241 Pentecost 16: The Chains of Erosion
“While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.” ~ Psalm 146
The Chains of Erosion
The shocking thing is that we are in the midst of a famine of courage. This isn’t about productivity or getting a leg up. This is about losing the human capacity to stand firm as a result of social and societal programming.
Consider the tale of a pro-life group fighting to keep an abortion measure off the ballot. At first glance, it’s a simple legal battle, a matter of constitutional interpretation. But dig deeper, and you find a fight against a system that uses legal jargon and procedural sleight of hand to push through an agenda without fully informing the public. This isn’t just about abortion; it’s about the deliberate obfuscation of the law to deprive citizens of their ability to make informed decisions. When the rules are written in shadows, how can anyone be truly free?
Then there’s the FBI’s failure to act on sexual abuse cases. Here, we see another form of obfuscation—bureaucratic inertia that allows evil to flourish. Victims are left to suffer while the system grinds to a halt, bogged down by its own complexity. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the chains are made of red tape, and the slave masters are those who allow the system to fail the very people it was meant to protect.
Debt rears its head in the political arena, too. Most people don’t shift position out of principle but out of pressure—owing not just money but loyalty and allegiance. When people are driven by the need to repay these debts, they become slaves to the whims of the powerful, rather than servants of truth or conscience. This flip-flopping is a symptom of a larger disease, where decisions are made not on principle, but on the calculation of what is owed and to whom.
In the shadows of Aurora, Colorado, the specter of a Venezuelan gang lurks, whether officially present or not. The fear they instill, the control they exert over entire neighborhoods, is another kind of slavery. It’s a slavery born of intimidation and the slow suffocation of any hope of escape. When the law fails to protect, and the threat of violence becomes a daily reality, the chains tighten, and freedom becomes a distant memory.
Mark Zuckerberg’s admission that Meta censored content at the behest of the government brings another layer to this narrative. Here, the addiction isn’t just to substances, but to the very platforms that shape our reality. Social media is the opiate of the masses, a tool of both connection and control. When those who control the flow of information also control the narrative, they wield power far greater than any drug. Zuckerberg’s confession is a glimpse into how easily that power can be abused, how the addiction to likes, shares, and validation can be weaponized to keep the masses in line.
Even in the international sphere, the themes of debt and addiction play out. Brazil’s ban on X (formerly Twitter) and VPN usage is a move towards digital enslavement, cutting off avenues of free speech and dissent. It’s a stark reminder of how governments can and will control access to information, tightening the noose on any who dare to think or speak outside the sanctioned narrative. When the flow of information is controlled, so too is the mind. The addiction to digital convenience, to constant connection, becomes a tool of subjugation.
The stories are not isolated incidents; they are threads in a larger tapestry of control. Obfuscation, debt, and addiction are the new chains, binding individuals and societies in ways that are harder to see but just as strong as any iron fetter. The freedom to live, to choose, to speak, is being eroded not by outright tyranny, but by a thousand tiny cuts—each one justified, each one necessary, each one tightening the chains a little bit more. Jude warned of those who "crept in unnoticed, ungodly people" (Jude 1:4), whose subtle influence slowly undermines freedom, twisting grace and denying truth.
As these trends continue to unfold, the challenge becomes one of awareness and resistance. The first step to breaking free is recognizing the chains for what they are. This isn’t just about resisting individual policies or decisions—it’s about seeing the bigger picture, understanding how the pieces fit together in a strategy of control that seeks to dominate through confusion, financial dependency, and the subtle but powerful lure of addiction. St. Peter foresaw scoffers who would mock any coming judgment (2 Peter 3:3-4), thriving on the distractions and apathy that cloud the truth.
We must remain vigilant, for the battle is not just against the obvious forces of oppression, but against the insidious ones that slip in unnoticed, wrapping themselves around our lives under the guise of progress, security, and convenience. Like hidden reefs beneath the surface, these forces are ready to shipwreck the unaware. In this struggle, it is critical to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3), understanding that the truth is not just an ideal but the weapon against the chains tightening around us.
The lines between freedom and slavery blur, and it is our responsibility to expose the darkness, to shine a light on the chains that bind us, trusting that the Lord "is able to keep us from stumbling" (Jude 1:24) and that through growing in His grace, we can discern the true liberty that no worldly power can take.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
R.J.M.F
Crime and Punishment
A New York judge has delayed sentencing in the fraud trial against Donald Trump. Sentencing in the so-called “hush money” case will be delayed until after November 5th with judge Juan Merchan writing in a statement that he did not want to influence the result of the presidential election. (The Hill, PJ Media)
School shooting in Georgia:
Hunter Biden has entered a guilty plea to charges in a federal tax case against him. The President’s son agreed with every count against him, meaning he could be face up to 17 years in prison. Biden’s lawyers said the case was “extreme and unusual” and that “millions of Americans” are guilty of the same behavior. Biden plans to appeal the case. (NBC)
The National Security Agency is releasing a podcast. (NSA)
Coming to America
According to a report by Libs of TikTok, armed Cuban and Venezuelan gangs are organizing together to steal oil, diesel, copper wire and other things from oil fields in the Permian Basin (Texas and New Mexico). (ZeroHedge, Libs of TikTok via X)
Nancy Pelosi appeared on Bill Maher’s show and was asked about a California bill which would extend its government-funded home loan grant lottery to illegal immigrants. While Speaker Pelosi said she was unfamiliar with the law, she reiterated that it is Democrats’ aim to make “undocumented” immigrants into citizens. You’ll note that progressives tend to use the term “immigrants” to refer to those who came through legal channels as well as those who did not. The law was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom who said the state does not have the money to fund an expansion of the program. (ZeroHedge, King5)
Thunderdome 2024
Gold Star families have defended Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington cemetery in a written statement. The families also upbraided Vice President Harris for “politicizing” the ceremony and blamed her for helping oversee the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan which culminated in the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers and more locals too. (WNG)
Donald Trump has said he would appoint Elon Musk to help investigate wasteful government spending, should he win in November. (Reuters)
State appeal courts have ordered the removal of RFK’s name from ballots in North Carolina and Michigan, at his request. (The Federalist)
More Russian election meddling?:
After much wrangling over details and both sides daring the other to drop out, Donald Trump and V.P. Kamala Harris will meet on the debate stage tonight. ABC will host the debate and at last word, mics will be turned off after each candidate gives their response. (BBC)
Politics
Last week, Donald Trump gave a word salad answer good enough to rival any form V.P. Harris! Answering a question on childcare, Trump gave a disjointed response about raising so much money from import tariffs to cover whatever policy he devises. (Of course, some speculated that his mental acuity is slipping and you could expect such from the New York Times.) But linguist John McWhorter says “word salad oratory” is more significant than just being a matter of style. Relying on “assumed context” while speaking is not unusual, but McWhorter says presidents should be held to a standard of clear speech, not stringing together disconnected ideas: “It’s a refusal to think ahead or consider the perspective of others, things we should rightly expect our leaders to do." Hopefully, he would hold all our leaders to that standard too. (CNN, New York Times)
Political polling has been tricky these last few years, one main reason, who picks up the phone? Older folks. (American Conservative)
Births, Deaths and Marriages
The Board of Sweet Briar College, a small women-only school in Virginia, will no longer admit trans-identifying students. Students and faculty are upset after the Board insisted they were bound by the original intent of the College’s founder to only admit actual females. One faculty member said the new policy is “morally repugnant” and financially risky. (Inside Higher Ed)
Joy Pullman: “A Few Ideas For Women Who Don’t Want To End Up Childless.” (The Federalist)
The four largest dating apps are scrambling to add A.I. “wingmen” to attract fatigued and disappointed daters back to their websites. The digital bots will help people “craft better chat-up lines“ or “generate icebreakers”. It remains to be seen whether that will make any difference, either to the companies’ bottom lines or the romantic prospects of anyone. One snarky comment: “These companies had everything. Destructive, manipulative, addictive algorithm? Check. Mainstream popularity? Check. Sex? Check. But in the end they sort of just made everyone miserable, and something tells me an Al chatbot can't help that.” (Financial Times, Pirate Wires via X)
Spaniards are ditching dating apps and heading to the grocery store. (Euro News)
The Digital Age
Lockheed Martin has almost completed a prototype that will analyze media (news, internet and entertainment) to “detect and defeat disinformation.” The prototype which is used by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) deploys an algorithm to detect whether information is false or authentic. (Reclaim the Net)
Google has been denied permission to build a data centre outside of Ireland’s capital, Dublin. Tech companies have been setting up camp in Ireland for a while now on account of its location, stability and low corporate tax. Data centers are “forecast to consume a third of Ireland’s energy by 2026, up from 18% in 2022.” (Yahoo)
For the fast twitch types: Apple has come up with a machine which would update iPhones while still in their boxes at the store. It means that customers will not have to waste time loading updates before they can use their new phones, solving a proper first world problem! (The Verge)
Technology That Honors Tradition
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Money, Markets and Jobs
President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and presidential nominee Donald Trump have all said they will block a bid by Japan’s Nippon Steel to purchase U.S. Steel. The President has cited “national security concerns” that may arise from being reliant on a foreign company for steel products, but Nippon have said they won’t change anything much, even offering to move their HQ to Pittsburgh. One expert said, “While the resilience of US domestic steel capacity is clearly in the national interest, it is unclear how ownership by a firm domiciled in a major treaty ally would fundamentally threaten this.” (Mining)
Another lackluster jobs report for August has disappointed economists. The August report was expected to be mediocre but the 142,000 jobs still fell below the maintenance level 161,000 which had been hoped for. (HotAir)
Arts, History and Sport
Writer Ted Chiang on why A.I. will remain a tool for artists not a replacement for them (at least for now): “The companies promoting generative-A.I. programs claim that they will unleash creativity. In essence, they are saying that art can be all inspiration and no perspiration—but these things cannot be easily separated. I’m not saying that art has to involve tedium. What I’m saying is that art requires making choices at every scale; the countless small-scale choices made during implementation are just as important to the final product as the few large-scale choices made during the conception.” (The New Yorker)
Apparently, it is “classist and ableist” to suggest authors should write their own books instead of using digital bots to write them. Outraged online commenters said, “not everyone possesses the skills, education, or resources to write a novel”. A more nuanced discussion of digital tools for those with disability and language barriers will no doubt ensue, but that time is not now! (The Hustle)
Where does punctuation come from? It’s a long story, but certainly those who preserved the Word of God invented various marks to make sure the meaning was clear. (RobWords via YouTube)
Ripley’s Believe it or Not has a $10 million collection of Olympic torches. (Ripleys)
The dangerous front flip long jump technique that (David King via YouTube)
Humanity’s oldest beverage? (PBS via YouTube)
Last week in history:
1906: U.S. President William McKinley fatally shot. (Britannica)
1985: The first siting of the wreck of the Titanic. New images reveal that it is slowly disintegrating. (Semafor)
Health, Medicine and Food
“How the Next President Can Reverse Chronic Disease.” (Unsettled Science)
UCLA study finds that Manuka honey inhibits growth of breast cancer cells. (Nice News)
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Hearts and Minds
In praise of quiet lives: “What unknown debts do we owe to the dead—the forgotten souls who lived a simple, hidden life of love and duty, inhabiting quiet homes and quiet lanes far from the madding crowd?” (The Hazelnut)
A list of 100 tiny tricks to sort your life. Some went through to the keeper, but we liked the suggestion of logging what you’re reading, turning off notifications and the idea of a triple list each day: Do “one annoying task (eg, post letter), one uncomfortable one (eg, attend gym class) and one painful one (eg, no sugar).” (The Guardian)
What’s in your wagon? It’s been said, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” (Intellectual Takeout)
God’s Green Earth
Oh? Do tell.. M.I.T. chemists have tried to explain how we can still be extracting collagen proteins from dinosaur skeletons which are supposed to be as much as “195 million years old.” While the “normal half-life of the peptide bonds that hold proteins together..is about 500 years”, researchers say that a special bond in collagen keeps it from being broken apart by water. Or perhaps the Dinos are just not that old? (MIT News)
Science
Boeing’s Starliner is heading home alone, after N.A.S.A. made the call that it was too risky to carry Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to earth. The two astronauts who will have to chill on the International Space Station for a while longer. (Inverse, Hot Air)
Tesla has released promotional videos of a new feature which summons your car to come to you. (Not a Tesla App)
Scientists at Cornell have created a “biohybrid machine”, by putting mycelium fungi inside a mini robot torso. The mushrooms “danced” when exposed to different intensity of light. (Futurism)
War and Rumors of War
Ukraine reports that Russian strikes in central Ukraine have claimed the lives of 40 people and injured almost 200. President Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his calls for the U.S. to allow it to use U.S.-supplied long range missiles for strikes into Russia, which the Biden administration has currently ruled out. (NPR)
Britain has announced that it will pause selling components for arms to Israel, including parts for fighter planes, helicopters and drones. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy says a review of Israel’s campaign in Gaza concluded that some supplies might be used in ways that would violate international humanitarian law. (Politico)
Stories from Far Away
🇨🇦 Canada’s New Democratic Party has rescinded its blanket support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The small left-wing party has been automatically supporting Trudeau for the last two years, but is frustrated with Trudeau over his failure to solve cost of living issues. The Prime Minister will now need to rely on opposition support to pass bills. (Reuters)
🇨🇳 Delegates from more than 50 African nations met in Beijing last week for a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to create over one million jobs through almost $10 billion in infrastructure projects and a further $29.6 billion in loans to various nations. (Aljazeera)
🇭🇹 Haiti’s prime minister, Garry Conille, has extended a state of emergency order which has covered Port-au-Prince since March to include the rest of the country. Local and international troops continue to battle gangs for control of the country, leaving hundreds of thousands of Haitians displaced. (Reuters)
🇲🇳 Mongolian authorities have refused to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to the capital, Ulaan Bator. Though a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mongolia refused to carry out an arrest warrant issued by the ICC 18 months ago. Putin is charged with taking children from Ukraine. Putin’s visit was to “mark the 85th anniversary of a Soviet and Mongolian battle victory over a Japanese army that had taken control of Manchuria in northeastern China.” Mongolia depends on Russia for energy and China for trade. (Euro News)
🇻🇪 Two planes linked to Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro have been seized by the U.S. from Dominican Republic where they were undergoing maintenance. U.S. authorities say purchasing the planes was in violation of U.S. sanctions. For a short history of the geopolitics of nabbing each other’s private jets, see here. (CNN)
🇨🇳 China has announced it will no longer allow foreigners to adopt Chinese babies, apart from relatives living abroad. No reason has been offered, but it may be a response to falling birth rates. (AP)
🇳🇮 Nicaraguan government has released prisoners including Christian missionaries (WNG)
🇩🇪 Germany’s far-right AfD party has secured historic wins in regional elections. Discontent over economic policies and illegal immigration are reportedly driving demand for leadership change. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing says Germans need to work longer hours and think about retiring older to combat the country’s recent economic woes. He said the election of parties with “extremist positions” is making the country less attractive for investors. (UnHerd via YouTube, Epoch Times, Politico)
🇮🇷 🇵🇰 Iran has warned Pakistan that it must complete its share of a cross-border gas pipeline or face arbitration. Pakistan says it doesn’t want to upset Washington since the U.S. has sanctions against Tehran. (First Post)
Exposing Hidden Themes: A Tale of Two 9/11 Children’s Books
A guest post from Screen It First
When discussing the events of 9/11 with children, books like “The Survivor Tree” provide a thoughtful approach, focusing on themes of resilience, healing, and hope. Cheryl Somers Aubin’s narrative captures the spirit of unity that followed the tragedy, using the symbol of the tree that survived the collapse of the Twin Towers to illustrate growth and strength. The story stays on target, emphasizing the universal lessons of overcoming hardship without veering into unnecessary or distracting topics. This clear focus makes it a valuable tool for parents seeking to introduce young readers to historical events while fostering an understanding of empathy and community.
In contrast, “Molly and the Twin Towers” seems to stray from these central themes by weaving in unnecessary elements unrelated to the actual historical event. While promoting “inclusivity” can have a place in certain stories, it feels forced when introduced into a narrative meant to focus on one of the most significant tragedies in recent history. By inserting discussions of LGBT family structures, the book dilutes its ability to address the core message of 9/11, which should be centered around understanding the gravity of the event, the impact on families, and the subsequent unity that emerged. This approach can be confusing for young readers, as it introduces themes unrelated to the historical context, leaving parents to question why such a heavy-handed push for normalization is deemed necessary in a children’s story about a national tragedy.
Parents looking for age-appropriate resources to teach their children about significant events will find “The Survivor Tree” far more focused and aligned with the core themes of 9/11: hope, unity, and resilience. It avoids distractions and remains true to its purpose—helping children understand the importance of standing strong in the face of adversity, while ensuring that parents are the ones to decide when and how to introduce unrelated topics like family dynamics.
📽️ An illustrator maps the character’s travels in different movies
🇮🇳 Student builds the world’s smallest vacuum cleaner
🇸🇬 Fading condos are accessed by a funicular elevator
🍴 Food and drink etiquette around the world
⌨️ An ASCII word art generator
👀 Is my blue your blue? A site for color perception
🪱 Dune thumper made from Lego
🇮🇹 A burglar caught after becoming engrossed in a book about The Iliad
🌟 Who lived when? A map of famous overlapping lives
Jonathan and Meridith Starfall2029 Watch on YouTube or Rumble, or listen here.
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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. O Lord, let Your merciful ears be open to the prayers of Your humble servants and grant that what they ask may be in accord with Your gracious will; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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