work, like exotic dancing? While “message legislation” sometimes comes at the expense of quality laws, those who subscribe to the “just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you should stop others from doing it” ethos don’t seem to understand that good law helps curb human sinfulness. (Reason, Not the Bee)
Louisiana is looking at listing abortion drugs as controlled substances, which would make conspiring to induce a chemical abortion illegal. (WNG)
Crime and Punishment
Texas governor, Greg Abbott has pardoned a man who killed a Black Lives Matter protestor. Daniel Perry was serving a 25 year prison sentence for firing on a man who approached his car after finding himself in a street where protestors were marching. (WNG)
New Hampshire daycare workers have been arrested for sprinkling children’s food with melatonin. (Not the Bee)
Two brothers who were attending MIT were able to steal $25m of the cryptocurrency Ethereum. The brothers had worked out the scheme for months but were able to steal the funds in just 12 seconds. The defendants’ attorney said their novel exploitation of the technology “calls the very integrity of the blockchain into question.” (Mashable)
Coming to America
Senate Democrats have attempted to revive a proposed border bill, but it failed to gain the necessary votes to advance. While Dems claim this is the toughest border bill yet, Speaker Mike Johnson has said it would actually worsen the illegal immigrant situation. Speaker Johnson suggested the Senate work to pass his alternative bill, which he says “has been sitting on [Senate Majority Leader, Chuck] Schumer’s desk for more than a year.” That bill involves building more border wall and reinstating the “remain in Mexico” policy. Expect both sides to blame each other for immigration calamities as the November election draws closer. (WNG)
The GOP-led House has voted to repeal a Washington D.C. law which allows non-citizens to vote. (Just the News)
Thunderdome 2024
President Biden may not be on the ballot in Ohio come November. The Democrat National Committee (DNC) where a presidential candidate will be formally nominated will be held late August but the deadline to file paperwork in Ohio is August 8th. (Red State)
Politics
Newly released email correspondence show that David Morens, an assistant to Dr. Fauci deleted emails to avoid Freedom of Information requests. The documents also suggest that Dr. Fauci used his personal email to conduct official business. (Washington Examiner, PJ Media)
New documents from an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower claim that the Central Intelligence Agency prevented investigators from interviewing Hunter Biden or people associated with him in 2021. (Just the News)
The FBI said it followed standard protocol during its raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home a couple of years ago. Newly unsealed documents revealed that the use of “deadly force” was authorized, but experts said that language is not unusual. (Fox, Red State)
The Digital Age
Scarlett Johanssan says OpenAI’s new voice bot sounds eerily like her, revealing that she turned down an invitation to voice its interactive assistant last year. The actress’s lawyers have demanded the company reveal how it trained the A.I. named “Sky.” OpenAI deactivated the feature but insists any likeness is purely coincidental. (Wired)
Spam then junk then slop. The rise of slapdash A.I.-generated webpages and content is presenting a new headache for internet users. “Just like spam, almost no one wants to view slop, but the economics of the internet lead to its creation anyway…But like spam, its overall effect is negative: the lost time and effort of users who now have to wade through slop to find the content they’re actually seeking far outweighs the profit to the slop creator.” (The Guardian)
“Digital decay”: Researchers estimate that 40% of all web pages created since 2013 have disappeared. (Euro News)
Education
An investigation by journalist Aaron Sibarium has revealed the troubling real-world fallout from rabid dedication to diversity. Under the dean of admissions, Jennifer Lucero, the UCLA med school has taken a hit to its once prestigious reputation. Although race-based admissions have been banned in California for some time, on Lucero’s watch, “the admissions committee routinely gives black and Latino applicants a pass for subpar metrics…while whites and Asians need near perfect scores to even be considered…In some of the cohorts…more than 50 percent of students failed standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics.” (Washington Free Beacon)
The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees voted unanimously to cancel its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program and use the money to fund campus security. (Just the News)
ICYMI: Commencement ceremonies were quite eventful this year. Howard University shut down its graduation mid-event, after family members who weren’t admitted on account of the venue size made a ruckus trying to get in. (The Blaze) | A bunch of students staged a walkout during a speech by comedian Jerry Seinfeld at Duke University and thousands walked out at Harvard. (Snopes, WNG) | It seems graduates at Morehouse College were underwhelmed by President Biden’s speech, with some turning their back on him. (Not the Bee, ZeroHedge)
Money, Markets and Jobs
President Biden will release and sell off oil from the Northeast Reserve in a bid to ease gas prices over the summer. Congress has ordered the Reserve closed with energy experts saying the Northeast facility never “made any sense” because it is very small and “must be frequently rotated on account of gasoline’s shelf life. Analysts predict the “sale of the Northeast reserve would have little impact on gasoline prices nationally.” (ABC News)
President Biden has cancelled another $7.7 billion in student debt. “The people who qualify for forgiveness in the latest round of debt cancellation include public servants such as teachers and law enforcement officers, as well as tens of thousands of people who have signed up for Biden's new loan repayment program, called SAVE.” (CBS)
A Tennessee judge has blocked the foreclosure of Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate. A company claims that the late Lisa-Marie Presley owed them money and they can take control of the property. However current owner, Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough, says the documents are false and the company is fake. (GBP News)
The Department of Justice and a group of 30 state and district attorneys general have announced an anti-trust lawsuit against Live Nation which owns Ticketmaster. The “states argue their local live entertainment venues are critical to their state economies” and that monopolizing behavior on the part of Live Nation adds exorbitant fees to the cost of tickets. (Axios)
The cargo ship which struck a Baltimore bridge in March has been refloated and pulled back to a local terminal. (ABC, YouTube)
Religion and the Church
Pope Francis has continued his habit of saying confusing things during an interview on 60 Minutes. The pontiff prompted lots of conversation online after saying that the hearts of men are fundamentally good. Protestants pounced, insisting the pope was speaking contrary to passages like Jeremiah 17:9 and doctrines of original sin, but high-profile Romans said that’s not what he meant. (Michael Knowles via X)
Iowa has dropped hate crime charges against a veteran who cut down a satanic statue in the Capitol building. (Not the Bee)
Contemporary Christian music royalty CeCe Winans brought a bit of church to American Idol last week. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but hearing someone passionately singing about the goodness of God on prime time is all right with us. (American Idol via YouTube)
Arts, History and Sport
“Fleet Week”, New York City’s week-long event to honor those who serve, has kicked off. (USA Today) | One captain’s story of a typical memorial weekend. (Daily Signal) | Sixty photos from American military history. (Stacker)
A company which uses A.I. to authenticate artworks says it has detected a number of fakes for sale on Ebay, including works by Van Gogh and Matisse. (Smithsonian)
Scientists believe they have discovered a dried up branch of the Nile River which may explain the location of many of Egypt’s pyramids. (Quartz)
The National Collegiate Athletic Association and its five power conferences have agreed to let schools pay athletes for the first time. The NCAA will also pay more than $2.7 billion in damages over the next decade to athletes past and current, as a settlement for several antitrust lawsuits. (ESPN)
Last week in history:
337 Roman emperor Constantine is baptized. (Britannica)
1785 Benjamin Franklin invents “double spectacles”. (Samoa Global News)
1927 Charles Lindbergh makes the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. (Britannica)
1990 First images from Hubble telescope released. (Science)
Monday playing tricks again?
Health, Medicine and Food
Nestle has plans to launch a line of frozen foods designed to combat loss of muscle mass in people who use GLP-1 weightless drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic. (CNBC)
Long-term study links highly-processed food with early death. (Epoch Times)
A small study has found microplastics in the testicles of male corpses. (The Blaze)
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Science
A biomedical engineering startup says it has “created an AI-mechanized system for performing head transplants.” BrainBridge says its fake head could be grafted onto a brain dead patient’s body, with their memories and consciousness transplanted over. The company claims the first procedure will be conducted within eight years. (New York Post)
A new study is being launched to discover why some people are mosquito magnets and others, not so much. Researchers hope the results will help develop better repellents and help fight malaria. (Nature)
Scientists have been able to do some study on the most recently-discovered lanthanide, promethium. The rare-earth metal is so unstable that “only about a pound occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust at any given time.” (Brookhaven)
Scientists think they have a clue as to why ice is slippery. (PKU News)
Scientists have made a prototype Dune-style “still suit” which recycles bodily fluid. (Interesting Engineering)
War and Rumors of War
Norway, Ireland and Spain have said they will recognize Palestine as a state. While proponents of recognizing statehood say it is the only way for peace in the Middle East, Israeli officials said it sends the message that terrorism will be rewarded. “According to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the occupied West Bank, 142 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations already recognize a state of Palestine.” (Politico, BBC, CBS)
According to reports, a section of pier installed by the U.S. military built to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, has disconnected during stormy weather and drifted onto an Israeli beach. U.S. navy boats were also beached trying to retrieve the section of pier. (ZeroHedge)
A Chinese envoy has warned Japan that it will get”dragged into the fire” if it shows support for Taiwan’s independence. Also, China conducted two days of military drills around the Taiwan in order to show “strong punishment” for the installation of new President William Lai. Lai has told China it needs to accept Taiwan’s independence and leave it alone. (Reuters, BBC)
Arab militias in Sudan are engaging in a genocidal campaign against ethnic groups. Christians are also being targeted, so pray for the church there. (Mercator, Open Doors)
Stories from Far Away
🇧🇪 Belgian sex workers will be able to work under employment contracts, allowing prostitutes access to sick pay, unemployment benefits and maternity leave. Prostitution was decriminalized in 2022 but the new law takes the mantra “sex work is work” literally, with employers able to seek intervention from a “governmental mediation service” if a worker turns away more than ten customers in a six-month period. (Reason)
🇰🇪 A delegation of Kenyan officials has arrived in Haiti ahead of a multinational security force. The main airport in Port-au-Prince has re-opened, with hopes that aid will flow more easily to those in need. Also pray for the family of Rep. Ben Baker of Missouri, whose daughter and son-in-law were killed in Haiti after being capture by gangs. “They went to heaven together”, Rep. Baker wrote. (CNN, WNG, Not the Bee)
🇳🇬 The Nigerian army has freed over 350 prisoners, mostly women and children who were being held hostage by “jihadi rebels”, Boko Haram. (AP)
🇬🇧 The U.K’s High Court has ruled that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may fight extradition charges against him. (USA Today)
🇲🇽 A group of Protestant Christians has been forcibly removed from their homes as punishment for not participating in festivals in the predominantly Catholic Hidalgo state. The government of the province is requesting that the Baptists, numbering around 150 people, sign legal agreements waiving their human right to religious freedom. (Christian Post)
🇳🇨 President Emmanuel Macron has visited France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia to discuss a planned reform to its constitution. Riots, including looting and burning shops, broke out after the announcement of the change which would allow French nationals to vote in local elections if they have lived there for 10 years or more. Indigenous Kanak tribes fear the change will dilute their vote, as they seek independence from France. Nickel prices soared in the wake of the violence, as New Caledonia is the world’s third biggest producer. (BBC, Mining)
🇦🇫 Afghanistan has lost its ability to cast a vote at the United Nations. Membership fees totaling around $9m have gone unpaid since the Taliban regained power. (The Independent)
🇬🇧 A five year inquiry in the U.K. has found a string of failures on the part of the National Health Service, doctors and government lead to thousands of patients being infected with HIV from contaminated blood, from the 1970s on. The report said people had been exposed to “unacceptable risks” from blood taken from high-risk populations such as prisoners and lack of testing and heat treating. (BBC)
🇹🇼 A Taiwanese lawmaker has attempted to run away with a bill to prevent parliament from signing it. The bill in question has been controversial, with the opposition party wanting to apportion more power to parliament to give them the ability to punish politicians who lie. (NDTV)
🐕 A new airline for dogs has taken its first flight
🛵 Motorsports you probably didn’t know exists
👛 Americans leave millions in change at airports each year. What to do with it is difficult.
🌮 The world’s first Michelin-star taco stand
💡 The engineering of duct tape
🥖 A certain je ne sais quoi? A baguette-scented postage stamp
🧅 Whether the weather: what does the onion say?
🇭🇺 The children’s railway, Budapest
♭ A “sinner’s hymn” drawn from a strange place in Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights
🇬🇧 A 1917 typeface recovered from the Thames River
“For Christian Laity and Clergy alike, join the "dynamic duo" : Rev Jonathan Fisk and Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz to explore the topic of Evangelism and overcoming obstacles that we may go out and spread the Good News with renewed confidence and enthusiasm.”
Jonathan and Meridith spoke about the benefits of marital arts training and life as a long haul. There was conversation about the hard truth that when it comes to sharing our faith, sometimes Lutherans are their own worst enemies. You can catch Stop the White Noise on YouTube or Rumble or listen here. Show links:
Why Johnny Can’t Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers by T. David Gordon
For Better, Not For Worse: A Manual Of Christian Matrimony by Walter A. Maier
Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it by Ken Ham
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament by Harris, Archer, and Waltke
Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension: An Introductory Grammar by Karl Kutz and Rebekah Josberger
If you missed it, Meridith put out a call for anyone who would like to make a quilt for men who stay at the Hebron Collegium. If that is something you would be interested in helping out with, please reply to this email or send a message through madpxm.com/contact.
Our disclaimer: These are some resources the Fisks have found edifying, but when dealing with human-authored texts, apply discernment liberally!
This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, You have given us grace to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity by the confession of a true faith and to worship the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty. Keep us steadfast in this faith and defend us from all adversities; for You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, live and reign, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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