228 Pentecost 3: Kazushi
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.” ~ Psalm 130
Kazushi
The attempt to "save time" is as morally fruitless and stupid as the effort to "save money." You can do neither while you praise. Be saved. It's simpler. The problem of evil is not a problem. Christ is King. Advantage goes first. The appeal of eastern religions to modern gnostics is the rediscovery of the body. When your religion has nothing to say to your flesh, then it has no meat. The sin of omission is disbelief in decay. Tone is not Truth. If it's not working, then why are you still doing it? It’s not a riddle if it’s easy. It’s not a riddle if it’s easy. It’s not a riddle if it’s easy. It’s simple. Sacrifice is the ultimate leverage.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
R.J.M.F
Births, Deaths and Marriages
It’s not the new black: During a recent interview, Reformed pastor, Voddie Baucham outlined the way sexual revolutionaries co-opted the civil rights movement to promote “sexual monitories”. Manipulating language is a run-of-the-mill tactic of propagandists and we have seen this used in the rapid advance of the LGBT program. First, the downplaying of sin (sodomy became homosexuality), then making the sin into an identity and finally drawing parallels to African Americansand other minorities. Baucham says homosexual activists are very good at getting people to self-censor by constantly associating Biblical stances with Nazis, slaveholders and the like. He says the church needs to understand the problem, know what we believe and be prepared to take heat for standing strong. (Alisa Childers Show via YouTube)
Journalist and author Mary Margaret Olohan has written a book about “detransititoners”, those who are recovering from the immense harm inflicted by believing transgender ideology. She lays out the devastation wrecked by ideologues in an eye-opening and frank discussion with The Federalist. (The Federalist Radio Hour via Spotify)
A doctor who exposed the extent to which Texas hospitals were performing transgender procedures on children has been charged with four felonies by the Biden administration. Eithan Haim will learn more about the charges against him today, which pertain to violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Haim has set up a fund to pay for his legal defense. (City Journal)
A Canadian cancer charity has shown just how detached from reality the transgender movement is. A recent statement from the Canadian Cancer Society assures women that they understand that references to cervical cancer may be triggering for gender-confused men. (The Blaze)
Two couples are suing Vermont Department of Child and Families for blocking them from fostering children. The lawsuit claims that the agency mandates an “ideological position at the expense of children”. (Daily Signal)
A new study claims that a hormonal contraceptive gel could be used for male birth control, as it “suppresses” sperm count so as to make them ineffective. (Quartz)
Crime and Punishment
Hunter Biden was in court last week, facing federal charges of lying on a background check and illegal possession of a firearm. Legal experts criticized the case, saying it is harsh and unusual for first-time offenders to face jail time. A “sweetheart” plea deal fell through last year, after a judge raised concerns that it precluded jail time but also potentially prevented any further investigations into Biden’s tax evasion or influence peddling. (Time, Daily Mail, NBC, The Guardian)
During the trial, FBI agents admitted that the controversial laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was authentic and contained evidence of his gun crimes. This represents a significant change to the testimony of government, media and intelligence heads, who insisted it was all lies for the last few years. (Red State)
A Tennessee newspaper says it has many pages taken from the Covenant School shooter’s diaries in its possession. It is as you might expect: she hated the government, church, the doctors who couldn’t help her and God for not making her a boy. (Not the Bee)
Coming to America
Order at the border? President Biden has issued an executive order which he says will rein in illegal immigration. The new policy ostensibly means border patrol can automatically turn people away once a daily cap is reached but critics say there are too many loophole exceptions to make much of a difference. The cap of 2500 per day still amounts to one million illegally entering per year as it it. Republicans say the timing of this Order looks suspiciously like a superficial fix in light of November’s election. “If he [Biden] really wanted to try to shut down the border, he would have done it three years ago. That's not what's going on here. He has an election he's trying to win,” one Representative said. While some features of this Order are similar to Trump-era policies, White House spokesmen were quick to distance themselves from those “cruel and inhumane” practices. (USNews, Just the News, The Federalist)
Reporting out last week claims that over 350,000 illegals have had their cases closed since 2022, effectively creating a “mass amnesty”. (The Telegraph)
Thunderdome 2024
President Trump joined TikTok last Saturday, gathering over 3 million followers in a hurry. Both President Biden and Trump have accounts though both have pushed to have the Chinese-owned platform banned. But in the mean time, it’s open season, it seems. (CBS)
A Georgia appellate court has put a racketeering case against Donald Trump on hold while a decision is reached about whether to have prosecutor Fani Willis removed from the case. Willis admitted to appointing her lover to the case and paying him with state funds. (Just the News)
A new report compiled from interviews of people working with President Biden has portrayed the President’s mental capability as “slipping.” (ZeroHedge)
Politics
A large crowd of Pro-Palestine protestors has surrounded the White House throwing smoke bombs and demanding President Biden resign. (The Blaze, ZeroHedge)
The writer of this article has an issue with the Electoral College, but points out that it is not rural voters who wield disproportionate power through “small state bias”. (Daily Yonder)
The office of Arizona’s attorney-general is launching an investigation into a scheme involving Governor Katie Hobbs. The Governor is accused of giving favorable contracts to welfare agencies that had donated to the Arizona Democrat Party. (The Federalist)
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been ordered to report to prison on July 1 to serve four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. Bannon has not complied with Jan. 6 Committee’s subpoenas. (NBC)
Americans (or at least the ones who participate in polls) are living in two very different worlds when it comes to cultural issues and worldview. (Pew)
Religion and the Church
The United Methodist Church has taken another hit for its unscriptural doctrines, after a large conference in West Africa voted to leave the denomination for its support of LGBT lies. The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast which has 1.2 million members issued a statement saying it could not remain part of the Conference for reasons of conscience and the Word of God. African churches have been reluctant to leave the UMC as they are often financially dependent on American charity. Losing that many members in a day should send a strong signal to Western bishops, but don’t expect the message to get through – the delusion is very strong. One liberal U.S. professor issued a word salad to chastise the group saying “many of those now leaving the denomination, purportedly on biblical grounds, have apparently not read all of the Bible, or at least have not read some parts of it carefully, faithfully and fully…within the full and fully liberating arc of biblical theology.” The Ivory Coast church was independent until 2004 when it joined the UMC. (Roys Report, MSNBC)
Ukrainian pastor on war: “It totally changed our church. It woke us up. It woke me up as a father, a citizen. It woke me up as a pastor.” (Plough)
“Radicals are planning to kill you.” Pray for Christian converts from Islam who face persecution in their hometowns and thank God for their fearless witness in the face of death. (Voice of the Martyrs)
An American missionary couple killed by gang members in Haiti has been buried in Missouri. (WNG)
The makers of The Chosen, a TV series based (some would say, loosely) on the ministry of Jesus have parted ways with distributor, Angel Studios in an apparent disagreement over contractual details. (WNG)
Daniel Handler, the author better known as Lemony Snicket, has written about visions of frightening creatures which have haunted him for years, first in his dreams and then in waking life. The line between mental illness and the demonic seems a fine one at times.. (Wall St Journal)
Health, Medicine and Food
Dr Anthony Fauci has once again testified before Congress. Most hostile questions were regarding the origins of covid and whether the U.S. was funding “gain of function” research at the Wuhan lab. Fauci acknowledged there was no scientific evidence for the guidance to remain 6 feet apart and argued that what was happening in Wuhan was not “gain of function” according to strict definitions. Fauci also complained to the Subcommittee “free speech protections had made it more difficult to do his job during the pandemic.” Lawmakers praised the doctor’s tireless service to public health, so it fell to the firebrand Rep. Majorie Taylor Green to remind everyone of the destruction wrought by social distancing policies. We can have sympathy that he has faced death threats, but he can’t say there weren’t plenty of people trying to tell him the truth. He did not listen. (Reclaim the Net, FrontPage Mag, ZeroHedge)
A new study out of the Netherlands has called on Western governments to take excess pandemic deaths seriously asking that they release cause-specific mortality data and facilitate postmortem examinations. “Excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of COVID-19 containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines.” (The Blaze, BMJ Journal)
The first human recipient of a pig liver transplant is doing well after two weeks. (Nature)
The FDA has rejected the use of the psychedelic MDMA as treatment for PTSD after concerns were raised over flawed trials. (NBC)
The World Health Organization says a man in Mexico has died from a strain of bird ‘flu known as H1N2. (The Guardian)
Money, Markets and Jobs
Hertz is selling off a large chunk of Teslas from its hire car fleet. The sale “reflects a sobering up of the electrification hype within the U.S. auto industry”. (CNBC)
Cheap used cooking oil from China is threatening America’s biofuel industry, according to soybean and seed oil processors. (Yahoo)
A businessman is proposing a new stock exchange in Texas. James Lee has raised $120 million towards the project and gained the support of a dozen investors, including Blackrock and Citadel. (Barrons)
A small Irish burger chain has won a court battle over the use of the name Big Mac. Trouble came for Supermac back in 2015 when it tried to expand its business into Europe, with McDonald’s arguing that their name was too similar. However, the European Union General Court has now ruled that Supermac may use its name and also the term “Big Mac” for its chicken sandwiches, saying that the name had “not been put to genuine use in the EU in connection with a restaurant name within a continuous five-year period” by McDonald’s. (The Guardian)
Hear that? Monday is upon us!
Arts, History and Sport
The head of Sony’s movie studios says the company is “very focused” on using A.I to help cut the cost of making films. CEO Tony Vinciquerra said they will abide by agreements made after writers’ and actors’ strikes, but it seems he just wants lots more content pumped out. (Indie Wire)
Jean-Jacque Rousseau and the modern left. (Intellectual Takeout)
Paris’ Grand Palais is almost fully restored. (Dezeen)
So cheesy: France is opening its first ever cheese museum. (EuroNews)
The U.S.A’s cricket team has upset the cricketing world by defeating favorites Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. The sport, popular in many other parts of the world, is gaining a following in America, largely among ex-pat communities from Southern Asia and the Caribbean. (CNN, USA Today)
Last week in history:
1944 D-Day begins. (Britannica) “We thy needy children, this day cry out to thee, in the midst of anguish, suffering, and conflict. Thou art our refuge and our hope.” (WNG) Exercise Tiger, the harrowing D-Day dry-run. (Now I Know)
1965 Married couples approved to use contraceptive pill in Griswold vs Connecticut. (Wikipedia)
1981 AIDS first described. (Britannica)
1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. (National Geographic)
2004 Colorado man drives his battle bulldozer into city buildings over frustration at zoning and permits. (All That’s Interesting)
From the Mad☧Tank
Mad☧Mondays is your reliable white noise filtration system. If you like reading news that matters with a Mad quirk, then please show your support! Get early access to Mad☧Tank articles and join the chat by signing up through Substack. Or support Frisby’s efforts with any amount here.
Our latest:
Have you composed a poem? Do you have some local news that our readers would benefit from knowing? A book review? Parenting advice? Theological treatise? Then send it to us! If you would like to submit your writing to be published in our Tank, please reply to this email. We would love to hear from you.
The Digital Age
X has tweaked its policies to allow “adult content” to be posted. (TechCrunch)
How Amazon Web Services achieves only 4 minutes down per month. (But all that up time didn’t stop them being hacked, however..) (Graphite, Semafor)
The end of software. (Docs)
Hearts and Minds
Commitment devices: fear of punishment is usually more motivating than pleasant rewards. (Big Think)
What advice would you like to have known at 20? This list has some gems. (Good)
English is complicated! Researchers found that negation in a sentence obscured meaning, rather than inverting it, such as in the statement, “this coffee is not hot”. A.I. take note: The cognitive process used in language “goes above and beyond the sum of the processing of individual word meanings.” (Futurity)
God’s Green Earth
New York City is installing “bee hotels” to rejuvenate falling bee populations. Related: not all bee hotels are equal. (New York Post, Pollinator Pathways Project)
Just so you know: “Gene-Edited Salad Greens Are Coming to US Stores This Fall”. “Typically, GMOs are crops that contain added genetic material from a different species entirely. By contrast, gene editing involves modifying an organism’s own DNA.” (Wired)
The U.S. government spends millions every year to drop sterile screwworms over Central America. (Jalopnik)
Science
Boeing’s NASA-backed Starliner capsule has launched successfully. The crew is heading for the International Space Station before returning to earth in a week’s time. Boeing’s rocket has been delayed for years after a number of failed test launches. (The Register)
War and Rumors of War
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has warned he is happy to arm the West’s enemies. (Sky)
Israel has defended its strike on a school in central Gaza, saying Hamas militants were using the site to plan operations. Palestinian authorities said the blast killed women and children who were sheltering there. (CBS) The IDF has rescued four hostages after 250 days in captivity and also says it has recovered the bodies of seven hostages and returned them to Israel for burial. (WNG, Red State)
Israel has denied claims that it used fake social media accounts to increase support for its campaign in Gaza. Reports say, “the accounts posed as Americans and posted pro-Israel messages, calling on members of congress to fund Israeli military operations.” (The Verge)
Rockets fired in to Israel’s north by Hezbollah have ignited wildfires. (Israel Hayom)
Indonesia has agreed to accept a battleship donated from South Korea. The 36-year old Bucheon 773 corvette will require millions of dollars to make it operable, but Defence Minister (also incoming president) Prabowo Subianto said acquiring a new one would take too long. “This is better than we have nothing at all”, he said. (Reuters)
Stories from Far Away
🇬🇧Two British judges have resigned from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, with Lawrence Collins citing the country’s political situation as his reason. A number of foreign nationals still serve on Hong Kong’s courts as non-permanent members. (AP)
🇮🇳 India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared victory in the nation’s general election, but will need to form coalitions to govern after losing his majority in an unexpected swing against him. (AP)
🇦🇺 Australia will allow recruits from neighboring nations to join its military in return for fast-tracked citizenship. (BBC)
🇲🇽 Climate scientist and progressive politician, Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected as Mexico’s first woman president. The outcome was not entirely unexpected. Since 2019, Mexico’s constitution has required gender parity in all branches of government, with men (even those who “falsely” identified as women) being disqualified from running if there are already too many of them. (Semafor)
🇰🇷 🇯🇵 A couple of South Korean churches are working to reverse the country’s alarming lack of babies. | Tokyo’s government is promoting marriage through its own dating app. Users must pledge to be looking for a spouse and also declare their income. (Mercator, Asahi)
🇫🇷 French authorities believe Russia is the source of a stunt which saw five coffins draped with flags left near the Eiffel Tower. (BBC)
🇳🇬 Nigeria’s labor unions have shut down the national power grid and disrupted flights, saying they want the government to renew its agreement for a minimum wage. Unions say the strike action will continue indefinitely. (The Guardian)
🇧🇷 A remote tribe in Brazil’s Amazon was connected to the internet using Starlink nine months ago. It started well, with villagers able to keep in touch with distant relatives and better access to emergency services, but now many are hooked on social media and pornography. (News)
🇸🇪 The winner takes it all: The four members of ABBA have received knighthoods in Sweden. (AP)
🧩 A robot can solve Rubik’s cube in less than a second
🍦 Ice cream before refrigeration
🪟The world’s first see-through car was really a curious thing
🚗 20th-century cars you likely never heard of
🧟 How well would you survive an apocalyptic movie scenario in real life?
🇧🇪 Belgium’s UEFA soccer team has a new away kit, inspired by Hergé’s Tintin
🥤 Why soda cans are concave on the bottom
🏛️ Ford bought and restored Grand Central Station in Detroit
✈️ The secret rest areas for crew inside airplanes
🐢 Slow down, young fella!
😍 Drone photo award finalists
Sons of Solomon ambassador, Titus Berndt interviewed Master Dusk Lantern about his book “Against False Daos” on his podcast. Dusk Lantern is a Confucian scholar, passionate to help equip Christians to refute wicked lies of our age. Catch the discussion at I Am Athanasius.
Stop the White Noise with Jonathan and Meridith was all about integrity and speaking truth. Watch on YouTube or Rumble, or listen here. Show recs:
Psalm 56 as a source of comfort when the sadness or loneliness threatens to overwhelm you.
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.
This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, Your Son Jesus triumphed over the prince of demons and freed us from bondage to sin. Help us to stand firm against every assault of Satan, and enable us always to do Your will; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
You can also make a one-off or recurring donation here. Thank you!