In Cultural Warfare, We Should Crush Our Enemies

I will start this post with a quote from Conan the Barbarian. But it is expressed many times. In this fallen world, it is human nature.

The Debate Over Whether To Crush Our Enemies Or Be Nice to them is an interesting one brought to us by Kurt Schlichter at Townhall.com. Schlichter is in favor of crushing our enemies, as am I. Schlichter has principled reasons for crushing the enemy. I have additional ones. On the other side are people like Peachy Keenan, David Harsanyi and Mark Hemingway who also have principled reasons. So they are not being soft, or pacifist here, but I think Schlichter's reasons are the stronger ones.

Some ghastly woman who was a clerk at a Home Depot decided to go online and cheer the attempted murder of Donald Trump, that is until conservative social media influencers exposed her to her bosses, and they kicked her malignant carcass to the curb. This cancellation counterstrike – and the growing default to retribution as a means to combat cancellation culture – created significant controversy in the conservative webosphere, with various internet personages taking to the Twitters to cheer or decry it. Many – and I am one of them – heartily support this crushing of our opponents, even puny smallfolk jerks who tweet hate from their basements while buzzed on Trader Joe's chardonnay and catnip. Others – not all for the same reason – see the avenger mode as a bad thing. They are wrong in their conclusion, but the ones who advocate mercy to the minor minions for tactical reasons instead of posturing about principles for clicks are still hardcore. They just disagree on tactics. They are not Jeb!s, goody-goody scolds mortified by the thought of fighting fire with firepower. It's good to disagree in good faith; it's bad to be weak. Regardless, we still need to use our power against even the little people on the other side. Failing to do so leaves the little people on our side defenseless. If we can't break our enemies' will, at least we can avenge the wrongs they did.

We must play by the New Rules, even when it is ugly and unpleasant. If you get off on canceling people, that's lame. But you should enjoy seeing justice done.

Schlichter, a retired Army Colonel, knows a thing or two about leadership. One thing he knows is that the people you are leading must feel that they will be defended, by you if necessary. When they are attacked, you must mount an effective counterattack which teaches any others that they do not want a piece of you. That is human nature. It has every been so. It is so even for God, which explains the story of Job.

It's nothing new. Payback is essential. Your own people need to know that they will be defended and avenged, or they will stop being your people—where are the people of Jeb! and the other softies of the 2000s GOP now? There aren't any. They left us undefended and unavenged, so we left them.

Here's the brutal reality. We must be willing to inflict pain on our enemies, and the refusal to do so ensures your own people are going to suffer pain because the other side is damn sure not worried about feeling bad for hurting us. We have seen our own people ruined and abused by cancel culture, and we need to use our power to stop it by any means necessary – including the means of being mean.

We have power, and we must use it ruthlessly to defend our people and defeat our opponents. That means no passes, granting no grace until grace becomes the norm instead of unilateral disarmament. There are three ways this goes—our submission to their will, their return to the pre-cancellation rules, or war. Option One is out. Option Two is my preference, but until they embrace it, Option Three it is.

We cannot pretend that human nature got repealed somewhere along the way just because some on our side have no stomach to deal the pain. Some pretend to not even understand how human interaction works and accept that you either wield power or get it wielded upon you – I'd recommend you ask a Melian about power but there are no Melians anymore. Some of Team Soft Cell recoiled from that during the Home Depo doofus debate, one child-pundit even labeling talk of power as "cringe." But if this person had been involved in politics for more than five minutes and to a deeper level than seeking mid-tier interweb clout, this person would be aware that politics is only about power.

The facts are that our enemies created New Rules that declared open season on conservatives who made conservative comments in public spaces, putting their livelihoods and – as we saw in Bulter, PA – their lives at risk should they say unapproved things. We opposed these New Rules. We argued against them. And we were ignored. They imposed the New Rules and launched a reign of terror against our people. Well, now we are fighting back. Ruthlessly. Mercilessly. Not because we get off getting some jerk fired from her job operating a cash register but because we know that the only way ever possibly to change the New Rules back is to make the consequences of the enemy – all of the enemy – so unpleasant for our enemies that they rethink their new rules. Will that work? Will they rethink cancel culture? Maybe, but the worst case scenario if we choose to fight every battle and strike every target is that they pay for what they did. We at least owe our own people whose lives they have ruined that piece of payback.

In addition to the above, which I fully endorse, by the way, I have still other reasons. In our daily lectionary, we have now read Genesis through 2 Kings. In addition to our salvation history, the other thing going on is spiritual warfare. In Exodus, God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, yes. But the 10 plagues of Egypt were a direct rebuke of the "gods" of Egypt. The people at the time recognized that their God, YHWH, was mightier that Egypt's gods.  Having done that, He led them out directly under the command of the Angel of the LORD, which angel carried the NAME of the LORD. When Joshua led the people of Israel into Caanan, again the Angel of the LORD commanded them. Certain cities were devoted to destruction. This was horrible to behold for every man, woman, child, even the livestock were killed. Not all the cities, mind you, but certain places. What to make of this?

The Bible isn't always clear preferring to use circumlocutions to get the message across. But some of the places devoted to destruction were centers of Baal worship. The demon Baal directly challenged the Most High claiming to be the actual creator and sustainer of the world. Certain other places were centers of worship of Asterah, who is said to have "sacred prostitutes," both male and female, as well as what we would call "trans." Drag queens anyone?  Then there was Molech. Worship of Molech involved tossing first born infants into the fire which was burning in the idols belly. A number of the Kings of Israel passed their children through the fire.  They did not just get their kids warm; they burned them up as sacrifices to Molech.  All such places and practices had to be destroyed.

These ancient "gods," really demons, are still around today. We have already discussed the worship of Asterah, with the sexual revolution, the 857 genders nonsense. Baal worship is more subtle. Money is not evil, nor is success in business. Rightly done, business that serves others is good, and in this world making a living for you family is also good. Any honest job is good. But the accumulation of money and power for its own sake is evil. Many of our so-called "elites" both here and at the global level are, whether they know it or not, worshipping Baal. One cannot be a Marxist and a Christian. The two are incompatible.

Well, then what about Molech? Nobody throws their infants into a fire do they? But in a way, they do. Abortion is the modern way of worshipping Molech. Listen as the people of Molech "shout their abortions." They are proud of the fact. Do they not hear themselves? Right now in North Carolina, one candidate for Governor, Mark Robinson, is being smeared nightly on the television because he opposes abortion. It is sadly a sacrament of the Democrat party, but there are some Republicans in favor of abortion too.

Jesus, who is God, who is the Angel of the LORD, commanded us to pray for our enemies. We should. But sometimes we have to do more. We are in a cultural war, sure, but it is also a spiritual war.

Donald Trump and Psalms 82

 I always enjoy listening to, and reading articles by, people who are more versed in the Bible and Christian theology than I am.  I am just an everyday Christian pew sitter who often wonders why everyone is talking about so much that does not matter, like what a certain celebrity said about another celebrity, or who is divorcing who.  In the end, the love life of Taylor Swift may fascinate but is totally unimportant, for example.  Ted Noel is such a person.  I barely manage to master the English language, much less Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.  But Noel is able to read the Bible in the Pre-Christian Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew circa the third century before Christ.

So, Noel's take on Donald Trump And 'That Moment' In Time When He Was Saved seemed made for me to read. And I urge gentle readers to read it too.

The books that became the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. After years of study, I can now pick my way through the original Greek text but don’t accuse me of being fluent. Unlike my older brother, who sleep-talked in German in college (he was studying it then), I don’t dream in Greek and only use it when I’m fully awake exploring a theological point. So why would I wake up with a Greek word— Ekeinos—ringing in my ears? (I’ll explain below the phrase’s import.)

And why would Esther 4:14 pop into my head?

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?" (NAS, emphasis added)

One can quibble over translations. He apparently likes the New American Standard Bible, while I prefer the New King James. But every English translation has its quirks. Our church uses the English Standard Version, but then we have to go through and mark out "offspring" and insert "seed" which was in the original Hebrew. The "seed" (singular) referred in the Hebrew was to the future Messiah. God didn't decide to send Jesus into the world when He did on a whim. He planned it from the foundation of the world.

During the reign of King Saul, God told him to utterly destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:2ff). Saul disobeyed this order. The prophet Samuel had to kill King Agag of Amalek himself.

Fast forward a few hundred years. The Jews had been taken to captivity in Babylon and were later freed to return home to Judea. Some stayed and lived under Persian rule, which is where the story of Esther (and Purim) fit. The villain in this story was “Haman the Agagite.” He managed to get a royal decree to kill all the Jews on a set date. An Amalekite had survived the divinely decreed judgment, and his descendant saw an opportunity for revenge.

Jewish Queen Esther’s uncle Mordecai gets word to Esther of what’s coming. She hesitates to go to King Ahasuerus to plead for the Jews because walking in on him uninvited while he was engaged in royal business could cost her life. Mordecai answers in the verse I quoted above. She was put in her position “for a time such as this.” The Jews are saved, Haman’s neck gets stretched, and the last of the Agagites are eliminated.

All this is interesting stuff, if you are a reader of the Bible and the Old Testament. We have just recently completed First and Second Samuel in our daily lectionary, and after wading through First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles, we will get to Esther. But what Noel is making note of is the fact that Trump is aware of the Divine miracle of his being rescued form an assassin's bullet, and the profound affect it has on his demeanor. Gone are the mean tweets. He seems to understand that he has a moment to perform a mission for the American people. He seemed at the RNC to be calmer, more resolute, more focused.

The nattering nabobs of negativism on the Left poo-poo any suggestion that Trump is truly a Christian. But when Dr. Phil asked him if he would forgive those who had done such evil to him, 45 demonstrated a more sophisticated Christianity than many seminary professors. “I’d like to be able to.” Donald Trump understood that his forgiveness requires repentance on the part of the wrongdoer. Trump was willing and able to forgive, but true forgiveness would have to wait.

Being a Christian, loyal to YHWH, is somewhat different from being a Christian who has been protected by the divine hands in a way that offers no other answer. They’re both Christians, but the latter has a much deeper personal appreciation for the divine. We saw that in Trump’s acceptance speech. It seemed to say that he’s done with mean tweets. He’s now totally focused on the mission YHWH gave to the fallen elohim in Psalm 82.

2 How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah.

3 Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.

4 Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. (Psalm 82:2-4 NAS)

The Swamp has set itself up as the ultimate authority over everything in everyone’s lives. Donald Trump is an existential threat to its evil. But this time, he’s not coming in as a roaring Lion. He’s coming as a servant of YHWH, fully committed to the divine mission of showing true justice to those who have been harmed. His task is to eliminate the Amalekites in government so that we can live free.

Everyone must do what is necessary of course. At a minimum vote! But pray and trust in the LORD.

Has the Holy Spirit Come Upon Trump?

 Does the Holy Spirit currently rest on President Trump?  I happen to believe so.  But for those who do not believe, his close dodging of a bullet, that nonetheless injured him and killed a supporter and injured two others could just be a coincidence.  That's the thing about miracles.  They are seldom obvious.  But I am not alone in believing that Trump was rescued by divine Providence.  J. B. Shurk at the American Thinker certainly thinks so too. And then there is Joy Pullman at The Federalist who believes Jesus Christ Is Trump's Security Detail.

It’s clear by now that the U.S. Secret Service is not a very elite security detail. Random, weaponless rallygoers paid more serious attention to the would-be assassin before he fired than the allegedly professional team assigned to Donald Trump on Saturday. Trump’s security detail did not secure him. Someone else did.

The Person who saved Trump’s life — and our nation from dangerous social unrest — is Jesus Christ. It is not random that wind gusts were present in just the right amount to have shifted the bullet’s course from fatal to flesh wound. It is not accidental that Trump turned his head at precisely the right second to avoid sudden death.

...snip...

Saturday was not Trump’s day to die. His near-death experience was a very visible divine event displaying to all the world Who holds full power over life and death: Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual shock treatment to increase the faith of those who believe and ignite new faith in those ready to believe.

Please read the entire article. Maybe you already are a believer. Maybe you are just ready to believe. If you read the Gospels, the story seems so ridiculous on its face that it has to be true. Who would make up some of the details if they didn't actually happen? And if they did, that the Gospels are true.  That means the entire Bible is true.  What Good News that is for you and me, indeed all of us.

Changing Minds

Kurt Schlichter at Townhall.com today tells us, in his opinion, The Real Reason Trump Chose JD Vance. Schlichter starts out with exactly my own journey to voting for Trump. I was a Ted Cruz guy too. I didn't believe that Trump would do what he said he would do.

Why did Donald Trump select JD Vance? Obviously, their current policy views are simpatico, but JD Vance was not supportive back in 2016. He was pretty harsh about Donald Trump the candidate. You know who else was? Me. Dig back through my columns and you’ll see. I was never a Never Trumper. I was always going to vote for the GOP nominee, and I did vote for the nominee. But I was a Ted Cruz guy because I didn’t think Donald Trump was actually going to do the things Donald Trump said he was going to do and I said so. In fact, CNN used to have me on as the conservative Trump-doubter…until I had it with Don Lemon’s nonsense. I was a traditional conservative, and I thought Donald Trump was a NYC liberal and that he would govern like one. But you know what?

I was wrong.

So, I changed my mind about him. I’m now a ferocious Trump supporter. And so is JD.

Schlichter is talking about what any mature person does. It is the basis of the "scientific method," and it is how people adapt as they grow older. We have a belief, then evidence shows our beliefs to at least be suspect. More evidence convinces us to change our minds. Only people in thrall to an ideology cannot change their minds despite contrary evidence.

JD Vance is a very interesting VP choice. He was not my first choice to be the nominee for vice-president because I thought that Glenn Youngkin might bring more to the table in terms of building an electoral coalition. JD was, however, my first choice for actually being the vice-president. If and when he wins, I’m going to be thrilled.

But now I’m rethinking my initial assessment of his strengths as a candidate. I may have underestimated them. How? First of all, I have grown to trust Donald Trump’s instincts when it comes to politics. After all, this guy came out of nowhere and beat all the geniuses and professionals in 2016. Worst case, he nearly beat them all in 2020. And right now, according to all the polls, he’s beating that desiccated corrupt old husk. So, he had to have a reason for choosing JD Vance and it was probably a good one.

There he goes again, changing his mind based on evidence.

But Schlichter is right. JD Vance has a good story coming from a very poor background, becoming a Marine, then getting into Yale law school and editing the Yale Law Review. He has been successful in marriage, in business. He is also a faithful Catholic He is also solid on the Second Amendment, certainly sympathetic to the plight of the workers and middle class. This ties in with the first night speech by Sean O'Brien, president of the Teamsters Union. The elites may feel that they can have good lives even if their neighbors are struggling. But for the rest of us, that is not the case. If one is suffering, truly we all are suffering too.

Gentle readers should read the entire article by Kurt Schlichter.

Tucker Carlson Speaks to Heritage Foundation Policy Fest

 I happened upon this speech by Tucker Carlson at the Heritage Foundation Policy Fest. What I found very interesting is that Carlson pointed out that we are not in a culture war per se, but a spiritual war. More pointedly, he speaks of those who are representing another person, by which he means the devil, who wants to kill people, to cause chaos and lawlessness.

Please go and watch Carlson's speech. He is fundamentally right about what we face. I have stated that one cannot be a Leftists or Marxist and be Christian. Indeed, the Left wants to destroy Christianity, and they don't want to obliterate any other religion. The old airman's saying that when you are taking flak it means you are over the target. Christians are over the target. We know that the devil was already defeated 2000 years ago. The Lord is just conducting mop up operations. Christians wait on the Lord.

Vance is Solid As They Come on Second Amendment

Donald Trump has named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. According to Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms, Vance is as solid as they come on the Second Amendment. You can read Edwards' piece at Trump Names J.D. Vance As Running Mate. Where Does He Stand on the Second Amendment. I know that gun rights were left out of the Republican platform. I think there are more important issues for the next president to tackle, but having someone like Vance on board sends the message that gun rights are still important. In the same way, he has left abortion off the platform, even though it is a very important issue. It just is not a federal issue.

I've got to run, but wanted to leave gentle readers with these two things to ponder today.

A Lutheran Pastor Blesses the RNC

 The Republican National Convention began yesterday.  These things are usually incredibly boring, full of "hurray for our side" rhetoric.  This RNC was different, and interesting.  Interesting in that a union leader, the president of the Teamsters Union, no less, spoke at the convention!  And the announcement of J. D. Vance as Vice President on the Republican ticket was pure political genius!  The MSM were making out that it was a bone thrown to the next generation of leaders, but I took it at face value.  If something happens to Trump, Vance will continue with his agenda.  It is both smart, and fully recognizes the roll of the VP.

One other thing that made this RNC interesting was the invocation from a Lutheran pastor of a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregation. Gentle readers should just go to the linked article at twitchy and watch. The prayer and the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 were pure Lutheranism. But what made it stand out was the imitation of Trump's mannerisms that Trump found funny before the seriousness of the invocation. It will warm readers hearts, so go and watch.